Gay movies

GWTW was good.

Most are made with a small budget.

Bareback Mounting

Because the gays are really fucked.

A lot of them rely on the hot guy factor over talent and compelling storylines.

To be fair, I've been guilty of being seduced by a steamy trailer or film ad with shirtless men. It happened this week with a film about gay Estonian soldiers that turned out to be a depressing dud..

Best gay movie I've ever seen (and which you don't hear much about) is "Burnt Money", from Argentina. The two hottest male leads ever...sexy, violent, sensual...I watch it at least once per year.

Watched [italic]Love…or Whatever[/italic] on Amazon Prime last night. The acting was so bad that it actually ruined an otherwise decent gay romcom.

Tiny budgets/self funded OP you fucking twit.

No budget and an absolute obsession with coming of age, AIDS, youth and sex/romance/dating.

What we need are normal movies, horror, action, sci-fi, ANYTHING BUT DRAMA OR FUCKiNG COMEDY that tell a story that relates to the genre and just happens to feature a main character who just happens to be gay.

No political shit.

I've also noticed that gay movies seem to be the "let everyone join club" of movies. If someone wouldn't be cast for a real movie then we'll give them a chance in the gay movie. Ends up being a collection of misfits.

I'm a sci-fi / fantasy fan and have already come to terms with the reality that there will /never/ be a gay male lead in any kind of fantasy or sci-fi that is worth watching.

Deekoo has some pretty good ones if you squint.

R5 Like 'Hot Guys with Guns'? (2013)

All too often the "writing" is merely just to create opportunities for hot guys to get their kit off. And most of the cast are hired for looks over ability. Add to that you often have first-time directors and zero budget and what do you get? Crap.

Some good ones:

Beautiful Thing

Maurice

Paris Is Burning

Camp

Jeffrey

Were the World Mine

The Boys in the Band

Pride

[quote] Best gay movie I’ve ever seen (and which you don’t hear much about) is “Burnt Money”, from Argentina. The two hottest male leads ever...sexy, violent, sensual...I watch it at least once per year.

That one made me a Leonardo Sbaraglia fan for life, R6. Which has paid off in getting me to see movies like "Intacto" and "Relatos salvajes" that I might have otherwise missed.

I really liked Keep the Lights On. One of the few gay films I've seen that doesn't feel made for a gay audience, but just happens to have gay characters.

I wish Merchant-Ivory did more gay films, I like their style.

Earlier gay movies focused on coming out experiences and homophobia. Some gay movies are delivery devices for soft-core porn. Check out I Love You Phillip Morris.

Someone on DL recommended a gay Argentinian film, Hawaii, and I thought it was quite good. In general, I think foreign gay films are better these days. American gay films try to say/take on too much and are usually just a muddled mess as a result.

I wish there were more historical gay films. A recent one on Netflix is the Mexican film "Dance of the 41," about an actual event in Mexican history from 1901.

Another good recent one, available on Dekko, is "The Strong Ones," a romance set in southern Chile.

Seems the better gay films being made these days are foreign. Haven't seen a good American gay film in a few years.

Danish 2009 film Brotherhood about a gay neo-Nazi, it's very good and different. Great sex scenes. Stars Thure Lindhardt who was in Keep the Lights On R14.

Anything from David Decouteau (sp)

He directed The awful Brotherhood series. No relation to the movie above.

It's like gay porn without the gay or without the porn. The director describes it as "horror movies for girls."

Sure, Jan.

But he did discover Tom Cruise clone Sean Faris who starred in The Brotherhood 2 Young Warlocks, and that dude from Bring It On.

[QUOTE] All too often the "writing" is merely just to create opportunities for hot guys to get their kit off.

Absolutely right R12!

Look at any of the short film collections in the Boys On Film series, or the trailers for Peccadillo Pics / TLA - at least half of them will have scenes set in a swimming pool to allow the maximum amount of male flesh without having to have a sex scene.

Some decent ones (not all set in swimming pools):

Trouser Bar (2016, Short)

Sauvage (2018)

Holding The Man (2015) - this is based on a true story and made me cry, which very rarely happens with films these days

Drown (2015)

Postcards From London (2018)

Fin de Siglo [End of the Century) (2019)

Above all others I would recommend to everyone the short film Trevor (2014) - if this doesn't move you, you're probably dead.

Sorry - Trevor is from 1994 if you're looking for it; don't read the Wiki page if you don't want spoilers.

R21, End of the Century is another good one.

That's why it was on my list R23...

How about docs?

I know, r21/r24, I was echoing your recommendation.

They can sometimes be really cheap and cheesy. I've seen plenty. However, if it seems like it's a genuine effort, I'll watch it. I consider paying for cheap gay films a better investment of my time and money than the next mindless, expensive blockbuster.

While we're talking about this:

Are there any good Roku apps for LGBTQ content? I've had FilmRise Gay & Lesbian for a while, they get some interesting content.

Anyone ever see the British film from the early '90s, "The Lost Language of Cranes" with Eileen Atkins, based on the novel of the same name? PBS aired it years ago. Excellently acted and written. Even though it's depressing, "An Early Frost" is really wonderful. The Marlo Thomas/Martin Sheen TV movie "Consenting Adult" is also very good. I've seen "Longtime Companion". The acting and writing are decent, but it can be painful to watch because you feel like you're watching people you know, rather than some random characters.

If I had a lot of time on my hands, and wanted to subscribe to Dekko for a month, what would be the movies I should absolutely watch?

Movies I've watched on Dekko, r30:

A Very Natural Thing (1974): early low-budget gay film; balances fairly explicit sex scenes with a man's journey out of the closet in early 70s NYC; features an extended sequence at the 1973 Pride festival/parade.

Nighthawks (1978): British counterpart to the above film; a gay man teaches middle school geography by day, cruises for sex by night; very slow moving with little plot, but an interesting portrait of time and place.

Fin de Siglo/End of the Century (2019): two men meet up in Barcelona and realize that they actually met 20 years earlier; tender romance examining memory and choices made and unmade; Mia Maestro appears in a supporting role.

Los Fuertes/The Strong Ones (2019): an architecture student about to head off to Canada visits his sister in Southern Chile, where he falls in love with a local fisherman; the title is a play on words -- not only does it refer to the strength of character of the two men, it also refers to the colonial forts in the region that are featured throughout the film.

Loved "A Very Natural Thing". Had a great pre-AIDS NYC vibe.

Has anyone seen "Saturday Night at the Baths"?

Thank you, r31! My July is looking up.

Dekkoo has a great documentary called Jobriath A.D. about a Bowie clone from the 70s.

The German film TAXI ZUM KLO (1980) is a good one. It shows erections and cumshots but it's an excellent film. I got it from Netflix when they were know for renting DVDs only.

Cruising is a hoot.

A recent film I really enjoyed was SUBLET (2020), directed by Eytan Fox and starring John Benjamin Hickey and Niv Nissim (hot!).

It's currently in a few theaters and on VOD, with a DVD scheduled for release in mid-July.

The Israeli film Yossi & Jagger is excellent.

R20 is Sean Faris homophobic? He seems like he might be.

The Gay Deceivers! It features DL fave Brooke Bundy, and the blond guy is super good looking, like a Ken doll come to life.

Recent American gay films are bad, except for a few short films here and there. However, it wasn't so bad in the late 90s and early 00s'.

Urbania with Dan Futterman, Samuel Ball, Josh Hamilton, and Matt Keeslar. My goodness this film is what American Gay Indie filmaking should have been.

As some mentioned, the vast majority of gay films are low-budget indies. To be fair, most low-budget indies are bad, not just the gay ones.

I suspect a big part of the problem in this country is that getting financing is always very tough for indie films in general, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that those people willing to put up money for gay films tend to favor the "same old" types of material - coming out stories, soft-core, etc. so the directors promoting those kinds of stories are the ones who get the $$.

Regarding some of the titles mentioned here:

YOSSI & JAGGER is uneven, though there are good sections. The sequel YOSSI is a gigantic bore. The director Etyan Fox made another film called WALK ON WATER which is better than the other two put together. But I wouldn't call it a "gay film" even though one of the 3 main characters is a gay German man.

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BATHS is only interesting as am historical curio. It's pretty amateurish.

There are those who love TAXI ZUM KLO, but the watersports scene was really gross. I recall seeing the film in a theater in NYC and most everyone (gay and straight) reacted badly and I thought the director only had that scene in for cheap shock value.

Terrible low budget gay movie Beatific Vision.

I don't know about apps but I think there was some website that had a bunch of gay short films. Including films from different countries r28.

Still essentially 100% dramas. Sucks.

R21 the only good film I’ve seen so far from the TLA imprint is DOG TAGS (2008), which is a very beautiful and unpretentious if straightforward take on the sexual boundaries between male friends.

It is strange to me that the leads in Bart Fletcher & Paul Preiss haven’t acted since. They give excellent performances.

R44 here.

Not that you had any questions.

OP must be more specific: most American gay films suck rat ass. Same stupid, old plot about an unrequited love of a roommate again and again; queeny & ugly actors.

[quote]Anyone ever see the British film from the early '90s, "The Lost Language of Cranes" with Eileen Atkins, based on the novel of the same name?

I did ages ago, but about all that I can remember is that it starred Corey Parker, and a character's father comes out to him late in life.

The first gay movie I ever saw was ‘Parting Glances.’ It was so long ago, Steve Buscemi was actually kinda hot! I watched it again years later in a ‘gay fiction’ class in college. The whole group (mostly straight women) like the jock boyfriend but hated the bitchy main character.

For a gay thriller, everyone should see ‘Bound,’ the first movie by the (Matrix) Wachowski bro....uh, siblings.

The world is your mirror, OP.

Ruminate.

Do you think the Wachowskis were auto-gynoing out over Jennifer Tilly's or Gina Gershon's character

The Fluffier (2001) is really good.

The younger version of the protagonist is played by Penn Badgley (yes the Dan from Gossip Girl!) Scott Gurney who plays the G4P star ended up being one of the producers of Duck Dynasty!

I also loved “the sublet.”

The Israel actor is gorgeous and both leads are gay IRL. Really enjoyed it.

'Lilies,' you dumb fat whores!

"My Beautiful Laundrette" - kinda slow, but fairly "high-brow...ish" - and the guys are cute.

"Eisenstein in Guanajuato" - some nice buttfuckery. And interesting if you like film history (Sergei Eisenstein palling around with all the artsy-fartsy socialists in 1930s Mexico)

I love Broken Hearts Club, and Dean Cain is so cute!

Die Mommie Die! featuring the divine Charles Busch! I wish he'd made more films...

The Cakemaker was an excellent recent gay film

[quote] is Sean Faris homophobic?

He went to a fucking Catholic high school in the area where I grew up

God's Own Country was quite satisfying -- although I needed subtitles to understand whatever the hell they were saying.

[quote] A lot of them rely on the hot guy factor over talent and compelling storylines.

It's pathetic, isn't it? Actors who care about their six-packs and not their craft...

R31 thanks so much for recommending NIGHTHAWKS. I’ve just watched it, and it’s a beautiful period piece. As a British Millennial with Boomer parents, it’s helped me better to understand the society in which they grew up. The downbeat scene in which Ken Robertson’s Jim coolly responds to the jeers and jibes and rude interrogatory remarks of his students is heart-shattering, and all the more effective for not showing Robertson’s face on camera as he speaks.

And the scene in the pub in which Rachel Nicholas James’ earnest and provincial character nervously relates how friendless she is as an adult, on moving away from her home village to London, moved me. I understand her loneliness completely. Everyone seemed so much more articulate back then, even the chavs and the bumpkins.

Tan Lines

Time To Leave

"The Wedding Banquet" directed by Ang Lee

THE CURSE OF EDGAR

I like: And the Band Played On The Normal Heart Philadelphia The Boys in the Band Platoon. It’s not gay, but there’s no women, plus Tom Bergeron is hot and so is Dafoe.

I think Netflix has some gay movies. Probably more now that it's Pride.

I like Lilies for how exotic and flaming it was. Something so Canadian about it. There’s also The Hanging Garden.

Robert Aldrich's The Killing of Sister George (1968)

Just checked out the titles on Netflix. Most of the LGBT movies are about dykes or trannies, but some of the gay movies look interesting.

R71, I know. A few years back they seemed to have a lot more titles.

R62, so glad you enjoyed Nighthawks. The scene with the students is incredible.

R64, today I saw Ozon's latest, Summer of 85, and I confess to being disappointed, considering how much I have loved his previous films (including the heartbreaking Time To Leave). Summer of 85 is based on a gay YA novel written by a frau, and it has all the cliches of the genre. Ozon tries to raise the material cinematically - there's a dazzling sequence in a nightclub - but the narrative is so unconvincing. (It does do a good job of recreating 1985, however.)

R70 I saw TKOSG once, several years ago as a babydyke, and my head is still spinning. I’m not sure I fully understood what I saw. Either I’m a bit thick and it went over my head, or it is quite high-concept.

The History Boys

R73, Summer of 85 was based on the book, Dance on My Grave:Summer of 85 by Aidan Chambers. Who is a(n old) man.

But, hey, no sense letting facts get in the way of your misogyny.

My bad. Still, it was very frauish.

Just saw Dance of the 41 on Netflix. Very good movie. Great acting. Realistic. It doesn't have a happy ending though.

Dance of the 41 is good but it's telling that the relationship between the lead character and his wife is given far more importance than the one between him and his male lover. The lover is barely one-dimensional.

I tried to watch Arizona Sky on Amazon Prime yesterday and bailed after 10 minutes. Amateurish.

The Imitation Game

Consequences

R80 Yeah, that annoyed me too. I wish the gay storyline got more screentime.

Has anybody seen "I carry you with me" yet? It's been getting good reviews.

I like "Something for Everyone".

I watched this the othe rnight and really liked it. I then looked on Amazon and Netflix and Hulu and couldn't find any new Gay movies to watch. It was all trans, dykes, drag queens etc. It's like they haven't added any new gay movies in 5 years.

Shank (2008)

Gay chavs in love.

Pedro Almodovar has done many intelligent, raucous, amusing, gay-themed films. I still recall watching Law of Desire and moaning inwardly as Antonio Banderas lifted his legs to Jesus and took one for the gipper.

I saw I Carry You With Me during the awards season last year, as AMPAS had it on their streaming channel. I was surprised to see it was just getting released now.

It's quite good. It's not BPM or Weekend good, but it's worth watching.

The truth is, there's not much money in gay shows, especially as a constant product.

So it doesn't attract the best talent with the best production values and expertise. It just doesn't have the support and interest from most people.

Another problem is that MANY gay indies are just vanity projects of the writer-director-actor who just wants to be a star himself and doesn't give a shit what the audience wants (Craig Chester, Casper Andreas, Jonah Blechman, etc.).

R89, thanks. I'll check it out.

Eu Te Amo Renato

Do the SATC movies count?

And more dramas.

[quote]Yawn.

Go to sleep gramps.

No problem. I'll just thro on yet another drama-genre gay movie.

I like "As You Are".

Like It Is (1998) is a good movie.

The problem with many gay films is that they suffer from 'stunted growth auteur' syndrome. The director/screenwriter is telling their own coming out story, or redoing it, which is usually about longing and distance, cute boys swimming in sport or taking bike rides before finally doing it. For the women's stories it's similar but they're usually the kind of 'let me take you out and we'll go wild adventure," followed by regret and reunion.

The lesser ones include the prerequisite sassy Black/drag/lez/trans friend or elder actress offering sage advice. Whether a happy or sad ending, the main character "learns" something. The bold femme/whatever finally gets reluctant/tearful approval from parent/s.

Screenwriters need to evolve beyond hackneyed tropes. Scifi, thrillers, dual narratives; anything beyond the coming-of-age, philandering or usual story lines would be welcome. Director/screenwriters should look to novels and graphic novels for newer narratives. But in post-pandemic times, being relegated to streaming zilch-budget productions leaves us with limited choices.

I remember a character in that asking Roger Daltry if he'd flown by on his broom.

Ernesto

Because for one thing, there are a lot of bad movies, period, no matter what segment of the population they're aimed at. A good film has to start with good writing. Much of the time the scripts for gay-themed movies rely on stereotypes and tropes and don't represent gay people in a fully dimensional way.

Saw I Carry You With Me over the weekend. Though the two leads are cute - especially Christian Vazquez - the movie is sooo sloooow. And, in the end, I didn’t have sympathy for the situation these guys had put themselves into.

Watched & recommend Man With the Answers, partially subtitled flick about cute Greek ex-diver who road trips with handsome German through Italy & Bavarian Alps to visit former's mother. Good acting and attractive leads compensate for lack of plot

Did anybody like In the Gloaming? I read the short story years ago, and remember it being really sad. I didn't realize it was written in 1993, then the movie premiered in 1997. I don't know if it makes the movie sadder or less sad, realizing that HIV went from a death sentence to a manageable disease during that time, but it being too late for the main character and everyone who came before him.

[italic]The Dying Gaul[/italic] was a good film but had really, really unsympathetic lead characters. Could not keep my eyes off Peter Sarsgaard’s tree trunk thighs.

Cachorro / Bear Cub was really good. Of course it's from Spain.

Closet Monster is very good

The Color of Noney

There is a Korean movie about a man when he was in college fell in love with a fellow college student. Who several weeks later is killed when vehicle hits her. Many years the man now a teacher notices that a male student of his reminds him of his dead ex-girlfriend and begins to pursue him.

My favorite gay film is Weekend by Andrew High. There are not many such films with excellent acting, a good simple story, strong pacing, and a sense of something genuine, beautifully directed and edited.

Too many gay films try to be romantic and funny and sharp and whipsmart and quick paced. It's a task well beyond the scope of a lot of writers to make a simple, stupid story engaging enough to pull you in and along. Instead it's rewarmed snaps from some bitchy drag queen race that fall like a souffle.

Too many of the others try, like the American version of Queer as Folk, to not make a film but a shopping list if hot button topics, construction crazy plots to show how love is just so darn universal! A young trans Orthodox Ethiopian Jew falls in love with the rich son of a Palestinian-Pakistani Muslim-Buddhist who loves watersports while sharing a student house with a United Nations of cross cultural intersectionlaities in Cuzco but with much of the action filmed in a lesbian community of color in Istanbul. 95% of the film is one character smiling at the other and saying, "You're fucking amazing, you know?"

Clarity, simplicity, characters with s note of truth, a point of view...things that carry a "small" film are too often completely lost.

Capital Games.

Benediction

I highly recommend the Brazilian film “The Way He Looks.”

R111's suggestion sounds interesting. It's called "Bungee Jumping of Their Own". I couldn't find it streaming anywhere outside of South Korea but there are low quality versions on YouTube.

Seems like a lot of those low budget gay male movies (Walk A Mile In My Pradas, Oy Vey My Son Is Gay) that were on Netflix years ago have moved to Tubi. They also have some documentaries and some critically acclaimed classics such as Maurice and Lilies.

R48 Language of lost cranes was a bit “tragi-queen” but with an interesting cameo by John Schlesinger

Always wondered if Dean Cain was telling us something in “Broken Hearts Club”- until I found out he’s a crazy Trumpanzee (Sigh). But interesting to find out WHICH closet (and spurned) action hero actor he was portraying….

Loved "Dance of the 41" on Netflix

and "Long Time Companion" is still my favorite.

I second the earlier recommendations for "End of the Century." This clip from the movie has got to be one of the sexiest scenes ever from any movie, gay or straight.

R19 I watched that on YouTube last night. Script could have been fleshed out more but the acting and directing was solid. Thanks for the recommendation.

"The Power Of The Dog".

Argentina has produced some good gay themed movies. The already mentioned Burnt Money, most of Marco Berger's films so far, and probably my favorite, Esteros. Of American ones, I liked Lazy Eye a lot. As OP wrote there are more than a few bad ones, the worst for me being, Piccadilly Pickups, which had the late Alexis Arquette in it. It was atrocious and I quit watching not long after the beginning.

Un Rubio (The Blond One) by Marco Berger. Excellent.

Bromance.

I enjoyed O Fantasma (2000), Three Dancing Slaves (2004), and Wild Reeds (1994). Lighter but still worthwhile for a viewing to understand attitudes would be Ma Vie en Rose (1997), Patrik 1,5 (2008), and Sebastian (1995).

Wild Reeds is a good one, as are Get Real (1998), Just a Question of Love (2000), and You'll Get Over It (2002). I don't know if I'd say it's [italic]good,[/italic] exactly, but The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2005) is lots of fun.

But for my money Beautiful Thing (1996) is the best gay movie ever.

Le Fil(The String)