September 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming On Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Showtime, Max and Starz!
As the school bells ring on the street corner and leaves drift from the branches of trees onto the ground (or not, depending on where you live), we are served a fresh bounty of television programs and films with lesbian and bisexual characters, from networks that overpay their executives and underpay their actors and writers, such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Starz, Max and Paramount Plus With Showtime!. This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors who are currently on strike, these series would not be possible, and Autostraddle is grateful for the artists who do this work.
Netlix’s September 2023 Content For Girls, Gay and Theys
Disenchantment: Season 5 – September 1
In its final season, Queen Bean (voiced by queer actor Abbi Jacobson), her elf companion and her personal demon are competing in an epic battle for Dreamland, hoping to save the land from Queen Dagmar’s wicked rule. Wishing them all the best on their journey!
Happy Ending (2023) – September 1
This Dutch film finds Luna and Mink one year into their relationship and Mink unaware that his girlfriend has been faking orgasms this whole entire time. Luna’s friends, appalled by the revelation, propose an innovative solution: a threesome with climate activist Eve (Joy Delima) — but one evening with Eve throws Luna’s whole life upside-down. (ETA I’ve since scene this movie and spoiler alert in the footer1)
Top Boy: Season 5 – September 7
This gritty crime drama produced by noted rapper Drake is about drug gangs operating in the housing estates of East London and it features Jasmine Johnson as Jaq (a role for which she has been nominated for BAFTAs) and British model Adwoa Aboah is Becks, Jaq’s girlfriend.
Sex Education: Season 4 – September 21
Otis and friends have moved forward in life to Cavendish Six Form College, and in the trailer Otis is explaining his work as a sex therapist to a moderately occupied auditorium. Maeve walks by two girls kissing on the street but I don’t know if they will have any lines. Queer character Ola (Patricia Allison) and girlfriend Lily (Tanya Reynolds), aren’t returning, but non-binary character Cal (Dua Saleh) is indeed returning, bless us all! Our beloved Dan Levy is joining the cast to play a writer/professor.
Full seasons of queer-inclusive shows from other networks dropping on Netflix:
- S.W.A.T. (Season 6) – September 1
- Call the Midwife (Season 12) – September 4
- New Amsterdam (Season Five) – September 20
Prime Video’s August 2023 For The Queers
The Wheel of Time: Season 2 – September 1
This is what Prime Video has to say about Season Two: “threats new and very old seek out the young friends from the Two Rivers, now scattered over the world. The woman who found and guided them is now powerless to help, and so they must find other sources of strength. In each other, or themselves. In the Light … or the Dark.”
Wilderness: Season One – September 15
British couple Liv (Coleman) and Will (Jackson-Cohen) appear to have it all — a glamorous life in New York far away from their provincial home town, a widely envied marriage — but it all comes crashing down when Liv learns of Will’s affair with Cara (queer actor Ashley Benson). After coping with heartbreak, Liv moves on to revenge, and plans to execute it on a couples road trip to all the National Parks. Liv is sexually fluid and her best friend, Ash, is a lesbian. The vibes are very much “based on a bestselling thriller.”
Neighbours: A New Chapter (Freevee) – September 18
The long-running Australian soap, following the lives, loves, and challenges of the residents on Ramsay Street in a fictional Mebourne suburb, picks up with a reboot after its 2022 finale. New neighbors include lesbian couple Cara (Sara West) and Remi (Naomi Rukavina) and their two sons. Georgie Stone is returning as transgender woman Mackenzie Hargreaves, a character launched in 2019 after Georgie pitched it directly to the original show’s producer. Chloe Brennan (April Rose Pengilly), a bisexual character from the original series, is also returning, and her character’s girlfriend is returning in a guest capacity!
The Victoria’s Secret World Tour – September 25
So they’re re-booting the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, historically a damaging cultural instrument, as a feature-length documentary film bringing together women creators from Bogotá, Lagos, London, and Tokyo for “a global fashion event, film, and celebration.” This group of creators is overflowing with queer people: queer Nigerian stylist and social media influencer Ashley Okoli, queer musician Wavy The Creator, trans Italian dancer & choreographer Piscis, trans artist & writer Ebun Sodipo and queer artist Phoebe Collings; as well as Eloghosa Osunde, the Nigerian author of the queer novel Vagabounds!
Gen V: Season One – September 29
Set within the world of The Boys, Gen V is set at prestigious superhero-only college Godolkin University of Crimefighting, where students train to become superheroes with big brand deals. As the students compete for popularity and good grades, it’s clear that super powers have a tendency to raise the stakes. Derek Luh and London Thor play “gender-shifting” character Jordan Li, and I am certain from vibes that there is another queer woman in this story.
Hulu’s LGBTQ+ TV and Film for September 2023
The Other Black Girl: Season One Premiere – September 13
Based on the psychological thriller bestselling novel by Zakiya Dalila, this series is the story of Hazel, an editorial assistant who’s relieved when Nella is hired at her all-white publishing firm — finally she’s not the only Black girl at the office. But something is immediately off with Nella, who’s nice to Hazel’s face, but seems to be undermining her work and her relationships, eventually uncovering a larger dark force lurking within Wagner Books. Hazel’s best friend, Malaika (Brittany Adebumola), is queer!
Special Forces: The Worlds Toughest Test (Fox) – September 25
Premiering on Fox on the 25th and landing on Hulu the next day, this reality competition with no prize at all invites willing adults to complete “the harshest most grueling challenges from the playbook of the actual Special Forces selection process.” Not loving the military tie-in here, but, this season takes place in brutally cold conditions in New Zealand and contestants include David Silver from Beverly Hills 90210, Tara Reid, and America’s lesbian sweetheart, JoJo Siwa.
Paramount+ / Showtime’s September 2023 Gay Shows
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Season 4 – September 7
Heather Hogan’s favorite Star Trek, the quirky comedic animated Star Trek: Lower Decks, is focused on the support crew of the USS Cerritos, one of Starfleet’s least important ships, in the year 2380. Tawny Newsome voices pansexual Ensign Beckett Mariner, as she and her crew attempt to keep up with life itself while being attacked by all manner of sci-fi anomalies.
Max’s Lesbian Shows of September 2023
Sam Jay: Salute Me or Shoot Me – September 23
Lesbian comic Sam Jay’s first HBO stand-up special, filmed at Brooklyn Steel, features the newly-engaged comic taking the stage for “a hilariously frank discussion on embracing our differences, the stresses of long-term relationships, and the power of empathy.”
Apple TV’s Lesbian September 2023 Fare
The Morning Show: Season 3 Premiere – September 15
After a sort of bad but also delightful season two that found Reese Witherspoon and Juliana Marguiles bumping boots, we come to Season Three in which we are all pleased to report that Juliana Marguiles is returning! In the trailer, UBA is the subject of a cyber-attack, and Karen Pittman is sighing in the shower, and Jennifer Aniston wants a seat at the table!!!! Also, Tig Notaro and John Hamm are joining the cast.
Starz’s September 2023 Lesbian Action
Power Book IV: Force: Season 2 Premiere – September 1
Well, it sounds like Tommy Egan is on a mission to avenge Liliana’s death and take over the Chicago drug world but with CBI split up, first Tommy and Diamond have to maintain their edge on Jenard as the factions feud in the streets. Lili Simmons plays Claudia Flynn, who is in fact a lesbian, and in the first season was working to get her new luxury drug onto the streets.
1 I have seen the film and I didn’t like the ending
August 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming On Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Showtime, Max and Disney+!
As we roast alive in the unending heat of this dying planet, it’s time once again to turn to our televisions for comfort, wherein we are regularly served television programs and films with lesbian and bisexual characters, from networks that overpay their executives and underpay their actors and writers, such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Max and Paramount Plus With Showtime! This month is a unique one for me insofar as the two things I’m the most excited about are kinda gay-boy-centric but I think we can take our joy where we can get it these days you know?
Netlix’s August 2023 Content For Girls, Gay and Theys
Heartstopper: Season Two – August 3
One of my favorite shows of 2023 for how deeply it warmed and delighted my heart (and inspired me to read all the books from the series!) is back for Season Two, in which events will likely involve eating ice cream and definitely will involve going to prom and taking a class trip to Paris. Nick will struggling to figure out how to come out and make his love with Charlie public and Ellie’s making new gal pals at Truman’s sister school, including our favorite lesbian couple Tara and Darcy. Early reviews have declared it “still euphoric and blissfully queer” and “TV’s sweetest teen romance.”
The Big Nailed It Baking Challenge – August 4th
Bisexual comic Nicole Beyer hosts a high-stakes “Nailed It!” spinoff where ten really bad bakers employ instruction from really amazing bakers in the race to win a sweet cash prize.
Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop – August 9th
This limited documentary series promises to “re-contextualize the irrepressible women of hip hop and their role in the genre’s 50 years by reinserting them into the canon where they belong: at the center, from day one to present day.” Iconic emcees include our very own Queen Latifah, Chika and Da Brat.
Depp v Heard: Limited Series – August 16th
I am so extremely very nervous for how this story is going to be told and also that it is being told so soon after the trial concluded. But um, bisexual actress Amber Heard faces Johnny Depp in a court of law.
Prime Video’s August 2023 For The Queers
Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) – August 11
Continuing my “gay boy love story” summer is the much-anticipated adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s delightful Red, White & Royal Blue, a romance between the son of the first woman president of the U.S, Alex Claremont-Diaz, and Britain’s Prince Henry. Rachel Hilson plays Nora Halleran, the 22-year-old granddaughter of the Vice President who is best friends (and exes) with Alex. Furthermore she is bisexual and Jewish!
Harlan Coben’s Shelter: Season One – August 18th
I do not know who this man (Harlan Coben) is, but every time one of his books is adapted into a television series I find myself GLUED TO THE SCREEN. In Shelter, we find teenager Mickey Boltar having recently lost his father in a tragic car accident and therefore made to move in with his (queer, it turns out!) aunt Shira (Constance Zimmer) in suburban New Jersey. He quickly finds himself at the center of a mystery surrounding another new student at his school vanishing. Mickey quickly becomes friends with (also queer!) school outcast Ema, played by queer actor Abby Corrigan.
Hulu’s LGBTQ+ TV and Film for August 2023
D.E.B.S. (2005) – August 1
Angela Robinson’s campy lesbian action comedy has delighted our people for years with its homoerotic group of lady spies in skirts and ties.
Breeders: Season 4 Premiere (FX) – August 1
This British dark comedy’s last season follows two parents who struggle with parenthood in a way that is funny enough for the AV Club to declare its final chapter “smart, wistful and funny as ever.” In the trailer we witness their now-teenage daughter Ava, played by Zoë Athena, experiencing her own “bombshell moment” when she meets and immediately develops a deep crush on charismatic hairdresser Holly (Jessie Williams).
Reservation Dogs: Season Three Premiere (FX) – August 2
Season Three of Reservation Dogs picks up with the group returning to Oklahoma after their unfortunate series of events in Los Angeles. Queer Kahnawà:ke Mohawk actress Devery Jacobs stars as teenager Elora Dana and queer two-spirit actor Elva Guerra plays Jackie in this critically beloved show with an all-Native and very queer writer’s room and crew.
Only Murders in the Building: Season Three Premiere – August 8
It’s unclear if our bisexual queen Mabel (Selena Gomez) will date a woman again this season (as she did last season with Cara Delevingne’s Alice), but she will continue to be on the series as the gang investigates another murder and also Meryl Streep and Ashley Park are joining the cast. We can also expect to see more of lesbian Detective Williams.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) – August 24
Sasha Lane is Theo, a woman dying from a rare cancer caused by pollution and Jayme Lawson is her girlfriend, Alisha, a skeptical do-gooder, in this film Drew described as “a radical masterpiece” that transposes a “critique of non-violence in climate activism” “into the entertainment of a heist movie and the pathos of a character study.”
Paramount+ / Showtime’s August 2023 Gay Shows
The Chi: Season 6 Premiere – August 4
In Season Six, “big dreams are finally realized but at a cost and everyone will be tested in unimaginable ways as they calculate the risks and rewards of their next big move.” Tyla Abercrumbie will be returning as lesbian character Nina and Miriam A. Hyman as her wife Dre.
Billions: Season 7 Premiere – August 13
The final season of this show about terrible rich people will continue to feature Asia Kate Dillon as non-binary character Taylor. This is the longline:“In season seven, alliances are turned on their heads. Old wounds are weaponized. Loyalties are tested. Betrayal takes on epic proportions. Enemies become wary friends. And Bobby Axelrod returns, as the stakes grow from Wall Street to the world.”
Max’s Lesbian Shows of August 2023
Rap Sh!t: Season 2 Premiere – August 8th
Update: The premiere of the second season of Rap Sh!t has been delayed due to the Writer’s Strike.
Bisexual actor Jonica Booth plays Chastity, a stud and the self-proclaimed “Duke of Miami” who, in Season One, begins managing a rap group formed by her estranged high school friends. In Season Two, “the girls are on tour, tensions are high, and they’re quickly realizing how much they’re willing to sacrifice for success.”
Disney+ Queer Materials for August 2023
High School Musical: The Series – Season Four Premiere – August 9
Fans of this franchise I still know nearly nothing about were thrilled last year when Ashlyn, played by pansexual actress Julia Lester, realized she also liked girls in Season Three. In Season Four, plans for their stage production of High School Musical 3: Senior Year is interrupted when the Principal announces that Disney’s making “High School Musical 4: The Reunion” movie on location at East High. I am confident that all of this makes perfect sense to somebody!
Apple TV’s Lesbian August 2023 Fare
Invasion: Season Two Premiere – August 23
The second season of Invasion promises to be “a bigger, more intense season that drops our viewers into a wide-scale, global battle from the start,” which saw its characters cope with the results of an alien invasion. It also has a lesbian lead character, Mitsuki Yamato, played by Shioli Kitsuna!
July 2023: What’s New and Gay on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Max, Starz, Apple TV and Peacock
Well, put your sense of self away, Pride Month is over and it’s time for all our favorite streaming networks to compete for the honor of who can do the least! It’s time to dig into where we can find lesbian and bisexual characters on Netflix, Prime Video, Max (it is very weird to call it that and I don’t like it), Peacock, Starz and Apple TV!
Netflix’s LGBTQ+ Content for July of 2023
Survival of the Thickest (Season 1) Netflix Original – July 13
In this A24 series, Michelle Buteau stars as Mavis Beaumont, a recently single stylist attempting to rebuild her life after “putting all of her eggs in one man’s basket.” She works with her friends and relatives to solve her problems with a “body-positive attitude, cute v-neck, and some lip gloss.” Tasha Smith plays Marley and Christine Jones plays Callie and they are kissing in the trailer, so!
Prime Video’s July 2023 Queer Content
Good Omens: Season 2 – July 28
Based on Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s novel, the second season of Good Omens goes beyond its source material by digging into the incredibly homoerotic alleged friendship between angel/book dealer Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and fast-living demon Crowley (David Tennant). Technically as angels and demons these characters have no gender, and there is a lot of Discourse about the nature of their relationship. Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya return to the show in new (gay!) roles — Maggie Service playing record store owner Maggie and Nina Sosanya playing neighboring coffee shop owner Nina. When a picture debuted of Maggie and Nina on the Good Omens Instagram, calls of LET’S GO LESBIANS were heard all over the land!
Max’s Girls, Gays and Theys for July 2023
V for Vendetta (2005)
V for Vendetta is a dystopian political action film from the Wachowskis starring Natalie Portman. In 2006, A*terE*len’s Sarah Warn called it “One of the most pro-gay films ever.”
Brandi Carlile: In the Canyon Haze – Live From Laurel Canyon- July 1
Our beloved Brandi Carlile performs “lushly reimagined songs” from her album “In These Silent Days,” in this concert special, bringing “her signature flair to a showcase of her unparalleled vocal talents” and nodding “to the artists who shaped the singer-songwriter’s voice.”
Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York: Docuseries Premiere – July 9
This docuseries tells the story of a serial killer preying on gay men in the New York City amidst the AIDS crisis and hate crime surge of the early 1990s, when the “criminal justice system,” the police, and media undermined any potential investigation or action that would protect this marginalized populace. As you can imagine, lesbians are amongst the activists involved in the response to this ongoing terror.
Harley Quinn: Season 4 – July 27
We don’t know much about the fourth season of this beloved animated series that follows the misadventures of Harley Quinn and her girlfriend Poison Ivy, but we know one thing: it’s happening.
Starz’s Queer TV Show of July 2023
Minx: Season Two – July 21
In Season Two of this delightful series formally housed at the network formally known as HBO Max, Minx is taking off and raking it in — Doug and Joyce sell Bottom Dollar, Joyce gets famous, and, as per Collider, “the misfits of Bottom Dollar find themselves thrust into the mainstream” at which point they “are confronted with introspection and start questioning their evolving identities and true desires amidst this newfound triumph.” In the trailer, Bambi and Shelly make out and also after doing some work Bambi says to Shelly, “I think that’s it, should we have sex now?” and well, I can’t wait!
Hulu’s Lesbians and Bisexuals for July 2023
Wild Things (1998) – July 1
This movie in which Neve Campbell and Diane Richards make out in a swimming pool is terrible and iconic.
Chloe (2010) – July 1
This erotic thriller finds Julianne Moore hiring a sex worker played by Amanda Seyfried to test her husband’s fidelity but then stuff happens between Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried, obviously.
Death on the Nile (2022) – July 1
This adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic novel finds Hercule Poirot aboard a Karnak traversing the river Nile, attempting to solve some murders! Unlike the original novel, this version features Mrs. Bowers and Marie Van Schuyler as members of a secret lesbian relationship with each other.
What We Do in the Shadows: Season Five Premiere (FX) – July 14
According to Out Magazine, Season Four highlighted “its characters’ queerness in new and delightful ways.” Pansexual Nadja of Antipaxos will be recovering from the effects of a previously undiagnosed supernatural hex and reconnecting with a family from the Old Country.
A Little White Lie (2023) – July 14
Kate Hudson stars as an English professor organizing a literary conference in this indie comedy about a middle-aged nobody man who ends up as a featured guest at said literary conference after accepting an invite that clearly confused him with a reclusive novelist who shares his name. Aja Naomi King plays lesbian poet Blythe Brown, who clashes with said man early in the conference.
The Donor Party (2023) – July 28
Fresh out of a messy divorce and unfruitful online dating experiments, recently single Jaclyn has decided to get pregnant and live her dream of being a Mom by any means necessary, enlisting her friends to pull off “the ultimate sperm heist.” Her friend Molly invites “three good prospects” for Jaclyn to seduce to a birthday party for her husband Geoff. According to Movieweb, “naughtiness abounds” when “Amandine (Bria Henderson), a lesbian with eyes on Geoff’s sister, encourages Jaclyn to get down and dirty.”
Apple TV+’s July 2023 Queer Action
The Afterparty: Season 2 Premiere – July 12
Once again Tiffany Haddish is called upon to investigate a murder reported by Aniq (Sam Richardson). Aniq’s now dating Zoë (Zoë Chao) and he accompanies her to her sister Grace’s (queer non-binary actor Poppy Liu) wedding to her rich crypto investor husband, Edgar, and then Edgar turns up dead as a doornail. The series blends a variety of styles as each character gets their own episode to tell their story of the murder. Anna Konkle plays Edgar’s weird queer adopted sister Hannah, who gets her own Wes Andersonian episode.
Peacock’s July 2023 Lesbian TV Show
Real Housewives of New York City (Season 14) – July 17 (Bravo)
Jenna Lyons of J.Crew fame is joining the Real Housewives of New York City cast, apparently due to a commitment she made on an episode of the Dyking Out podcast recorded at the Wing in 2021, after being told she hadn’t “done enough” to represent gay women. The trailer looks pretty juicy! I am confident Bravo Dyke will be all over it. The show premieres July 16th on Bravo and will be on Peacock the very next day.
LGBTQ+ Documentaries To Watch This Pride Month That Aren’t the Most Obvious Ones
Our Pride theme this year is RAGE PARTY, an explicit acknowledgement of the complexity and expansiveness of Pride as a site of simultaneous recreation and revolution. It’s a time to hold each other close as we fight our oppressors. Rage on! In that spirit, I’ve rounded up some LGBTQ+ documentaries on queer resistance, history, and activism for a simmering Pride night in.
There are a lot of watch lists and documentary recommendations geared toward Pride floating around mainstream media right now, so I’m trying to focus on entries I didn’t see come up as often on those (kinda basic tbh!) lists. As a result, you might have to deviate from some of the more popular streamers like Netflix and Hulu to seek them out, but they’re worth the hunt. Time to sign up for Kanopy! I’ve put the docs in order of year released, and we’ve got films from 1989 to today! Check out over three decades of queer and trans real life stories! The list is, of course, far from exhaustive. So please feel free to shout out your favorites in the comments, even if they’re hard to find!
Tongues Untied (1989)
An experimental documentary that centers Black gay men, Tongues Untied uses poetry, performance, music, spoken word, art, and narrative to unspool Black gay life and challenge homophobia and racism. It’s an excellent starting point for this list and is available on Kanopy.
Last Call at Maud’s (1993)
Later in this list, you’ll find a shoutout to the more recent docuseries, The Lesbian Bar Project. But if you want to deep dive dyke bar documentaries, start here with 1993’s Last Call at Maud‘s, which touches on lesbian culture and spaces from the 1940s to 1990s, centered on the iconic defunct lesbian bar Maud’s in San Francisco. It’s available for rent or purchase on Prime Video.
Bloodsisters (1995)
Yes kink at Pride, and yes to this 1995 leatherdyke documentary that plunges into the lesbian BDSM scene in San Francisco in the 90s. For Autostraddle, Daemonum X wrote of the documentary, which is available to stream on Kanopy:
“Leatherdyke is a sexuality, and those of us who identify with it are automatically associated with perversion. When you’re turned on by filth, blood, and pain, no matter how hard you try you simply cannot bring it back from the margins. You cannot make dyke SM sexuality respectable in the eyes of society, and for many of us that’s even part of the appeal. The risks and the stigmatization of waving your freak flag have only moderately improved in the last twenty-five years. The watered down, mainstream ideas of kink have only moved the needle so far. Leatherdyke sexuality carries an inherent politic of anti-respectability and for that it has always been ahead of its time.”
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2003)
This documentary would make an excellent companion to the primer on queer labor activism: Gay at Work: Queer People and the Labor Movement, written by Daven McQueen for Rage Party. It’s available on Kanopy and additional apps.
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria (2005)
Three years before Stonewall, trans folks and drag queens fought back against police violence at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It’s considered one of the first documented instances of large scale queer resistance to police harassment in U.S. history. It’s available on Kanopy.
T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s (2011)
The iconic queer author Jewelle Gomez narrates this exploration of Black queerness in the 1920s blues boom, exploring the lived experiences of icons like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, and Ethel Waters. It’s available on Kanopy.
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012)
“United in Anger isn’t just a film, it’s a teaching tool for future activists,” Gabby wrote for Autostraddle in a review of the Sarah Schulman-produced documentary about ACT UP that utilizes footage compiled by the ACT UP Oral History Project. Pair it with a copy of Let the Record Show. It’s available on Kanopy.
Call Me Kuchu (2012)
This documentary focuses on queer life in Uganda, including the effects of violent church-backed homophobic legislation in the country. It covers the 2011 murder of activist David Kato and its aftermath. It’s available on Kanopy.
Kiki (2016)
Regarded as an unofficial “sequel” to Paris Is Burning by critics, Kiki similarly follows ballroom and drag culture in NYC, focusing on LGBTQ youth of color. It shows the various intersecting conflicts trans youth of color face as well as immense trans joy and community, making it a perfect fit for Rage Party. It’s available to stream on Kanopy.
Check It (2016)
This documentary follows the Check-It, a street gang formed by ninth graders in Washington D.C. in 2009 that consists of trans and queer Black teens who have been rejected by their families, subjected to homophobia, transphobia, racism, and pushed into extreme poverty and homelessness. It’s available to stream on several different apps.
Dykes, Camera, Action (2018)
For my queer cinephiles! This documentary explores lesbian cinema, featuring filmmakers like Barbara Hammer, Vicky Du, Cheryl Dunye, Desiree Akhavan, and many more! Queer resistance and queer art go hand in hand, so dive on into this exploration of queerness on screen. It’s available on Peacock.
I Hate New York (2018)
This documentary follows the lives and work of activists and artists Amanda Lepore, Sophia Lamar, Chloe Dzubilo and T De Long, and it’s title is a tongue-in-cheek critique of the ways the powers at be have sought to erase trans life and spaces from New York City, including efforts like the shutting down of Cats II and Sally’s Hideaway in Times Square in the 90s. It’s available to stream on Tubi.
Changing the Game (2019)
Following three trans teen athletes as they compete in their respective sports and confront transphobia and other obstacles, Changing the Game feels like an urgent documentary as youth athletics continue to be a staging ground for rampantly transphobic legislation throughout the country. It’s available on Hulu.
Sylvia Rivera: She Was More Than Stonewall (2019)
This full documentary is available on YouTube via CT Trans History and Archives.
Always Amber (2020)
This coming-of-age documentary follows genderqueer teen Amber and a group of trans teens in a way that gives them a lot of agency and room for exploration of their own identities. Drew Burnett Gregory wrote of it: “This documentary is about a person and it’s about a generation and it’s about a future that is yet to exist. It’s a political declaration that all people regardless of age should get to determine how they present and how they’re addressed and who they are.” It’s available to rent or purchase on Prime Video in the UK and Apple TV.
Your Mother’s Comfort (2020)
Trans activist, politician, and leader Indianara Siqueira fights to save the LGBTQ+ homeless shelter for trans sex workers she started in this international documentary set against the backdrop of the election of a far right president in Brazil. The film is available to stream on the apps Hoopla and Revry.
My Name Is Pauli Murray (2021)
This documentary about an important Black queer and trans elder who has so often been erased by dominant history narratives is a necessary deep dive on their many contributions to Black liberation and civil rights. It’s also not without its problems, explored with nuance by Autostraddle Editor-in-Chief Carmen Phillips in her review, which notes Pauli is misgendered throughout parts of the film, something that’s grappled with and pushed back against by some of the trans folks interviewed in it. If you’re going to watch, I highly recommend reading Carmen’s review as a companion piece to understand some of these flaws. It’s available on Prime Video.
Rebel Dykes (2021)
Set in 1980s London, Rebel Dykes is immersed in a specific punk lesbian scene and explores the intersections of politics, sex and the erotic, activism, art, and music. It’s available to watch in the UK through the BFI’s website.
The Lesbian Bar Project (2022)
The Lesbian Bar Project is an ongoing campaign to champion the few surviving lesbian bars throughout the U.S., and part of that campaign included a short documentary as well as a three-part docuseries. The three-part docuseries is available to stream for free on the Roku channel and is worth checking out if you too are invested in the decline of the dyke bar, a topic we cover here at Autostraddle in myriad ways.
The Stroll (2023)
Made by trans directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, The Stroll centers Black trans sex workers in NYC’s Meatpacking District, exploring the neighborhood’s history of violent policing, gentrification, community care, and queer and trans resilience. It’s available to stream on Max, starting June 21.
June 2023: What’s Gay and Streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Max, Prime Video, Paramount+, Apple TV and More!
Well it’s Pride Month and you know what that means: people making television and cinema for the LGBTQ+ community! Honestly I had expected them to make more television and cinema for the LGBTQ+ community than they apparently intend to do this specific June, but that is fine and we will model through it. Okay, let’s get into what’s out there with lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans characters on your teevee sets.
Netflix’s Streams in Gay for June 2023
Valeria (Season 3) – June 2
This Spanish comedy-drama has a lesbian character, Nerea, who’s still looking for the right forever girl and employing a dating profile to help her get there.
Never Have I Ever (Season 4) – June 8
It’s senior year for Devi, Eleanor and our lesbian friend Fabiola. The trailer however is really just about Devi so it’s anybody’s guess what’ll happen with Fabiola in the final season of Never Have I Ever!
Human Resources (Season 2) – June 9
The second and final season shows the daily workplace lives of the various creatures of Big Mouth, including the pansexual Sonya Poinsettia (Pamela Adlon) and various recurring and guest characters. Our fave Keke Palmer plays Rochelle the Love Bug.
Glamorous (Season One) – June 22
Marco Mejia (non-binary actor Miss Benny) is a gender non-conforming queer man stuck in place until he is given an opportunity to work for makeup mogul Madolyn Addison (Kim Catrall) — a position that enables him to figure out what he wants and who he is as a queer person. Madolyn’s assistant, Venetia (Jade Payton) is there to initiate him into queer Brooklyn nightlife, and then there’s also Britt (Ayesha Harris), a fellow designer, who learns that her crush on her colleague is requited after they match on a dating app.
Also coming to Netflix in June:
- Grey’s Anatomy (Season 19) – June 17
Hulu’s LGBTQ+ Content for July 2023
As part of Hulu’s “Pride Never Stops” campaign, Hulu will be livestreaming Pride Marches in Los Angeles (June 11) and Houston (June 24), as well as a “Pride Across America” ABC News Live event on June 25th.
Drag Me to Dinner (Season One) – March 31
This “glamorous, messy, faux competition show that no one takes too seriously” sees beloved drag queens pair up to host fabulous dinner parties. Drag king Murray Hill hosts the show that also stars Neil Patrick Harris, Bianco Del Rio, Haneefah Wood and David Burtka. Beloved Jinx Monsoon and Ben DeLaCreme will battle Jackie Beat and Sherry Vine in the series premiere.
Jagged Mind (2023) – June 15
Billie (queer actor Maisie Richardson-Sellers) is plagued by blackouts and strange visions that eventually result in her reliazing she’s stuck in a series of time loops and that possibly her new girlfriend Alex (queer actor Shannon Woodward) is responsible for this bizarre circumstance.
Linoleum (2022) – June 30
Jim Gaffiganplays an aspiring astronaut and the host of a failing children’s science TV show in this film in which his relationships with his wife and his gay teenage daughter (Katelyn Nacon) start to strain as surreal events begin unfolding all around them.
Also coming to Hulu in June:
- Queen Sugar (Season Seven) – June 1
- Vida (Season 3) – June 1
Prime Video’s June 2023 LGBTQ+ Offerings
With Love (Season 2) – June 2
Trans actress Isis King plays trans nonbinary oncology resident Sol Perez in this dramedy from Gloria Calderón Kellett that follows “siblings Lily and Jorge Diaz as they navigate big life changes and rely on their equally big family to get them through.”
The Lake (Season 2) – June 9
This already very queer show gets even more queer this season when Billie (Madison Shamoun) returns to the lake for a one-week vacation only to be immediately smitten by a tree planter named Forrest (Jhaleil Swaby) and a “fierce climate activist” named Ivy.
Paramount+’s Gals, Gays and Theys for June 2023
iCarly: Season 3 Premiere – June 1
Carly, Spencer and Freddie will be navigating the next chapters in their twentysomething lives in this show I have never seen that does have a Black queer character named Harper.
Love Alllways: Season One Premiere – June 2
This pansexual Gen Z dating show gives pansexual bachelorette Lexi Paloma the chance to find her perfect human at the age of 20, narrowing down her pool of contestants of all genders until “some start falling for one another, causing a spiral of drama, betrayal, passion and jealousy.” Read more about Love Allways here.
Queens of the Universe: Season 2 Premiere – June 2
Drag queens from all around the world compete in this singing competition in pursuit of world domination! WORLD DOMINATION!!!!!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season 2 Premiere – June 15
Queer actor Melissa Navia plays Lt. Ortegas, and told Variety that she is playing the androgynous original character as queer and furthremore, Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) is bisexual.
HBO Max’s Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Characters for June 2023
The Idol: Season One Premiere – June 4
There was a shit-ton of behind-the-scenes messiness around this show eventually directed by Euphoria’s Sam Levinson that thus far has earned mostly negative reviews from its two-episode premiere at Cannes. Rolling Stone declared it “more toxic and way worse than you’ve heard,” so! It’s also chock-full of LGBTQ+ actors, like Lily-Rose Depp, Dan Levy and Hari Nef. Some fans are theorizing that BlackPink’s Jennie’s character, Anys, will be queer.
Swiping America (2023) – June 15
Four New Yorkers, including Black masc lesbian CEO Ash go on a cross-country road trip to try dating in different locations!
The Stroll (2023) – June 21
This documentary traces the history of the Meatpacking District in New York City, told from the point of view of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Kristin Lovell, who once worked it herself, brings her friends back together to recount “the violence, policing and gentrification that lead to a movement for transgender rights.”
And Just Like That….: Season 2 Premiere – June 22
Miranda and Che Diaz are really getting up to it in the trailer and promotional images for the second season of the Sex and the City reboot we had a lot of feelings about. Also we have Charlotte’s non-binary child Rock! Most importantly I simply hope we will learn why Che Diaz is wearing Kendall Roy’s jacket.
Apple TV+’s June 2023 LGBTQ+s
The Crowded Room: Season One – June 9
This psychological thriller is set in New York City in 1979 and stars Zendaya’s boyfriend Tom Holland as a murderer. When the trailer for this dropped, Heather noted, “it definitely seems like he’s going to murder Sasha Lane and this woman she’s kissing in the trailer whose face looks like that emoji with the boba eyes and happy unshed tears.”
May 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+ and HBO Max
April flowers bring May showers, and this May we are being showered by networks looking at their content for lesbian, bisexual and queer women and trans people of all genders and apparently thinking, “what if instead of debuting this in May, we show it in June for PRIDE???” Luckily, Netflix has stepped it up this month and will be singlehandedly providing a true bounty of queer content for May, so that’s something.
Netflix’s Lesbian and Bisexual Content for May 2023
Pitch Perfect (2012) – May 1
Everyone’s favorite a capella franchise’s first entry finds our heroine Anna Kendrick scoping out her path and her musical calling at her new college. Her singing team eventually includes Amy (played by queer actor Rebel Wilson) and actual lesbian character Cynthia Rose (Ester Dean). Also there is a lot of Becca/Chloe fanfic.
Hannah Gadsby: Something Special (2023) – May 9
Gadsby is back in their third Netflix stand-up special, filmed at the Sydney Opera House in fall 2022. Advertised as a “smart and feel good set” we are promised material about “a wedding (theirs!)” and “more than one traumatic encounter with a bunny.”
Queer Eye (Season Seven) – May 12
If you’ve ever asked yourself “when will the fab five go from beignets to ben-yays and bring some sparkle and sass to New Orleans?” have I got some great news for you! It’s May 12th. The second episode will feature a lesbian named Stephanie!
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me (2023) – May 16
This “unflinching and humanizing examination of the life, death and secrets of Vickie Lynn Hogan” (aka Anna Nicole Smith) promises to tell the star’s real true story, from her ascent to her untimely passing in 2007. We’ve got never-before-seen footage, home movies, and interviews with key figures who’ve never spoken out before, including deeper insights into her relationship with a former girlfriend.
Fanfic (2023) – May 17
This Polish LGBTQ+ drama follows two high school students who “form an intense connection as they navigate the challenges of discovering and expressing their truest selves.”
XO, Kitty (Season One) – May 18
Noted teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey of the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before multiverse considers herself a worldly expert on love, but when she moves to Korea to study and reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she learns that she’s got so many more lessons to learn. This spin-off is easy to jump into even if you’ve not seen the films and, as per our interests here, there’ll be a couple of prominent queer storylines including a queer women storyline that is “handled beautifully.” I’m not sure which girls on the show are gonna be the gay ones, but queer actor Regan Aliyah is playing Juliana, so I’m placing at least one bet on her.
Selling Sunset (Season 6) – May 19th
This program about selling very expensive real estate in the very expensive city of Los Angeles features noted queer woman Chrishell Stause, who is currently dating G-Flip.
Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer (2023) – May 23
In this new stand-up special, legendary lesbian comic/actor Wanda Sykes will be speaking on topics ranging from “the challenges of raising Gen Z teens” to “the dilemmas of being a liberal in a hyper charged political climate.”
All-American (Season Five) – May 23
The Ultimatum: Queer Love: Season One Premiere – May 24th
Where do I even begin to describe the wonder and the glory we are pledging our lives to — The Ultimatum: Queer Love? Featuring an entirely queer cast (all lesbian and bisexual women and/or non-binary people), The Ultimatum finds couples in which one member is ready to get married and the other is not and dares them to make that ultimatum and then spend some weeks dating other people to see if they should definitely commit or possibly not commit.
HBO Max’s Lesbian Content for May 2023
1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed (2023) – May 2
This documentary from W. Kamau Bell talks to mixed-race kids and families in the San Francisco Bay Area “who are navigating issues of identity in a world that often asks them to pick a side.” Amongst the participants are two kids with two moms, 13-year-old Carter (who is Black and Latina and Kamau’s goddaughter) and 13-year-old Nola, Carter’s best friend (who is Black and white). I spotted Saint Harridan founder Mary Going in the trailer so I imagine one of these kids are hers. Just a hunch.
Angel City (2023): Three-Part Documentary Series Premiere – May 16
This docuseries goes “behind the scenes and onto the pitch” with the Los Angeles professional women’s soccer team Angel City Football Club, best known to those in Los Angeles as the best place to run into every lesbian you’ve ever known. Following the league from its origin story through the 2022 inaugural season, this series promises to “reveal the passion and grit needed to build a franchise from scratch and blaze a bold trail in the world of professional sports.”
Hulu’s May 2023 Shows for Girls, Gays & Theys
Best in Show (2000) – May 1
Christopher Guest’s mockumentary about showdogs features Jane Lynch as trainer Christy Cummings, a competitive handler working for poodle-owning couple Sherri Ann and Leslie Ward Cabot. But there’s more going on between Sherri and Christy than meets the eye, if you know what I mean and I think you do!
Jeopardy Masters: Series Premiere (ABC) – May 9
Trans lesbian trivia queen legend Amy Schneider and noted Canadian lesbian Mattea Roach will be amongst the six competitors facing off in this “Champions League-style” format version of the beloved
Class of ’09: Season One Premiere (FX) – May 10
I have it on good authority that the situation you have observed in the trailer for this show, which follows a class of FBI agents through three distinct points in time grappling with big changes in the criminal justice system enabled by A.I, is indeed as Sapphic as you suspected it is. Yes, we see Sepideh Moafi and Kate Mara in bed together and also drinking in a dimly lit restaurant in a somewhat flirtatious manner. Mara plays Amy Poet, a former psychiatric nurse and future elite FBI agent who never imagined herself working in law enforcement, and Sepideh plays Hour Nazari, “a socially awkward but brilliant FBI trainee who become an agent specializing in data.”
How I Met Your Father: Season 2B Premiere – May 23
This spin-off of How I Met Your Mother kicked off this year with a lesbian romance and now we are back for the back half of Season Two.
Drag Me to Dinner: Season One Premiere – May 31
Neil Patrick Harris, Bianca Del Rio, Haneefah Wood, and David Burtka star, with host Murray Hill, in this10-episode series that also features 40 drag queens in a “riotous, format-busting, fourth-wall-breaking, unapologetic sendup of traditional reality competition shows!”
Paramount + LGBTQ+ Material for May 2023
RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars: Season 8 Premiere – May 12
The eighth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars will feature an all-star panel of judges, including our beloved Batwoman Javica Leslie and noted former bowtie enthusiast JoJo Siwa!
Rosie’s Theater Kids (2022) – May 23
This documentary tells the story of the impact Rosie O’Donnell’s non-profit Rosie’s Theater Kids has had on its students and alumni through archival footage, interviews, first person accounts and performances.
All the Gay and Gay-ish Movies Van on “Yellowjackets” Should Catch Up on After Getting Out of the Wilderness
We know Teen Van loves movies, but now that we’ve met Adult Van in season two of Yellowjackets, we know for certain she’s a verifiable Film Gay. She owns a video rental store called While You Were Streaming that rents out retro VHSs, and she’s out here giving the gays great movie recs like The Watermelon Woman and Party Girl. So, I had to investigayte: What movies did Van miss out on while she was busy surviving in the wilderness? What should be on her watchlist for when she gets out?
First, a timeline: We don’t know exactly when the plane crashed, but it’s reasonable to assume it’s late spring or early summer. The soccer season hadn’t ended yet, and the wilderness wasn’t frozen over yet. Let’s go with May? In addition, we don’t know exactly when they get out of the woods beyond it being 1998, though I’m guessing it’s early 1998 since someone makes reference to them being out there for 1.5 years. To keep matters simple, I’m going to constrain this list between the beginning of 1996 and the end of 1998. Even though the plane didn’t go down until spring, let’s assume Van was too busy between school, soccer, and her secret relationship with Tai to get to the movies as much as she would have liked to. And even though Van likely got out earlier that year, let’s give our cinephile a little breather to recover from the horrors of the wilderness before she settles into some good gay programming.
The first section of the list includes movies in which the queerness is overtly textual and we get to see girls kissing girls. The second section includes all the queer-adjacent films Van would probably enjoy. The list is not meant to be exhaustive (for example, Chasing Amy is not to be found).
Van’s Post-Wilderness Watchlist Part 1: Explicitly Queer Movies from 1996-1998
These are the movies Van should prioritize immediately after getting out of the wilderness (okay, so maybe after some therapy sessions, sure):
The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Ranked #5 in Autostraddle’s 50 Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list and a personal favorite of mine, Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking film that blends queer film history, personal narrative, and lesbian romance is beloved by most lesbian cinephiles — and deservedly so. We already know Van digs this movie, as she’s quick to rec it to a cutie who comes into her rental store. But did that love form before the crash or after? It’s probably safe to assume after, as I doubt this suburban Jersey town would have been on the gay & lesbian film festival circuit. The movie aired on the Sundance Channel in 1998, so here’s to hoping someone gifted Van a premium cable package as a post-wilderness gift!
Hide and Seek (1996)
Notably the only “documentary” on our top 50 list, Hide and Seek actually doesn’t fit the constraints of nromative genres and instead creates its own form to explore lesbian childhoods, and I think Van would appreciate the experimental nature of this film!
Foxfire (1996)
I feel like Van had an unhealthy obsession with Angelina Jolie — OR AM I PROJECTING? I bet Taissa has read the Joyce Carol Oates novel this movie is based on and would point out any and all discrepancies/changes if watching it alongside Van.
Fire (1996)
Van does strike me as the kind of cinephile who is quick to remind people that a survey of queer film is incomplete if it does not consider international releases. Perhaps that coupled with a burgeoning interest in Canada after being stranded there would lead her to this Indian Canadian Hindi-language movie from Deepa Mehta about sisters-in-law who fall in love.
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
Van has loved Lili Taylor ever since seeing Mystic Pizza, I just know it.
Bound (1996)
Okay, obviously. Van probably develops a tradition of watching Bound AT LEAST annually, if not quarterly. I can’t say I’ve ever desired to watch a movie with a fictional character — until now. I wish more than anything I could watch Bound with Van.
Crash (1996)
I do like to think Van would also love my personal favorite Cronenberg movie. Perhaps the title would be triggering for a survivor of a plane crash, but I would be quick to assure Van like “nooooo babe it’s about CAR crashes and specifically people being sexually aroused by car crashes, don’t worry bout it!”
Set it Off (1996)
This is the movie that will place Van on the right side of history (believing all heist movies should feature AT LEAST one lesbian).
MURDER and murder (1996)
Autostraddle’s 18th best lesbian movie of all time, MURDER and murder is an effervescent experimental film on longterm partnership that Van would find lots to love about.
All Over Me (1997)
I meeeeean this movie, which comes in at #13 on our top 50 list, is dykey as hell, and I feel like Van would have listened to any and all of Leisha Hailey’s various music projects back in the day.
It’s in the Water (1997)
The 90s energy of this movie is, frankly, unparalleled. I feel like Van and Tai would develop a drinking game to play with it.
Gia (1998)
Again, I’m getting Angelina Jolie Ruined My Life vibes from Van. And who can blame her? She was a gay teen in the 90s. I’m also getting My Comfort Movies Are Sad As Fuck vibes from Van, and as someone whose comfort movie is The Hours, I can relate!!!!!
Wild Things (1998)
I bet Van had the same reaction to this kiss the way I did when I saw it while closeted!!!!!!! If only I could go back in time and tell Van all about the fact that Denise Richards eventually becomes embroiled in bisexual drama on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills!!!!!!! I’d first have to explain to her that Bravo isn’t really for pop culture countdowns anymore and has evolved into a reality television empire ruled by the whims of Andy Cohen, but it would be worth it.
Fucking Amal / Show Me Love (1998)
Beloved here at Autostraddle as one of the best coming-of-age lesbian movies of all time, this 90s classic holds the fuck up! I’m positive Van has it available to rent on VHS at her shop.
High Art (1998)
Who doesn’t love a movie about an age gap relationship with questionable work/personal boundaries! Surely Van is not immune to the appeal of messy queer characters — she and Taissa both fit the bill!
Van’s Post-Wilderness Watchlist Part 2: Queer-Adjacent Movies from 1996-1998
Once Van has inevitably made her way through all those movies with a quickness, it’s time for the time honored queer cinephile rite of passage: obsessing over movies that aren’t technically gay but feel gay. Here’s what she missed when she was busy doing bear heart blood sacrifice ceremonies with Lottie and taking care of her sleepwalking possessed girlfriend in the wilderness.
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
It is one of the great cultural traditions of 90s dykes to become ferally obsessed with this movie.
The Birdcage (1996)
Can you not picture Teen Van rocking this entire Armand getup?
Harriet the Spy (1996)
Van is such a Harriet!
The Craft (1996)
Maybe the gothic ritualism of The Craft would hit a little too close to home for poor Van — or maybe it would be healing and transformative.
The First Wives Club (1996)
Not only does Van love this movie, but her karaoke song is “You Don’t Own Me.”
Scream (1996)
Can I in good conscience recommend a slasher to someone who survived a cannibal cult? Probably not! And yet! I can easily see Van becoming a horror girlie — like she has lived through that shit. And she’d be a total sucker for the meta comedy at play in this gamechanging movie!!!!
Practical Magic (1997)
I feel like Van would be very drawn to the aesthetics of this movie. Perhaps it even inspired her small-town life.
Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion (1997)
Oh you KNOW Van is constantly quoting this movie in everyday conversation!
The Faculty (1998)
I just think Van would take a…uh…special interest in Famke Janssen as a schoolteacher possessed by a horny alien in this movie.
Strike! (1998)
Despite being a lover of Kiki Dunst AND all-girls school-set movies, I have not seen this film! But queer movie nerds Drew Burnett Gregory and Riese Bernard both suggested it for this list, and I trust them!
Okay, that’s more than enough to get Van started on her movie catchup after the wilderness! What else do you think she should watch?
April 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming on Netflix, Showtime, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Roku and Paramount+
It’s time for April showers but after you get out of that shower you need to get into this guide to all the television you could be enjoying on your sofa or preferred place to sit! We’ve looked deeply into this and have come to you with a plethora of television shows and movies with lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans characters streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney+, Roku and Showtime.
Top: Tiny Beautiful Things, Slip, Dead Ringers, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies Bottom: The Matildas, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Beef, Couples Therapy, Walker: Independence, Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian
New and Gay and/or Lesbian on Netflix in April 2023
Beef (Season One) – April 6
This series from A24 “follows the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving series.” Queer actress Maria Bello plays queer billionaire character Jordan.
All-American: Homecoming (Season 2) – April 11
When Simone Hicks leaves her family and friends behind in Los Angeles, she finds a chosen family at Bringston University in Atlanta. While Simone tries to balance freshman year with collegiate athletics and the realities of life at an HBCU, she leans on Nate — a non-binary, gender non-comforming diva who offers to share her space — and Keisha, a bisexual, aspiring dancer turned med student with commitment issues (natch). (Thanks to Natalie for writing this blurb for me!)
Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian (Season 1) – April 11
Legendary British lesbian actress Miriam Margolyes has just become an official citizen of Australia, and she has a lot of questions about what this means for her! In this series she will FIND OUT.
Welcome to Eden (Season 2) – April 21
This Spanish-language series returns to the rebellion that’d been sparked on Eden. There were a few queer and trans characters in the first season, including trans DJ Mayaka, lesbian Bel and the lead character, Zoa, who’s bisexual.
Prime Video’s LGBTQ+ Stuff For April 2023
Bros (2022) – April 4
This major studio gay rom-com that got so much press about people not going to see it that nobody ended up going to see it is focused on the love story between two white cis gay men, but has “a queer world that is predominantly trans and POC — even if the white cis gay men are the only ones with real characters.”
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel: Season Five Premiere – April 14
It’s the final season of one of Prime Video’s flagship properties, promising to give Midge a grand send-off complete with numerous flash-forwards and a final season story that finds her working as a writer for a late-night show while her dapper lesbian manager Susie toils away to improve her career and everybody wears cute period outfits!
Dead Ringers (Season One) – April 21
This absolutely bananas gender-swapped re-imagining of David Cronenberg’s psychosexual horror cult classic Dead Ringers (1988) stars Rachel Weisz as twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle, obstetricians who have big ideas for revolutionizing women’s health. Beverly is a lesbian and she begins dating Genevive, an actress on a popular TV show, early in the story, which makes Elliot very mad. Like the original film, the series promises “co-dependent twin doctors at the top of their professions who start to unravel under the weight of their obsession with each other and their career pursuits.” You can also look forward to a lot of blood and realistic depictions of childbirth!
Queer HBO Max Shows & Movies Streaming April 2023
Walker: Independence (Season One) – April 1
This CW Western series is set in the late 1800s and follows an affluent East Coaster whose husband is murdered while they’re journeying out West together. She eventually lands in Independence, Texas, with her new companion, loveable rogue Hoyt. Queer non-binary actor Katie Findlay plays eccentric burlesque dancer Kate Carver. According to Looper, “with the blessing of producer and showrunner Seamus Fahey, Katie infused their own queerness into Kate, giving us a glimpse at what life was like for the queer community in the 1800s.”
Tangerine (2015) – January 1
Shot entirely on an iPhone, this iconic film follows two trans sex workers, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, on Christmas Eve, as just-out-of-jail Sin-Dee tracks down the pimp/boyfriend who’s been cheating on her and Alexandra’s on a journey towards her singing performance that evening.
The Winchesters (Season One) – April 6
The first season of The CW’s Supernatural spinoff is set in the 1970s, telling the story of how John Winchester and Mary Campbell fell in love and fought monsters together while looking for their missing fathers. The characters include Mary’s friend Carlos Cervantez, who is bisexual and non-binary, and DJ Rockin’ Roxy (Bridget Reagan), who is queer.
A Black Lady Sketch Show: Season Four Premiere – April 14
Our favorite sketch show returns for its 4th season. Sadly, queer writer/performer Ashley Nicole Black isn’t returning for the fourth season because she has so many other hot jobs! Tamara Jade (The Voice season 19), Angel Laketa Moore (Atypical) and DaMya Gurley will be joining Robin Thede, Sky Townsend and Gabrielle Dennis as featured players.
#BringBackAlice: Season One Premiere – April 14
A year after her shocking disappearance, popular influencer Alicja Stec is finally found — with no memory of what happened to her. But then it turns out that another teenager disappeared without a trace on the same day as Alicja, and her brother’s certain Alicja is the key to finding her. There’s a brief moment in the trailer where Alicja is kissing a girl, but also I cannot find a trailer in English or subtitles so!
Somebody Somewhere: Season Two Premiere – April 23
After slowly building a cult following throughout its first season, Bridget Everett’s Somebody Somewhere returns with more of that portrayal of small-town Midwestern queer life for which it has been so very praised. In Season Two, Sam’s working to move beyond her grief, deepening her friendship with Joel, building a new connection to her other sister and working with a new singing teacher.
Hulu’s April 2023 Shows for Girls, Gays and Theys
Tiny Beautiful Things (Limited Series) – April 7
Kathryn Hahn plays Claire, the advice columnist behind Dear Sugar, in this adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling book that finds Claire’s entire life falling apart just as she’s hired to help people work through the pieces of their own. Tanzyn Crawford plays Rae, her biracial queer teenage daughter, described like so: “uncomfortable in her own skin and often emotionally torn between her parents, Rae shows artistic leanings, though she’s an introvert of few words, just starting to develop her own opinions and making sense of who she is in the world.” Also, Desiree Akhavan is amongst the directors on this project that was created and written by queer producer Liz Tigelaar, who also was showrunner for my beloved Little Fires Everywhere.
Single Drunk Female: Season Two Premiere (Freeform) – April 13
One of the only shows to portray sobriety and recovery in a way that is not actively harmful is back! The protagonist is queer, but appears to be just dating men this season. But her sponsor (played by Rebecca Henderson0 remains a lesbian, and trans actor Jojo Brown plays Mindy, her “delightfully acerbic sobriety sister and manager at the grocery store.”
Paramount+‘s Gay Stuff For April 2023
Broad City (Seasons 1-5) – April 5th
The legendary Abbi and Ilana, who are both pretty queer, are landing in their entirety upon Paramount+, which is nice for us, what a treat!
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies: Season One Premiere – April 6
Set in 1954, four years prior to the official Grease movie timeline, four “fed-up and misfit students band together to bring out the moral panic that will change Rydell High forever and become the founding mothers of the first high school clique known as the Pink Ladies.” There is definitely some sapphic kissing in the trailer, and non-binary actor Ari Notartomaso plays gender non-conforming character Cynthia who, in the trailer, is seen as one of the T-Birds, one of the Pink Ladies, and also in a scene where she’s about to kiss a girl wearing a gay hat.
Showtime Queer April 2023 Streaming Content
Couple’s Therapy: Season 3B – April 28
Queen Mother Dr. Orna Guralnik returns for the second half of the third season of Couple’s Therapy, where she’ll be working with four new couples “wrestling with the confines of long-term relationships” and challenging heteronormative structures of what a successful relationship looks like. Amongst them are Nadine and Christine, a couple desperately trying to adjust to one partner’s desire to transition into polyamory.
The Roku Channel’s Bisexual Content for April 2023
Slip: Season One – April 21
Mae (Zoe Lister-Jones) feels dull in her relationship, cheats on her partner, and wakes up the next day in an entirely new life where nobody remembers the reality she lived in before. The life-hopping continues, each jump inspired by Mae having an orgasm. And of course, Mae dates a lot throughout this journey into alternate universes — men and women both! Shelli saw Slip at SXSW and said “It’s clever as hell, gets pretty damn queer, and the way she has to “activate” her time travel is hilarious.”
Disney+ LGBTQ+ Content for April 2023
The Owl House: Final Special Episode – April 8
We will say goodbye to this beloved queer-inclusive animated series with this final episode of their three-episode third season. It will follow Luz’s journey to save the boiling isles from the evil Emperor Belos & the unpredictable Collector.
Matildas: The World At Our Feet – April 26
Football Australia has partnered with Disney+ to make this six-part docuseries about the journey of their national women’s football team, the CommBank Matildas, as they prepare for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Obviously gay team captain Sam Kerr, recently named the most influential woman in Australian sport, will be central to the docuseries.
March 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming on Netflix, Showtime, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Starz and Paramount+
As any March hare could tell you, we are now entering the month of March and that means it’s time for Yellowjackets! But also there are other television shows and movies with lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans characters streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney+, Starz and Showtime this fine March of 2023 and it’s time for us to talk about them!
Top row: Wreck (Hulu), Yellowjackets (Showtime), Class of ’07 (Prime Video), Mae Martin: Sap (Netflix). Bottom row: Perry Mason (HBO), Turning the Tables With Robin Roberts (Disney+), The Big Door Prize (Apple TV), Queen of the Universe (Paramount+), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (HBO Max), Good Trouble (Freeform/Hulu)
New and Gay and/or Lesbian on Netflix in March 2023
Magic Mike XXL (2015) – March 1
This cinematic masterpiece sequel about an all-male stripper team features bisexual actress Amber Heard as a flirty bisexual photographer named Zeo.
Next in Fashion: Season 2 – March 3
Tan France and Gigi Hadid’s version of Project Runway has a few seemingly LGBTQ+ contestants this season, including trans designer James Ford, who you may recognize from his various connections to the Autostraddle-verse including that one time he said on this very website that Spindrift is bad.
Shadow & Bone: Season Two – March 16
It’s time for everybody’s favorite streaming guide game: Riese Tries To Explain The Plot of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show They Have Never Seen By Paraphrasing The Show’s Promotional Materials!!! AHEM: in the second season of this show, Alina Starkov and Mal Oretsev must rise to the challenge presented by General Kirigan’s new army by gathering their own powerful new allies and begin an epic journey to locate two mythical creatures that’ll amplify their powers. Also, a deadly heist will send the Crows on a collision course with the Sun Summoner. Queer actor Jessie Mel Li plays Alina, and has said she’d love to see Alina go bisexual in Season 2, and Nina Zenik is cannon bisexual.
Carol (2015) – March 20
Hmmmmm not sure what this is about but i do feel like I’ve heard of it and it’s definitely gay
Mae Martin: Sap – March 28
Non-binary queer comic Mae Martin of Feel Good and that one picture with Elliot Page gets their own stand-up special, directed by Abbi Jacobson! We are all so very excited about because they are so hot and funny and we love everything they have ever done or will do!
Prime Video’s LGBTQ+ Stuff For March 2023
Daisy Jones & The Six: Season One Premiere – March 3
Based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins-Reid (Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo), this mockumentary-ish show tells the story 20 years later of a band that rose from obscurity to fame and then, following a massive show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, broke up forever. Although the book didn’t have any queer elements, Nabiyah Be’s character Simone is queer and Ayesha Harris is playing her love interest!
Class of ’07: Season One – March 17
This Australian comedy about an all-girls school class reunion that gets interrupted by an apocalypse that strands all its attendees on a just-created island really should be a lot gayer than it is but… for not being gay, it is still a good time. The cast includes queer hip-hop artist BVT (whose character is clearly gay but doesn’t really like, do anything gay), the delightfully weird and gay actress / director Caitlin Stasey (Neighbours, Please Like Me, Reign) and queer actor / content creator Emma Horn.
Swarm: Season One – March 17
Dre (Dominique Fishback) is a devoted member of an obsessive fandom focused on Ni’Jah and her obsession gets really dark when she becomes a serial killer. Dre is queer (although she doesn’t come fully into her identity until the very end of the series) and she also at one point on her traveling reign of terror, intersects with a queer women’s empowerment cult led by Billie Eilish. In the last episode we meet Kiersey Clemons’ Rashida, a queer graduate student who dares to dislike Ni’Jah.
Nope (2022) – March 21
In this neo-Western science fiction horror film from Jordan Peele, Keke Palmer plays a character A. Tony describes as “the charismatic little lesbian of my dreams,” the sibling to Daniel Kaluuya’s OJ. Together they manage a horse ranch in California that handles horses for film & TV productions, discover something “wonderful and sinister in the skies above” that might offer a clue to who killed their father. They also must contend with the owner of an adjacent theme park trying to profit from the supernatural phenomenon lurking above them all.
The Power: Season One Premiere – March 31
This adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s bestselling novel which explored the question “What if women ruled the world?” focuses on a group of teenage girls who mysteriously develop a special power that allows them to electrocute people. Among them is Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz), the secret daughter of a powerful business owner in London who witnesses her Mom getting killed by gangsters and also she is queer!
Queer HBO Max Shows & Movies Streaming March 2023
Milk (2008) – March 1
This biopic telling the story of the legendary gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk has a queer female character, Anne Kronenberg, played by Allison Pill. I saw this film in the theater and cried like a baby!
Tangerine (2015) – March 1
Shot entirely on an iPhone, this iconic film follows two trans sex workers, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, on Christmas Eve, as just-out-of-jail Sin-Dee tracks down the pimp/boyfriend who’s been cheating on her and Alexandra’s on a journey towards her singing performance that evening.
Perry Mason: Season 2 Premiere – March 6
It’s been a long wait for the second season of this drama series reboot that tells the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason in post-WWI Los Angeles. In Season Two, Mason’s number two Della Street (Juliet Rylance) has found herself a beard, is bored with her girlfriend Hazel (Molly Ephraim) and will find a distraction in the form of Hollywood screenwriter Anita St. Pierre (Jen Tullock). So far, reviews claim Season Two is actually better than Season One!
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) – March 19
“Laura Poitras’ remarkable documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is about Nan Goldin and her work,” wrote Drew Gregory of this award-winning film about legendary bisexual photographer Nan Goldin. “It’s also about Goldin’s campaign to take down the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma, the company who manufactured Oxycontin. The brilliance of the film is it shows these aspects of her life to be one in the same.”
Hulu’s March 2023 Shows for Girls, Gays and Theys
Wreck: Season One – March 1
This British comedy horror show — which got negative reviews overall but positive reviews from LGBTQ+ publications specifically — finds a young gay lad named Jamie working on a cruise ship to investigate his sister’s disappearance. Also aboard is Vivian Lim (Thaddea Graham), who joined the Sacramentum after fleeing her homophobic family. She eventually has a thing with Lily Tee (Ramanique Ahluwalia). Writer Ryan J. Brown said of the show’s thematic bent: “as a gay man and horror fan, I think horror has always been queer but it’s always coded, and subtext. I thought, ‘let’s do away with the subtext. Let’s have explicit representation.”
Good Trouble: Season 5 Premiere – March 17
According to the Good Trouble Fandom Wiki, ” The roommates will face their toughest obstacles yet as they’re confronted with evolving relationship challenges and new career opportunities. Through highs and lows, romance and heartbreak, The Coterie crew will lean on each other while they navigate the next stage of adulthood.”
Showtime’s March 2023 Queer Content
Yellowjackets: Season 2 Premiere – March 24
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ !!!! Lots of new cast members will joining our favorite program including Lauren Ambrose as adult Van! Trans actress Nicole Maines is joining up as an associate of adult Lottie — who’ll be played by Simone Kessell. Season One ended with everybody wondering if Lottie was leading a plane-crash-obsessed cult, so!!! Please check out our in-depth analysis of the Yellowjackets Season Two Trailer here.
Disney+ LGBTQ+ Content for March 2023
Turning the Tables With Robin Roberts: Season 2 – March 15
If you’ve been waiting all your life to see lesbian news anchor Robin Roberts (Good Morning America) hold intimate roundtable conversations with female celebrities from all walks of life then you are in luck my friend! The first season was jam-packed with queer participants (Tig Notaro, Raven-Symone, Melissa Etheridge, Billie Jean King, etc), this year I have spotted one (1) and her name is Hayley Kiyoko.
Apple TV+’s Lesbians of March 2023
The Big Door Prize: Season One Premiere – March 29
A machine in a small town grocery store promises to predict the destiny of any user who submits themselves to its powers! The story centers on Cass (Gabrielle Dennis) and Dusty (Chris O’Dowd)’s family, which includes Izzy (Crystal R. Fox), Cass’s lesbian Mom who owns a shop in Deerfield.
Paramount+‘s Gay Stuff For March 2023
The Challenge: World Championship: Season Premiere – March 8
MVPs and Global Champions from Challenge editions in Argentina, the UK, Australia and the USA will come together to represent their countries and fight for the chance to be crowned CHALLENGE WORLD CHAMPION. Amongst these humans is lesbian athlete Kaycee Clark (Big Brother, The Challenge).
Queen of the Universe: Season 2 Premiere – March 31
Vanessa Williams hosts this drag queen singing competition and bisexual Spice Girl Mel B will be joining the judging panel that already includes Trixie Mattel, Michelle Visage and Graham Norton!
Starz Queer March 2023 Streaming Content
Power Book II: Ghost: Season 3 Premiere – March 8
In Season Three, Tariq St. Patrick sets out to get his trust, return to his family, and leave the game for good. But a ruthless new connect interrupts his plan to reconnect with Tasha and Yaz, putting him back into business with Brayden, (bisexual character! although she hasn’t had a bisexual storyline yet!) Effie and the Tejadas.
Minx: Season One – March 24
HBO Max renewed this brilliant little show and then VERY RUDELY rescinded the offer but luckily Starz swooped in to save it and they’re putting season one on their platform on March 24th! This story of a young feminist in 1970s Los Angeles who joins forces with a porn rag publisher to create the first women’s porn magazine has a major gay man of color character and also some delightfully surprising queer lady storylines!
February 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, Disney+, Shudder and Paramount+
Hello and welcome to your monthly adventure into which streaming networks are bold and visionary enough to include lesbian and bisexual and queer women and/or trans people in their February lineup. What is new and gay on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock and HBO Max this February 2023? Wh
It was another challenging month for me, friends, as once more I found myself picking up strong gay vibes from a number of programs only to get five screeners deep and learn those vibes were actually radiating from gay men. But if you’re looking for some gay male storylines this month, look no further than Apple+ TV’s Dear Edward and Shrinking; as well as the film Spoiler Alert on Peacock!
Top Row: Harlem, The Watchful Eye, Love Match: Paris, Bel-Air
Bottom Row: Million Little Things, Your Place or Mine, Attachment, Star Trek Picard, Harley Quinn and Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne
New and Gay and/or Lesbian on Netflix in February 2023
Your Place or Mine (2023) – February 10
This rom-com from Alline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) sees Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) as best friends forever who swap houses for a week — him taking care of her son in LA, her spreading her wings in NYC — to discover themselves et cetera you know how it is with heterosexuals. Tig Notaro appears in this film as, I believe, Debbie’s sardonic lesbian pal! I suppose it’s possible her character is straight but lord have mercy if so.
Perfect Match: First 4 Episodes – February 14
This Netflix reality show mashup — bringing together contestants from previous Netflix reality shows for a new game that I suppose involves love or dating in a matchy matchy way — is teeming with bisexuals! We’ve got Too Hot to Handle star Francesca Farago, who previously dated fellow reality queen Demi Sims and is now dating trans influencer Jesse Sullivan. Then there’s Are You The One’s bisexual season alum Kariselle Snow (who also appeared in Netflix’s Sexy Beast, thus qualifying her for this program). Also there is the bisexual Abbey Humphrey from Twentysomethings: Austin. Two girls who kissed on their season of Too Hot to Handle, Izzy and Georgia, are also in the cast, but I’ve got no clue if they’re actually bi because I did not see the show. It appears the cast includes 11 men and 12 women, and while it’s possible I am bad at counting, it’s also possible that there’ll be some room for some same-sex matchups!
Some Netflix shows on my gaydar although I couldn’t confirm one way or the other if they’re gonna have queers relevant to our interest are: the new Elite-inspired Indian teen melodrama Class, Season Four of You, and Tig Notaro in We Have a Ghost.
Prime Video’s LGBTQ+ Stuff For February 2023
Harlem: Season 2 – February 3
This series about four stylish & ambitious best girlfriends in Harlem has a lesbian lead, Tye, played by lesbian actress Jerrie Johnson! She’ll be “considering her future” in Season Two while her friends go on their own journeys of self-discovery as they level up to the next phase of their careers, relationships and big city dreams.
Carnival Row: Season 2 – February 17
In Season Two of this fantasy-noir series, inspector Philo is investigating a series of gruesome murders that have stoked social tension while pansexual character Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne) and the Black Raven are plotting payback against The Burgue’s human leaders. Bisexual character Tourmaline will be inheriting supernatural powers that threaten her fate and the future of The Row. I have no idea what any of this means but it feels true that “with humans and fae folk divided and freedom on the line, each hero will face impossible dilemmas and soul-defining tests in the epic conclusion of Carnival Row.”
Queer HBO Max Shows Streaming February 2023
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special – February 9
This special event follows Harley as she pursues her goal of having the best first Valentine’s Day ever with Ivy with obsessive zeal. Meanwhile, Bane’s efforts to impress an unexpected date go off-kilter and Clayface “engages in some self-love.”
Hulu’s February 2023 Shows for Girls, Gays and Theys
The Watchful Eye: Season One Premiere (Freeform) – January 31
A late add from the tail end of January is this thriller following a young woman with a complicated past who secures a nanny job with an affluent Manhattan family, where her own intent to be a con woman is compromised by the building’s deadly secrets and its inhabitants’ ulterior motives. She also makes nanny friends and of those nanny friends, Ginny (Aliyah Royale) and Kim (Clare Filipow) are queer and Alex (Baraka Rahmani) uses they/them pronouns.
Kissing Jessica Stein (2022) – February 1
This classic was frustrating in its time but is delightful to experience in the present day — following Jessica, who’s yet to find her soulmate and thus goes for it when the personal ad she feels drawn to turns out to be written by a woman — a downtown hipster named Helen, with whom she strikes up a relationship despite not being sure if she’s actually into women. Also Tovah Feldshuh is her Mom!
A Million Little Things: Season Five Premiere (ABC) – February 9
A Million Little Things will kick off its fifth and final season with a funeral and a new haircut for the love of my life, Grace Park, who plays a character named Katherine who is currently dating Greta, played by Cameron Esposito.
Three Ways (2023) – February 10
From Black-led media platform Andscape, “Three Ways” is a sex comedy following Stacey, a sexually awkward woman who decides to take control of her life, get over her ex and conquer her fears by having a threesome with her new suitor and a mysterious woman she’s yet to meet.
Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne: Limited Series – February 14
In this docuseries, queer model Cara Delevingne will “put her mind and body on the line in search of answers regarding human sexuality, its joys, mysteries and constantly changing nature. In every episode, she shares her own personal experiences. Uniquely unfiltered and authentic, there’s no limit on how far Cara’s willing to go to explore what makes us all human.”
Love Trip: Paris: Two-Episode Season Premiere (Freeform) – February 15
Premiering on Freeform on February 14th and debuting the next day on Hulu, this reality program is dropping four American girls who are allegedly “unlucky in love in their own country” into a French penthouse in the middle of Pairs, beneath a floor of French suitors ready to date them. Caroline is a personal trainer and a lesbian looking for her dream girl, Lacy is a France-obsessed mental health influencer who identifies as sexually fluid, and Josielyn is a Mexican transgender L.A.-based model who’s also open to dating people of all genders!
Grey’s Anatomy: S19 Winter Premiere (ABC) – February 24
Station 19: S6 Winter Premiere (ABC) – February 24
Spin Me Round (2022) – February 24
Shelli reported that the gay vibes in this comedy-thriller starring Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie “are there but it’s not some major part of the film,” so your milage may vary! Aubrey Plaza plays the manager of a chain restaurant who gets to attend a special training program in Italy but her dreams of European glamour and romance turn out to not be what she’d hoped for because also there is DANGER!
Peacock’s Lesbians and Bisexuals of February 2023
Bel-Air: Season Two Premiere – February 23
Fresh Prince alum Tatayana Ali is joining the cast in a recurring guest star capacity for Season Two of this dramatic adaptation of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She’ll be playing Mrs. Hughes, an English teacher who takes Ashley Banks (aka Ali’s role in the original sitcom) under her wing. Ashley came out as queer in the first season and we can’t wait to see what happens in the second!
Disney+
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) – February 1
In the wake of King T’Challa’s death, Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye and the Dora Milaje must fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers and work to embrace the best new path forward for the kingdom of Wakanda. Aneka and Ayo, both Dora Milaje who have a relationship in the comics, are girlfriends on the periphery of Wakanda Forever.
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: Season 2 Premiere – February 1
Nic reported that this reboot of The Proud Family (2005-2010) is “louder, prouder and gayer” — and it includes the genderfluid character Michael (voiced by EJ Johnson). The second season promises to “highlight culturally specific experiences of the Black community.” Billy Porter voices Randall, one of two gay Dads in the series. (The other is played by Zachary Quinto.)
Apple TV+
Pincecone & Pony: Season 2 Premiere – February 1
Queer story editor Taneka Stotts and non-binary writers Pilot Viruet and Gigi D.G. are behind this show that features a queer/nonbinary storyline between Rachel House’s Gladys and her partner Ser Anzoategui‘s Wren. This animated series is about a plucky heroine going on magical adventures as she faces down dragons, giants, trolls, and all the hard parts of growing up.
Paramount+
Star Trek: Picard: Season Three Premiere – February 16
The final season of this spin-off which officially made Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) canonically bisexual and in a romance with Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) promises a “proper send-off” to the series. Also Levar Burton is coming back!
The Equalizer: S2 Winter Premiere – February 19
Shudder
Attachment (2022) – February 9
In this horror romance, has-been Danish actress Maja falls for British Jewish academic Leah, who swiftly has a seizure and must return to London and Maja of course follows her. But then she meets Leah’s mother, Chana, who is very religious and hates Maja and is very mysterious!! When strange things begin happening in the building, Maja suspects Chana’s secrets are super dark. “The horror of Attachment is found in Jewish folklore,” wrote Drew in her review. “But it’s also found in the specific relationships Jewish children have with their mothers.”
The 50 Best Lesbian Movies Of All Time
Here at Autostraddle we want every lesbian, every queer woman, and every non-binary person to know that movies should include us and do include us. We want you all to see our lives on screen, through the best lesbian movies, with the variety and quality we deserve.
It’s about more than representation. We believe that the best lesbian movies rank among the very best movies, period. Our stories matter and have too long been ignored. This list, voted on by our team, aims to create a canon of the very best lesbian movies of all time. From serious art films to gross-out comedies, this list has it all.
There is a world of cinema and a world of queer cinema. There are films from the last hundred years waiting to be discovered and new films yet to be made. So grab some popcorn and join us. If you’re looking for even more lesbian movies to watch, check out the Autostraddle Encyclopedia of Queer Cinema.
dir. Jamie Babbit, 1999
Watch It
Jamie Babbit’s campy lesbian classic received bad reviews upon its initial release. The largely straight male critics just didn’t understand why someone would make a comedy about a subject matter this serious. But this film isn’t for them. This is a biting satire that mocks homophobia and the people and institutions that uphold it — all the while featuring relatable gay characters and joyful queer romance. Natasha Lyonne first earned her crown as honorary lesbian with her hilarious performance and Clea DuVall is a total heartthrob as her love interest. The rest of the cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Michelle Williams, Cathy Moriarty, Mink Stole, and RuPaul — each one of them falling into the movie’s specific tone with perfection. Camp is often associated with gay men, but this movie is explicitly lesbian camp. This is a queer movie made by queer people about queer experiences through a queer lens for queer audiences. It’s the best lesbian movie of all time.
2. Saving Face
dir. Alice Wu, 2004
Watch It
Plenty of gay romcoms attempt to fit queerness into the genre, but Saving Face goes beyond what any of its straight counterparts have ever accomplished. Alice Wu’s only film for sixteen years is funny and romantic — it’s also a moving tale of family and community. Michelle Krusiec plays Wil, a Chinese American lesbian surgeon forced to house her mysteriously pregnant mother just as she’s falling for her boss’ daughter played by Lynn Chen. Krusiec and Chen have a timeless chemistry. It’s so fun to watch them flirt and fall in love and navigate how their lives could possibly merge. Joan Chen also gives a really special performance as Wil’s mom. This movie isn’t content to just tell one love story — its ambitions are to show the unpredictable nature of the very concept. Specificity makes for better storytelling and it doesn’t get much better than this enchanting film.
3. Pariah
dir. Dee Rees, 2011
Watch It
Dee Rees’ debut feature is a stunning cinematic achievement. Her artful direction and poignant, specific writing melts into Bradford Young’s remarkable cinematography, the impeccable soundtrack, and a collection of phenomenal actors led by Adepero Oduye. Oduye gives the kind of performance that should be talked about until we stop talking about cinema — finding layers in the realism, lightness in the pain. This is an at times difficult film, but it’s far from maudlin. Rees gives us those first moments of love, those first moments of self-discovery and identification — even if they’re met with rejection and isolation and difficulties. This is a film explicitly about Black queerness — not a single white person appears on screen — and it’s a towering achievement from a Black lesbian filmmaker who’s already left her mark and is only just beginning.
dir. Donna Deitch, 1985
Watch It
A period piece decades ahead of its time, Donna Deitch’s sweeping romance is a classic that earns that word in quality and burns past it with an ever-present spark. Helen Shaver plays Professor Vivian Bell who’s staying at a Nevadan ranch while she waits for her divorce to finalize. She has taken the first step towards independence, but isn’t sure what’s next. The answer? Cay Rivers. Patricia Charbonneau as Cay has so much easy tomboy femme charm, a sexy dedication to self, and wears pants and shorts unlike any other on-screen character. Their romance is fraught, but absent is the melodrama one might expect from a film made in the 80s about the 50s. It’s a quieter, more grounded affair — that still finds time for an iconic kiss in the rain. You don’t have to believe in love — let one of the best lesbian movies of all time do it for you.
dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996
Watch It
Mockumentary, romcom, buddy comedy, alternate history, Cheryl Dunye’s debut feature is a work of Black lesbian cinema highly aware of its place within film history. Dunye is so funny and charming — and sexy with love interest Guinevere Turner — the depth of this singular work of lesbian art is only evident with its final title card. It may have been voted fifth by the team, but, for this author, it’s my best lesbian movie of all time. It has jokes, it has a video store meetcute, it has a hot sex scene, but it is also a declaration of an artist’s stubborn autonomy. Dunye isn’t content just to mock or pay tribute — she understands that being a filmmaker with several marginalized identities doesn’t allow her that casual dismissal or easy celebration. She understands the importance of history and that sometimes you have to create your own history. And she’s determined to have fun along the way.
dir. Céline Sciamma, 2019
Watch It //Also Available on Hulu
An immediate landmark of lesbian cinema, Céline Sciamma fulfills the promise of her first three features with a gorgeous work of lesbian art that pushes the boundaries of how our gaze appears on screen. This is a movie about love and a movie about creation – specifically about women, specifically about lesbians. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel are exquisite, giving performances that challenge the very notion of audience watching actors. Claire Mathon’s cinematography is as beautiful as it is pointed — the stunning images always motivated. There is so much eroticism and love and also a push to view these concepts in a way separate from heteropatriarchal structures. Céline Sciamma wants our cinema to be our cinema and with this monumental work she succeeds.
7. Bound
dir. Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 1996
Watch It
The Wachowskis take a classic film noir story with classic film noir archetypes and queer it in form and content. Gina Gershon plays Corky, the soft butch everyman ready made to get wrapped in things that don’t concern her. This, of course, arrives in the form of Jennifer Tilly’s femme fatale Violet. There’s a deep understanding of the genre that allows them to subvert it — holding onto the excitement and sex appeal, but prioritizing lesbian love and delicious misandry. This is as stylish and exciting as any of the Wachowski’s bigger budget fare and it has sex scenes choreographed by Susie Bright. Queer women are still largely absent from genre films, but this stands as one of the most prominent — and masterful — exceptions.
dir. Chantal Akerman, 1974
Available on Criterion
Chantal Akerman’s debut narrative feature is when she first established her cinematic language of depression. The first half hour of this movie finds a woman named Julie played by Akerman herself remaining entirely in her room. She moves around her furniture, she eats sugar out of a bag for sustenance, and she writes and rewrites a letter to a mysterious someone in her life. She finally leaves, but her time hitchhiking with a random man does not feel like an escape. She is still trapped in her own isolation even when around others. The only moments of release are when she finally arrives at her ex’s apartment — her ex the potential recipient of her letter — and they have sex in an extended ten minute sequence. But they are still exes and these moments can’t last. Whether or not Akerman is focusing on queer women characters, there’s a present queerness in how she views homosexuality and heterosexuality. She really did make movies for the sad gays and what a rare gift in the canon of arthouse cinema.
dir. Desiree Akhavan, 2014
Watch It //Also Available on Tubi
Shirin thought she met the only person in the world as sad and cynical as herself. She thought they were meant to be. Now in the wake of her break up she’s spiraling in a flurry of bisexual chaos. Writer/director/star Desiree Akhavan is a once-in-a-generation talent and her humor makes this an easy movie to watch even as Shirin is seeped in melancholy and crisis. Since The Slope, Akhavan has made work that feels deeply grounded in a casual queer perspective. There might be a lot of semi-autobiographical films about people trying to master adulthood, but there’s only one Desiree Akhavan and this film is as special as the filmmaker herself.
dir. Leontine Sagan, 1931
Available on Kino Now
The lesbian movie that started it all. With its boarding school setting, central age difference, and near-suicide ending this first known work of explicit lesbian cinema can be credited with shaping the entire lesbian film canon. But it’s more than just a work of history. While its age difference might be too much for some, the film places us squarely in the perspective of new student Manuela. Her love for teacher Fraulein von Bernburg becomes our own adolescent crush as we understand her confused place in gay life. At the dawn of the Holocaust the Nazis tried to burn every copy of this film — they failed. It’s a testament to the scope of queer history, a glorious time capsule, and, simply, a stunning work of art.
11. The Handmaiden
dir. Park Chan-Wook, 2016
Watch It
A cinematic miracle pairing two seemingly discordant visions to create one dazzling masterpiece. Park Chan-Wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith keeps the source material’s tight plotting and well drawn characters and combines them with Park’s always remarkable style. Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri crackle with chemistry — no matter who is the cat and who is the mouse in any given moment. This is a thrilling, sexy, horrifying, ultimately romantic and hopeful movie and the whole thing is an absolute ride. Like Bound, it’s a masterful example of what’s possible when queer women are included in genre storytelling.
12. Carol
dir. Todd Haynes, 2015
Watch It //Also Available on Tubi
Todd Hayne’s gorgeous adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt is a poignant coming-of-age movie masquerading as a grand period love story — or, possibly, vice-versa. Therese Belevit is working at a department store for the holidays, spending her time with a man she doesn’t care much for, and daydreaming about being a photographer. Carol Aird is ten to twenty years her senior, going through a divorce, and worried that as a lesbian she’ll lose her daughter. And yet despite all their differences Therese and Carol connect. Therese finds a spark for maturity; Carol finds comfort and an escape. Phyllis Nagy’s script, Carter Burwell’s score, Ed Lachman’s cinematography, and every other technical aspect of the film is just perfect. Rooney Mara as Therese, Cate Blanchett as Carol, and Sarah Paulson as Carol’s friend Abby are all alluring and heartbreaking in their own specific ways. You’ll never think about a Santa hat, leather gloves, or creamed spinach the same way again.
13. All Over Me
dir. Alex Sichel, 1997
Buy on DVD or VHS
A film doesn’t have to be campy to be formally queer. Alex Sichel was given a grant to make a movie about the riot grrrl music scene and instead she made a riot grrrl movie. Even the cinematography and sound design feel dykey. The soundtrack does not disappoint, of course, and this movie has both a painful “in love with my straight(?) friend” storyline and a “first love with a dyke in a band” storyline. And the dyke in the band is played by Leisha Hailey with pink hair! Alex Sichel never got to make another feature, and this film is currently very hard to find, but this was made for dykes and if it’s going to finally get the recognition it deserves that has to start with us ranking it among the best lesbian movies of all time.
14. Olivia
dir. Jacqueline Audry, 1951
Buy on DVD or Blu-Ray
Long ignored, this recently restored classic of lesbian cinema deserves all its newfound praise and more. It’s one of many films on our best lesbian movies list that involve student/teacher relationships, but it’s the only one to treat that dynamic with the level of nuance it deserves. Audry encourages us to enter Olivia’s point of view, falling just as hard for her teacher crush, only to emphasize how painful the experience is for the young girl. Sometimes fantasies are meant to remain fantasies.
15. Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål)
dir. Lukas Moodyson, 1998
Buy on Blu-Ray
Mean-spirited, angsty, and oh so sweet, Lukas Moodyson’s grainy coming-of-age romance captures all the complications of teenagehood. The characters can be cruel — like teenagers tend to be — but it comes from insecurity, awakenings, and romance. Beyond the sour feelings, this is really a triumphant take on love. The moments of joy feel all the more satisfying bursting out of Moodyson’s realism.
dir. Angela Robinson, 2017
Watch It //Also Available on Hulu
Angela Robinson’s career has been defined by injecting revolutionary queerness into film and TV with a casual touch. This is a biopic about the creator of Wonder Woman — as polished and neat as one might expect from the genre. But this is also a story about polyamory, about BDSM, about three individuals fighting to define their own lives and loves. There is power in completely disavowing mainstream forms and there is a different kind of power in mastering them and subverting them from within. Luke Evans and Bella Heathcoate are great as William Marston and the Marstons’ new partner, but Rebecca Hall as Elizabeth Marston truly astounds. The movie doesn’t ignore the complications of their relationship — the external and the internal — but instead allows the relationship and these characters an understanding they were never granted. There’s a reason Wonder Woman is such a popular character: these lives aren’t so rare after all — only on our screens.
17. The Half Of It
dir. Alice Wu, 2020
Available on Netflix
A decade and a half after her landmark debut, writer/director Alice Wu returns with another gay romcom — but this time it’s not a love story. This lesbian take on Cyrano de Bergerac focuses on Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) a shy, Chinese-American 17-year-old who splits her days taking care of her grieving father and writing essays for her peers for extra money. When a sweet and goofy football player hires her to write love letters to his crush she develops feelings of her own — and all three form an unexpected bond. This movie goes beyond the expectations we place on teen comedies, romcoms, and queer movies. It understands the messiness of adolescence, of love, of queerness. It’s a perfectly imperfect movie and confirms Wu as one of the most confident voices in lesbian cinema. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait as long for her next cinematic treasure.
18. MURDER and murder
dir. Yvonne Rainer, 1996
Available on Kanopy
If you’re looking for a lesbian movie that begins with a 60-something lesbian saying to her straight friend, “I love eating pussy,” then look no further. A celebration of the ups and downs of a partnership, Yvonne Rainer’s last feature follows Doris and Mildred as they navigate their relationship — through the mundane and through Doris being diagnosed with breast cancer. They are accompanied by a Greek chorus of Doris’ mother, Mildred’s younger self, and Yvonne Rainer the filmmaker. It’s a complex, experimental, and ever so sweet film. The movie more or less takes the stance that all women can be and should be lesbians, and while that may not be true, Rainer is certainly convincing. Also Congressperson Pete Hoekstra used it as an excuse to cut funding from the NEA which is unfortunately always a good sign.
19. Alice Júnior
dir. Gil Baroni, 2019
Available on Netflix
In some ways Alice Júnior hits all the regular beats of the teen movie genre — new student, bullies, quirky friends, mean teachers, nice teachers, a desire for a first kiss. And yet the film is a totally fresh take on the queer girl coming-of-age story. Not only is Alice trans — a detail that is all too rare — but her journey towards queerness is more of a pleasant surprise than an inevitability. In order to survive in the world as a young trans girl, Alice has built up a wall of total self-awareness, total self-confidence, and a delightful stubborn streak. These qualities make her such a fun character to watch. But even the most self-aware teen doesn’t know everything. And while she’s busy crushing on Bruno, Bruno’s girlfriend Taísa is busy crushing on her. The joy and specificity director Gil Baroni and writer Luiz Bertazzo bring to the film makes this a wholly unique work of trans cinema — but its fluidity regarding sexuality make it a unique work of queer women cinema as well.
20. Dirty Computer
dir. Janelle Monáe & others, 2018
Watch It
Janelle Monáe has called this unique work of art an “emotion picture” and it’s easy to see why. Yes, it’s on a movie list, but it doesn’t easily fit within the box of feature film or any box really — just like its creator. Monáe and her team created a masterpiece that is at once a sci-fi epic, a visual album, a public coming out, a celebration of queerness/Blackness/femaleness, and an ode to everybody different. It’s also so sexy?? We may never know the details of Monáe’s relationship with Tessa Thompson, but whatever connection they shared is captured on-screen — the love, the sex, the finding yourself through another. Most of us didn’t have to come out under public scrutiny, but we can all use a reminder to be a “free-ass motherfucker.”
dir. Desiree Akhavan, 2018
Watch It
The best adaptations capture the essence of their source material with a new set of tools. That’s exactly what Desiree Akhavan’s movie of Emily M. Danforth’s contemporary classic accomplishes. Akhavan focuses on the second half of the book, changes the ending, and alters lots of details, but at their core both works are about the ways queer people are brainwashed to doubt their identities. Chloë Grace Moretz is perfect as Cameron. She’s dykey and angsty and headstrong with that depth of vulnerability always peaking through. This is a quiet movie, Akhavan trusting Ashley Connor’s cinematography, Julian Wass’ score, and her actors’ faces to tell the story. Akhavan never lets the seriousness of the subject matter overwhelm the moments of humor and joy — the suggestion that our best hope for holding onto ourselves is to find community.
22. Manji
dir. Yasuzô Masumura, 1964
Watch on Archive.org
Proof that you can’t judge queer cinema by when it was made, Yasuzô Masumura’s semi-exploitation classic is absolutely bonkers. Sonoko, played with a delightfully unhinged energy by Kyôko Kishida, is a lonely housewife who falls hard for Mitsuko at their “art school for ladies.” Mitsuko is played by Ayako Wakao and she really creates a character worth going crazy for. This is a movie of big gay feelings to an extent that would be troublesome if it wasn’t so delicious. Things only get crazier when Sonoko’s husband gets involved — and even crazier when the poisoning begins. Nothing will prepare you for this movie, so you just have to watch it.
23. Good Manners
dir. Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra, 2017
Watch It
The best werewolf fairy tale horror lesbian movie musical ever made. Yes, this movie is all of those things and it’s a commentary on race and class differences in Brazil and a story about the nuances of queer motherhood. There’s a lot going on but somehow it all just works. It’s a gorgeous, at times terrifying, at times sexy, movie that is unforgettable to say the least. This isn’t the first movie to find horror in pregnancy and motherhood, but there’s something explicitly queer about this portrayal — and with that a fresh perspective. It deserves as prominent a spot in the canon of horror cinema as it does the canon of lesbian cinema.
24. D.E.B.S.
dir. Angela Robinson, 2004
Watch It
Some movies seem to arrive from an alternate dimension — a homonormative utopia where queer audiences get what we deserve. Angela Robinson’s debut is exactly that kind of movie. We can indulge in the subtext of silly action movies all day long, but Robinson makes it the actual story. Why shouldn’t a campy movie about a group of girl spies also be a lesbian romcom? There was no movie like this when it came out and there haven’t really been any since. There’s a casual gayness to the movie that’s responsible for turning countless women queer — aided, of course, by Jordana Brewster as supervillain Lucy Diamond.
25. Water Lilies
dir. Céline Sciamma, 2007
Available on Criterion
Céline Sciamma is one of the best filmmakers working today — lesbian or otherwise — and her talents were already clear in this first film. With a color palette of blues and greys and a moving camera that knows just where to land, Sciamma and cinematographer Crystel Fournier create a visual language that’s poetic and pointed. This is a film about teenage friendship as much as it is about teenage love — a lesbian film at its core. Synchronized swimming has never looked so beautiful and brutal. Being a teenager has never looked so beautiful and brutal. Sciamma is a brilliant lesbian artist and every film from her is a gift.
26. Hide and Seek
dir. Su Friedrich, 1996
Available on Kanopy
Our best lesbian movies list doesn’t include documentaries — this uncategorizable work is the one exception. Mixing real interviews with the tale of a fictional twelve-year-old, Su Friedrich creates a moving masterpiece about lesbian childhoods. Conservative narratives pit queerness against children but Friedrich shows the casual queerness of so many of our younger days. There’s an innocent joy to the way she shows the girls interact and a pointed confusion in how being gay makes someone feel different long before they have the right language to understand why. It’s a simple yet remarkable film from an all-time great cinema artist.
27. I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
dir. Patricia Rozema, 1987
Available on Kanopy
Bursting with creativity and experimentation, Patricia Rozema’s debut is a remarkable film about finding one’s artistic voice. Sheila McCarthy’s Polly is a strange protagonist — uncertain and passive — but Rozema places us excellently inside her point of view. The movie’s queerness is handled casually as if the film is not about queerness per say, but rather the delayed maturity that many queers experience. The movie is so funny and charming that its emotional core sneaks up on you. The whole journey makes for a unique work of queer cinema.
28. Les Rendez-vous d’Anna
dir. Chantal Akerman, 1978
Available on Criterion
Chantal Akerman’s long takes and static camera are formal invention born from character. Here she tells the semi-autobiographical story of a queer woman filmmaker traveling around Europe promoting her latest film. She encounters strangers, former lovers, her mother, all the while filled with a deep ennui. Nothing Anna does can quite cure her depression, but she just keeps going. She continues on her trip, continues with these interactions, her face always revealing her exhaustion with life. It’s a sad film, but it isn’t tragic. It’s a film about how hard it is to live made by one of the greatest filmmakers to ever try. Akerman is now credited with the greatest movie of all time — she deserves credit for some of the greatest lesbian movies as well.
29. Certain Women
dir. Kelly Reichardt, 2016
Watch It
Renowned lesbian auteur Kelly Reichardt brings her famous touch of melancholy from her usual setting of Oregon to the plains of Montana. This triptych of stories about lonely women includes Reichardt’s most explicit work about queer women. Lily Gladstone is remarkable as a rancher who falls hard for a law professor played by Kristen Stewart. The infatuation is fairly one-sided, but it’s powerful to watch Gladstone’s shy character follow her heart and yearn for more. Like most of Reichardt’s films, this is a quiet and meditative piece, but its nuance will haunt you long after it ends.
30. Rafiki
dir. Wanuri Kahiu, 2018
Watch It
Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu has committed to a style she describes as Afrobubblegum, presenting a “fun, fierce, and fantastical representation” of Africa. This film — initially banned in its home country of Kenya before Kahiu sued — fulfills this promise. It’s a beautiful, colorful celebration of Black queer love. It’s honest about harsh realities, but overwhelms them with its moments of joy.
31. Princess Cyd
dir. Stephen Cone, 2017
Watch It //Also Available on Hulu
As sensual as its protagonist and as thoughtful as her aunt, Stephen Cone’s understated masterpiece finds the balance between pleasures of the flesh and mind. Cyd Loughlin is a teenager freely exploring her pansexual desires who spends a summer with her novelist aunt Miranda who is more preoccupied with intellectual discussion, friendship, and food. As Cyd and Miranda challenge each other’s beliefs — and Cyd falls for a hot barista — the film becomes a celebration of the many ways to find enjoyment and connection in life. There’s little plot and minimal drama — just sink into this pleasant world and you’ll find whatever you needed most.
32. Born in Flames
dir. Lizzie Borden, 1983
Available on Fandor
Radical, revolutionary, and still all too relevant, Lizzie Borden’s speculative masterpiece deserves its underground reputation and newfound celebration. Taking place ten years after a socialist revolution in America, Borden’s film examines the ways in which even leftist political structures leave women, people of color, and queer people behind. This is a complicated film that engages in complicated discussions — never afraid to confront the true nature of the issues we face as we attempt to build a better society. Ultimately, the film shows the power of mutual aid and a suggestion that to create real change communities will have to take care of ourselves. This world contains a multitude of revolutions, but Black queer women are at the center of the ultimate revolution. In Borden’s world — our world — change is possible, but the work continues.
dir. Ruth Caudeli, 2019
Watch It
Compared to Frances Ha due to its gorgeous black and white cinematography and messy female protagonist, Ruth Caudeli’s second feature is really its own work of specifically queer creativity. Caudeli reunites with Silvia Varón — her ever-talented muse and IRL girlfriend. She plays Emilia, a bisexual struggling actress in a friend group of straight people. Caudeli takes a trope often used in mainstream media to keep queerness to a minimum and instead explores the reality of someone coming to terms with their identity while lacking community. Emilia is easy to root for even as she drinks too much, hurts the people she loves, and remains stuck in a delayed adolescence. Caudeli captures her with a formal inventiveness rarely granted to this sort of queer story — its heightened style illuminating the emotional weight of these day to day moments.
34. Set Me Free
dir. Léa Pool, 1999
Unavailable
Don’t you just hate it when the cute girl you made out with starts dating your brother? Being 13 is hard! And it’s certainly hard for Hannah who’s struggling with a terrible home life, a painful crush on her teacher, and, yes, a potential romance fraternally robbed. Her only respite is the cinema where she admires Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivra sa vie. This is a measured film — far more grounded than Pool’s more famous Lost and Delirious — but with that comes an emotional queer reality. This movie is ultimately a superhero origin story — except replace superhero with queer woman filmmaker.
35. All About My Mother
dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1999
Watch It
Often considered Pedro Almodóvar’s crowning achievement, All About My Mother is a tribute to women — to actresses, to mothers, to trans women, to sex workers, to lesbians. With his trademark style of bright colors, raunchy humor, and gorgeous melodrama, Almodóvar’s film is a reminder of the communities we form. The boundaries between family and friendship and lovers are as fluid as the boundaries of sex and gender. Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz, and Antonia San Juan lead a cast of women that feel real even as they play in Almodóvar’s heightened imagination. This is not usually considered a lesbian film, but probably only because several of its queer women relationships involve trans women. Since its release the film has held a place in the canon of world cinema — it’s time it takes its rightful place in the canon of best lesbian movies as well.
36. Suicide Kale
dir. Carly Usdin, 2016
Watch It
This dramedy farce is anchored by four stellar performances, a natural real-life queerness, and an if-mumblecore-was-well-shot aesthetic. Brittani Nichols’ script is astute in its portrayal of queer relationships and sharp in its humor. There’s a casual DIY quality to this movie that makes it seem effortless, but if you’ve watched a lot of low-budget indie films you’ll know that’s not the case. It takes a level of talent, vision, and specificity to make a movie this good and it should be sought out and celebrated as much as any big budget fare.
37. Bessie
dir. Dee Rees, 2015
Watch It // Also Available on HBO Max
Dee Rees is one of the very best filmmakers around and she elevates her biopic about Bessie Smith beyond the usual HBO movie. The costumes and all the period detail are stunning, but Rees’ film is ultimately a tribute to a queer Black woman artist who refused to compromise — refused to cater to white people or any men — made by a queer Black woman artist at the beginning of her career determined to do the same. Rees is aided by what is truly one of Queen Latifah’s best performances. It’s a perfect combination of material, filmmaker, and star.
38. Imagine Me & You
dir. Ol Parker, 2005
Watch It
Out of all the lesbian romcoms, this might be the one that most successfully takes your standard hetero romcom and queers it. Not the deepest, not the most interesting, but the truest to the genre with lots of jokes, lots of heart, and all the right story beats. Piper Perabo plays gay once again and once again steals our hearts, but it’s Lena Headey’s confident gay florist that really makes the movie. Be careful. It just might make you believe in love at first sight.
39. Mommy is Coming
dir. Cheryl Dunye, 2012
Watch It
Cheryl Dunye’s most recent feature is a sex-filled romp through Berlin. Papi Coxx plays Claudia/Claude, a hotel clerk trying to rediscover the spark with her girlfriend Dylan played by Lil Harlow. They end up on separate sexual odysseys with Claudia genderbending while Dylan has a threesome with her best friend. The silliness and sexiness escalates when Dylan’s mother comes to town and some unexpected twists arise. Dunye’s film doesn’t take itself seriously, but its refusal to bend to respectability politics gives it an air of importance. It’s a reminder from Dunye that queer cinema can still be queer and a reminder that she’s an icon for a reason.
40. Blockers
dir. Kay Cannon, 2018
The rare big budget Hollywood comedy that’s thoughtful, progressive, emotional, and beyond fucking hilarious. Kay Cannon’s first film feels effortless in its perfection — filled with great comic performances from its trio of adults and its trio of teens. Virginity pacts are a staple of teen comedies, but never has one been treated with such intelligence and sex positivity. Gideon Adlon plays Sam’s awkward queerness with a funny and sweet authenticity and the movie’s inclusion of her is refreshingly casual. She hasn’t come to terms with her queerness at the film’s beginning but she’s given the space to go on a journey of self-exploration — aided by her friends, family, and a massive crush. It may only be a third queer, but that third is great enough to place it among the best lesbian movies. It’s certainly one of the funniest.
41. Memento Mori
dir. Min Kyu-Dong, Kim Tae-Yong, 1999
Available on Kanopy
Technically the second film in the Whispering Corridors Korean horror series, this film focuses more on the emotions of its trio of queer teen girls than it does easy scares. But this is still a ghost story. Min-ah discovers the shared journal of her classmates Hyo-shin and Shi-eun filled with gay longing. She becomes obsessed with them — the obsession only increasing when Hyo-shin tragically dies. Haunted by Hyo-shin and drawn towards Shi-eun, Min-ah has to confront her own queerness and find a way forward. It’s a melancholy, yet ultimately hopeful film, about adolescence and the possibility of queer futures.
42. Multiple Maniacs
dir. John Waters, 1970
Watch It
John Waters lives up to his title Pope of Trash with this raucous celebration of counter-culture deviancy. The movie opens with a group of cishet normals making their way through a free exhibit titled The Cavalcade of Perversions — and then Divine robs them at gunpoint. Waters starts his filmography with a statement and never lets up. This is the only movie on this list where a drag queen is fucked with a rosary in a church. It’s a remarkable sex scene with a level of queerness rarely seen on screen. And, hey, if straight actresses can appear on a list of best lesbian movies then so can drag queens!
43. Foxfire
dir. Annette Haywood-Carter, 1996
Watch It
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, Annette Haywood-Carter’s coming-of-age tale about a feminist girl gang is great for a lot of reasons, but short-hair leather jacket wearing knife wielding Angelina Jolie is definitely at the top of the list. She’s so good and so gay and can do so much with a look. It’s no wonder the other girls follow her lead. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch them wreak havoc on all the awful men in their lives, even as things start to cross a line. There’s a real intimacy between the girls when it’s platonic and when it’s romantic.
44. A Date for Mad Mary
dir. Darren Thornton, 2016
Watch It
Seána Kerslake makes a difficult character impossible not to love in this unique coming-of-age story. Mary’s discovery of her sexuality threads through every aspect of her self-discovery as she grapples with her recent prison sentence, her best friend’s upcoming wedding, her contempt for her mother, and her new crush. The film balances its subject matter and its tones due to sharp writing and Kerslake’s truly remarkable performance. This is really a gem of a film.
45. Circumstance
dir. Maryam Keshavarz, 2011
Watch It
This is a film of stark contrasts, of sensual close-ups and repulsive close-ups, of freedom and restriction, of great joy and tragic horror. Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy are incredible as two young women pushing the boundaries of society in Iran. The moments of freedom between them are so joyful, on a beach, in a bed, in the living room singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It makes the repression all the more painful. One moment this film is devastatingly sexy, the next it’s just devastating.
46. Mosquita y Mari
dir. Aurora Guerrero, 2012
Watch It
Quiet and big-hearted, Aurora Guerrero beautiful coming-of-age story focuses on straight A student Yolanda and new rebel girl in school Mari. As the two girls navigate their families’ expectations, they grow closer, crushes turning to friendship turning to something more. Like many of the best lesbian movies, this film never takes melodramatic turns, instead trusting the grounded truth of its characters. When we’re young the smallest moments mean so much — Guerrero gives these moments the weight her young protagonists deserve.
47. House of Hummingbird
dir. Kim Bora, 2018
Watch It
The only thing gayer than karaoke first dates, shitty families, and friend breakups are loving teachers. Well, Kim Bora’s remarkable 1994-set coming-of-age debut has all four. Ji-hu Park plays the lonely and sensitive Eun-hee who is stumbling through her adolescence in an abusive home. This is a difficult film that’s filled with tragedy and hardship, but it’s far from bleak. In fact, an optimism and hopeful spirit runs deep throughout even its toughest moments. Adolescence is challenging — queer adolescence especially — but one person can make such a difference in showing us a way forward. This is a movie for all the queers who ate lunch in a teacher’s room, this is a movie for all the queers who wondered if a future was possible and then, one day, stopped wondering and started to believe.
48. Valencia
dir. Clement Hil Goldberg & others, 2013
Watch It
Is there anything queerer than an adaptation of a Michelle Tea book written and directed by a collective of queer filmmakers? Not much! The sections vary drastically in style, casting, and content, but together they create a portrait of a person, a place, and a community — the community of early 90s Mission District San Francisico and the queer community at large. It’s an at times silly, at times serious burst of queer creativity. Not only is this one of the best lesbian movies of all time — it’s a monument of queer collaboration.
49. Tahara
dir. Olivia Peace, 2020
Watch It
There have been a lot of queer coming-of-age movies about a girl in love with her “straight” best friend, but few capture the depth of that experience like Tahara. With the backdrop of a classmate’s suicide and a deliciously awful object of desire, this movie becomes less about the angst of a teenager and more about the search for meaning in a meaningless world. Jess Zeidman’s script is hilarious and specific and director Olivia Peace makes bold choice after bold choice each more effective than the last. The film has a claustrophobic Instagram square aspect ratio, heightened animated sequences, and other sharp formal risks that all work to deepen the story. Cinematographer Tehillah De Castro’s work is phenomenal in moments both bold and subtle. Madeline Grey DeFreece carries the film with a grounded and charming performance and Rachel Sennott as the crush is a hilarious nightmare. This is a teen comedy, but it’s a teen comedy about grief, manipulation, and autonomy. A whiff of horrifying nostalgia gives way to something deeper, something more present.
dir. William Wyler, 1961
Watch It
This classic of lesbian cinema has a bad reputation due to its influentially tragic ending. But just because the movie is bleak doesn’t mean it isn’t still deserving of praise, reexamination, and even enjoyment. Lillian Hellman’s play is a tragedy in the American theatre tradition and that results in this kind of ending. But before that we get her beautiful writing, complex characters, and dynamic relationships. We get Shirley MacLaine with her pageboy haircut and Audrey Hepburn as her object of desire. This is a masterpiece that paved the way for so many future masterpieces — for better or worse.
For more of the best lesbian movies of all time, check out Autostraddle’s Encyclopedia of Cinema.
The Autostraddle Encyclopedia of Lesbian Cinema
Art by Viv Le
Since I started writing at Autostraddle four years ago, the possibility of naming 250 lesbian movies has gone from a dream to an inevitability. Every year dozens of new LGBTQ+ films are made and every year at least a handful of classics are unearthed. Never in the history of movies have our stories been told in such quantity or with such variety.
This increase in media led us to double our Best Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Movies of All Time list to 200 when I revamped it back in 2020. But with every passing year, every passing update, the list was begging to break out of those limitations. Not even 200 was enough. And when a list gets to be that length the ranking can feel silly — especially when I’m the only one in the voting body who is able to see all the eligible films. That’s why this year we cut our ranked all time list down to the best of the best — just 50 films representing the peak of sapphic cinema. We have then supplemented it with this gargantuan encyclopedia. It currently includes 250 LGBTQ+ films but it’s sure to grow.
This is not a list of every lesbian, bisexual, or queer movie of all time. It represents only the best feature length narrative films as voted on by our team and myself. Each film has been assigned a loose rating out of four stars — and you’ll notice no film included on this list has less than two and a half.
It’s possible there are LGBTQ+ films you love, not included here. Maybe we haven’t seen them yet or maybe they just didn’t get a high enough rating. Feel free to keep advocating for your faves, because titles such as Happiest Season and Wild Things didn’t get a high enough score in past years, but made it this year. Our team is ever-changing — and our individual opinions change too.
This list does not include films about trans men (e.g. Boys Don’t Cry, By Hook or By Crook), films about trans women exclusively interested in men (e.g. Tangerine, A Fantastic Woman), films based on queer books that had their explicit queerness removed (e.g. The Color Purple, Fried Green Tomatoes), or films where the queerness is just subtext (e.g. A League of Their Own, Rebecca). This list also doesn’t include short films, documentaries, or porn — with a handful of exceptions where length/genre lines were blurred. This update was already an enormous undertaking, but my dream is the boundaries of this list will expand in future years to include more of these categories. Any lesbian cinema list without filmmakers such as Barbara Hammer and Jenni Olson will always feel incomplete.
The headlines says “Lesbian Cinema,” but for us that means any movie with a woman or non-binary person interested romantically or sexually in another woman or non-binary person.
One last note: There is lesbian cinema on this list not currently available to stream. Some of the greatest works of LGBTQ+ film are not being watched, because people not within our community get to decide which films deserve attention. Many titles on this list were included because I contacted production companies and producers, attended rare screenings, and hunted for DVDs at actual video stores. And still some films — most notably Me siento extraña (1977) — were not included because no one on our team was able to access them.
There is a world of cinema and a world of queer cinema and there are films from the last hundred years waiting to be discovered. But hey, we’ll keep searching for lost lesbian classics, the industry will keep making more films that include us, and in the meantime why not start with this little ol’ list of TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY movies? By the time you watch them all, we promise there will be more.
8 Women
dir. François Ozon, 2002
Unavailable
Genre: mystery, musical // Rating: ★★★
The influence of queer icon Jacques Demy is felt in this murder mystery farce that’s like musical Clue but entirely women and French. Très très Français. This movie feels gay and then it gets explicitly gay and then it gets explicitly gayer. By the end it’s unclear if anyone is straight! The entire cast is perfect and charming — especially Firmine Richard who gets a sad gay ballad and Catherine Denueve whose commitment to playing queer women despite suing Deneuve Magazine is ever surprising.
Adam
dir. Rhys Ernst, 2019
Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★1/2
While it stirred controversy before it was even released, award-winning trans filmmaker Rhys Ernst’s debut feature is surprisingly low-key and deeply queer. Based on The L Word writer Ariel Schrag’s even more controversial book, this 2006-set coming-of-age tale takes an original approach to queer storytelling. Many films on this list focus on a queer protagonist navigating a cishet world, but this is the rare film with a cishet protagonist navigating a queer world. The film largely focuses on trans men — including a stand-out performance from Leo Sheng — but it is filled with queer women. It’s as much about bisexuality as it is about transness as several queer women question what it means to date transmasculin individuals as lesbian-identified people in a binary community. It’s a thought-provoking work of art that deserves to be seen before it’s judged. It’s also the only film on this list to feature a butch trans woman — played with a sexy bravado by newcomer Dana Levinson.
Afternoon Breezes
dir. Hitoshi Yazaki, 1980
Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
When Natsuko’s crush is too busy spending her birthday with her boyfriend to accept Natsuko’s gift of a Virgo necklace, Natsuko eats an entire bouquet of roses and then throws it up. That’s how this movie begins. But despite its truly jaw-dropping twists and turns, Hitoshi Yazaki’s tale of lesbian obsession is at its best in its quiet moments. Setsuko Aya’s performance as Natsuko creates humanity where some might find crazy. This is as much a movie about depression as it is about toxic love. Natsuko feels isolated from the straight people around her and from herself — latching onto this ostensibly straight woman is just her way of expressing (or avoiding) that isolation. This is a difficult movie, but there’s so much beauty in even its saddest moments.
Aftersun
dir. Charlotte Wells, 2022
Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Exactly what Charlotte Wells is doing in her feature debut remains elusive for most of the film’s runtime. The mix of camcorder footage and patient 35mm cinematography. The hazy combination of past and present and an imagined third space somewhere in between. So much of the movie feels casual — a father and his twelve year old daughter on vacation, a slice of life in Turkey — its bold strokes seem incidental. Until they don’t. This is the rare coming-of-age movie about a queer kid who doesn’t yet understand that queerness. Her self-discovery we witness is not first love — it’s deeper knowledge of her parent and therefore half of her herself. This results in a story of queer youth unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Aimée & Jaguar
dir. Max Farberbock, 1999
Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★
This is very much a classic Holocaust-era period drama both formally and in structure. But there’s a certain pleasure to watching that kind of respected, serious film with the focus turned to a lesbian love story. The oppression of queerness is often left out of stories from this era and this is a welcome change. Maria Schrader gives an all-time magnetic performance as Felice, a woman so brave she’d risk being killed by Nazis to escape lesbian bed death.
Alice Júnior
dir. Gil Baroni, 2019
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 19 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
All About My Mother
dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1999
Watch It
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 35 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
All Over Me
dir. Alex Sichel, 1997
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 13 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Anaïs in Love
dir. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, 2021
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Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★
Anaïs is the latest in a recent line of anti-heroines who are far better at fucking the wrong people than getting a job. Call it millennial malaise, call it burnout, call it an annoying expression of privilege, but there’s a reason this character keeps popping up in fiction. And this film is among the best — and gayest — of the genre. More tonally in-line with Old Hollywood screwball and Éric Rohmer comedies than recent dramedy, this film stands out by reflecting the reality of its protagonist’s way of life without punishing her. Plenty of people live selfishly in ways that don’t bring them this level of pleasure. Plenty of people go through life contributing even less than Anaïs without even feeling joy. Maybe we could all learn something from this chaotic bisexual’s insatiable lust for life — either way it sure is fun to watch.
Annihilation
dir. Alex Garland, 2018
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Genre: sci-fi, horror // Rating: ★★★
Beautiful and horrifying, depending on the moment, depending on your perspective, Alex Garland’s haunting sci-fi film is visceral and thought-provoking. A group of women venture into a mysterious zone called the Shimmer where the laws of science seem not to apply. Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tessa Thompson are joined by Gina Rodriguez as a soft butch with an undercut, and every lesbian’s favorite cishet man Oscar Isaac. The film is light on lesbian content — the only romantic relationship focused on is between Portman and Isaac — but science fiction is a genre we’re almost always excluded from so this film is noteworthy not only for centering women, but explicitly including a gay woman in the narrative.
Another Way
dir. Karoly Makk, Janos Xantus, 1982
Unavailable
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★
Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak won the Best Actress award at Cannes for this remarkable film that’s hurt only by its maudlin insistence. Jankowska-Cieslak plays a political journalist in Hungary just after the revolution who begins a relationship with a less radical — and married — writer. They fight to live truthfully, love truthfully, and write truthfully, but the consequences of these transgressions are bleak. It’s a pointed, worthwhile film as long as you prepare yourself for the misery.
Antonia’s Line
dir. Marleen Gorris, 1995
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Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★
Light on lesbianism but big on feminism, this decades long tale of the fiercely independent Antonia finds room in its utopic female vision for queerness. Antonia’s daughter casually has a love affair with her daughter’s teacher and the teacher being a woman is never a concern. There’s even a short sex scene between the two of them. This Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film is a tribute to women who chose to be more than expectations — more than simply the wives of men.
Appropriate Behavior
dir. Desiree Akhavan, 2014
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Genre: drama, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 9 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Atomic Blonde
dir. David Leitch, 2017
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Genre: action // Rating: ★★★
This proper action movie from one of the directors of John Wick provides the queer Charlize Theron kickass thrill ride of our dreams. It’s impossible to overstate Charlize Theron’s acting or sexiness with Sofia Boutella or the accomplishments of the action choreography. A muddled plot doesn’t really matter when the experience is this great.
AWOL
dir. Deb Shoval, 2016
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Lola Kirke and Breeda Wool give beautiful performances in this melancholy tale of first love in rural America. As the two women try to find a future together, they’re faced with the limitations of their circumstance — caused by homophobia, caused by poverty, caused by the military industrial complex. It’s an at times heartbreaking, at times sexy, and always lived in debut from director Deb Shoval.
Battle of the Sexes
dir. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, 2017
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Genre: sports, period piece // Rating: ★★★
The only thing gayer than tennis are haircuts, apparently! Emma Stone stars as Billie Jean King as she faces off against has-been chauvinist Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrell) in the tennis match deemed The Battle of the Sexes. Andrea Riseborough plays King’s hairdresser and eventual girlfriend, and, yes, there is a VERY sexy haircut scene! Haircuts aside, the movie is a sweet, soft feminist sports movie readymade for inspiration. Oh and Alan Cumming plays King’s queer mentor!
Bessie
dir. Dee Rees, 2015
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Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★★
Number 37 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Better Than Chocolate
dir. Anne Wheeler, 1999
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Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
Famous or infamous depending on who you ask, this memorable ensemble comedy about a group of lesbian friends is noteworthy for its silly sex scenes, Ani DiFranco filled soundtrack, and inclusion of a trans woman character. Feminist bookstore, nudity-centric performance art, and sexy body painting are just some of the very lesbian things in this very lesbian movie. It’s not great, but it is ours.
BFFs
dir. Andrew Putschoegl, 2014
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
With a warm and funny writing from leads Andrea Grano and Tara Karsian, this romcom about two straight best friends who go on a couples retreat only to discover they may have feelings for each other is an absolute delight. The premise lends itself to a lot of great comedy and the movie asks interesting questions about intimacy, sexuality, and friendship.
Les Biches
dir. Claude Chabrol, 1968
Unavailable
Genre: classics, drama // Rating: ★★★
Claude Chabrol’s interest in queer women seems to begin and end with how hot it is to watch us make out — but, to be fair, he’s not wrong. Male gaze abounds in this gender swapped Talented Mr. Ripley, but that doesn’t take away from all its pleasures. Chabrol knows how to make a compelling movie and this is certainly compelling — almost as compelling as actresses Stéphane Audran and Jacqueline Sassard. But be warned: the man takes over as the main love interest for both women.
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
dir. Cathy Yan, 2020
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Genre: action // Rating: ★★★
Finally after so much subtext, a big budget superhero movie that explicitly includes queer women — in fact, it’s starring one. Cathy Yan’s explosive, misandrist, comic book treat may be light on gay sex and romance, but with a mention of an ex-girlfriend Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is an on-screen canon bisexual. Add Rosie Perez’s lesbian Renee Montoya and her ex-girlfriend played by Ali Wong and a nice amount of the usual subtext that accompanies a female-led action movie and you’re left with a movie that’s gay by any standard and very gay by a Hollywood standard. Montoya also sets a lovely example for lesbian cops across media by doing the right thing — quitting.
Bit
dir. Brad Michael Elmore, 2019
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Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★★
The one and only movie about a trans lesbian joining a lesbian separatist vampire girl gang comes close to living up to its premise. Nicole Maines is incredible as Laurel, charming in moments of awkward romance, and commanding in moments of action. Trans lesbians are still largely absent from the canon of lesbian cinema and this exception is delicious in how casually Laurel is included. Her transness is acknowledged and affects her character and the story, but it doesn’t define her. She also gets an adorable meetcute — that ends with teeth in her neck.
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972
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Genre: classics, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Gay german auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder was known for his brutality on and off screen and this film is no different. Taking place entirely in the apartment of Petra von Kant, we watch as she treats her assistant Marlene cruelly and falls miserably for model Karin. It’s a cruel movie about cruel women, but the camerawork, costume design, and incredible performances from Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, and Irm Hermann make it worth it.
Black Swan
dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2010
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Genre: horror, sports // Rating: ★★★1/2
Perfectionism, mommy issues, and lesbianism haunt Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s Oscar-winning ballet horror movie. It’s frightening and beautiful and, yes, has a sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Bordering on camp with its heightened style and emotion, this is the rare Hollywood movie about queer women that’s allowed to be properly unhinged. The line between beauty and body horror disappears and every second is a thrill.
Bliss
dir. Henrika Kull, 2021
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Obviously inspired by Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls — more on that later — Henrika Kull’s story of two sex workers in love, trades the hyper-emphasis on the workplace for a greater focus on romance. This is a slow and meandering film, but the performances of Katharina Behrens and Adam Hoya — and their chemistry — keeps it compelling. Thirty-six years after Lizzie Borden’s masterpiece, accurate depictions of sex work are still largely absent from media and this is a welcome return to that low-stakes look at the job as a job.
Blockers
dir. Kay Cannon, 2018
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 40 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Blue Gate Crossing
dir. Yee Chih-Yen, 2002
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
What begins as a gay Cyrano de Bergerac is complicated when Kerou’s crush’s crush falls for her instead. A love triangle that defers to moments of quiet connection over messy plot dynamics, Yee Chi-Yen’s film is a simple yet moving coming-of-age movie about first love and friendship. The movie is subtle and the power of its emotions may not hit you right away — but days later it just might make your heart swell.
Blue is the Warmest Color
dir. Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
This Palme d’or winner is certainly one of the more divisive lesbian movies. Some despise its extended sex scenes drenched with male gaze while others admire its genuine sensuality and emotion. Reports of on-set abuse only make matters more complicated. Still, it’s impossible to ignore the beautiful performances from Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, and easy to appreciate its portrayal of first love. For many, this is a movie that no longer belongs to its male writer/director, but to its lead actresses and to their own past selves who in 2013 saw something familiar.
Blush
dir. Michal Vinik, 2015
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
This Israeli coming-of-age film draws parallels between protagonist Naama’s burgeoning sexuality and her country’s troublesome politics. While she’s having the usual queer teen experiences of first love, first heartbreak, and first post-heartbreak head shave, she’s also forced to deal with her violent home life and racist father. It’s a tale of intolerance across identities that’s affecting even as it follows familiar beats.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
dir. Halina Reijn, 2022
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Genre: horror, comedy // Rating: ★★★1/2
With sharp direction, a perfect cast, and a script from phenomenal playwright Sarah DeLappe, this turned out to be a whodunnit as smart as it is funny. This film is a masterclass in prioritizing character and entertainment and ending up with a clear political message as a result. It may seem like the satire is aimed at Gen Z NYU students — and they do receive some hilarious jabs — but it’s more pointedly a critique of true crime media and the audiences who love it. Oh and it starts with a close up of a queer makeout involving nonbinary movie star Amandla Stenberg.
Booksmart
dir. Olivia Wilde, 2019
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Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★1/2
“Last week of high school” teen comedies are an entire subgenre, but it’s rare that they focus on women and even rarer that they focus on queer women. That’s why Olivia Wilde’s debut was such an exciting dose of raunchy humor, female friendship, and adolescent romance. Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever are both so good and they are supported by a phenomenal ensemble — especially scene stealer Billie Lourd. Dever’s character is casually queer in a way that wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago and it’s so fun to watch her navigate her crushes and mishaps. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and full of heart, this movie will make you long for a teenagehood you never had and rejoice in a film landscape that’s finally changing.
Born in Flames
dir. Lizzie Borden, 1983
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Genre: classic, drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
Number 32 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Bound
dir. Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 1996
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Genre: action, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 7 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Boy Meets Girl
dir. Eric Schaeffer, 2014
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Genre: coming-of-age, romance // Rating: ★★★
One of the few movies on this list starring a trans woman, Eric Schaeffer’s romcom is the sweet — and messy — love story we deserve. Michelle Hendley is an absolute star as Ricky Jones, a small town girl with a YouTube following and a desire for love. It takes a dalliance with the engaged Francesca to reveal the love she has for her male best friend — and what a dalliance it is! Ricky’s sex scene with Francesca is hot and tender, and while some of us may have been rooting for the two of them to end up together, the whole thing is so sweet you probably won’t mind that she ends up with the friend. And Hendley is just so good — she’s such a pleasure to watch on screen.
Boys On the Side
dir. Herbert Ross, 1995
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
While very 1995 and very obviously written and directed by white men, this post-Thelma and Louise road movie is worthy of reconsideration. Whoopi Goldberg plays Jane, a lesbian who breaks up with her girlfriend and her band and heads across country for a new gig and a new life. She ends up driving with a type-A real estate agent played by Mary-Louise Parker and their initial friction soon gives way to a friendship and something more. Sure, the movie is all over the place — in tone and plot — and Drew Barrymore’s subplot with Matthew McConaughey hurts the film, it’s the chemistry between Goldberg and Parker that provide this film its heart. At a time when most mainstream movies still lived in subtext, this film provided a complex lesbian protagonist to pull at our heart strings.
Breaking the Girls
dir. Jamie Babbit, 2012
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Genre: mystery, thriller // Rating: ★★1/2
A lesbian remake of Strangers on a Train with even more twists and turns, this erotic thriller is certainly delicious. With direction from Jamie Babbit and a script co-written by Guinevere Turner, this has just the right amount of artistry added to its pulp. Recent films have tried to capture the magic of 80s and 90s erotic thrillers, but this film actually does it by doing what those films did best — be hot, be trashy, have sex appeal, have fun.
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle
dir. Shunji Iwai, 2016
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Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★1/2
There is not a minute of this movie where you’ll predict what the next minute holds. But if you give yourself over to Shunji Iwai‘s three-hour dramatic social satire, you’ll experience a strange and beautiful journey. The film begins with the seemingly simple story of a young teacher named Nanami — a singular performance from Haru Kuroki — who is getting ready to marry her boring boyfriend she met online. Embarrassed to not have more family to attend their wedding, she hires actors to pretend. This is just the first of many lies that will be told in this film where reality and fiction are ever-blurred. This is a film filled with tragedy but at its heart is the relationship between Nanami and Mashiro — famous singer Cocco in one of her few acting roles. Who they both are, and who they both are to each other, shifts but their time together lends the film its deepest beauty.
Bumblefuck, USA
dir. Aaron Douglas Johnston, 2011
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Part mumblecore romance, part documentary, this film combines real interviews with the story of a Dutch woman who visits her gay American friend’s small town after he commits suicide. Blaming homophobia for his death, she sets out to learn what it’s like to be gay in this place, but ends up falling in love with a woman and learning firsthand. It’s a lowkey story with some painful turns, but it captures the confused messiness of newly coming out — or dating someone who’s newly coming out.
But I’m a Cheerleader
dir. Jamie Babbit, 1999
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Genre: comedy, coming-of-age // Rating: ★★★★
Number 1 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
dir. Marielle Heller, 2018
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Based on Lee Israel’s memoir about her time forging literary letters, Marielle Heller’s melancholy film is concerned with the mundane loneliness of queer lives in a way rarely seen. Lee’s homosexuality, and her friend and accomplice Jack’s homosexuality, are integral to the story but not the focus. Lee and Jack are given the freedom to be deeply flawed, yet still human, and it makes for an emotionally resonant story. Bonus points for properly capturing the importance of a queer woman’s cat.
Caramel
dir. Nadine Labaki, 2007
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Nadine Labaki’s debut directorial work is a romantic comedy about a group of women working in a waxing salon in Beirut. All of the women have different struggles with love — including Rima who is very shy and very gay. It’s a beautiful, funny movie that casually values female emotion in a way we rarely see.
Carmen & Lola
dir. Arantxa Echevarria, 2018
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
There’s an entire subgenre of lesbian movies where two women fall in love and one is overtly gay and the other could fake it through a heterosexual life. But like so many oft-told stories, the repetition of patterns does not inherently imply a lack of ingenuity. Rather, this structure can be used to explore the nuance and specificity of a specific culture and specific characters. Arantxa Echevarria’s Carmen & Lola is just such a film as it focuses on two young Romani women who are being pressured into marriage and struggle to be together instead. Zaira Romero and Rosy Rodríguez play the titular characters and their chemistry further elevates the film. There is an engagement party dance scene that will burn into your memory forever.
Carol
dir. Todd Haynes, 2015
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 12 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Celts
dir. Milica Tomović, 2021
Unavailable
Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★
Taking place entirely at a children’s birthday party, this snapshot of 1993 Belgrade puts a political spin on queer chaos. While the kids dress up as Ninja Turtles, the adults oscillate between heated discussion of current events and even more heated affairs. Yes, this includes a tense love triangle between the birthday girl’s aunt, her leather jacket wearing ex, and the ex’s new young girlfriend. Working on several layers, Milica Tomović creates characters with full enough lives that the drama compels even if the historical relevance is lost on you. But understanding the place and time centers it all the more. Just a bunch of adults acting like children while the society they know falls apart.
Certain Women
dir. Kelly Reichardt, 2016
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 29 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Children’s Hour
dir. William Wyler, 1961
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Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 50 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter
dir. Dai Sijie, 2006
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Lush and tragic, this is male gaze lesbian melodrama at its finest. The men are abusive, the scenery is gorgeous, and the women are madly in love. Mylène Jampanoï and Xiaoran Li succeed at deepening their simply written character and provide a couple that’s easy to root for even as the plot maddens.
Chutney Popcorn
dir. Nisha Ganatra, 1999
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Before Nisha Ganatra was directing several of your television faves, she co-wrote, directed, and starred in this film about queerness and family. The film shows the intimacy and conflict within biological and chosen family structures, searching for new ideas around parenthood. It’s funny and sweet and always living in the reality of its well-drawn characters.
Circumstance
dir. Maryam Keshavarz, 2011
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 45 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Cocoon
dir. Leonie Krippendorff, 2020
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
How much you like Leoni Krippendorff’s lesbian coming-of-age tale about 14-year-old Berliner Nora will likely depend on how much you like lesbian coming-of-age tales in general — and your tolerance for butterfly metaphors. With an urgent, handheld style and dreamy yet realistic tone, Krippendorff’s film is just really beautiful and watchable even as it follows familiar beats. Lena Urzendowsky is excellent as the sad-eyed Nora and Jella Haase is devastating as her crush. This is a beautiful film filled with the kind of panicky intensity that defines early adolescence — and first love.
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
dir. Madeleine Olnek, 2011
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Genre: sci-fi, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Madeleine Olnek’s highly relatable comedy about a trio of aliens sent to Earth because they have too many feelings is as funny and weird as that premise suggests. Inspired by low-budget 1950s sci-fi, Olnek’s film has a DIY aesthetic that fits with the often silly script. All of its fish-out-of-water jokes ultimately lead to a story about connection. We all feel like aliens sometimes, but if we’re lucky we just might find another alien to love.
Concussion
dir. Stacie Passon, 2013
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
What begins as a gay twist on the classic story of sex-driven mid-life crise, becomes a deeper exploration of ennui and desire. Despite focusing largely on protagonist Abby’s foray into sex work, the film seems less concerned with representing that profession realistically and more concerned with how the sex (lots and lots and lots of sex!) impacts Abby as a character. Robin Weigert’s performance as Abby anchors the film despite its somewhat silly premise, and Maggie Siff gives a sexy supporting performance as one of Abby’s clients. There’s more to this movie than just the sex, but there is a lot of sex and it’s very well done!
Cracks
dir. Jordan Scott, 2009
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Genre: thriller, coming-of-age // Rating: ★★★
Taking its place in the lineage of lesbian films about boarding schools, Jordan Scott’s striking debut feature lands on the side of brutality over eroticism. While Eva Green is arresting as always as the initially charming, eventually horrifying Miss G., the reality of her abuse is allowed to play out. It’s a frightening and effective film with an incredibly talented young cast that includes Juno Temple, Imogen Poots, and María Valverde.
Crush
dir. Sammi Cohen, 2022
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★
A mere ten years ago it may have seemed impossible, but this coming-of-age romcom lets its queerness be an afterthought. That’s not to say its gay romance isn’t uniquely gay — sorry but falling for your crush’s sister, being a teenage artist, and track are all canon gay — it just exists in a world that’s homoneutral if not homonormative. With a young queer cast led by Rowan Blanchard and Auli’i Cravalho and queer people behind the camera, this is a low-key work of wish-fulfillment. It may not be the most radical work of queer expression, but in many ways it feels like the streaming boom at its best: accessible queer stories ready to be discovered by gays of all ages.
D.E.B.S.
dir. Angela Robinson, 2004
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: action, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 24 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Daddy Issues
dir. Amara Cash, 2018
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Genre: coming-of-age, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Amara Cash’s debut film is a campy, candy-colored, explosion of queerness. A love triangle between aspiring artist Maya, her instagram crush Jasmine, and Jasmine’s sugar daddy, leads to a twisted plot, two twisted romances, and a lot of expected — and unexpected — drama. Cash’s camera and editing is frenetic capturing Maya’s adolescence yearning and building to a new queer aesthetic. The most surprising thing about this movie is its sweetness. There’s an innocence to Maya that’s easy to root for and a sexiness to Jasmine that’s easy to fall for. By pairing the romantic and the taboo, the disturbing and the delicious, Cash creates a truly unique feat of queer filmmaking.
A Date for Mad Mary
dir. Darren Thornton, 2016
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Genre: drama, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 44 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Daughters of Fire
dir. Albertina Carri, 2018
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Porn about making porn questioning how to make porn that’s properly queer and feminist, Albertina Carri’s film succeeds in answering its own question. Poetic and sexy this loosely plotted Argentinian road trip is bound to make you think and come. It’s casual in its inclusivity across body types, gender, and kinks, and ends with one spectacular orgy.
Desert Hearts
dir. Donna Deitch, 1985
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 4 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Dirty Computer
dir. Janelle Monáe & others, 2018
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Genre: sci-fi, musical // Rating: ★★★★
Number 20 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Disobedience
dir. Sebastian Lelio, 2017
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
There are a lot of other things to celebrate about this quiet drama about two Jewish women navigating their love within an Orthodox community. But let’s be honest. This is the movie where one very famous Rachel spits in another very famous Rachel’s mouth. Specifically Rachel Weisz spits into Rachel McAdams’ mouth and it’s just one part of a very hot sex scene. It’s made even hotter by their characters’ history, their forbidden desire, their connection, and their need for one another. This is a movie about faith, about the past, about the desire for community, and the desire to escape. The plotting is messy, but so is life.
Dope
dir. Rick Famuyiwa, 2015
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Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★
Kiersey Clemons plays Diggy, the masc lesbian best friend of Shameik Moore’s Malcolm. They’re geeks and totally unprepared for the drug-deal-induced hijinks that ensue due to Malcolm’s lovesickness over Nakia played by Zoë Kravitz. The script is tight and funny and all of the performances are great. It works as a comedy, a coming-of-age story, and an action movie. Clemons is great as always and her outfits and energy feel authentically queer in a way often absent from mainstream media about teenagers. Also it’s highly relatable to almost ruin your life for Zoë Kravitz.
Dos Estaciones
dir. Juan Pablo González, 2022
Unavailable
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Deliberately paced but never boring, this movie about a butch tequila factory owner and her trans woman hair stylist is a gem. Teresa Sánchez won a special jury prize from Sundance for her performance as the factory owner, Maria Garcia, and it’s easy to see why. Her performance is subtle and arresting, a character created out of moments of quiet. While Sánchez, the other actors, and the stunning cinematography are the primary draw for the film, the film is not lacking in narrative focus. It may be a slow-burn but its unique story is effectively told.
Drifting Flowers
dir. Chou Zero, 2008
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Lesbian filmmaker Chou Zero’s trio of intersecting queer tales are about love, friendship, and identity. As much about gender as it is about sexuality, the film is at its best when focusing on the character Diego played by Chao Yi-lan. In the present Diego is a masc heartthrob, but in the past we see her struggle to define her identity beyond the expectations of woman. It’s a moving film that saves its best section for last.
Drool
dir. Nancy Kissam, 2009
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Genre: drama, comedy // Rating: ★★1/2
At times delightfully campy, at others rather off-putting, this low-budget comedy stars Girlfriends’ Jill Marie Jones and Mulholland Drive’s Laura Harring as lovers on the run. Kissam has cited John Waters as one of her key inspirations and that’s clear in the boldness of the work and its extremely dark sense of humor. But ultimately the film is rather wholesome as it creates a world where new family structures can arise from abuse.
Dry Ground Burning
dir. Joana Pimento, Adirley Queirós, 2022
Unavailable
Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★1/2
At once both a documentary about the criminal resistance in Bolsonaro’s Brazil and a dystopic epic about a queer women oil gang, Dry Ground Burning is as mesmerizing as it is indefinable. Real-life sisters Chitarra and Léa play versions of themselves as they grapple with their limited options and the dangers of turning to crime. Some moments feel like a cinema verité portrait of the two women reconnecting after Léa’s six years in prison, other moments feel straight out of an action movie. While hardship is ever-present, the two women still find comfort in family, biological and chosen, as well as some fun nights of queer partying. Reminiscent of Lizzie Borden’s 1983 masterpiece Born in Flames, this is a film with a form as radical as the women at its center.
The Duke of Burgundy
dir. Peter Strickland, 2014
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
This is one of the very few non-porn films about queer women BDSM and that alone makes it noteworthy. But it’s also a gorgeous and strange film with alluring performances from Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna. While it’s at times formally unmotivated and certainly not devoid of male gaze, it’s still a fascinating film showing an underrepresented aspect of many lesbian lives.
Emilia
dir. César Sodero, 2020
Unavailable
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Lesbian teachers being inappropriate with students is one of the oldest and most complicated tropes of queer women cinema. Some entries are salacious, some explore the realities of abuse, and some try to do both at once. This film does neither, opting instead for a colder, more observational approach. The titular character is lost in her twenty-something second adolescence ennui and while her emotions don’t justify her repeated bad behavior they do make it compelling to observe. This film works as well as it does because its star Sofia Palomino finds nuance and meaning in every moment. It’s a remarkable central performance you’ll want to watch no matter what Emilia is doing — no matter how sad or uncomfortable it makes you.
Entre Nous
dir. Diane Kurys, 1983
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
While the lesbianism remains implicit, this is still a beautiful movie about love and obligation. Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert are heartbreaking as two women whose deep connection pulls them away from the men in their lives. It’s slow and chaste — at least in its queerness — but this delicate film is a tribute to love between women.
Eva + Candela
dir. Ruth Caudeli, 2018
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Ruth Caudeli’s debut feature is both a devastating breakup film and an announcement of an exciting new talent in queer cinema. Most sad films about queer women are sad due to tragedy or oppression, so it’s a relief to watch a film that’s sad because sustaining a relationship is just really hard! While falling in love and falling out of love, Alejandra Lara and Silvia Varón are brimming with chemistry. It’s painful to watch them fall apart because they make so much sense when they’re together.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, comedy, sci-fi, action // Rating: ★★★1/2
For some, the Daniels’ audacious, genre-defying crowd-pleaser is about a woman played by Michelle Yeoh, who runs a laundromat and is filled with regret. For others, it’s about her husband, a man of optimism who wishes the world would be a kinder place. But for most of the people reading this, it is about their daughter Joy, a queer woman acutely aware of the gap between tolerance and embrace, a queer woman with a simmering hurt that could tear apart the multiverse. The film doesn’t align with any of its main characters, instead giving each of them a moment, a voice, and then accepting balance. The result is a one-of-a-kind action movie with originality and practical effects that’s also a stellar family drama. As Joy and as Joy’s multiverse alterego Jobu Tupaki, Stephanie Hsu is alternately relatable and larger than life, often at the same time. True to its title, this is a film that encompasses so much — the everything includes big gay feelings.
The Favourite
dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, comedy // Rating: ★★★
This movie about Queen Anne of England is not your average period piece — it’s not even your average gay period piece. Yes, it takes place in 1704 and is based on a true story and features all sorts of royal intrigue. But here that royal intrigue revolves around two women trying to finger their way to power. Olivia Colman plays Anne with a hilarious desperation — totally unstable and totally captivating. Rachel Weisz is Anne’s second in command — and lover — Lady Sarah, the real source of power in the court. Enter Emma Stone’s Abigail, a down-on-her-luck newcomer who quickly realizes the key to Anne’s favor. Watching Abigail and Sarah fight over Anne is delicious even as the film — or especially as the film — gets more and more twisted. Yorgos Lanthimos can be counted on for his dark sensibility and that’s certainly the case here even with the plot revolving around a queer women love triangle. The movie that sparked a thousand lesbian tweets asking Rachel Weisz to run them over with a truck, you’ll at least want her to fire a blank into your heart.
The Fear Street Trilogy
dir. Leigh Janiak, 2021
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
What makes The Fear Street Trilogy go from a solid good time to a grand cinematic event is its understanding that intelligence and fun are not antithetical. Like The Slumber Party Massacre Trilogy, Fear Street doesn’t make us choose between campy horror and an engagement with reality. It’s proof that “good politics” are also good storytelling. A lot of slasher movies are about trauma and PTSD but these films go a step further and explore the trauma that can be carried in land and among a community. They are films made by people who know the horror genre and know the horrors that exist in our real world. Together this knowledge results in a trio of movies with more developed characters and more resonate plots than we often see in the genre. This isn’t just horror with queer characters — it’s queer horror. It’s about things that should really scare us — generational trauma and income inequality. Pretty good for a series that also features a devastating kill with a bread slicer.
The Feels
dir. Jenée LaMarque, 2017
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★
Constance Wu playing a lesbian is probably enough of a pitch to get you to watch this breezy Netflix comedy — and it should be! She’s great as always and she has a nice chemistry with co-star Angela Trimbur. The movie is sweet and affirming as it acknowledges how different our bodies function and the necessity for communication during sex. Ever Mainard gives a standout comic performance and provides some much needed butch energy to this gay bachelorette party comedy.
Fire
dir. Deepa Mehta, 1996
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Deepa Mehta’s gorgeous film is about two women who refuse to simply be the wives of terrible men. Radha and Sita find love and desire in each other and remain true to that desire in the face of hardship. Their love feels real and their sexuality consuming due to Mehta’s artful gaze and the performances of Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das.
The Firefly
dir. Ana Maria Hermida, 2013
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
A film as much about grief as it is about queer love, Ana Maria Hermida’s debut is about a woman who develops a relationship with her brother’s fiancée in the wake of his death. The two women bond over their shared mourning and shared love and eventually find a way forward together. With magic realist touches and a heavy script, the movie is rich in drama, but it mostly earns its earnest ambitions.
The First Death of Joana
dir. Cristiane Oliveira, 2021
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
Stories of young queers investigating the gay pasts of their relatives is its own subgenre. What is it about these quests that hold so much interest for us in our lives and in fiction? Is it the validation of knowing you’re not the only one? The explanation for why you are the way that you are? The connection to biological family that can become so fraught when coming out in a world that wants you to stay in? As the titular protagonist of Cristiane Oliveira’s beautiful coming-of-age story investigates the life of her late great aunt, she is also investigating herself. It doesn’t really matter what she discovers about this relative. She must learn what so many of us learn — that it really is about the journey.
First Girl I Loved
dir. Kerem Sanga, 2016
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
This coming-of-age drama is as much about consent as it is about queer discovery. Dylan Gelula plays Anne who begins to explore her first lesbian relationship in the aftermath of assault. The film opens itself up to the messiness of the interactions it displays and highlights how our culture’s broken ideas around sex, gender, power, and identity lead to so much pain. It’s a heartfelt, heartbreaking film that still finds time for sweetness. (And it has a great cameo from Cameron Esposito at the end.)
The Fish Child
dir. Lucia Puenzo, 2009
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
Based on her own novel, Lucia Puenzo’s film is a painful love story about two young queer women separated by race and class. Lala is from a wealthy family and has been having an affair with Ailin, her family’s maid. Their desire to escape pushes them to crime and Lala must face the naïveté of her fantasies while Ailin tries simply to survive. Inés Efron and Mariela Vitale are fantastic and fantastic together and make the film work even when the plot takes some difficult to believe turns.
Flaming Ears
dir. Ursula Pürrer, A. Hans Scheirl, Dietmar Schipek, 1992
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: sci-fi, experimental // Rating: ★★★
“In the year 2700, the year of the toads, Asche was a burnt-out city.” So begins a film that is both a queer artifact of early 90s Austrian cinema and one that still feels daring 30 years later. Despite being shot on super 8, the recent restoration is beautiful — if you can find beauty in punk dystopia. Flaming Ears is about a comic book artist named Spy whose quest for revenge against nymphomaniac/pyromaniac, Volley, gets interrupted when she encounters Volley’s girlfriend, Nun, who happens to be a reptile-obsessed alien in a red latex suit. If that plot summary sounds bonkers, it’s nothing compared to the presentation. This is a true work of avante-garde queer art that features furniture humping, disembodied hands, DIY-looking miniature set pieces, and BDSM sex parties.
Forgotten Roads
dir. Nicol Ruiz Benavides, 2020
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Genre: drama, romance, sci-fi // Rating: ★★★1/2
This movie has EVERYTHING. A 70-something lesbian rediscovering her sexuality. Another 70-something lesbian who is married to a man but moonlights as a queer lounge singer. Gays, against all odds, learning how to drive. UFOs. Yes. UFOs. Nicol Ruiz Benavides’ debut film is emotionally accessible and artistically esoteric and that combination makes for an incredible viewing experience. It’s rare to get movies about older queer women — it’s even rarer to get a film about older queer women that takes risks like this film. Lucky for us the risks pay off for a unique and meaningful viewing experience.
The Four-Faced Liar
dir. Jacob Chase, 2010
Unavailable
Genre: drama, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
Written by and co-starring The L Word: Generation Q showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan, this is a lowkey dramedy about a group of early twenty-somethings stumbling their way through love. Ryan plays a lesbian who acts just like her straight male bestie and falls for a “straight” girl. As all of their relationships are challenged and reconfigured, the film questions what it is the characters really want and whether they’ll ever find it.
The Fox
dir. Mark Rydell, 1967
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
One of the earliest portrayals of a queer women couple on-screen, Mark Rydell’s adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novella of the same name surprises even as it dabbles in tropes. Sandy Dennis and Anne Heywood play Jill and Ellen, two women who live together and raise chickens in a relatively happy partnership. Ellen feels a certain ennui, but Jill’s only concern is the literal fox in their hen house. The metaphor manifests in the arrival of a man named Paul played by Keir Dullea who is terrifying in his determination to split them up. But this poetic, complicated film isn’t the expected 1960s story of a queer woman choosing a man — at least not so simply. The film is as much about gender as it is about sexuality and it deserves a greater reputation as a classic of lesbian cinema due to its performances, its craft, and its commitment to queer complexity in an era where that was so rarely allowed on screen.
Foxfire
dir. Annette Haywood-Carter, 1996
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 43 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Freak Orlando
dir. Ulrike Ottinger, 1981
Unavailable
Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★
While Sally Potter’s Tilda Swinton-starring adaptation of the Virginia Woolf classic is a trans cinematic masterpiece, Ulrike Ottinger’s even more unconventional take is a trans masterpiece, a lesbian masterpiece, and a freak masterpiece. Starring Magdalena Montezuma as Orlando and Delphine Seyrig as her subject of desire, this movie told in disjointed, surreal chapters is unlike anything else you’ll ever see. It’s a testament to Ottinger’s skill and creativity that her chaotic vision remains such a delight even when it’s lacking in any logic except her own. Who needs logic when you have a queer gender-bending fantasia?
Fresh Kill
dir. Shu Lea Cheang, 1994
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Genre: drama, sci-fi // Rating: ★★★1/2
When we talk about the New Queer Cinema of the 90s, we should talk about Fresh Kill. It’s the exact kind of radical art that defined that movement — just less male and less white. Starring Sarita Choudhury and Erin McCurty as a lesbian couple in Staten Island in an alternate present or near future, the film is a bold critique of capitalism and ecological disaster. Throughout its surreal touches and haywire tangents, its characters live real queer lives. There are so many interesting ideas and stylistic flourishes on display but its the people at its center inhabit these ideas that make it one of the most underrated masterpieces of a decade full of them.
Frida
dir. Julie Taymor, 2002
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Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★1/2
While the script is paint-by-numbers Hollywood biopic, this telling of Frida Kahlo’s life is elevated by Julie Taymor’s visual inventiveness and Salma Hayek’s moving performance. The film largely focuses on Kahlo’s relationship with Diego Rivera, but it’s also explicit about her bisexuality with multiple moments of her lusting after or being with women. It doesn’t quite reflect Kahlo’s own unique creativity, but for this genre of movie it’s a success.
Gia
dir. Michael Cristofer, 1998
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Telling the story of model Gia Carangi’s troubled life, this Angelina Jolie vehicle alternates between delicious and devastating. Jolie is so sexy, but her performance proves she’s more than just a sex symbol. As Carangi’s life turns toward inescapable hardship, Jolie remains impossible not to watch. Special shoutout to her sex scene with Elizabeth Mitchell that is truly unforgettable.
Girl with Hyacinths
dir. Hasse Ekman, 1950
Unavailable
Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
One of the earliest lesbian movies ever made, this Swedish noir may began with suicide but the central mystery is far more nuanced than how it initially appears. Eve Henning (best known for Ingmar Bergman’s debut Thirst, that has another of cinema’s first lesbian characters) plays Dagmar Brink, a sad and lonely woman whose life comes to a tragic end. Completely alone, she leaves her belongings to her neighbors who begin a Citizen Kane-like quest to learn more about the mystery woman who lived next door and Alex, the supposed love of her life. Now, as we know, Alex is a gay name, so it’s easy for us to guess where they go wrong in assuming Alex is a man. However, the layers of this film go beyond the usual tragic lesbian trope resulting in a work of art that’s more than just ahead of its time.
Girl Picture
dir. Alli Haapasalo, 2022
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
Alli Haapasalo’s coming-of-age movie about three teen girls is told across three Friday nights. The first Friday night Mimmi and her coworker go to a house party where Mimmi encounters Emma and has a magical gay evening. Whether they’re dancing to Perfume Genius and Tove Styrke or having the best sex of their young lives, Haapasalo gives us a young couple that feels authentic and worthy of audience squealing. The ways in which Mimmi and Emma differ feel like ways they can grow together. The story is reminiscent of other coming-of-age movies, but the performances and specificity of the characters — as well as the clever structure — elevate the film as a whole. It’s a snapshot of a moment in time — for these three girls, for girlhood in general.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
dir. Niels Arden Oplev, 2009
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Genre: thriller, mystery // Rating: ★★★
If there’s one reason the Swedish adaptation remains the favorite among most queer women it’s Noomi Rapace. The movie itself may not be as formally accomplished as Fincher’s redo, but Rapace makes Lisbeth Salander instantly iconic. She’s gritty and fierce in a way so many badass Hollywood heroines are not. There’s nothing pretty about her take on Salander and that makes her all the more alluring.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
dir. David Fincher, 2011
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: thriller, mystery // Rating: ★★★
Many questioned the necessity for another adaptation of the popular Swedish crime novel, but David Fincher delivered a film that was more polished, more narratively sound, and perfectly attuned to his attention to detail. And can we really have too much Lisbeth Salander? Rooney Mara’s take on the highly competent, ever vengeful, deeply dreamy bisexual hacker is far more vulnerable — possibly weaker, possibly just more human, depending on your affection for the original.
Glen or Glenda
dir. Shirley Wood, 1953
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Genre: drama, experiental // Rating: ★★★1/2
Shirley Wood is usually known by her deadname and is usually known as the supposed “worst director of all time.” But for anyone who’s trans or is familiar with the trans experience, her debut is a weird and wonderful film about transness made at a time of misinformation. Amidst the formal experimentation, Bela Lugosi playing God, and lots of other weirdness is the story of a woman in love with another woman. It’s remarkable that we have a movie about transness from this era made by an actual trans person. It’s deserving of celebration, not ridicule.
Go Fish
dir. Rose Troche, 1994
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★
Low-budget and plotless like so many American indies of the era, Rose Troche’s debut film provided a first glimpse of representation for a generation of queer women. Guinevere Turner’s baby gay Max is adorable with her backwards hat and confused love life and the supporting cast feels so casually gay. This movie is certainly a time capsule, but it’s still funny and relatable decades later.
Goldfish Memory
dir. Elizabeth Gill, 2003
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Genre: drama, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★
Like Love, Actually, but Irish, gay, and riddled with commitment issues this ensemble romantic comedy follows the lives and intersecting relationships of several delightfully messy people. Equally split between gay, lesbian, and straight romances, some storylines work better than others, but all of the actors are charming and the film is smarter about love than most of these kinds of romcoms.
Good Manners
dir. Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra, 2017
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★★★
Number 23 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Grandma
dir. Paul Weitz, 2015
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Lily Tomlin was gifted the part she was born to play in Elle, stubborn wisecracking lesbian grandma of pregnant Sage. As they attempt to get Sage an abortion, Elle is forced to reflect on her own life. Tomlin is so funny and so tender, landing every joke with gusto and every emotional beat with depth. The movie also has a stellar supporting cast with Julia Garner as Sage, as well as Laverne Cox, Marcia Gay Harden, John Cho, Judy Greer, and Sam Elliot. It’s a sweet film that Tomlin makes into something more.
The Half Of It
dir. Alice Wu, 2020
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama, comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 17 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Handmaiden
dir. Park Chan-Wook, 2016
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, thriller, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 11 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Happiest Season
dir. Clea DuVall, 2020
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, comedy // Rating: ★★1/2
Make the yuletide gay! And maybe emotionally abusive? Look, not only did just about every queer online watch this holiday Hulu blockbuster when it was first released, every queer online seemed to have a very strong opinion about it. Was it the lesbian Christmas movie we’ve long-deserved? Or was it a secret horror movie about a girl more concerned with her homophobic family than Kristen Stewart? No one could agree but there are a few things we can agree on: it changed the landscape for lesbian Christmas movies and Aubrey Plaza as Harper is our forever crush. Sure, it would’ve been a fun twist for Plaza and Stewart to end up together. But holiday movies aren’t exactly known for their twists! With a great cast and familiar beats — and again, worth repeating, Aubrey Plaza — this movie seems guaranteed to out-live the discourse.
The Haunting
dir. Robert Wise, 1963
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
The first and most loyal adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel is a remarkable work of understated horror cinema. Julie Harris plays Nell, a bitter and lonely woman who signs up to participate in a study of the paranormal in the wake of her mother’s death. One of the other participants is Theo, a gay woman with ESP and endless confidence. Claire Bloom plays her with an easy charm, and her character ends up being a foil to Nell — queerness as a metaphor for freedom. Due to these stellar performances, some excellent wide angle photography, and Robert Wise’s low-budget horror roots, this film stands out even amongst decades of imitators.
Hearts Beat Loud
dir. Brett Haley, 2018
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy, musical // Rating: ★★★
Reversing the usual parent-child dynamic, this indie comedy casts Kiersey Clemons as a studious teen and Nick Offerman as her dad who just wants to jam. The relationship between their characters is lovely and the music they create together is genuinely good. Clemons is such a joy to watch and listen to and her romance with Sasha Lane is one of the best parts of the film. Unfortunately the subplots given to Offerman are less compelling, but that’s not enough to take away from the movie’s heartwarming charm.
Heavenly Creatures
dir. Peter Jackson, 1994
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
Peter Jackson is probably responsible for the misguided romantic choices and various kinks of hundreds (thousands?) of queer women around the world. Who among us didn’t watch this movie about two teenage girls falling in love, inventing their own fantasy world, and deciding to murder one of their mothers and think… hmm maybe? Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey play the parts of instigator and instigated so well and it really is bursting with as much imagination as it is toxic queer angst.
The Heiresses
dir. Marcelo Martinessi, 2018
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Slow and artful, the weight of emotions underneath this film settle in with melancholic surprise. Chela and Chiquita are two older upper-middle class lesbians whose 30 year partnership is interrupted when Chiquita goes to jail due to fraud. Broke and lonely, Chela begins offering rides to her older neighbors — and one younger woman with whom she develops a bond. Ana Brun is stellar as Chela — much of the film is just watching Chela in silence and Brun gives a performance worth watching. This is a sad film without resolutions, but its melancholy is equaled by its power.
Hide and Seek
dir. Su Friedrich, 1996
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Genre: coming-of-age, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
Number 26 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
High Art
dir. Lisa Cholodenko, 1998
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Mirroring the energy of the drug-addicted lesbian photographer at the film’s center, Lisa Cholodenko’s debut film is sensuous, measured, and simmering with a sense of danger. Ally Sheedy plays Lucy with a toxic allure that barely masks a depth of sadness. We understand why Radha Mitchell’s Syd is so drawn to her and like Syd we hope for the best while expecting the worst. This is a movie about lost innocence and the decades that follow.
Holy Camp!
dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, 2017
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Genre: coming-of-age, musical // Rating: ★★★★
The highest rated musical on this list, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s truly unique movie lives up to its English title. But it’s not the camp that surprises — after all this is a movie where God appears singing Whitney Houston songs — it’s the depth. This story of two friends at a Catholic camp takes so many turns and is so filled with queer creativity, you might have no idea what you’ve just watched when the credits role. But the experience of the film — and oh my is it an experience — all serves an exploration about desire, faith, giving oneself to change, giving oneself to horniness, and what can happen when we open ourselves up to the possibilities life presents. The soundtrack is incredible, the visuals are stunning, and the whole thing is just so horny and Catholic and gay. Sorry, did you miss the part where God literally sings Whitney Houston songs??
Holy Trinity
dir. Molly Hewitt, 2019
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Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Writer/director/producer/star Molly Hewitt’s debut feature about a dominatrix who huffs a magic aerosol can and begins communicating with the dead is a truly inventive work of queer queer queer cinema. With two non-binary leads (Hewitt and Work in Progress/The Politician heartthrob Theo Germaine), imaginative low budget production design and costumes, and the setting of Chicago’s queer scene, Hewitt has made a film with a spirit that recalls the best of the 90s queer cinema. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s weird, and, best of all, it’s filled with references and nuance cishet people could never understand.
The Hours
dir. Stephen Daldry, 2002
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Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★
Based on Michael Cunningham’s perfect novel, this Oscar-winning adaptation mostly does justice to the trio of intersecting queer stories. Nicole Kidman plays Virginia Woolf and her devastating performance is more than her fake nose. Meryl Streep plays a modern day woman named Clarissa, affectionately referred to as Mrs. Dalloway by her friend who is dying of AIDS-related causes. The middle story is the most explicitly gay. Julianne Moore plays a woman in the 50s desperate to be a better mother, fighting off feelings for her neighbor, and suddenly consumed with the book Mrs. Dalloway. This section feels chaste compared to the book — Moore and Toni Collette lacking a certain chemistry — but overall the movie is still a beautiful meditation on depression, loss, and the desire to live truthfully. Also the score by Philip Glass is incredible.
House of Hummingbird
dir. Kim Bora, 2018
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 47 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
dir. Daniel Goldhaber, 2022
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: drama, thriller // Rating: ★★★★
By transposing the radical ideas of its source material into the structure of a heist movie, this work of cinematic collective action becomes as entertaining as it is important. All movies are propaganda and sometimes explicitly political films can end up feeling cheap and manipulative. There is nothing cheap here — except maybe its well-used indie film budget. The sharp writing is matched by Tehillah De Castro’s cinematography, Gavin Brivik’s score, Daniel Garber’s editing, and one of the best — and queerest — young casts assembled in years. This is like Ocean’s 8 except it’s actually a good movie and the stakes aren’t a necklace at the Met Gala but the fate of our planet. Oh and it’s explicitly gay. Not only is its queer relationship central to the film but there are a lot of queer women involved in the project — actor Sasha Lane, actor and writer Ariela Barer, producer Isa Mazzei. Exciting, meaningful, smart. This is queer genre cinema at its very best.
The Hunger
dir. Tony Scott, 1983
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
Frenetic editing, heavy symbolism, and vague plotting make for a dreamy whirlwind of bisexual vampirism. Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon are all at their hottest as they fuck and bite their way to immortality. The sex scene between Deneuve and Sarandon is especially iconic — there’s a reason this is what Cameron Post and Coley Taylor watched before having sex.
I Can’t Think Straight
dir. Shamim Sarif, 2007
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
While certainly hitting all the expected tropes, lesbian filmmaker Shamim Sarif’s semi-autobiographical romcom stands out for its cultural specificity, truly stunning leads, and endless charm. Sometimes you just want to watch beautiful women defy their families in the name of love and have gorgeous sex montages.
I Shot Andy Warhol
dir. Mary Harron, 1996
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Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★
Director Mary Harron and actress Lili Taylor do a phenomenal job capturing Valerie Solanas in all her complications. It’s a portrait of a subculture and a period of time and an exploration of what happens when some outsiders are too outside even for the outsiders. It’s unfortunate that the movie is less successful in its portrayal of Candy Darling, but overall it’s still a stellar film.
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
dir. Patricia Rozema, 1987
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Genre: drama, comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 27 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
If These Walls Could Talk 2
dir. Jane Anderson, Martha Coolidge, Anne Heche, 2000
Unavailable
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★1/2
The three stories that make up this iconic HBO film certainly vary in quality. Jane Anderson’s 1961-set tale of a lesbian in mourning is simple and heartbreaking, while Anne Heche’s present day portrayal of Ellen Degeneres and Sharon Stone having a baby is cringeworthy at best. But it’s the middle section set in 1972 that makes the film what it is. Martha Coolidge’s love story between Michelle Williams and a very butch Chloë Sevigny is fun and sexy and explores questions of class and gender identity within lesbian circles. It also has an incredible supporting cast that includes Natasha Lyonne and Nia Long. The whole film can be watched by completists, but it’s this section that deserves true praise.
Imagine Me & You
dir. Ol Parker, 2005
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 38 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
In Between
dir. Maysaloun Hamoud, 2016
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★★
The trio of women at the center of Maysaloun Hamoud’s debut film couldn’t be more different. Leila is a high femme lawyer hoping to find love with a man who won’t control her. Salma is a lesbian DJ with parents desperate to marry her to a man. And Nour is a conservative student engaged to be married. But all three women are stubborn and determined to live lives beyond heteropatriarchy, beyond Israeli-occupation. The film captures the specific pain of managing multiple marginalized identities and provides a path forward – there may be no escape, but we can support each other in the struggle.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
dir. Maria Maggenti, 1995
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Genre: coming-of-age, comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Before she was Tina, Laurel Holloman played heartthrob soft butch Randy Dean in this iconic 90s comedy. Paired with Nicole Ari Parker as Evie Roy, Holloman is earnest and charming and bursting with teenage energy. Randy and Evie are adorable together as they fall in love and field hilarious — and painful — responses from their friends and family. All these years later this movie is still just as cute and fun — and it might even make you like Tina.
Itty Bitty Titty Committee
dir. Jamie Babbit, 2007
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Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
It might be goofy, dated, and a bit all over the place, but there’s still a lot to enjoy in Jamie Babbit’s lesbian movie about a newcomer to a feminist action group. Melonie Diaz plays Anna, a goody two shoes who falls hard for cool girl Sadie and in the process gets radicalized. It’s a fun movie with a great ensemble cast and it’s truly just so gay.
Je, Tu, Il, Elle
dir. Chantal Akerman, 1974
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Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
Number 8 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Jennifer’s Body
dir. Karyn Kusama, 2009
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Genre: comedy, drama, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
Poorly marketed and unfairly maligned upon its release, Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody’s already cult classic has finally started to get the praise it deserves. With Cody’s signature wit and Kusama’s sharp style, this horror-comedy/rape-revenge/queer-teen-girl-friendship movie is a deadly delicious treat. Megan Fox is excellent in a role that plays with her celebrity and the expectations placed upon her and Amanda Seyfried is perfect as her best friend literally named Needy Lesbian — okay, fine, Needy Lesnicki. The original film was supposed to be even more explicitly gay but even with the studio-influenced version we still get one steamy make out and lines like: “Do you buy all your murder weapons at Home Depot? God you’re butch!”
The Journey
dir. Ligy J. Pullappally, 2004
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
This tale of two women who find friendship as children and forbidden love as adults follows some familiar lesbian movie beats. But Ligy J. Pullappally centers her characters’ unique personalities and their environment’s complex reaction, ultimately ending up with a film that’s authentic and moving and beautiful from beginning to end. Suhasini V. Nair and Shrruiti Menon give very different, equally accomplished performances and their decades long bond is believable in every moment.
Jules of Light and Dark
dir. Daniel Laabs, 2018
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Winner of the Grand Jury prize for Outstanding American Feature at Outfest 2019, Daniel Laabs’ debut feature is about two lost individuals forming an unlikely connection. Tallie Medel is phenomenal as Maya, a heartsick lesbian struggling in the aftermath of a car accident. She befriends Freddy, a lonely gay man with an estranged daughter, played by Robert Longstreet and the film cuts back and forth between their two storylines. While a bit underwritten and at times as lost as its characters, the film ultimately works because of its central performances and Laabs’ impressive visual style.
Kajillionaire
dir. Miranda July, 2020
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Genre: drama, comedy, thriller // Rating: ★★★
Queer multi-hyphenate Miranda July has made a career out of entertaining, challenging work that adds depth to what some might dismiss as quirky. Of her three films, none is as challenging — nor possibly accomplished — as her tale of Old Dolio, the sheltered adult daughter of two scammers. Played by Evan Rachel Wood, Old Dolio is a difficult protagonist who hides in baggy clothes and long straight hair and speaks in deep mumble. But as July’s story unfolds — and Old Dolio falls for a woman played by Gina Rodriguez — it reveals itself to be a relatable and painful story of a queer person leaving behind her controlling family. It’s not a film for everybody but if you’re patient and get on its wavelength, it just might steal your heart.
Karmen Geï
dir. Joseph Gai Ramaka, 2001
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Genre: drama, musical // Rating: ★★★1/2
This reimagining of the opera Carmen is bursting with energy and sexuality. The titular temptress is made pansexual underlining her freedom and offering quite a few delicious moments. The music is incredible, the visuals are stunning, and Djeinaba Diop Gai’s central performance is as magnetic as this character deserves. While the film still ends in the expected tragedy, this version more than any other seems to really respect Karmen and her sexual freedom.
The Kids Are All Right
dir. Lisa Cholodenko, 2010
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Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★
Not the most beloved by the lesbian community, this Oscar-nominated movie from lesbian filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko might be due for reevaluation. While some were put off by one of the film’s married lesbians having an affair with a man, the messiness of the affair and the family dynamic all contributes to the film’s themes about marriage and queer families. It’s a funny movie with great performances from Julianne Moore, Annette Benning, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, and Josh Hutcherson. It might not be the most groundbreaking film, but ten years later its missteps feel a lot less worrisome.
The Killing of Sister George
dir. Robert Aldrich, 1968
Unavailable
Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
Robert Aldrich’s film is a landmark of lesbian cinema, but it’s brutal to watch. It perpetuates the trope of the bitter old lesbian with none of the pleasures of similar films. But as a movie it’s quite good with a devastating performance from Beryl Reid. It’s worth watching for her performance and for its historical importance even if it leaves a sour taste.
Kiss Me
dir. Alexandra-Therese Keining, 2011
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
While featuring many lesbian movie clichés, Alexandra-Therese Keining’s film stands out due to its writing, its phenomenal lead performances from Ruth Vega Fernandez and Liv Mjönes, and some exceptionally well done sex scenes. The story may be simple, but the chemistry at its core is special.
Kissing Jessica Stein
dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, 2001
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Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Neurotic Jewish comedy but make it bicurious! This romcom written by and starring Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen is a delight from beginning to, well, not quite the end. Yes, the ending is frustrating to most even all these years later, but it doesn’t take away from how funny and genuinely moving most of the film remains. The whole movie has a really joyous warmth to it and Tovah Feldshuh gives an especially tender performance as Jessica’s mom. The landscape of lesbian cinema has widened in the past two decades making this film’s final twist much less egregious — if still disappointing to many.
Knife + Heart
dir. Yann Gonzalez, 2018
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Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
This explicitly queer take on Giallo is as bold and stylish as the genre demands. The heartsick lesbian at its center is flawed in ways that some may find interesting and others simply cruel — either way Vanessa Paradiso’s performance is compelling to watch. It’s a messy movie in plot and theme, but it’s certainly not boring. And it has a dildo knife used as a murder weapon so that’s something.
Knocking
dir. Frida Kempff, 2021
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Genre: horror // Rating: ★★★
Frida Kempf’s debut narrative feature is a different kind of queer horror movie. It’s about a woman named Molly who leaves a psychiatric hospital to start a new life in a new apartment. Her trauma is hinted at in dreamy flashbacks — kisses from her lover on the beach, the terrifying expanse of the sea. There was an accident. The grief and the guilt — and likely some pre-existing mental illness — caused a psychotic episode. But now she’s trying to be better. This is a simple, effective thriller that largely takes place within the confines of Molly’s claustrophobic apartment. Kempff’s direction and star Cecilia Milocco’s performance place us in Molly’s head. As she unravels, we unravel, and the whole experience is deeply unsettling. This is not a fun genre film. This is a sad and visceral foray into one woman’s mind.
Laurel Canyon
dir. Lisa Cholodenko, 2002
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
While light on queer content, Lisa Cholodenko’s film about a free-spirited record producer and her straight-laced son is an understated and effective drama. Frances McDormand and Christian Bale are great as mother and son and Kate Beckinsale is dreamy as the son’s fiancée who just might have more interest in his mom and her boyfriend than her husband to be.
Leading Ladies
dir. Ruth Caudeli, 2021
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★
The various plots of Leading Ladies — with their backstabbing, cheating, and litigious consequences — would fit right in on The L Word. And yet they couldn’t feel more different. Director Ruth Caudeli trusts her audience to follow along and to care without forcing or over-explaining any narrative threads. She is a queer woman making work for other queers and that’s felt in every beat. With its handheld cinematography, improvised dialogue, limited setting, and unconventional structure, Leading Ladies feels like a lo-fi experiment as much as it does a feature film. But abandoning the anchors present in most features isn’t a shortcut — it’s a challenge. It’s hard to make life’s quiet dramas riveting — Caudeli and her cast accomplish just that.
La Leyenda Negra
dir. Patrícia Vidal Delgado, 2020
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Patrícia Vidal Delgado’s gorgeous Black & White debut feature is political cinema at its best. Telling the story of a queer girl whose immigration status is affected by a new Trump administration policy, Delgado understands that the most effective political films don’t feel like Political Films — they feel like stories about people. Monica Betancourt gives a phenomenal performance as Aleteia, a teenage girl filled with righteous fury at her circumstances and tender love for her new friend and crush, Rosarito played by Kaileil Lopez. Watching Aleteia and Rosarito find unexpected connection and first queer feelings is a delight. They deserve a world without borders and binaries where they can be free to explore the young love blossoming between them. This is a love story, a friendship story, a cry for change. This is a movie about two queer Latinx teenagers who deserve better.
Lianna
dir. John Sayles, 1983
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Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Surprisingly tender and complicated for a lesbian movie written and directed by a straight man, this classic of queer cinema follows the titular character through her first gay love and heartbreak. Rather than framing Lianna’s coming out as intrinsically tied to her crush on Professor Ruth, she’s forced to reckon with her identity and ultimately do so alone. Linda Griffiths is so lovely to watch on-screen as Lianna navigates her desires and disappointments. It’s a sad movie, but within that sadness is a sense of hope — a sense that someday Lianna will find love and do so as an individual.
Life Partners
dir. Susanna Fogel, 2014
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Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
A twist on the lesbian in love with her best friend trope, Leighton Meester’s Sasha never falls for Gillian Jacobs’ Paige — but she is jealous when Paige starts dating Tim played by Adam Brody. This is a sweet exploration of codependent friendships with casually resonant lead performances and a great supporting cast of Gabourey Sidibe, Abby Elliot, Beth Dover and Kate McKinnon.
Liz and the Blue Bird
dir. Naoko Yamada, 2018
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
A spin-off of the anime series Sound! Euphonium and based on the same novels, Naoko Yamada’s beautiful tale of high school longing is overwhelmed with high school feeling. Mizore is shy and awkward and devastatingly in love with her popular best friend Nozomi. They’re in band together and are tasked with performing a solo based on a story called Liz and the Blue Bird. Yamada cuts between our central story and the titular story itself as they blend the minutely real with fairy tale expanse. The animation is stunning and the attention to detail places us squarely in Mizore’s state of obsession. Queer women are still largely absent from animated movies — especially ones appropriate for children — and this provides one of the rare exceptions. Words like gay and lesbian may not be used but the love and desire is more than explicit. This is a film about letting go of those you love — a message needed by adolescents and us all.
Lizzie
dir. Craig William Macneill, 2018
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Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★1/2
Chloë Sevigny was reportedly disappointed with the final results of this long-gestating project, but any movie focusing on a romance between her and Kristen Stewart can’t be all bad. In fact, the movie is pretty good largely because of its two central performances. But as the maudlin tale drags on one is left wondering what might have been if those two performances had a script with a bit more depth and a director with a bit more ingenuity.
Lost and Delirious
dir. Léa Pool, 2001
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
Loved by some, hated by others, Léa Pool’s boarding school dyke drama is as heightened as its angsty teens. Piper Perabo plays soft butch heartthrob Paulie Oster who is desperate to sonnet and fence her way into Jessica Paré’s heart. The dialogue is corny and the symbolism is heavy handed, but the story is told through the eyes of Mischa Barton’s younger new student and with that brings a level of naïveté to the whole approach. If you love falcons and feelings this movie might just be for you.
Love and Other Catastrophes
dir. Emma-Kate Croghan, 1996
Unavailable
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
If Whit Stillman was an Australian lesbian this is the movie he’d have made. But he didn’t have to because Emma-Kate Croghan made it instead! Snappy dialogue and fun performances make for a fun movie that will either endear you or repulse you depending on your tolerance for film students discussing intellectual topics as they navigate their messy love lives. It helps when those film students aren’t all straight and aren’t all men that’s for sure!
Love My Life
dir. Koji Kawano, 2006
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
If you don’t read the plot description for this otherwise low-key lesbian coming-of-age romance, the coming out scene will be one of the most surprising ever filmed. It’s a twist that adds a fascinating layer to the story and the movie is at its best when exploring this complexity and Ichiko’s relationship to her family. Her chemistry with Eri is really sweet and actors Rei Yoshii and Asami Imajuku are fun to watch in the roles. The plot is a bit convoluted with conflict that feels manufactured, but it’s still very enjoyable.
Love, Spells and All That
dir. Ümit Ünal, 2019
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
Ümit Ünal’s intimate romance tells the story of Eren who returns to her hometown ready to declare her still-burning love for her adolescent girlfriend, Reyhan. But for Reyhan — who holds far less economic privilege — love, especially forbidden love, is something she cannot afford. This conflict is heightened with two phenomenal performances by Selen Uçer as Reyhan and Ece Dizdar as Eren. They embody their characters — and their characters’ histories — in full. The twenty years is felt in every line and glance. There’s also magic in the setting itself. This beautiful Turkish island — with all the weight it holds for these characters — is a location that’s easy to fall in love with. Ünal is patient in his writing and directing. He trusts his actors and his setting and it results in a film that is at once both wholly naturalistic and bursting with fantasy.
The Lure
dir. Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2017
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Genre: drama, horror, musical // Rating: ★★★1/2
This genre-bending mermaid musical horror movie was likely not intended to be about a gay trans girl and her straight trans girl best friend — Michalina Olszanska and Marta Mazurek who play the central mermaids, Gold and Silver, are both cis. And yet with its literal bottom surgery and riff on The Little Mermaid — a trans girl favorite — it’s no surprise that it’s left such an impression on the community. But beyond this imposed subtext this is still a weird and wonderful work of queer cinema that includes a sung-through scene of lesbian fish sex that makes The Shape of Water look like Mr. Limpet.
Lyle
dir. Stewart Thorndike, 2014
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Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
Stewart Thorndike’s tight and terrifying horror movie is as much about grief as it is exploring the messiness of placing a queer woman in the plot of Rosemary’s Baby. The movie asks a lot of questions without providing answers, but what it does provide is a breathtaking horror experience led by an animalistic performance from Gaby Hoffmann.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
dir. George C. Wolfe, 2020
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Director George C. Wolfe and screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson combine their stage and screen brilliance to create this August Wilson adaptation that knows when to expand and knows when to stew in its theatricality. This is not a film about queerness per say — its focus is more the creation and appropriation of Black art — but Wolfe, Santiago-Hudson, and greatest actress alive Viola Davis ensure the queerness of the film. There is no subtext. Ma Rainey’s relationship with Dussie Mae played by Taylour Paige is made explicit and her queerness is made an integral part of her character. Lesbian romance films are obviously great, but it’s worth celebrating a film that focuses on a queer woman’s art and how race, gender, and sexuality impact how she creates and moves through the world.
Mädchen in Uniform
dir. Leontine Sagan, 1931
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Genre: classic, coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 10 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Make a Wish
dir. Sharon Ferranti, 2002
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: comedy, horror // Rating: ★★★
Like The L Word, if it didn’t take six seasons for the dykes to start killing each other, Sharon Ferranti’s lesbian slasher is a delicious gem. Low-budget and pulpy, this movie is certainly not cheap on character development or intracommunity gags. Even the premise — a lesbian goes camping with all her exes who she cheated on because they’re all still friends and then they start dying one by one — feels unique to our world. Considering Rita Mae Brown wrote Slumber Party Massacre, lesbians aren’t strangers to the slasher genre, but this still remains the most lesbian of them all.
Manji
dir. Yasuzô Masumura, 1964
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Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 22 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Margarita with a Straw
dir. Shonali Bose, 2014
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
Queer disabled representation is almost non-existent in media which makes this film’s triumphs all the more exciting, and its failures all the more frustrating. It allows its lead character the freedom to make mistakes, to explore her sexuality in all its messiness, and go beyond the narratives usually forced on disabled characters by abled filmmakers. Unfortunately the writers and directors are abled and even more unfortunately so are the lead actresses. One has to wonder if some of the film’s missteps, such as sexualizing a caretaking situation and having the blind character touch faces, as well as some of its more saccharine moments, would’ve been avoided if disabled people were actually involved in the making of the film. The movie is funny and sexy and sweet, but when it comes to disabled representation we still have so much further to go.
Mars One
dir. Gabriel Martins, 2022
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★★
This is an ensemble film about a lower-middle class Black family in Brazil right after Bolsonaro’s election. There’s Tércia, who after a traumatic event believes she’s cursed, her husband, Wellington, four years sober and soccer-obsessed, and their son, Deivenho, who is fulfilling his dad’s soccer ambitions while secretly dreaming of astrophysics. And then there is their daughter, Eunice, a college student ready to leave home and even more ready to explore her sexuality. Because it’s such a thorough portrait of the family, Mars One manages to do something with its queer story that’s rarely seen. While movies have often centered straight people’s reaction to their queer family member, this film lets us know the straight family intimately and then centers the queer person’s experience of herself. There’s a specificity to Eunice’s interaction with her family that shows the stakes of their support — there’s an equal specificity to the love story with her girlfriend Jo. Mars One accomplishes the rare feat of acknowledging the realities of heteronormativity without slipping into painful cliches. This is just one tender achievement in a film full of them. It’s a film about family, a film about dreams, and a film about the societies that fail both.
Memento Mori
dir. Min Kyu-Dong, Kim Tae-Yong, 1999
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, horror // Rating: ★★★★
Number 41 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Miao Miao
dir. Cheng Hsiao-Tse, 2008
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Genre: coming-of-age, romance // Rating: ★★★
If you watch this movie hoping for the teen girls at its center to be together you’ll be disappointed. But if you watch this movie to witness the kind of adolescent yearning queer teens know intimately then you’ll be pleased. It’s a classic tale of lesbian girl meets probably bi girl meets probably gay boy who is probably in love with his ex-bandmate. No one really knows what they’re doing or how to express their feelings, but with its poppy soundtrack and jarring editing Cheng Hsiao-Tse seems to embrace the messy adolescent perspective of his characters. The characters feel what they want so deeply, but feeling what you want and articulating what you want are far from the same thing. Adolescence is hard no matter what, but queer adolescence is another level of confusion.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
dir. Desiree Akhavan, 2018
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 21 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
dir. Michael Rianda, 2021
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★1/2
While Disney is still bragging about their exclusively gay moments and NOT giving Elsa a girlfriend, Sony and Netflix have gifted us with this funny, emotional, and delightfully inventive queer kids movie. Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is a teen filmmaker ready to escape her town where nobody understands her and go off to film school to find her people. Unfortunately, her plans get interrupted by her dad — oh and the robot apocalypse. Katie must learn to accept her biological family while still knowing she has a chosen family out there she needs too. Her queerness may be subtle but this is a wildly enjoyable step toward the queer kids movies we deserve.
Mommy is Coming
dir. Cheryl Dunye, 2012
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Genre: comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 39 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Monster
dir. Patty Jenkins, 2013
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Bleak and devastating, Patty Jenkins’ portrayal of Aileen Wuornos does right by Wuornos’ life of trauma. Charlize Theron went beyond the prosthetic makeup in her truly remarkable — and Oscar-winning — performance as Wuornos. Her chemistry with Christina Ricci provides a much needed levity — until it makes what happens even more painful. The film doesn’t judge Wuornos or romanticize her, but simply portrays the life-altering effects of abuse.
Mosquita y Mari
dir. Aurora Guerrero, 2012
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 46 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Moving On
dir. Paul Weitz, 2022
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★
Like their previous work together in Grandma, Paul Weitz and Lily Tomlin’s second collaboration has greater ambitions than showcasing Tomlin’s singular talents. If, ultimately, Tomlin still ends up its greatest success — along with fellow legend Jane Fonda — that’s because there’s just so much talent to show. This traumatic farce explores the decades long effects of sexual assault and homophobia. It’s also a delightful good time. Through most of its runtime, it balances its tones and plots with a deft touch. Despite the occasional misstep in its final act, it’s still a lovely, quietly ambitious movie. As long as Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are still working, they should keep working together — especially with material this rich, nuanced, and just plain hilarious.
Mulholland Drive
dir. David Lynch, 2001
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Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
A cinematic masterpiece and one of David Lynch’s finest works. Naomi Watts gives an all time great performance as Betty, the wide-eyed actress who moves to Hollywood and falls for the mysterious amnesiac Rita (Laura Harring). Of course, there’s more to the story as this is a Lynch film, but more than any other work of his each thread of surreal oddity clicks together to tell this painful love story between two doomed women. It’s certainly not devoid of male gaze, but if you’re gonna pick a male’s gaze you could do worse than David Lynch.
Multiple Maniacs
dir. John Waters, 1970
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Genre: classic, comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 42 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
MURDER and murder
dir. Yvonne Rainer, 1996
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Genre: drama, romance, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
Number 18 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
My Days of Mercy
dir. Tali Shalom-Ezer, 2017
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Capital punishment romance is a tough sell, but three stunning performances from Elliot Page, Kate Mara, and Amy Seimetz, and endless chemistry between Page and Mara, make this movie more watchable than its premise. It’s certainly emotional, but rarely maudlin, avoiding too much melodrama by focusing on the characters as people. There are moments of humor and even a few stellar sex scenes.
My Mother Likes Women
dir. Daniela Fejerman, Ines Paris, 2002
Unavailable
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
Finding a balance between pathos and farce, this movie about three sisters and their newly out mother is a messy delight. Leonor Watling is impossible not to love as the anxious Elvira and while the film is more centered on her than her mother’s queer relationship, it’s still a funny and moving film about figuring out one’s identity. It’s also pretty clear that Elvira herself is bisexual — no matter what her creepy male therapist says.
My Summer of Love
dir. Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
What begins is a quiet and tender queer coming-of-age love story takes a darker turn, as characters get increasingly untrustworthy and violent. It’s beautifully shot and has moving performances from Natalie Press and Emily Blunt, in her breakout role. It may not be the happiest queer film, but it’s not without hope, and the journey is worth it.
Nina’s Heavenly Delights
dir. Pratibha Parmar, 2006
Unavailable
Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
This sweet Indian-Scottish romcom is silly and sentimental, but it’s also a pleasure to watch. It has solid performances from Shelley Conn and Laura Fraser, a fun and breezy script, and a few great dance numbers. Beautiful lesbians and food porn are indeed heavenly delights and this movie has plenty of both.
Nope
dir. Jordan Peele, 2022
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: action, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
Jordan Peele’s alien invasion masterpiece is so funny and so entertaining that it’s easy to ignore just how audacious it is. Beyond its grand visual achievements, it is structurally inventive and thematically dense. Like Us, this is a film with a lot on its mind in ways that continue to unravel through thought and discussion. Oh and it stars the one and only Keke Palmer getting to play her whole queer self. Maybe someday there will be a director’s cut where she at the very least flirts with Barbie Ferreira but even in the theatrical release she is explicitly queer. It’s not the point and yet in a movie partially about who is centered in film history and who is forgotten, this aspect of her character cannot be ignored.
The Novice
dir. Lauren Hadaway, 2021
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Genre: drama, sports // Rating: ★★★★
Before writing and directing her masterful debut, Lauren Hadaway worked in sound. Once you know this, it makes sense why her film’s rowing instructions get stuck in your head like a pop song. Legs body arms. Arms body legs. It’s dialogue as rhythm, thoughts as rhythm, mental illness as rhythm. This film is not about novice rower Alex Dall as much as it is her. The movie’s sound design and score — along with accomplished cinematography and editing that knows when to cut and when to hold — place us in her mind and body. We don’t need exposition. We want her to win because we are her. We feel her pain because she’s in pain. The oft-told suggestion “show, don’t tell” only uses half of cinema’s tools — Hadaway uses them all. And while none of this technical achievement would work without a performance to match, Hadaway has just that in Isabelle Fuhrman. Together they’ve created a visceral cinematic experience. Nearly forty years after Personal Best, here’s a sweaty queer sports movie that’s as twisted and bloody as we are. Queerness is an escape — it’s everything else that’s the problem.
Novitiate
dir. Margaret Betts, 2017
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★1/2
Religion is often framed as the enemy in queer films making Margaret Betts’ debut all the more unique. Margaret Qualley plays a young woman who decides to become a nun much to her nonreligious mother’s horror. There are clear parallels between this conflict and the conflict many queer people face when coming out. The subtext becomes text and we see how the lines between faith and queerness are not as distinct as we sometimes think. Melissa Leo gives a grand and horrifying performance as the harsh Reverend Mother desperately trying to hold onto her own way of life in the face of Vatican II. Utilizing this specific moment in history, Betts creates a startling film about commitment to self in the face of societal judgement.
Olivia
dir. Jacqueline Audry, 1951
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 14 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Other Side of the Underneath
dir. Jane Arden, 1972
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Genre: drama, experimental, horror // Rating: ★★★★
Based on her stage production, A New Communion for Freaks, Prophets, and Witches, Jane Arden’s uncategorizable masterwork was named by Autostraddle as featuring the scariest queer horror movie moment of all time. Far from your average scare fare, this film oscillates between the uncanny terror and joyful surrealism inspired by the headspace of its protagonist with schizophrenia. Arden herself struggled with mental illness and campaigned against the psychiatric treatments of her time. Those experiences are on full display here — the horror coming as much from the external “care” as the protagonist’s inner mental state. Equal parts queer magic, political fury, and arlecchino nightmare clowns, it’s time this underground classic took its rightful place on the surface.
The Owls
dir. Cheryl Dunye, 2010
Unavailable
Genre: drama, experimental, mystery // Rating: ★★1/2
After a six-year hiatus, icon Cheryl Dunye returned with this flawed but interesting work of lesbian cinema. At only a little over an hour, it acts as a comeback for Dunye, a postmortem on 90s queer cinema, an exploration of generation gaps in the queer community, and an examination of the differences between transmasculine people and butch lesbians. It may not work as well as Dunye’s other films appearing further down this list, but it’s still fascinating.
Parallel Mothers
dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 2021
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Womanhood has been a front for so many facets of Pedro Almodóvar’s own life. But in his latest masterpiece womanhood is a front for even more. Janis (Penélope Cruz once again giving birth, playing queer, and doing career best work for Almodóvar) is a photographer whose great-grandfather was killed by Franco’s regime. She gets pregnant and at the hospital meets Ana (Milena Smit), a teenager giving birth at the same time. The years pass and the plot turns with reliably Almodóvarian melodrama. Spoiler: Ana cuts off her hair, dyes it blonde, and becomes super gay. This is a movie about the importance of living in the past — not out of nostalgia, but out of accountability. It’s Almodóvar’s complicated reverence for his mother, unabashed reverence for lesbians, and reluctant reverence for his own femininity, that result in a story where queer women are the only ones capable of interrupting cycles of generational trauma.
Pariah
dir. Dee Rees, 2011
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 3 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Passing
dir. Rebecca Hall, 2021
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Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★1/2
There’s a distance and a hyper-stylization to this adaptation of Nella Larsen’s masterpiece. Every choice Rebecca Hall makes as a director and writer is deliberate, some — such as the casting — to make the story feel current, others — such as the dialogue, 4:3 aspect ratio, and black-and-white photography — to pull the story back to the past. This is a film of contradictions, somehow both cold and sensual. It emphasizes the queer subtext of the novella without making it more explicit. It is a film of obstruction, of withholding, of glances. It’s the performances of Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga that ground this puzzle — it’s in how they look at each other. It’s a mix of love and hatred, lust and repulsion, envy and superiority. Glances destined for tragedy.
Pepi, Luci, Bom
dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1980
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Genre: classic, comedy // Rating: ★★★1/2
Pedro Almodóvar’s first masterpiece is also his film most focused on lesbians. An irreverent comedy that’s also a sort of rape/revenge movie, this one certainly isn’t for everybody. But if you’re open to its tone — and its content — you’ll find a laugh-out-loud hilarious, surprisingly emotional movie about women trying their best to survive and have some fun along the way. If you’re into movies where a lesbian pees on a cop’s wife then this one is for you!
The Perfection
dir. Richard Shepard, 2018
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Genre: horror // Rating: ★★1/2
This isn’t a great film, or even a good film, and it’s offensive in a myriad of ways. But what it lacks in quality and morals it sure does make up for in thrills. If you’re in the mood for a gory shockfest that also has cello playing lesbian sex between Allison Williams and Logan Browning, then this movie won’t disappoint.
Persona
dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1966
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Genre: drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
Maybe about two women, maybe about one woman, maybe beyond narrative analysis, Ingmar Bergman’s avant-garde masterpiece is sexy, unsettling, and thought-provoking. Bibi Andersson plays Alma, a nurse assigned to the care of Liv Ullmann’s Elisabet Vogler, an actress who has suddenly stopped speaking. They seclude themselves at a beach house and their interactions increase in eroticism, violence, and unreality. This is definitely one of the hornier arthouse classics even if the women never consummate their attraction.
Personal Best
dir. Robert Towne, 1982
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Genre: drama, sports // Rating: ★★★1/2
With realistic and intricately captured scenes of athleticism, this queer woman classic is one of the best sports movies period. It’s imperfect, with some racist jokes, and it may disappoint anyone in it for the love story, but it’s still a noteworthy film about two fiercely competitive women. Come for the sweat on perfectly toned muscles, stay for the specificity of a Cap4Cap romance.
Petit Mal
dir. Ruth Caudeli, 2022
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: drama, experimental, romance // Rating: ★★★
Ruth Caudeli continues her already prolific career of intimate, experimental works of queer expression with this semi-autobiographical tale of a throuple. Caudeli, Silvia Varón, and Ana Mariá Otálora, real-life girlfriends and regular collaborators, all play versions of themselves. Much of the film’s runtime is concerned with the difficulties within the relationship but that never feels like commentary on throuples or polyamory. In fact, it’s long-distance that presents the largest challenge. It’s not that the film shies away from the specific joys and challenges of a throuple — it’s just done in a way that doesn’t attach value or judgment. There is still a lack of grounded queer cinema about polyamory and it’s a thrill to have a movie like this that not only fills that representational gap but does so with Caudeli’s unique cinematic style.
The Pirate
dir. Jacques Doillon, 1984
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★1/2
This lesbian movie starts the drama at 100 and then turns it up. It’s as French as it is over-the-top as it is gay gay gay. Only the French would cast Jane Birkin in a love triangle with another woman and a man PLAYED BY HER BROTHER. It’s a brutal, unpleasant movie, but its magnetism is undeniable.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
dir. Céline Sciamma, 2019
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 6 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Portrait of a Serial Monogamist
dir. Christina Zeidler, John Mitchell, 2015
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Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★★
This anti-romcom follows the titular serial monogamist (and break-up expert) as she attempts to remain single, while longing for her ex and a barista crush. It’s light-hearted, Jewish, and Canadian. The film is as noteworthy for its relatable plotline as it is for its portrayal of the Toronto queer scene.
Princess Cyd
dir. Stephen Cone, 2017
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Genre: coming-of-age, comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 31 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
dir. Angela Robinson, 2017
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 16 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Prom
dir. Ryan Murphy, 2020
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, musical // Rating: ★★★
The rare big budget musical to focus on lesbians, Ryan Murphy’s Broadway adaptation is star-studded, sentimental, and filled with the kind of simple optimism ready-made to melt the hearts of former closeted theatre kids everywhere. This is a movie with lots and lots of zaz, but underneath all that glitz and glamour is the story of two small town lesbians who just want to be together — who just want to be themselves. In a cast of big names — like literally Meryl Streep — it’s IRL queers and on-screen newcomers Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana DeBose who make the movie sing. The movie’s message might be simple, but high school is simple. Messy and complicated and tragic and scarring and hopeful and simple. Open your unruly heart to these teen lesbians and you’ll be dancing and singing your way into a future of possibility.
Puccini for Beginners
dir. Maria Maggenti, 2005
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: comedy, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
Maria Maggenti’s very New York City romcom about a complicated love triangle is filled with charm due to some witty dialogue and great performances from Elizabeth Reaser and Gretchen Mol. Reaser’s Allegra is a self-identified lesbian afraid of commitment who suddenly falls for a man… and his ex-girlfriend. Chaos, of course, ensues. It’s not deep, but it is delightful.
Rafiki
dir. Wanuri Kahiu, 2018
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 30 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Reaching for the Moon
dir. Bruno Barreto, 2013
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Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★
Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares’ relationship was far from peaceful and this movie shows it in all its messy glory. Miranda Otto and Glória Pires play the headstrong women and they’re both magnetic to watch in their brief moments of joy and in their frequent states of conflict. It’s a film about depression, substance abuse, and the creative process — and how all three affect romantic relationships.
Red Doors
dir. Georgia Lee, 2005
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Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★
This dramedy about a dysfunctional Chinese-American family is an absolute delight. Elaine Kao plays Julie Wong, the family’s middle daughter, a gay medical student who falls for a famous actress. Their romance provides the film’s sweetest storyline. It’s a touching film about family and the constant struggle to live life from a place of truth.
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna
dir. Chantal Akerman, 1978
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 28 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Rent
dir. Chris Columbus, 2005
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Genre: musical // Rating: ★★1/2
Even fans of the musical would likely agree — or especially agree — that this adaptation doesn’t quite have the same magic as the show. But it does still have Idina Menzel as bisexual dreamboat/nightmare Maureen and isn’t that enough?? Rent means so much to so many queers and while the movie may have disappointed it still deserves recognition for capturing part of that legacy.
Replay
dir. Catherine Corsini, 2001
Unavailable
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Catherine Corsini would go on to make the far more romantic Summertime, but first she made this twisted tale of obsessive love. Nathalie and Louise are childhood friends unwilling to admit their feelings for each other. Louise is especially taken and over the course of decades alternates between full commitment and spiteful abandonment. This is a painful movie about jealousy and the cost of internalized shame.
Ride or Die
dir. Ryuichi Hiroki, 2021
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Genre: drama, thriller // Rating: ★★★
Based on the popular manga Gunjō, Ryūichi Hiroki lesbian romance is bonkers and gratuitous in the best ways. While probably too long, the first half hour and the last half hour, and the chemistry between Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato, are good enough to justify the rest of the journey. If you want to complain about this movie having a “male gaze” or whatever — you wouldn’t be totally unjustified, but at least don’t erase that it was written by a woman, Nami Yoshikawa. This may not be the most authentic lesbian movie (whatever that means) but it’s about big, irrational feelings and what’s gayer than that?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
dir. Jim Sharman, 1975
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Genre: classic, comedy, horror, musical // Rating: ★★★1/2
This musical cult classic isn’t usually associated specifically with queer women — but it should be! It’s safe to say Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania is, um, trans, and she’s very clearly bisexual. She has sex with Barry Bostwick’s Brad Majors and Susan Sarandon’s Janet. And damnit she also seems to have a sexual history with all of her henchmen and women. She may play into the predatory, less than consensual, murderous transfemme trope, but Rocky Horror is too campy to be taken so literally. Add in Columbia and Magenta all over each other during “Touch Me” and an orgy with all the characters at the end and it’s no wonder this one-of-a-kind musical has excited queer women and non-binary people for almost fifty years.
The Runaways
dir. Floria Sigismondi, 2010
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Genre: drama, musical, period piece // Rating: ★★★
Elevated by stellar performances from Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning and artful direction from Floria Sigismondi, this conventional music biopic tells the rise and fall of all-girl rock band The Runaways. It may fall into some of the genre’s silly tropes (watching Michael Shannon come up with “Cherry Bomb” on the spot is… an experience), but overall it’s a sexually fluid celebration of rock music and a cautionary tale of music industry misogyny.
Salmonberries
dir. Percy Adlon, 1991
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Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
All you really need to know about this movie is it stars kd lang. Yes, that kd lang. She plays an Inuit woman who has taken on a male identity to work as a miner in Alaska. She falls in love with an East German widower librarian much older than her and the two form an unlikely friendship/eventual romance. It’s a slow and odd film about identity and the past that doesn’t totally work but is endlessly fascinating.
Saving Face
dir. Alice Wu, 2004
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 2 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Second Star on the Right
dir. Ruth Caudeli, 2019
Our Review // Unavailable
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 33 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Secrets
dir. Avi Nesher, 2007
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Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
This story of two young women discovering queerness at a Jewish seminary is complicated by their encounter with a mysterious older woman eager to atone for her sins. Naomi and Michelle are both headstrong and brilliant even if Naomi is studious and conservative and Michelle is a rule-breaking, reluctant student. They quickly go from enemies to friends to lovers to co-conspirators as they assist this French stranger in her atonement. It’s a complicated film about faith and love and commitment to principles all in the face of patriarchy.
Set It Off
dir. F. Gary Gray, 1996
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Genre: action, drama // Rating: ★★★★
An absolute masterpiece of a heist movie. F. Gary Gray’s story of four women who decide to rob a bank is as excellent a drama as it is an action movie. We care so much about the women played by Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise and it makes the suspense all the more suspenseful. Queen Latifah is absolutely iconic as Cleo, the lesbian whose confidence is as dangerous as it is sexy.
Set Me Free
dir. Léa Pool, 1999
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 34 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Shiva Baby
dir. Emma Seligman, 2020
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy // Rating: ★★★1/2
This is officially a comedy, but with its horror movie score, claustrophobic cinematography, and premise of running into your sugar daddy and your ex-girlfriend at a shiva, it’s safe to say this is one of the scariest movies on this list. Rachel Sennott stars as Danielle, a 20-something on the precipice of college graduation who has no idea what to do with her life — career-wise or otherwise. Writer/director Emma Seligman excellently captures a specific type of Jewish culture and the simmering anxiety it induces. The cast — that includes Dianna Agron! — is excellent, especially Sennott who excels equally in moments where she’s living a nightmare and in moments where she is the nightmare. This is bisexual Jewish chaos at its absolute best.
Shortbus
dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 2006
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Genre: comedy, drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
John Cameron Mitchell’s second film is most well-known for its unsimulated sex. But to say this movie is about sex is to say this movie is about all the things that come with sex — no pun intended. It’s about intimacy and emptiness and searching and, yes sure, orgasms. This is an ensemble film filled with lots of genders and sexuality, but at its center is Sook-Yin Lee’s Sofia, a couple’s counselor who has never experienced an orgasm. Her search takes her away from her husband and into a friendship with a melancholy dominatrix, a sex party where she’s coached by a room of lesbians, a makeout with real life icon Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, and eventually a threesome that might just be what she needed all along. American cinema is prude and a film like this was inevitably going to be consumed with its own controversy, but ultimately Mitchell’s film is a sweet tribute to the queer journey — when the journey itself is as important as the destination.
Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål)
dir. Lukas Moodyson, 1998
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, romance // Rating: ★★★★
Number 15 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Signature Move
dir. Jennifer Reeder, 2017
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Genre: comedy, romance, sports // Rating: ★★★1/2
A late in life coming-of-age movie, this captures a very common queer experience — through the very specific lens of a Pakistani-American woman obsessed with Lucha-style Mexican wrestling. Fawzia Mirza stars and co-wrote the script and her natural likeability, impeccable comic timing, and chemistry with Sari Sanchez make this movie endlessly endearing. It’s part romcom, part family dramedy, and both threads feel nuanced and real. Also, lesbian wrestling!!
Simone Barbès or Virtue
dir. Marie-Claude Treilhou, 1980
Unavailable
Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Marie-Claude Treilhou’s debut film is split into three sections. The first introduces the titular lead, played by Ingrid Bourgoin, at her job as an usher at a porn theatre. She barbs and commiserates with her coworker as they rip tickets for an eccentric collection of (mostly) men. When her shift is over at midnight, she goes to meet her girlfriend at the lesbian bar where she works. This isn’t your average lesbian bar. There’s live music and live sword fights and, yes, plenty of astrology talk and dyke drama to go around. And, finally, at the end of the night she has an unexpected car ride with another lonely stranger. This nocturnal journey through the hidden corners of Paris is alternately casual and heightened, an odyssey with no destination but plenty to see along the way. The middle section provides a unique snapshot lost in most 20th century cinema and Simone is a heroine we still rarely see on screen.
A Simple Favor
dir. Paul Feig, 2018
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, mystery, thriller // Rating: ★★★1/2
A neo-noir comedy with a queer twist, this expertly plotted seduction is all about Blake Lively in suits, Blake Lively in suits, and Blake Lively in suits. Anna Kendrick is so funny and compelling as we watch her oscillate between lust and envy, wanting to consume Lively, but settling for a friendship, a kiss, and then an obsession. With every turn the movie deepens, increasing in intrigue, leading to an explosive — if not very gay — finale. Oh also Linda Cardellini plays a lesbian.
Spider Lilies
dir. Chou Zero, 2007
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Winner of Best First Feature at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, lesbian filmmaker Chou Zero’s romantic drama is a striking film. Years after a sudden tragedy, a cam girl and a tattoo artist — and former childhood sweethearts — navigate their conflicting boundaries and familial obligations as they try to reconnect. Chou’s style is poetic and dreamlike always turning back to her heroines’ interior lives.
Stranger Inside
dir. Cheryl Dunye, 2001
Unavailable
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
While more conventional in form and structure than much of Cheryl Dunye’s work, there’s still a lot to admire about this straight forward drama. Yolonda Ross is great as Treasure, an 18-year-old who meets her mother for the first time in prison. Dunye spent four years researching women’s prisons before making this project and that work is clear in the world that she builds for her characters.
The Strings
dir. Ryan Glover, 2020
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Genre: drama, horror, musical // Rating: ★★★★
More Chantal Akerman than your average cabin in the woods thriller, cinematographer Ryan Glover’s directorial debut is arthouse horror with an emphasis on the arthouse. And yet the deliberate pace is manageable when the form and subject are this compelling. The movie follows Catherine, a queer musician isolating at a remote cabin after a break up — a break up break up and a band break up. Catherine is played by musician Teagan Johnston, who also wrote the film’s songs. They have a casually watchable on-screen presence which is useful because we spend most of the movie doing just that — watching them drive, watching them drink, watching them write music. But what begins as lonely and mundane ultimately builds to moments of absolute terror. This movie has ghosts, this movie has great music, this movie has incredible cinematography, and, best of all, this movie has queer make outs.
Stud Life
dir. Campbell X, 2012
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Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★
This low-budget slice of queer London life centers on a black stud named JJ who vlogs about her experiences. Her best friend is a white gay man and the film focuses on that friendship and JJ’s new relationship with humor and sharp accuracy. There’s some casual transphobia and whorephobia, but it feels true to the messy characters trying to figure out how to navigate their community. Overall this is a really stellar film that feels grounded in a specificity we rarely see on screen.
Suicide Kale
dir. Carly Usdin, 2016
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 36 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Summer of Sangaile
dir. Alante Kavaite, 2015
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
This is a lush and sensual film. The cinematography does not simply capture the beautiful scenery and costumes and actors, but heightens their beauty. This is a film about depression and self-harm and self-destruction, yet the beauty that surrounds them and the beauty of their love is enough to fight off the demons. It’s rare that a film that deals this harshly with mental illness doesn’t feel the need to lessen its love story. Depression isn’t romanticized, it’s a hurdle, but it’s a hurdle that’s possible to clear.
Summertime
dir. Catherine Corsini, 2015
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Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
France! Lesbians! Feminism! This properly warm period piece follows Delphine, a sheltered rural queer, who falls in love with older activist Carole in 1971. It’s a celebration of first love, collective action, and the people who pave the way towards self-discovery. Izïa Higelin and Cécile de France are so gorgeous and hot together and give heartbreaking performances and the movie is just bursting with romance in every sense of the word.
Tahara
dir. Olivia Peace, 2020
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★★
Number 49 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Take Me for a Ride
dir. Micaela Rueda, 2016
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
A simple coming-of-age movie about queer teen love in Ecuador, Take Me For a Ride works because of the precise cinematography and the chemistry between lead actors Samanta Caicedo and Maria Juliana Rangel. The drama remains low-key and the film feels like a personal snapshot.
TÁR
dir. Todd Field, 2022
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★
Beloved by some, despised by others, Todd Field’s portrait of an domineering lesbian conductor Lydia Tár has certainly stirred conversation. Is it a sharp indictment of an abusive egotist? Or a shallow critique of “cancel culture” in defense of singular brilliance? Perhaps, it’s something in between. What everyone can agree on is Cate Blanchett. While Field may be better equipped to write his protagonist as a conductor than as a lesbian or a human being, Blanchett grounds the character and makes her come alive. It’s the kind of performance that’s only possible when an actor is both uniquely talented and has had decades honing her craft. The movie starts with a recreation of a New Yorker Festival talk on conducting and, with Blanchett at its center, it’s as riveting as an action movie.
Thelma
dir. Joachim Trier, 2017
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama, horror // Rating: ★★★
This beautiful coming-of-age thriller actualizes queer shame and repression. As Thelma navigates adjusting to college — and gay feelings — apart from her religious upbringing, she begins to have seizures and visions and potentially telekinetic powers. As the tension builds, the scope of the film widens with more imagery and plot twists. But at its core is simply a girl navigating her identity and trying to find herself separate from her family.
Therese and Isabelle
dir. Radley Metzger, 1968
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Genre: classic, coming-of-age, romance // Rating: ★★★
A landmark of lesbian cinema caught between Violette Leduc’s poetic truth and director Radley Metzger’s male gaze, this is an imperfect yet worthy work. This boarding school tale of young love avoids most of the tropes associated with similar stories, trading in plot for extended sex scenes, lush narration, and a visual representation of haunting memory. The second half of the film is especially stunning, for its time, yes, but for our time as well.
This Place
dir. V.T. Nayani, 2022
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★1/2
V.T. Nayani’s debut is a lesbian romance that has never been told. The romance itself is an escape, a connection, a reminder to both women that they can’t move forward until they look back. The conflicts of the film do not come from the usual tropes but rather from the scars of colonialism, the challenges of immigration, the fights recently fought, and those left to fight. This is the rare lesbian film with an interracial relationship that doesn’t include a white person, but to celebrate that alone is to ignore the real achievement: the specificity in how the film portrays the cultural backgrounds and individual characters of Malai (Priya Guns), a Tamal woman whose family immigrated from Sri Lanka, and Kawenniióhstha (Devery Jacobs), a Mohawk woman whose father (whom she never met) is Iranian. The film is as much about their separate explorations of their pasts as it is the connection they find with each other. All of these threads of story are balanced deftly, always grounded in the people, the cultures, the places, and the time periods on display. The performances and the filmmaking create a palpable intimacy on-screen, between the romantic leads, between the families. Even as the film deals with serious topics, a warmth pervades.
Titane
dir. Julia Ducournau, 2021
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
Car fucking, the Macarena, the metal hairpin, the bathroom sink transformation, the roommate slaughter — Julia Ducournau’s Titane is a film that invented its own mythology. So many details and moments demanded a place in our collective film consciousness, but Titane’s deepest achievements are found in the subtleties. Ducournau knows genre and she uses her shock and awe to seduce us into her twisted — and melancholy — exploration of gender and family. This isn’t a movie with answers. It’s an exploration. It’s a feeling. It’s a confounding work of art. It’s worth celebrating something so moving, so horrifying, so entertaining, so puzzling. Ducournau is an artist who is so confident in her ideas and in her form. If you’re open to it, she’ll take you for a ride.
To Faro
dir. Nana Neul, 2008
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Melanie dreams of going to Portugal to live out all her queer dreams. But instead she’s stuck in a small German town at a job she hates. When she meets Jenny and is mistaken for a boy she decides to take on the alter ego of Miguel, a sweet Portuguese boy that quickly wins Jenny’s heart. This results in a tender — but at times harrowing — tale of sexual and gender discovery. The twist that Jenny is younger than she first says adds an unnecessary uncomfortable element to the whole movie, but it’s still an affecting coming of age drama.
Tomboy
dir. Céline Sciamma, 2011
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Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
The quietest film of genius lesbian filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s already staggering career, Tomboy tells the story of 10-year-old Laure who is mistaken for a boy and begins to go by Mikael. Sciamma doesn’t clarify Laure/Mikael’s identity, instead living in the soft interiority of her protagonist’s exploration. They feel uncomfortable as a girl — or at least as the kind of girl they’re expected to be — and they long for the acceptance they are granted as Mikael. Tomboy was not originally included on this list, because it’s easy to read a trans male narrative onto Mikael. But just as Sciamma never provides easy answers, the film does not find easy categorization. Its resonance with queer people of many genders made it previously feel like an absence and now a worthy inclusion. Zoé Héran’s performance at the center of the film is one of the best by a young performer in recent years. This is a tender and beautiful film about queer childhood — its many hardships and its small moments of joy.
Tove
dir. Zaida Bergroth, 2020
Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★
While this biopic of Moomin creator Tove Jansson is relatively straightforward, it’s elevated by a casual gay angst and a strong central performance from Alma Poystï. It follows Jansson as she struggles between her desire to be a serious artist and her increasing Moomin fame. Meanwhile, she has a series of relationships with people of various genders as she continues her pursuit for a truly free life. That freedom is felt especially in the party scenes that welcome us into Jansson’s bohemia. A fun fact is Jansson was a Leo sun, Pisces moon, Libra rising, so the dyke drama is on full display. An even more fun fact is ALL THREE of her love interests featured in this movie were Aquariuses!
The Truth About Jane
dir. Lee Rose, 2000
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
Corny and wholesome — but still affecting — this coming-of-age movie follows Jane as she falls in love for the first time and comes out to her family and school. At its best when focusing on Jane’s relationships with queer mentors played by RuPaul and Kelly Rowan, it’s a simple but sweet tearjerker. Her tenuous relationship with her mother played by Stockard Channing is painfully relatable even as it alternates between realistic and heavy-handed.
Two of Us
dir. Filippo Meneghetti, 2019
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
There are two reasons to suffer through this tale of star-crossed elderly lesbians: Martine Chevallier and Barbara Sukowa. These two performances take a well-made maudlin story and make it an epic weepy worth crying over. They create characters we immediately care about and the love they show together feels real and lived-in. There are not nearly enough queer films focusing on older characters and while this may not be the most satisfying fill of that gap, it’s still noteworthy. The world may be against these two women but they do not accept their fate. They fight for their love, they fight for each other. It’s a beautiful — if painful — journey.
Unpregnant
dir. Rachel Goldenberg, 2020
Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, comedy // Rating: ★★★
A pro-choice friendship comedy, Rachel Goldenberg’s road trip romp is juggling a lot of tones. But its combination of silly and serious works, because of the two stellar performances at its center. Haley Lu Richardson and Barbie Ferreira create characters that are easy to root for and a chemistry that’s a joy to watch. Ferreira is queer IRL and she just feels so queer in every moment here. It’s exciting that we’re at a place where so many teen movies have at least one queer character — even more exciting that so much of young Hollywood is queer and can openly play those parts. The central love story of the film is the platonic one between the friends but fret not Ferreira still gets a crush and a kiss — with a monster truck driver played by Betty Who!
Unveiled
dir. Angelina Maccarone, 2005
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Jasmin Tabatabai gives a phenomenal performance in this story of an Iranian lesbian pretending to be a man and seeking asylum in Germany. It’s a difficult and heartbreaking film, but writer/director Angelina Maccarone resists easy dramatic choices in favor of a melancholy complexity.
V for Vendetta
dir. James McTeigue, 2005
Watch It
Genre: action, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Trust the Wachowskis to center queerness in a big budget action movie adaptation of an Alan Moore graphic novel. While Natalie Portman’s Evey and Hugo Weaving’s masked V aren’t queer — explicitly anyway — in extended flashback we watch how the film’s authoritarian government separated Valerie, played by Natasha Wightman, from her lover. It’s Valerie’s story that inspired V and inspires Evey, and ultimately inspires us, the audience. This lesbian love story is the emotional center of this film about revolution in the face of tyranny. It’s a fitting addition to a remarkable body of work from queer trans women sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski — officially as screenwriters and rumored as co-directors.
Valencia
dir. Clement Hil Goldberg & others, 2013
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, drama, experimental // Rating: ★★★★
Number 48 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Vampyros Lesbos
dir. Jesus Franco, 1971
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: classic, horror // Rating: ★★★1/2
The most well-known and most accomplished of 1970s lesbian vampire sexploitation, Franco’s appropriately named film is a bonkers explosion of guilty pleasure male gaze. The leftover-from-the-60s score and imagery that ranges from boats to scorpions makes for a silly and captivating viewing experience. Soledad Miranda is impossible to resist as a performer and a vampire.
Violette
dir. Martin Provost, 2013
Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece // Rating: ★★★
An accomplished and thoughtful biopic led by a remarkable performance from Emmanuelle Devos, this retelling of the life of Violette Leduc is an excellent introduction to one of the great queer women writers in history. The film largely focuses on Leduc’s personal and professional relationship with Simone de Beauvoir as the two women rise in literary esteem. It’s a rather chaste film considering Leduc’s work but it’s still an interesting look at a troubled yet accomplished artist.
Vita and Virginia
dir. Chanya Button, 2018
Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★★
While not quite the masterpiece these two icons deserve, there’s still a lot to love about this bold retelling of one of queer history’s greatest love stories. With a discordant score from Isobel Waller-Bridge, Chanya Button’s film refuses to stay in the past, ensuring its tale of women writers, polyamory, and unsustainable connection feels alive and current. Elizabeth Debicki and Gemma Arterton are a pleasure to watch and ultimately the film is as much about these individuals as writers as it is about them as lovers.
Walk on the Wild Side
dir. Edward Dmytryk, 1962
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: classic, drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
Barbara Stanwyck has a hot gay energy in most of her work, but only in this film did she actually play a lesbian. Unfortunately, the character is cruel and controlling in a sad way, not a sexy way. But this film that often feels like Tennessee Williams-lite isn’t lacking in pleasures. Jane Fonda’s scrappy sex worker Kitty Twist more than makes up for the story’s more maudlin elements. And even if she isn’t given the opportunity to embrace her sex appeal, Stanwyck humanizes the trope with the deep pain of an unhappy woman dissatisfied with her life’s circumstances.
Water Lilies
dir. Céline Sciamma, 2007
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 25 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
The Watermelon Woman
dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, drama // Rating: ★★★★
Number 5 on our Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list. Read more.
Welcome to the USA
dir. Assel Aushakimova, 2019
Unavailable
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★1/2
This is the only Kazakh film on this list and it’s always such a treat to get a window into a new country’s lesbian culture and cinema — especially when the film is this good. The title alludes not to the film’s setting, but to the future destination of the protagonist Aliya, wonderfully portrayed by Saltanat Nauruz. She has won the green card lottery and is beginning to say goodbye to a home she resents. Saltanat Nauruz is wonderful as Aliya. This subtle film is largely effective because of her performance. The whole film feels culturally and personally specific even as it explores issues many queer people face such as obligation vs. desire. It isn’t plot-heavy, but what’s on screen lingers long after it ends.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2021
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★★
The first “short story” in Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s triptych is called “Magic (or Something Less Assuring).” It’s a fitting subtitle for a movie that’s technically a series of realist conversations yet somehow crackles with the energy of an epic fairy tale. These are love stories, lust stories, stories of regret. They feel so regular until they feel like so much more. All three sections of the movie are beautiful, but it’s the last section — the gay section — that makes the film such a triumph. In a film of unlikely connections, Natsuko (Fusako Urabe) and Aya (Aoba Kawai) form the strangest and most beautiful. We can’t predict the lives we’ll lead, but we can appreciate the connections we make along the way. This is not a love story between two people — it’s a love story with the act of love.
When Night is Falling
dir. Patricia Rozema, 1995
Unavailable
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Silly melodrama and lesbian movie tropes are simply a mask for a queer poetic vision in this love it or hate it drama from Patricia Rozema. Pascale Bussières’ uptight Christian college professor and Rachel Crawford’s sexually forward circus performer are magic together finding just the right chemistry for the movie’s specific tone. With endless creative flourishes, Rozema set out to make a film about queer desire and either you’ll want to mock it or live in it — or maybe both.
Who’s Afraid of Vagina Woolf?
dir. Anna Margarita Albelo, 2013
Watch It
Genre: comedy // Rating: ★★1/2
Anna Margarita Albelo’s unique comic sensibility is on full display in this funny, charming movie based on a fictionalized version of herself. Low-budget and a bit all over the place, Albelo’s film works due to her committed performance, an endless formal inventiveness, and its unashamedly lesbian world. Also Guinevere Turner and Janina Gavankar co-star and Albelo spends much of the movie dressed in a vagina costume. What else do you need to know?
Wild Nights with Emily
dir. Madeleine Olnek, 2018
Our Review // Watch It
Genre: comedy, period piece // Rating: ★★★1/2
Shaking off almost two centuries of misrepresentation, Madeleine Olnek reclaims Emily Dickinson clarifying that gay does not equal old maid and homebody does not equal self-serious. Molly Shannon plays Dickinson and along with Olnek’s very funny script adds humor and sex appeal where it’s long been hidden. The fun of the movie is the entire point. It’s a fitting tribute to Dickinson’s life and work and a statement about the historical erasure of queer women.
Wild Things
dir. John McNaughton, 1998
Watch It
Genre: drama, thriller // Rating: ★★1/2
The erotic thrillers of the 90s aren’t lacking in girls kissing. Many of our gay awakenings were born out of male gaze exploitation flicks with little interest in our interior lives and more interest in our exterior titties. But with all its nonsensical twists, this movie best known for its threesome scene and its pool makeout, emerges as the standout. Queer characters of this era weren’t only villainized, but punished, their gayness often minimized. But — spoiler alert — Wild Things lets its lesbians win. In its attempt to place twist on top of twist on top of twist it seemingly stumbles into an end that’s kind of radical: gay Neve Campbell sailing off into the sunset.
A Woman Like Eve
dir. Nouchka van Brakel, 1979
Watch It
Genre: drama, romance // Rating: ★★★
Both ahead of its time and a product of its time, Nouchka van Brakel‘s classic is as much a work of feminism as it is a work of lesbianism. Monique van de Ven plays Eve, a housewife who has had enough. Her husband sends her on a beach vacation so she can collect herself and keep doing his laundry and instead she meets Liliane, a lesbian who lives on a commune. Maria Schneider plays Liliane with a dykey allure, a sexual autonomy robbed from her more famous roles. For Eve, Lilian and lesbianism provide not only new love but an alternate life, one where she’s more than just a wife and mother. The challenge becomes balance — can Eve maintain her new life off the commune? How can she live outside mainstream society while still living within it?
Women Who Kill
dir. Ingrid Jungermann, 2016
Watch It
Genre: comedy, romance, thriller // Rating: ★★★1/2
Part romcom/part thriller, Ingrid Jungermann’s film is about the scariest subject of all: commitment. With great performances from Jungermann, Sheila Vand, and a stacked supporting cast, the film balances all its conflicting tones. It becomes a solemn meditation on love and vulnerability, but it’s hilarious along the way.
Working Girls
dir. Lizzie Borden, 1986
Watch It
Genre: drama // Rating: ★★★★
One of two Lizzie Borden masterpieces on this list is the rare film to show sex work as, well, work. Focusing on a day in the life of lesbian Molly, Working Girls reveals the boredom and mundane difficulties of working at a Manhattan brothel. The film doesn’t romanticize sex work or sensationalize it — instead it just lets it be like any crappy job. The dynamics between Molly and her boss, her co-workers, and her clients are all compelling as they reveal more about her, the job, and society’s relationship to sex work. This is a landmark work of cinema that’s finally getting its due and a landmark work of lesbian cinema as well. All of the sex we see may be with men, but Molly’s identity isn’t tied to her job. Like so many queer people, Molly is doing what she has to do to pay the bills, so she can get home to her girlfriend, so she can someday spend her time on something other than work — any work.
The World Unseen
dir. Shamim Sarif, 2007
Watch It
Genre: drama, period piece, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
Shamim Sarif’s period melodrama based on her own novel is a corny love story — in all the best ways. Set in apartheid era South Africa, Sarif places her lovers in the context of several relationships banned by the racist and homophobic state. Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth have so much chemistry and Sheth is especially great as she gallavants around in pants giving speeches about feminism. Its message of acceptance is not particularly deep or radical, but Sarif knows exactly the kind of film she’s trying to make and she does so excellently.
Yes or No
dir. Sarasawadee Wongsompetch, 2010
Watch It
Genre: comedy, drama, romance // Rating: ★★1/2
With a cheesy score and endless adolescent feelings, this popular Thai film about a “normal” girl and her “tomboy” college roommate will make you feel 18 again. This movie may send a terrible message to baby butches in love with their lowkey homophobic seemingly straight girl roommates, but it’s simply too adorable to resist.
You & Me Forever
dir. Kaspar Munk, 2012
Unavailable
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★1/2
Brutal and filled with heterosexual sex, nevertheless this film is noteworthy for its realistic portrayal of teenage confusion. The protagonist isn’t sure why she’s so taken with the bisexual new girl in school, but she’s quickly at her mercy. The film painfully portrays how susceptible closeted queer people can be to manipulation and the immense cruelty of teenage girls.
Young & Wild
dir. Marialy Rivas, 2012
Watch It
Genre: coming-of-age, drama // Rating: ★★★
This sexually explicit coming-of-age movie follows Daniela, a painfully horny teen living in an evangelical household in Chile. She writes about her escapades (and her family) on her popular blog, but her feelings are more complex than her blog might lead on. Her guilt increases as sex turns into bisexuality turns into infidelity. With a range of specific sex scenes and well-drawn relationships, the film is a painful and inspiring tale of desire.
January 2023: What’s New, Gay and Streaming on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, Apple TV and AMC+
Well, my fellow television fans, it’s a brand new year and that means a brand new slate of programing with lesbian, bisexual, gay, queer and trans characters on streaming networks like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock and HBO Max. The main theme of this month’s guide is “this should be queer right???”
Top: Ginny & Georgia, The Last Of Us, The Drop, Hunters // Bottom: The Rig, Mars One, How I Met Your Father, The Legend of Vox Machina, Sky Rojo and The Traitors
New and Gay and/or Lesbian on Netflix in January 2023
Mars One (2022) – January 5
In this Brazillian family drama from writer/director Gabriel Martins, Eunice (Camilla Souza) — a college student ready to leave home and even more ready to explore her sexuality — is one of four protagonists. Writing about Eunice’s relationship with her girlfriend Jo in her rave review of the film, Drew wrote “their hotter than cute meet cute at a club, their dinner with Jo’s wealthy family, the way they love each other in the sort of impassioned yet insufficient way college students love. It all just feels so real. ”
Ginny & Georgia: Season 2 – January 5
Georgia’s reaction to Ginny and Austin leaving her and Ginny’s new knowledge about her mother’s actual activities are the powers shaping Georgia and Ginny’s relationship in Season 2. We’ll also be learning more about Georgia’s past and her relationship with Ginny’s father and Ginny will be dealing with the fallout within her group of friends from Ginny hooking up with her best (lesbian!) friend Max’s twin brother.
The Walking Dead: Season 11 – January 6
Sky Rojo: Season 3 – January 13
The third season of this Spanish Black Comedy Action Drama about “the impunity, ambiguity and brutal reality of prostitution, and the psychological portraits of those on both sides of the scale” will continue to feature Wendy, described as “a lesbian woman from Buenos Aires who flees Villa 31 and becomes a sex worker in the brothel to make money so she can provide a better life for herself and her girlfriend.”
Prime Video’s LGBTQ+ Stuff For January 2023
She Hate Me (2004) – January 1
This film is so bananas I can’t believe it got made! Probably Spike Lee’s worst project, She Hate Me is notable for making Kerry Washington bisexual. A man is facing some financial troubles that are not his actual fault and so he decides to become a sperm donor of sorts. His ex-fiancee, who came out as a lesbian after they broke up, sets up a situation in which groups of lesbians come over and pay him $10k each to have sex with him in hopes of getting pregnant. Words cannot describe the horrors of this movie.
Tangerine (2015) – January 1
Shot entirely on an iPhone, this iconic film follows two trans sex workers, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, on Christmas Eve, as just-out-of-jail Sin-Dee tracks down the pimp/boyfriend who’s been cheating on her and Alexandra’s on a journey towards her singing performance that evening.
The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) – January 1
Alanna Ubach is Noreen, a lesbian in love with a completely oblivious Marcia Brady, in this delightful satire that finds the original 1970s TV family plopped into the 1990s.
The Rig: Season One – January 6
This character-driven mystery follows the crew of the Kinloch Bravo oil rig as they must come together and fight for their lives after a fog cuts off all communication, stranding them in the harsh waves of the North Sea, no rescue helicopter of supplies on the horizon. Rochenda Sandall plays lesbian character Cat Brainwithe, and queer actor Emily Hampshire co-stars.
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) – January 6
“The first thing you should know about Jurassic World: Dominion is that it is not a very good movie,” writes Kayla in her review of the film. “The second thing you should know about Jurassic World: Dominion is that it features a bisexual pilot played by DeWanda Wise.”
Hunters: Season Two – January 13
It’s been nearly three years since season one of this Nazi-hunting dark comedy set in the ’70s starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman concluded its first season and now it’s finally back for its final one. In Season Two, our titular hunters must reunite to track down Adolf Hitler himself, who’s hiding in South America. Jerrika Hinton returns as Millie Morris, a lesbian who is investigating the Hunters. She had a really touching coming out storyline in the first season and now she’s back and out and proud.
The Legend of Vox Machina: Season Two – January 20
This “D&D liveplay game turned adult animated series” amped up the queerness of the original campaign the story is based on, with several queer female characters and promises of more to come in Season 2. Bisexual actor Stephanie Beatriz plays queer character Lady Kima and nonbinary actor Stacey Raymond is nonbinary character Bryn. Valerie described it as “funny and boisterous and you don’t have to know a thing about D&D to enjoy it.”
Queer HBO Max Shows and Films Streaming January 2023
Skate Kitchen (2018) – January 1
Writer-director Crystal Moselle’s 2018 indie Skate Kitchen was the inspiration for super-queer and unfortunately short-lived HBO series Betty, and it shares the show’s same five central characters. “Nina Moran’s Kirt was explicitly gay in the film and is explicitly gay in Betty, and she is a soft butch comedic delight in both,” wrote Drew in her review of Betty.
Velma: Season One Premiere – January 12
Velma’s lesbianism was confirmed as cannon in October’s Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, but the animated series premiering on HBO Max may not have gotten the memo, which apparently has been described as a love quadrangle: Velma (Mindy Kaling) has feelings for Fred, Shaggy has a crush on Velma, and Daphne (Constance Wu) has “complicated feelings” for Velma. Also, Daphne has lesbian Moms! The cast of voice actors is teeming with queer women including Cherry Jones, Jane Lynch, Fortune Feimster, Nicole Byer and Shay Mitchell.
The Last of Us: Season One Premiere – January 15
Based on a video game franchise heralded for being the first with an LGBTQ+ protagonist, our fingers remain crossed that HBO Max’s hotly anticipated adaptation will maintain that representation and also delicately navigate some of the original’s queer tropes. Taking place 20 years after the destruction of modern civilization, The Last of Us follows hardened survivor Joel, who’s been hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie (aforementioned protagonist, played by Bella Ramsey) out of an oppressive quarantine zone. But! What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey across the U.S. as they must depend on each other for survival. Apparently Ellie’s sexuality wasn’t confirmed until Last of Us II, and considering that she is, after all, 14, who knows how much queer stuff will be in the first season! Also I don’t really know what I’m talking about if we’re being honest! Storm Reid plays Ellie’s best friend Riley, whomst in the game does eventually become her more-than-friend.
Hulu’s January 2023 Shows for Girls, Gays and Theys
Are You The One? Complete Season 8 (MTV) – January 1
One of the world’s most impressive feats of reality television, this absolutely bananas concept — some method has determined whomst of a group of contestants are “the one” for each other and it’s up to them to figure it out — debuted an entirely bisexual cast in 2019. The world was never the same! If you haven’t watched this yet then I am so excited for you.
Professor Marston And The Wonder Women (2017) – January 1
This film from Angela Robinson, about the triad relationship between psychologist William Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman, his wife Elizabeth and their life parter, Olive Byrne, has everything: hot sex, a man who doesn’t suck, history, feminism and school!
Fantasy Island: Season 2 Premiere (Fox) – January 3
The Drop (2022) – January 13
Lex (Anna Konkle) and Mani (Jermaine Fowler) are a happily married couple trying to have a baby in this cringe comedy that finds them in a tropical location for their friend (and apparently Lex’s ex-lover!) Mia’s (Aparna Nancherla) lesbian wedding to Peggy (Jennifer Lafleur). But immediately upon arrival, Lex drops Mia’s baby (don’t worry it survives!), an event that puts a damper on the nuptials and initiates a spin-out of “recriminations, passive-aggressive behavior and uncomfortable tension” amongst this longtime group of friends.
9-1-1: Lone Star: Season 4 Premiere (Fox) – January 18
How I Met Your Father: Season 2 Premiere – January 24
We don’t know much about the second season of this Hulu original spin-off from How I Met Your Mother, but the show, which stars Hillary Duff as Jesse, also features Tien Tran as Ellen, Jesse’s adopted sister who started the first season after moving to New York from a small farming town following a separation from her wife.
Peacock’s Lesbians and Bisexuals of January 2023
The Traitors: Season One Premiere – January 12
Queer icon Alan Cumming hosts this unscripted competition series described as “a nail-biting psychological adventure in which treachery and deceit are the name of the game” in which 20 contestants compete in a series of challenges to earn a cash prize — but three contestants coined “the traitors” are devising a plan to steal the prize. Amongst these contestants is Andie Thurmond, a non-binary Director of Music Services from Reno, Nevada, who lives on a ranch with their wife and baby.
Poker Face: First Four Episodes Premiere – January 26
I saw the first six episodes of this show and I LOVED IT SO MUCH! This ten-episode Mystery-of-the-Week series from Rian Johnson follows Charlie (Natasha Lyonne), a grizzled former Poker champion with the extraordinary ability to tell when somebody’s lying. Following her friend’s murder, she hits the road in her Barracuda and encounters “a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve” at every stop. Although Charlie’s sexuality isn’t addressed (at least not in the first six episodes), there’s lots of queer characters encountered along the way and the truly stunning list of guest stars includes queer actors Clea Duvall, Rowan Blanchard and Cherry Jones.
Apple TV+ Getting Gay in January 2023
Truth Be Told: Season Three: Season Premiere – January 20
The third season of this series starring Octavia Spencer as true crime podcaster Poppy Scoville finds our protagonist working with unconventional school principal Eva (Gabrielle Union) to uncover a sex trafficking ring responsible for the disappearance of several young missing Black girls. Also, Eva is queer!
Potential Queerness on AMC+ in January 2023
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches: Series Premiere – January 8
Following up October’s super-gay Anne Rice adaptation Interview with the Vampire, AMC+’s next entry in the Anne Rice multiverse is Mayfair Witches, and showrunner Esta Spaulding confirmed on the TCA tour that the show will be “very queer,” telling the press, “it was a complete and total priority for us, and we want, you know, our audience to look at this show and look at all of the characters in the show and feel that they see themselves, whoever they are; that the show is inviting and inclusive of every point of view and … everybody who watches it.” The story is focused on a young neurosurgeon who learns she’s the heir to a family of witches and must navigate the intricacies of a sinister presence that has been shadowing her ancestors for generations. According to a review of the first book in the series, “several of the female witches had some bisexual experiences.”
Actually, These Are Christmas Movies, Too!
Holigays 2022 // Header by Viv Le
A few things are certain about Christmas, to me. One is that it will start earlier and earlier every year, with big box stores starting their marketing for the holiday as soon as they feel they can get away with it. Two, that inevitably the onslaught of holiday movies will begin, bringing with it a slew of Netflix movies and impassioned defenses of Love, Actually. Maybe I’m just a Grinch, but I find that they can become a little much, these holiday films, going a little too hard on the Christmas of it all can make the whole viewing experience feel not all that dissimilar to hearing “Last Christmas” over the loudspeakers of a CVS when you’re just trying to grab toothpaste.
So I’ve started keeping a list of movies that are Technically Christmas movies, but not actually Christmas movies. These are movies that include Christmas, sometimes even as a major part of the plot, but aren’t necessarily “about” Christmas. There’s something nice (and realistic) about that to me, in the way that many parts of the holiday season (visits to family, NOT visiting family, singledom, life partners, travel) always brings up all sorts of emotions, but aren’t necessarily the whole story. I think of these movies as a fireplace with stockings hung on them, rather than a Christmas tree in the center of the room.
Serendipity
Before I’d ever seen a Hallmark Christmas movie, there was this movie which begins with a meet-cute at a department store while Christmas shopping and ends (sorry spoilers incoming!) on the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center. It’s literally named after the store that got famous for hot chocolate! It’s cozy and lovely and totally unhinged, a progenitor of whatever Christmas film Netflix has just released.
Lady Bird
Okay, this one stretches the limits of the designation because it takes place roughly over the year of Lady Bird’s life (and honestly has more summer vibes), but I had to include it because of the scene at Christmas when the family exchanges small, inexpensive gifts because they can’t afford much more. Lady Bird’s mom, Marion (played heartbreakingly well by Laurie Metcalf) joyfully saying “It makes me laugh” about a needlepoint pun on a pillow brings a tear to my eye every time I see it!
Little Women
Like its sister, Lady Bird (both were directed by Greta Gerwig, they are sisters!), this movie unfolds over a long span of time but the Christmas portions are some of the most heartwarming bits, and Saoirse Ronan’s smiling “Merry Christmas, world” is enough.
Watching Lady Bird on a Friday night, as one who wants to induce a cathartic cry does, and am upset anew that Laurie Metcalf did not receive an Oscar for her delivery of “Makes me laugh” alone
— analyssa (@analoca_) February 1, 2020
While You Were Sleeping
This movie, in which Sandra Bullock pretends to be Peter Gallagher’s fiancee after saving him from a train (he’s in a coma) and then falls in love with his brother in the process, all begins on Christmas Day, when Peter Gallagher’s character (also named Peter!) is pushed onto the train tracks by muggers. Classic scenario!
When Harry Met Sally
I agree, I agree, this is the superior New Years film! However, like many films on this list that include New Years (the holidays are only a week apart!), it also includes Christmas. The juxtaposition of Sally Albright lugging her own Christmas tree home just a year after she and Harry purchased one together as friends? Quietly devastating! A perfect film to watch around Christmas time if the holiday gets you down and you want to turn that into optimism.
You’ve Got Mail
Before Vanessa Hudgens ruled Netflix, I think Meg Ryan was the queen of not just romantic comedies but HOLIDAY romantic comedies. This one also spans about a year (a little less) but the romantic climax begins right around Christmas time (I try to watch this every year right around November to get in the mood).
The Apartment
The acclaimed romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, which I watched for the first time this year as part of my rom-com viewing project, takes place at the end of December, and is another arguable New Years film, but an office Christmas party and talks of the emotional significance of Christmas fruitcake place it solidly on the Christmas list.
Eyes Wide Shut
If romcoms aren’t your thing, here’s where the list takes a turn! Eyes Wide Shut follows Tom Cruise on a wild night through New York where he attends a masked sex party filled with members of the city’s ruling class. The adventure is bookended by Christmas festivities, beginning with a Christmas party of a coworker and ending with Christmas shopping in a toy store, and there are tons of Christmas lights in the streets as Tom runs around the city!
Zodiac
Because David Fincher made this film, the movie chronicling the hunt for the Zodiac Killer has a very blue, gray, green color palette, perfect for a dreary winter day. A break in the case comes from the handwriting in a Christmas card, making this a tenuous entry on the list, but one for the less celebratory among us!
Cronos
Another film that may be more of a New Years movie, except that it’s been certified as a Christmas movie by its very own director! Cronos is the debut feature of director Guillermo del Toro. When an antique dealer finds a device that gives eternal life in his antique shop, he becomes immortal with one catch: he now has a taste for human blood. Murder, fights, drugs, all abound! ‘Tis the season!
That’s right, CRONOS is a Christmas movie https://t.co/GJaP7Cs4q1
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) December 8, 2022
About a Boy
Less a comedy and more a wry romantic drama, About a Boy follows Hugh Grant, whose character lives a comfortable playboy lifestyle due to royalties from a Christmas song, as he befriends a young boy and becomes integrated into his and his mother’s lives. They spend a Christmas Day together, one of the first holidays that Hugh’s bachelor character has spent with loved ones in a long while. It’s quite dark for a romcom, with suicide attempts, fake children and a lot of sleeping around, but eventually heartwarming. What family doesn’t have their issues, you know?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
If you still watch the Harry Potter films (hopefully because you own them on DVD from a long while ago), you probably know that many of them contain a Christmas scene, but the childhood wonder of Harry spending his first happy Christmas at Hogwarts makes this one the standout.
RENT and Spotlight have also been suggested as additions to the list by friends of mine, and I’m always on the search for more. If you have a not-Christmas Christmas movie to add, please let me know!
The 10 Best Queer Movies of 2022
Since I started writing at Autostraddle, my best movies of the year list aimed to mention every queer or lesbian movie — good or bad — to show just how many of our films are made each year. Well, it finally happened. There are finally too many.
I’ve tried to see as much as possible but I simply can’t see them all. What an exciting development! This year is also exciting because my queer list is almost identical to my general list. With the exceptions of Nanny and The Pink Cloud, the movies that moved me most this year were queer. And the movies that moved our culture were too.
Yes, this list has some underrated indies. But it also has several Oscar frontrunners — or at least Independent Spirit Award frontrunners. As queer people, we can’t look to the mainstream for validation. But it sure is fun when we get it anyway!
It’s also exciting to me that many of these films go beyond our conventional understanding of a queer movie. For many of these films, queerness is included and centered, but the conventions are not. There’s a difference between queerness not being the point and queerness being the point in totally new ways.
This list used to only be about lesbian cinema but this year we’ve expanded it to encompass all queer and trans cinema! There were just too many exciting works of trans art to leave them out.
Yes, we say best for those sweet list clicks — and because I have impeccable taste — but these are just my faves! I encourage you to comment what your favorite queer movies were this year and let me know what I might have missed.
Honorable Mentions
Anaïs in Love (dir. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet)
Crush (dir. Sammi Cohen)
Dos Estaciones (dir. Juan Pablo González)
Fire Island (dir. Andrew Ahn)
Girl Picture (dir. Alli Haapasalo)
Mija (dir. Isabel Castro)
Nothing Compares (dir. Kathryn Ferguson)
Please Baby Please (dir. Amanda Kramer)
Sirens (dir. Rita Baghdadi)
TÁR (dir. Todd Field)
Wendell and Wild (dir. Henry Selick)
A Masterpiece That Is Kind Of Gay and Kind Of Came Out This Year
Petite Maman (dir. Céline Sciamma)
Okay so most people counted genius lesbian auteur Céline Sciamma’s latest on last year’s film lists even though it had its main release this past May. It’s also not really a queer movie even if I do think it has a queerness to it beyond its writer/director. Anyway, it’s not included because of these technicalities, but I still wanted to give it a shoutout because it’s a gem of a movie — narrow in scope, vast in feeling.
The Top Ten
10. Death and Bowling (dir. Lyle Kash)
During a time when Hollywood seems uncertain about their support of trans stories, I can think of no better film to start off this list than Lyle Kash’s low-budget t4t fantasia. Whether or not society wants us to die, trans people will live. Whether or not the mainstream finances our work, trans artists will create. Kash’s film about a struggling trans actor begins as if it’s going to confront these questions head-on. But then it shifts. It becomes less about cis perception of trans people and more about our relationships to ourselves and each other. Friends, lovers, mentors, family. Our grief and our romance held in equal esteem. This is the kind of queer movie I was raised on. I dream of trans creators getting big budgets, but I will always have a fondness for work that is this scrappy and this formally confident.
9. Neptune Frost (dir. Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams)
Modern discourse often frames progress as new stories and new people being transposed into old frameworks. But the most exciting art invents itself. It creates a new language and new possibilities for the medium. Neptune Frost is an Afro-futurist musical about an intersex hacker that’s as radical in form as it is in subject. It pulses with energy. Fashion and technology. Poetry and dance. Connection and revolution. Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams have created a unique experience that cannot be missed.
8. Bodies Bodies Bodies (dir. Halina Reijn)
I don’t know why I was a hater and didn’t see this in theatres. I think there was just so much discourse about it and I thought it would be the kind of movie that wants to be hip but ends up anything but. Well I was wrong!! With sharp direction, a perfect cast, and a script from phenomenal playwright Sarah DeLappe, this turned out to be a whodunnit as smart as it is funny. If Glass Onion tried too hard to declare itself political, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a masterclass in prioritizing character and entertainment and ending up with a clearer message as a result. It may seem like the satire is aimed at Gen Z NYU students — and they do receive some hilarious jabs — but it’s more pointedly a critique of true crime media and the audiences who love it. When a group of people obsess over invented nightmares, what does it look like when they’re actually under attack?
7. Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)
Get Out was such a big hit that it has afforded Jordan Peele a level of creative freedom rarely granted in Hollywood nowadays — especially to anyone who isn’t white. It’s thrilling to watch Peele play in bigger and bigger cinematic sandboxes, each film more ambitious than the last. Nope is so funny and so entertaining that it’s easy to ignore just how audacious it is. Beyond its grand visual achievements, it is structurally inventive and thematically dense. Like Us, this is a film with a lot on its mind in ways that continue to unravel through thought and discussion. Oh and it stars the one and only Keke Palmer getting to play her whole queer self. I’m still convinced we’ll someday get a director’s cut where she at the very least flirts with Barbie Ferreira but even in the theatrical release she is explicitly queer. It’s not the point and yet in a movie partially about who is centered in film history and who is forgotten, this aspect of her character cannot be ignored.
6. Framing Agnes (dir. Chase Joynt)
Like Death and Bowling, this experimental doc begins as an exploration of trans representation and visibility before turning against its own premise. This is not a film about Agnes or the other trans subjects found in UCLA’s mid-century archive. It’s a film about why that film would be impossible. It validates and then questions our hunger to consume these stories. Yes, there is a difference between trans people yearning for history and cis people commodifying our experiences. But that difference is not as vast as we’d like to think. This is a challenging film that is worthy of discussion and debate. And, as Chase Joynt described in our interview, it’s a film made as a cohort. This commitment to collaboration is why it feels so worthy of dissection — that work begins by its own creators within the film itself.
5. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (dir. Jane Schoenbrun)
If Framing Agnes is a movie that engages with visibility before suggesting we move toward other forms of trans storytelling, then Jane Schoenbrun’s breakout feature is that other form. There is nothing explicitly trans about the film in the traditional sense and yet its transness is inherent. It is a film made by a singular artist during their transition and the way the film engages with isolation, the internet, and the body all feel tied to this experience. David Lynch movies scare me more than conventional horror because the uncanny is what I find truly unsettling. Well, this film is the same, except it finds the uncanny in grounded experiences of modern life rather than exaggerations of that life. It’s a subtle difference but it adds to the film’s emotional core. Along with Anna Cobb’s stunning performance, it’s why the film feels as heartbreaking as it does horrifying, as familiar as it does strange. Jane is already in post on their next movie and there are few artists I follow with this much excitement.
4. Everything Everywhere All at Once (dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert)
Whether or not this is your favorite movie of the year, it is arguably the movie of the year. A24 are brilliant publicists and when they’re working with a film that’s actually great it results in the kind of cultural event that’s now usually reserved for Marvel. By now you’ve probably seen this film and either love it or think it’s overrated. I understand people who think it grows tiresome, or that it’s trying too hard to be clever, or who take issue with the butt plug gag. But I think its fans and detractors alike have undersold one of its boldest and messiest achievements: it doesn’t align with the perspectives of any of its three main characters, but rather gives them each a moment, a voice, and then accepts balance. It’s fitting for a movie that has already incited much debate and will only incite more as award season ramps up. I don’t care if you had the same emotional reaction that I did watching this film. I’m just excited there’s a hit film this year filled with originality and practical effects that’s complex enough to inspire debate. And I’m excited that film centers around an angsty gay girl and her mother.
3. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (dir. Laura Poitras)
Nan Goldin has been one of my heroes since I stumbled upon The Ballad of Sexual Dependency at The Whitney. There are many reasons to love Goldin’s work on a formal level but upon reflection I’m sure the queerness and transness was part of my connection. Laura Poitras’ documentary is about Goldin’s work — and it’s about so much more. By framing this portrait around Goldin’s fight against the Sackler family, it recontextualizes her work as merely one part of an artistic life that has sought truth and justice. Poitras makes the wise choice to learn from her subject. She collaborates with Goldin the way Goldin has collaborated with her own subjects over the years. Ultimately, the movie ends up as a tribute to collective action — in artmaking and in activism.
2. Tahara (dir. Olivia Peace)
Due to the nature of the festival circuit and the bleak landscape for indie film, I’ve been writing about Tahara for over two years. I first saw it while on the screening committee for Newfest and I was immediately taken with its bold approach to a story we’ve presumably seen before. Queer teen girl is in love with her mostly straight best friend — it’s a cliché. But with Olivia Peace’s direction, Jess Zeidman’s script, Tehillah De Castro’s cinematography, and a perfect cast led by Madeline Grey DeFreece and Rachel Sennott, it becomes a wholly original work of queer expression. This may be the last time I write about Tahara as a new release, but I’ll be writing about it and talking about it for years to come. Movies this small may feel easy to dismiss and yet they’re often the ones that impress me most. It takes so much talent to make a film like this feel effortless, to take the risks this does and have them all pay off. It deserves my years of gushing and everyone involved deserves decades of success.
1. Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells)
This is one of the few movies on this list I didn’t review. To be honest, I’ve been struggling with how to write about it. It’s a beautiful thing that someone can make a work of art so personal to herself that all around the world it becomes personal to others. It’d be less vulnerable to read you a page from my diary or cut open a vein than it would to talk about some of my favorite movies.
Exactly what Charlotte Wells is doing in her feature debut remains elusive for most of the film’s runtime. The mix of camcorder footage and patient 35mm cinematography. The hazy combination of past and present and an imagined third space somewhere in between. So much of the movie feels casual — a father and his twelve year old daughter on vacation, a slice of life in Turkey — its bold strokes seem incidental. Until they don’t.
This is the rare coming-of-age movie about a queer kid who doesn’t yet understand that queerness. Her self-discovery we witness is not first love — it’s deeper knowledge of her parent and therefore half of herself. I can’t quite write about this film yet. Not fully. But it’s very special to me. Maybe it will be special to you.
December 2022: What’s New and Gay on HBO Max, Netflix, Prime Video, Peacock, Hulu, Paramount+ and Prime Video?
It’s hard to believe that December is already upon us, and with it the enduring question: which lesbian, queer, bisexual and trans women characters can we anticipate to be streaming upon Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+ and so forth? The answer is “not a whole lot” because it is now the holiday season, and despite a handful of queer developments in the past few years, we have been aggressively overlooked as a community in 2022.
I looked deeply into the contents of so very many new Christmas movies debuting this season and came up completely empty-handed regarding queer women and trans characters, although I would like to give my regards to the cis gay male community because they are about to have a banner year!
The only new Christmas movies announced thus far with queer women characters are Merry & Gay, which debuts December 1st on queer streaming platform DivaBoxOffice.TV and, allegedly, one called “Looking for Her” on Tubi, which I cannot find any info about aside from a brief mention in this Entertainment Weekly article.
Anyhow, let’s get into what else is on!
HBO Max’s LGBTQ+ Content for Gals, Gays and Theys in December 2022
Sort Of: Season Two Premiere – December 1
We’re so extremely very excited for the return of Sort Of, which won Most Groundbreaking Representation in the 2022 Autostraddle TV Awards. HBO Max has declared that it is the “season of love” for Sabi Mehboob (Bilal Baig) who’s looking for uncomplicated romance and for everybody in their lives to love each other. But drama is afoot: their Dad returns unexpectedly from Dubai, the Kaneko-Bauers are struggling with Bessy newly released from rehab and Bar Bük is facing a potential eviction and shutdown.
Gossip Girl: Season 2 Premiere – December 1
According to Collider, Season Two of this reboot about hot rich teenagers at an elite high school in New York City terrorized by revelatory text messages is “packed with as much campy fun and sharp pop culture references as the first go-around” while also containing “some of the first season’s flaws.” Queer character Monet will be working on her complicated relationship with her mother, continuing her quest for power and exploring her sexuality “a little more.”
Doom Patrol: Season 4 Premiere – December 8
In Season 4, “the team unexpectedly travels to the future to find an unwelcome surprise” and then, “faced with their imminent demise, the Doom Patrol must decide once and for all which is more important: their own happiness or the fate of the world?” Diane Guerrero is returning as lesbian character Kay Challis/Crazy Jane and Madeline ZIma is joining the cast as bisexual character Casey Brinke.Space Case, an everyday EMT with a peculiar origin story of her own sucked into the Doom Patrol’s escapades.
I Hate Suzie Too Premiere – December 22
I didn’t know we were getting another season of this delightful British black comedy! What a Christmas miracle! This three-part “anti-Christmas Christmas special” will find Suzie (Billie Piper) amid a rebrand with a new agent and a new job on a reality competition show, Dance Crazee. Her personal life remains rocky — she’s estranged from her best friend Naomi (a bisexual character played by Leila Farzad) and her ex-husband Cob, while trying very hard to create a good life for her son. Trans Iranian writer/actor Yaz Zadeh is also joining the cast.
Netflix’s LGBTQ+ Movies and TV Shows for December 2022
My Unorthodox Life: Season 2 – December 2
In Season Two, former ultra-orthodox business mogul Julie Haart battles for control of her empire while going through a divorce. Furthermore, she will be attempting to reconnect with her daughter Batsheva and guide her daughter Miriam through her first committed relationship with a woman.
The Circle: Season 5 – December 28
The fifth season of social media reality TV show “The Circle” has filled its one-bedroom apartments with singles, including the series’ first deaf contestant and quite a few LGBTQ people, including at least one bisexual woman.
I’m also getting a vibe from some of the stills from the Norwegian series “A Storm for Christmas,” out December 16, but obviously cannot confirm at this time.
Prime Video’s Offering To the LGBTQ+ Audience In December 2022
Something from Tiffany’s (2022) – December 9th
Two straight couples — Zoey Deutch is in one of them and Shay Mitchell is in the other — have a Tiffany’s box mix-up that causes their paths to cross and “sets off a series of twists and unexpected discoveries that lead them where they’re truly meant to be.” Importantly for us here, Jojo T. Gibbs and Javicia Leslie are lesbian wives!
The Almond & The Seahorse (2022) – available for rent on December 16
Queer actress Rebel Wilson plays an archeologist grappling with her husband’s traumatic brain injury in this drama that also stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as an architect who’s female partner is suffering from a similar brain injury. Together they “fight to re-imagine a future” that has left them “adrift from the people they love” and, judging from the trailer, do find that solace in each other’s arms/mouths.
Hulu’s Lesbian and Queer and Trans Characters for December 2022
Life Partners (2014) – December 15
A delightful little comedy about “two codependent best friends — one straight girl, one lesbian — and the man who comes between them.”
Mack & Rita (2022) – December 23
30-year-old influencer Mack, who idolizes her dead grandmother and has always felt older than her peers, goes to a past-life regression situation and emerges in the body of a 70-year-old played by Diane Keaton. When this film came out pretty much everybody hated it. The alleged comedy also features Loretta Devine as Sharon, the mother of Mack’s best friend Carla (Taylour Paige), and Sharon is a queer woman who left her husband for a woman who then died.
LetterKenny: Season 11 – December 26
This comedy revolves around a small rural Canadian community and two siblings who run a small farm and produce stand. In 2019, Valerie called it “surprisingly queer.”
Peacock’s Queer Content for December 2022
Survivor’s Remorse: Seasons 1-4 – December 1
This critically acclaimed Starz dramedy is about the family of Cam Calloway, an NBA basketball player who’s just made the big time and moved his family from Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood to Atlanta. Erica Ash is Mary Charles “M-Chuck” Calloway, Cam’s lesbian half-sister, who Carmen wrote was “one of TV’s most important lesbian characters” and truly I cannot recommend this show enough, I loved it with my whole heart.
Bros (2022) – December 2
This major studio gay rom-com that got so much press about people not going to see it that nobody ended up going to see it is focused on the love story between two white cis gay men, but has “a queer world that is predominantly trans and POC — even if the white cis gay men are the only ones with real characters.” Drew has described it as “not revolutionary, but hilarious.”
The Real Housewives of Miami: Season 5 Premiere – December 8
The first four episodes of the fifth season will drop on December 8, bringing with it openly bisexual model-turned-farmhand Julia Lemigova, who is married to transphobic tennis star Martina Navritalova. According to Kayla, “Her main storylines are having goats, saying goodbye to her teen daughters who are moving away, and possibly being in love with and/or romantically loved by her best friend Adriana de Moura.”
Paramount+ Bisexual Content in December 202
Sampled: Season One Premiere – December 13
This travel documentary series “presents a visceral exploration of international cities from the viewpoint of traveling musicians on world tours, exploring Berlin, Monterrey, Amsterdam, London, Medellin and Tokyo.” The Tokyo episode features bisexual singer/songwriter Arlo Parks.
Holigay Gift Guide: 10 Rare Lesbian Movies To Buy for the Queer Cinephile Who Has Seen Everything
Holigays 2022 // Header by Viv Le
My DVD collection is older than my closest friendships. As a kid, DVDs and then Blu-Rays were pretty much all I ever asked to receive as gifts. Birthdays, Hannukahs, whenever my mom was in a good mood and we were at Target — from big chains to artsy video stores, I’ve spent decades seeking out the cinema I wanted to see most.
In the age of streaming, it may seem like physical media is the way of the past. But streaming options are very limited, and while some gaps can be filled if you’re crafty enough, a lot of online bootlegs are low quality or not available at all.
Scroll through the all time lesbian movie list and you’ll quickly realize that many of the films are labeled “unavailable.” That’s where this gift guide is here to help. Unavailable means unavailable to stream — not necessarily unavailable completely. So whether you’re getting yourself a holiday present or searching for that special cinephile in your life here are ten DVDs or Blu-Rays to add to your list.
10. House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection (Blu-Ray)
Jane Arden’s unique masterpiece The Other Side of the Underneath was recently named by Kayla and I to have the scariest queer movie moment of all time. While the film is still streaming on Shudder, the extended workprint version is only available in this box set. And considering the limits of streaming deals, I’d never trust any movie only available on one site to be online for more than a few months. Not only do you get Arden’s film and its extended cut in this box — you also get several other works highlighted in Kier-La Janisse’s seminal book. This is a must have for any queer horror lover and all psychotic women.
9. Make a Wish (2002)
Speaking of horror, there are only three copies of Sharon Ferranti’s lesbian slasher left on Amazon. I’m pretty sure Kayla bought the fifth and I bought the fourth. Generally, I do not support Amazon dot com but I made an exception for this because a slasher movie about a lesbian gathering her exes for a camping trip could not be missed. Initially released by Wolfe Video, this disc comes with a commentary track featuring Ferranti. It’s a fun, low-budget romp that twenty years later has found no equals in the mainstream. Read Kayla’s full piece about it!
UPDATE: No need to shop on Amazon! This is back on the Wolfe Video website!
8. Therese and Isabelle (1968)
Violette Leduc’s lesbian schoolgirl literary classic has finally received a new release in print. But the movie adaptation it inspired is still hard to find. Some have criticized exploitation director Radley Metzger’s take on the work, but I’d argue it’s still a worthwhile watch even if it lacks Leduc’s perspective. There is plenty of room in the canon of lesbian cinema for sleazy art and I wouldn’t even be so quick to write this off as just sleaze. There is still a poetry to it — even in the sex scenes. Especially when placed in the context of the 1960s, this film earns its place in the canon while still holding pleasures for an adventurous modern viewer.
7. Girl with Hyacinths (1950)
Early lesbian cinema may have been marred by tragic death, but this very early Swedish classic does it with a unique twist. The entire film centers around an investigation into a queer woman’s suicide and while this may seem dour, the knowledge from the beginning saves the usual cruel shock. Instead it allows for a film that really explores this woman as a human being and reveals a far more complicated life than most on-screen lesbian suicides that seem to exist just to satisfy the morals of the time. Ingmar Bergman himself considered this a masterpiece and I agree!
6. The Daughters of Fire (2018)
Many of the films on this list were lost to time, but even our contemporary art is still kept from us. I saw this artful, feminist, queer, trans exploration of sex and pornography at Outfest in 2019 but except for a brief run on MUBI, it never got a formal release. A lot of queer films I see at festivals don’t get the releases they deserve, but most end up streaming somewhere in a few years. Not this one! I’m sure it’s graphic sexuality is part of the reason, its commitment to showing a sexuality that’s entirely queer and inclusive to a wide variety of bodies is likely another. Luckily there’s a region free DVD out there you can track down or order!
5. Memento Mori (1999)
One more for the horror gays! This masterpiece entry of the Whispering Corridors series is actually worth watching for gays who love ghosts and gays who don’t. It’s less straightforward horror and more a meditation on grief, first love, and those first steps out of the closet. It’s a beautiful film and a personal fave of mine. It’s like a supernatural, less campy version of Lost and Delirious! So if all this sounds appealing to you — or the cinephile in your life — this one is more than worth tracking down on eBay. Also I wrote an essay about it a few years back if you need more convincing.
4. Set Me Free (1999)
While we’re on the topic of Lost and Delirious, did you know its director Léa Pool is a lesbian who has a whole filmography of lesbian storytelling? And while this Quebecois icon may have lost you with her heavy-handed English language debut, her actual debut is a coming-of-age queer classic. Following a teen girl with a challenging home life, a crush on the same girl as her brother, another crush on her teacher, and yet another crush on French actress Anna Karina, Pool’s understated tale reveals itself to be the origin story of a queer filmmaker. It’s a beautiful film that used to be on the Criterion Channel but now is nowhere to be found — except on OOP DVDs!
3. Entre Nous (1983) (Blu-Ray)
This list mostly consists of rare, used DVDs but this is the exception. Diane Kurys’ French lesbian classic was recently restored and is finally getting a proper release from Cohen Media. Starring Isabelle Huppert and Miou-Miou, this tale of two unhappily married women during WWII who find love with one another is as austere as that premise suggests. You’re either into that kind of lesbian period piece or you’re not — if you are then this is the release of the season. Cheap DVDs will do if that’s all we can get, but proper releases like this one should always be the goal — and expectation! — for our cinema.
2. Manji (1964)
Evidence that if you live in a major city, or any city with a good video store, you can sometimes find the best movies offline. I got my copy of this twisted Japanese classic by rummaging through the LGBTQ section at Amoeba Music in Hollywood! It’s noteworthy because any explicitly queer movie from 1964 would be noteworthy but it’s also really good! It makes the American erotic thrillers of the 80s and 90s feel like innocent bores with its shocking psychosexual turns. I also wrote an essay about this one if you want to read more
1. Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål) (1999)
Ah the holy grail of lesbian movies. I don’t know why this popular Swedish movie from popular Swedish director Lukas Moodyson is still largely unavailable. Maybe it’s due to rights issues for the soundtrack. I do believe we will see a proper release of this film at some point, but that could take years! So if your purse is deep or your wallet is fat you can get a copy for seventy dollars. Equal parts sweet and sour, there’s a reason why just about everyone who saw this film two decades ago or has managed to find it since feels so warmly about it. Just don’t be tempted by the cheaper options on Amazon because those either don’t have English subtitles or are region coded for somewhere else. Unless, of course, you live in a country other than the US or Canada or speak Swedish, in which case lucky you!
UPDATE: Incredible news! Show Me Love will be included in a limited edition Blu-Ray box set of Lukas Moodysson films coming soon from Arrow.
Ranking “Wizard of Oz” Characters by Gay Energy
As a kid that didn’t feel at home in her family, I loved two movies: Annie (1982) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). I think both movies are about feeling lost and finding family in unusual places. I watched these movies religiously, often more than once in a day. While Annie was my favorite of the two, I’ve been revisiting The Wizard of Oz recently through the eyes of my three-year-old niece. She loves it and reminds me how much I used to love the movie, too.
A couple of days ago I woke up with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in my head. With legendary songs, a cast of characters, and visuals that dazzle to this day, The Wizard of Oz is still a classic worth watching. Because it is my duty to view everything around me through a gay lens, I’m here to rank the characters of this movie from least to greatest gay energy. You may disagree, you may be surprised, but keep in mind this is my ranking, my opinion, and I’m right.
I’ll be ranking the main cast — and maybe some others — so let’s kick this thing off.
12. Auntie Em
We don’t spend a ton of time with Auntie Em, but its enough time to know this woman is 100% heterosexual. No fruity energy emanating off of those finger waves.
11. Uncle Henry
Auntie Em and Uncle Henry are the kind of parents that when you come out they’re like “lots of girls have little crushes on their friends, you’ll get over it doll.” So not dangerously homophobic, but still not great. These two are low on the list because I don’t even get the slightest whiff of homosexuality from them.
10. Glinda
You’re probably thinking, “no way, Glinda is giving high femme.” and you’re wrong. Glinda is an ally, she’s definitely the art teacher or English teacher you ate lunch with as a young closeted queer but she’s not really giving alphabet mafia vibes now is she?? Glinda is proud of you for bringing a girl to the prom that she is chaperoning, that’s it.
9. Toto
We are encroaching on gay energy now. Toto is yappy which translates to being smart-mouthed, and we gays are known for our quick wit. Also a little ugly dog is the gay person’s favorite accessory, so Toto is a little queer by association.
8. The Wizard of Oz
Hiding, pretending to be someone you’re not, is a smidgen gay. Making grand, swooping gestures and promises from behind an emerald curtain is giving showmanship, performance, drama!
7. Dorothy Gale
Dorothy might appear stick straight but there’s a little something about her that gives me closeted vibes. I think she has this yearning, especially the yearning for a different life, that makes her kinda dykey. Also, rounding up a clan of well-meaning, but incompetent, men and leading them is giving ultimate utilitarian lesbian big time.
6. The Scarecrow
The scarecrow is DL and I won’t be elaborating.
Yearning for a brain? Okay, queen.
5. The Tin Man
The Tin Man seems like a nice older gay man with a husband and a couple dogs. Also, and this is important, I played the Tin Man in an elementary school production of Oz and everyone knows I’m the biggest dyke of all time so the Tin Man is gay. I rocked my lil gray sweatsuit and said my lines!
4. The Flying Monkeys
You’re gonna look at me and tell me they aren’t giving chaotic bisexual energy? In their cute little outfits, flying around?! Anything that can fly is gay. This is not a rule I made up even though it sounds like it is. You ever seen a hummingbird? Flitting around like that is queer, its top of the list of gay activities!
3. Wicked Witch of the West
She’s a bitter dyke, a lesbian villain, only governed by her thirst for revenge. In all black and again…FLYING!! Also: poppies… POPPERS?!?! You see where I’m going with this. Wicked Witch of the West is like the perpetually single lesbian in your life that’s over it but doesn’t enjoy dating enough to get back out there. She’s catty, mean, quick with one-liners. Gay.
2. Wicked Witch of the East
Dead.
1. The Cowardly Lion
He talks with such a flourish, rolling his R’s in an unnecessary fashion, the little bow in his mane. The Cowardly Lion is the gayest of them all. I must come back to the yearning, he feels like he has to be this masculine, fearless lion because of the narrative about his species but he’s a darling who loves to break out into song.
Also when they all finally meet and decide to go see the Wizard and sing their little song, the part where they go:
“I’m sure to get a brain (The Scarecrow)
or a heart (the Tin Man)
a home (Dorothy)”
and then he comes in with “the NERVE (pronounced NEY-ve)” is so fucking funny and gay oh my god. His growls and purrs have me on the floor. Purring is gay, it just is. We have claimed it. He’s also has a perpetual case of limp wrist.
I could go on and on but who’s got the time. He is the King of the Forest, and the King of my Heart, and that’s that on that.
What were your comfort movies as a kid? What’s your ranking? Let me know in the comments!
November 2022: What’s New and Gay on Netflix, HBO Max, Showtime, Peacock, Hulu, Disney+ and Prime Video?
As we head boldly in the direction of November, everybody’s favorite Introduction to December, one comes around to asking oneself: what is new in the world of television and film on channels such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, HBO Max and Showtime when it comes to lesbian, queer, bisexual, trans and otherwise-compelling-to-us characters? The answer is “not much” but also, it’s L Word Generation Q season so I think we’ll survive!
Netflix’s LGBTQ+ Movies and TV Shows for November 2022
Manifest: Season 4A – November 4
The fourth season of this drama about the aftermath of a mysterious plane crash is set two years after Grace’s murder, with the Stone family picking up the pieces as death day approaches. Bisexual character Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) is continuing her work at Eureka despite interference from the government and the lack of funding that comes when your operation is no longer supposed to exist.
Warrior Nun: Season 2 – November 10
I’m gonna be honest I have yet to cast my eyes upon this program and nothing I am reading about it is friendly to the perspective of an outsider so here is the season synopsis: “Ava and the Sister-Warriors of the OCS must find a way to defeat the angel, Adriel, as he attempts to build his following into the dominant religion on the planet.” One of the main characters, Sister Beatrice, is a lesbian!
Dead To Me: Season 3 – November 17
“Just pitched all of Dead to Me Season 3 to my partners at Netflix and they’re excited and I’m excited and I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’RE GONNA LET ME TELL THIS STORY,” Liz Feldman tweeted about the final season of Dead To Me. In Season Two, Judy hooked up with a cop played by Natalie Morales, who will be returning to the cast. There’s a trailer right here for you!
Elite: Season 6 – November 18
This Spanish bananas teenage soap opera about hot young people who love blackmail and filming sex on their mobile telephones is back for a sixth season of chaos as Las Encinas deals with the impact of the death of yet another student at their deadly school. The Elite Wiki says the season will tackle systemic issues like racism, sexism and LBGTI_phobia. Sadly, bisexual badass Beka has left the show but queer character Mencia is looking very flirty with new character Sara in promo pics! I love this homoerotic romp, it never ceases to entertain.
HBO Max’s LGBTQ+ Content for Gals, Gays and Theys in November 2022
The Big Brunch, Season One Premiere – November 10
This reality competition show hosted by Dan Levy brings together ten talented brunch chefs with big dreams and a commitment to their local communities and personal heritage. The contestants include queer private chef J Chong, who is “passionate about bringing Cantonese food to her sweet little mountain town of Asheville” and non-binary L.A-based chef Catie Randazzo, who says “brunch is the perfect place to meet up with friends and family to bond over pancakes, memories and mimosas.”
The Sex Lives of College Girls: Season Two – November 17
One of my favorite shows of 2021 is finally back, with the foursome of Kimberly, Leighton (a lesbian character played by queer actor Renee Rap), Whitney and Bela navigating their way through relationships, underwear parties and strip show fundraisers as they proceed merrily along their college journey. In the trailer, it appears Leighton will be dating 30 women at once and having a lot of sex!
Love, Lizzo (2022)
Over the course of three years, filmmakers followed Lizzo through the Cuz I Love You world tour, the pandemic, and recording her latest album and this “intimate documentary” is the result, promising to show the artist getting “candid about body-positivity, self-love, and recognizing Black women for their contributions.”
We’re Here: Season 3 – November 25
Bob the Drag Queen, Shangela, and Eureka continue to journey across America, helping innocent people stage one-night-only drag shows.
Prime Video’s Offerings To the LGBTQ+ Audience In November 2022
Leverage: Redemption Season 2 (Freevee) – November 16 (US + UK only)
In this follow-up to the original Leverage (2008 – 2012), reformed criminals — the Hitter, the Hacker, the Grifter and the Thief — have returned, and along with a new tech genius and corporate fixer, they’re ready to take on a new style of villain and provide leverage to people who need help. Queer actress Aleyse Shannon plays lesbian character Breanna Casey, Hardison’s foster sister and the new tech genius, a skilled hacker and engineer. This season, “the corporate bad guys and dirty dealers are stepping on the little guy in their quest for money and power and the Leverage team is back to teach them a lesson.”
Hulu’s Lesbian and Queer and Trans Characters for November 2022
All Rise, Season 3A – November 9
This drama that “pulls back the curtain on the court system and shows the chaotic and sometimes absurd lives of judges and attorneys as they work with bailiffs, clerks, cops and jurors to bring justice to the people of Los Angeles” was cancelled at CBS and revived by OWN for its third season. Marg Helgenberger plays (lesbian) Supervising Judge Lisa Benner.
Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne: Season One – November 29
The model/actress who identifies as “100% queer” in Episode One is bringing us all along on her “personal journey with sexuality” in this series that includes masturbation seminars and going to porn libraries as part of her voyage through “laboratories, different cultures, different individuals” and “her own mind and body.” A “more explicit version” of the show will be airing on the BBC, apparently Hulu’s cut is a bit tamer.
Wrong Place (2022) – November 25
This film, currently rocking a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, features Chloe (Ashley Greene) as the recently-diagnosed-with-cancer daughter of security guard Frank (Bruce Willis), who takes her girlfriend Tammy (Stacey Danger) on a trip to the family cabin in the woods but then Frank witnesses an execution and and bla bla crime crime who cares, Chloe is taken hostage and must survive!
Showtime’s November 2022 Lesbian Content
The L Word: Generation Q: Season Three Premiere – November 18
Have you heard? There’s this show on Showtime and every single character is queer!! We will even be recapping it here right here on Autostraddle.com. I think I probably will be writing or talking about this show every day for the next three months!!!!!!! This season everybody is looking for “the one” and Finley’s coming back from rehab and Bette and Tina are getting back together and Gigi and Dani have to make some tough choices and Alice is dating around and you know what you’ll just have to tune in I think
Peacock’s Queer Content for November 2022
Nope (2022) – November 18
In this neo-Western science fiction horror film from Jordan Peele, Keke Palmer plays a character A. Tony describes as “the charismatic little lesbian of my dreams,” the sibling to Daniel Kaluuya’s OJ. Together they manage a horse ranch in California that handles horses for film & TV productions, discover something “wonderful and sinister in the skies above” that might offer a clue to who killed their father. They also must contend with the owner of an adjacent theme park trying to profit from the supernatural phenomenon lurking above them all.
Booksmart (2019) – November 20
Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), have been best friends forever, committed to their schoolwork and future collegiate success, eschewing social lives and typical high school shenanigans. When they find out all their partying classmates are also headed to prestigious colleges they decide to go all out the night before graduation and do all the teenage nonsense they’d foresaken all this time. Amy is a lesbian and tonight she’s gonna go for it with her crush!
Apple TV+ November 2022 Homosexuals, Bisexuals & Etc
Mythic Quest: Season 3 Premiere – November 11
Ian and Poppy are heading up their new banner GrimPop and making names for themselves while tensions brew and close ties are whittled away at their rival studio, Mythic Quest. Queer actor Ashley Burch is a game tester, Rachel, whose romance with fellow tester Dana (Imani Hakim) sizzled in Season Two, but they’ll be long distance as we head into Season Three.
Shudder’s Queer Movie for November 2022
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
This British Christmas zombie musical has a lesbian character played by openly queer actor Sarah Swire. Drew describes it as “a zombie movie musical filled with charm and heart and even a little emotional devastation” with “a very poppy teen vibe.”
Disney+ is Gay in November 2022
Willow: Season One Premiere – November 30
This fantasy adventure television series is billed as a sequel to the 1988 film that for some reason gave me nightmares for three straight years. Six heroes are on a dangerous quest to far away places where they’ll face their inner demons and try to save their world. Trans British actress Talisa Garcia’s casting as the Queen (a cis character) in the series makes her the first openly trans actor cast in a Lucasfilm production. In the trailer, Jade (Erin Kellyman) and Kit (Ruby Cruz) sure do seem like they are going to be getting INTIMATE.
40 Female Horror Protagonists, Ranked by Lesbianism
Horror Is So Gay // Header by Viv Le
Women in horror are special to me. Between being stripped of bodily autonomy to being seen as nothing more than an object for male pleasure, being a woman is one of the scariest things in the world. Horror has been an avenue for exploring these issues. Some films portray women as monsters, delving into the terror surrounding, or rather the terror placed upon, sexuality, motherhood, and puberty. Other films have the “Final Girl”, a complicated role where the woman often survives because she is morally superior compared to her peers.
Horror is also, like, super gay. Recent meditations on this subject, such as It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, Queer For Fear: The History of Queer Horror, and Autostraddle’s very own series, Horror Is So Gay, prove it. So, of course, I simply had to rank female protagonists in horror by how dyke-ish they are (or seem to be). This list contains a mix of horror classics and modern films. A few of them are TV shows worthy of consideration. The characters presented here are played by legendary scream queens, are monsters, final girls, or rebels that don’t fit neatly into any category.
40. Max Cartwright, The Final Girls
The film is, disappointingly, straight. You’d think a horror parody with many satirical elements would at least be a little gay, but nope.
39. Sarah Bailey, The Craft
Witchcraft is gay. The Craft itself feels like a queer movie. But even after kissing her gal pal in order to perform a ritual, Sarah’s still, unfortunately, very straight.
38. Amelia Vanek, The Babadook
Representation for homophobic straight women who eventually go on to shop Target’s Pride collection for their gay child.
37. Marion Crane, Psycho
I don’t know why, but I get the vibe that she would be one of those straight girls who love gay men but hate lesbians.
36. Sue Ann, Ma
Octavia Spencer is compelling no matter what character she plays. Even straight ones.
35. Bee, The Babysitter
Let’s just keep moving and ignore the fact that her making out with Bella Thorn’s character — playful at best and objectifying at worst — was the result of a Spin the Bottle game in front of a group of dudes.
34. Theresa “Tree” Gelbman, Happy Death Day
Tree is the name of the President at your local GSA or a popular Tumblr user. But that’s as far as queerness goes for this character.
33. Jamie “Jay” Height, It Follows
Yet another very queer name for a very not-queer character.
32. Dawn, Teeth
Not quite gay, but where’s the “supporting women’s wrongs” Twitter meme when you need it?
31. Jennifer, Sweetheart
Jenn slays a sea monster with a makeshift weapon from branches and the bones of dead people. She’s resourceful, just like a lesbian.
30. Clarice Starling, The Silence of the Lambs
Played by lesbian icon Jodie Foster, Clarice must be a little gay.
29. Sadie Blake, Rise: Blood Hunter
Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry.
28. Miranda Grey, Gothika
Miranda has the potential of a woman who would use their supernatural powers to open a private practice with her girlfriend, who would handle all the business operations.
27. Thomasin, The VVitch
Remember when Willow went “dark” in that one season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? That’s Thomasin. Actually, Thomasin and Dark Willow would probably be besties, engaging in morally ambiguous behavior and chaotically queer festivities.
26. Dani, Midsommar
I firmly believe that Dani would fall in love with a sensitive, sexy butch after the ritualistic sacrifice of her piece-of-shit boyfriend.
25. Mitsuko, Tag
A solid 70% of her problems in the movie would be solved if she had a girlfriend.
24. Laurie Strode, Halloween
Laurie’s been trying to run from Michael Myers for over 40 years and still finds herself caught in the crossfire, just like lesbians who swear they’re over their ex but can’t seem to completely move on. (After the recent The L Word: Generation Q teasers, I’m specifically looking at you, Bette Porter.)
23. Madison, “Maddie” Young, Hush
Having a man in your home is definitely a horror story.
22. Sidney Prescott, Scream
I’m well aware that Sidney has only ever been with men in the films and never expressed attraction to women. But Scream writer Kevin Williamson himself has said that the character is an allegory for queer survival. Also, Neve Campbell is hot and I may or may not have had a crush on her growing up.
21. Adelaide “Addy” Wilson, Us
She’s that enigmatic, mysterious girl you matched with on Hinge and had a couple of dates with. You can’t figure out what her deal is no matter how hard you try.
20. Brigitte Fitzgerald, Ginger Snaps
In the sequel of this film, Brigitte’s doctor writes “Lesbian?” in her notes after Brigitte describes the symptoms of her lycanthropy, echoing what me and other viewers have thought all along.
19. Cordelia Foxx, American Horror Story: Coven
Between being a Stevie Nicks fan and her “friendship” with Misty Day, she’s not fooling anybody.
18. Carrie White, Carrie
When Carrie says “no” after her mother tells her to go inside the closet? Iconic. Also, many queers can relate to hating everyone in school.
17. Justine, Raw
I bet Justine eats pussy with the same vigor and buoyancy she displays when eating human flesh.
16. The Girl, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Major top energy. After a successful night of terrorizing men, The Girl probably blows off steam by having endless rounds of lesbian sex.
15. Katrina, Vamp
This video does more than any words I could possibly say.
14. Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Hear me out. First, I do want to stress that, if our beloved lesbian witch Willow Rosenberg were the main character of this show, she’d be at the top of this list without a second thought. Second, I know at first glance Buffy comes across as Heterosexual™, given the show’s focus on her relationships with vampires Angel and Spike. But many show fans recognize her relationship with the slayer Faith as a complicated one with a shit-ton of queer undertones. Also, Faith’s line, “Let’s have another go at it. See who lands on top”, to Buffy has been living in my head rent-free since I was 14 years old.
Those who read the comics know that Buffy briefly enters a sexual relationship with Satsu, a fellow slayer. According to them, the first night they fucked was one of the best nights of their lives. Buffy is bisexual, and I will defend this until my very last breath.
13. Min-ah, Memento Mori
No one can be as deeply invested in a queer relationship as Min-ah is and not be queer.
12. Ellen Ripley, Alien
Full disclosure: I’ve never seen any of the alien movies. While doing research for this piece, Ellen came up in many articles. Her name is gay. She looks like many of the dykes I’ve passed by on my Lower East Side Manhattan adventures. She just screams gay.
11. Ally Mayfair-Richards, American Horror Story: Cult
The most lesbian thing about Ally isn’t that she’s a lesbian or is played by Sarah Paulson. The most lesbian thing about her is that she’s constantly crying or on the verge of tears. She also ends up being in a cult that wants to kill all men, if that’s worth anything.
10. Ramona Royale, American Horror Story: Hotel
I don’t know whether I want Ramona’s badass energy, be Ramona because she gets to have sex with Lady Gaga’s character, or be Lady Gaga’s character because she gets to have sex with Ramona.
9. Miriam Blaylock, The Hunger
Judge me all you want, but if I were to turn into a vampire, I’d want it to be done by Miriam.
8. Maddy Killian, All Cheerleaders Die
Maddy follows in Santana Lopez’s and Brittany S. Pierce’s footsteps in showing how gay cheerleading can be.
7. Lana Winters, American Horror Story: Asylum
Sarah Paulson, who has now made an appearance for the third time on this list, really is her best when playing a lesbian. Lana Winters is far from positive representation (we can’t expect much from Ryan Murphy). She ends up in a mental hospital for her sexuality and other horrific acts are done against her. Much of her trauma feels pornographic, used for adding to the “edgy and dark” tone American Horror Story delivers. But, she’s a queer person that survives.
6. Laurel, Bit
Trans characters in horror are rare and have often been villainized by the genre. But Laurel is a heroine in Bit and in control of her narrative. She’s also unapologetically lesbian, kissing and flirting with Izzy, a fellow member of an all-girl vampire gang. An important rule for the gang is that they should never turn a man into a vampire, because, historically, they can’t handle power. It’s camp, queer, fun, and refreshing.
5. Thelma, Thelma
The link between supernatural powers and sexuality is nothing new in horror. But Thelma, the film’s titular character, adds nuance to the trope with her queer identity. The more she represses who she is, as well as her feelings for another girl, the less control she has over her psychokinetic powers. Thelma’s eventual control of her abilities and realization that her powers aren’t inherently evil only happens when she comes to terms with her queerness.
4. Juliette Fairmont and Calliope “Cal” Burns, First Kill
OUR LOVE IS DEEPER THAN EDWARD’S AND BELLAAAAAAAAAAA’S!!!
IF I WERE A ZOMBIE, I’D NEVER EAT YOUR BRAAAAIIINN!
3. The Yellowjackets Soccer Team, Yellowjackets
Yellowjackets has such a strong ensemble, how could I not include the whole team? First of all, soccer is gay, so there’s that. Second, lesbianism is as rampant as whatever supernatural shit is going on in this show. Shauna and Jackie are an example of the confusing, homoerotic friendships many young queers find themselves in. Taissa and Van are your typical soft butch and power femme couple. Nat is also the spitting image of the angry dyke teen aesthetic (she absolutely listened to riot grrrl too, even though it’s not confirmed).
2. Jennifer Check and Anita “Needy” Lesnicki, Jennifer’s Body
Y’all knew this was coming. What can I say about these two that hasn’t already been said? Jennifer and Needy, from sandbox besties to high school friends with an undeniably deep connection, never come close to actually crossing the threshold of being a couple. There’s something more than friendship, even if it’s not concrete. Jennifer and Needy are devoted to each other, and one is often seen prolongedly gazing at the other. All Needy can think about is Jennifer as she loses her virginity to her boyfriend. The truest horror of the film, paired with male violence against women and girls, is existing in a heteronormative world where a young girl’s value is tied to how desirable she is to men. That is, tragically, at least partially, why Jennifer and Needy never cross that threshold.
If you haven’t already, please read this amazing essay by the Carmen Maria Machado on Jennifer’s Body, bisexuality, and the dangers of quickly branding something as “queerbaiting”.
1. Deena Johnson, The Fear Street Trilogy
Young sapphic love is at the heart of this film trilogy. Deena is a Black, queer, and sexually active girl who’s a “fuck you” to the Final Girl and Bury Your Gays trope. She, and her girlfriend Sam, make it out alive against all odds after metaphorical battles against homophobia and toxic masculinity. Their love being a powerful force above all evil may come across as a cliche, but their story proves to be groundbreaking in the horror genre as a whole.
Horror Is So Gay is a series on queer and trans horror edited by Autostraddle Managing Editor Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya running throughout October.