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Favorite (and Least Favorite) Gay-Themed Movies


quoththeraven
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Recognizing I have by no means seen all or even a lot of them, my favorite is Maurice, with Mysterious Skin second and Plan B third.

 

Strangers by the Lake might be up there if it weren't for the ending. I would have liked it better if the seductive stranger had been caught or if we'd seen the guy who followed him anyway either running away or himself being killed by him. Too stupid to live behavior on the part of a main POV character makes me regret investing time in his story. Yes, I know I'm being judgmental. All I can say is that response is true across the board and not limited to gay men.

 

As for disappointments, Brokeback Mountain is way up there for being timid, having no sexual chemistry between Ennis and Jack until the scene in the tent, which I saw after I'd become a yaoi and slash fangirl, so it's not for lack of sensitivity to sexual tension, and a story that to my mind was about two men who were neither 0s or 6s on the Kinsey scale who used sex together as a way of escaping the grind of their everyday lives behind their spouses' backs. Who wouldn't want to get away from the family and have satisfying sex to boot?

 

I did not view it as some huge romance. The short story it's based on, imo, does a better job of making an emotional connection between the men. For one thing, in it Ennis doesn't enter into another het relationship after his marriage breaks up. I forget exactly how Jack was depicted, but movie Jack was turned on by the woman he married as well as by more than one man. Ennis was portrayed a little more ambiguously, but I'd still classify him as a 5 at best.

 

Sebastiane, which I watched recently, was also a disappointment for being an incoherent and pretentious mess. It had its moments, but they were too few. That said, I'm eager to watch other films by the same director (Derek Jarman, a great friend of Tilda Swinton's), especially Caravaggio.

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Mysterious Skin, definitely. That and Happiness (vaguely gay themed?) are my two favorite movies of all time.

 

Also, Ma Vie en Rose (the transgender French kid, not Edith Piaf [La Vie en Rose]) and Times of Harvey Milk.

 

Ah, screw it, here's my whole list:

 

Angels in America

Bound

Boys Don't Cry

Cabaret

Color Purple

Edge of 17

Get Real

Gods and Monsters

Ma Vie en Rose

Monster

Mysterious Skin

Opposite of Sex, The

Parting Glances

Times of Harvey Milk

Torch Song Trilogy

Transamerica

 

and also:

 

AKA

Crying Game

Dog Day Afternoon

Flawless

Fried Green Tomatoes

Happy Endings

L.I.E.

Living End, The

Love and Human Remains

My Own Private Idaho

Tales of the City

Together Alone

 

And then these are great films with minor gay themes:

 

American Beauty

As Good as it Gets

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Drowning Mona

Election

Happiness

Happy Endings

Silkwood

Waiting for Guffman

 

Kevin Slater

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Short Bus would be in my top ten. I'm always surprised it never got more notice. Pretty daring in it's own way and a remarkable soundtrack.

A Home at the End of the World. All 3 actors are remarkable, but Colin Farrel is superb as the vague but loving and loyal man the other 2 are in love with. It's a deeply romantic film and never fails to move me.

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Recognizing I have by no means seen all or even a lot of them, my favorite is Maurice, with Mysterious Skin second and Plan B third.

 

Strangers by the Lake might be up there if it weren't for the ending. I would have liked it better if the seductive stranger had been caught or if we'd seen the guy who followed him anyway either running away or himself being killed by him. Too stupid to live behavior on the part of a main POV character makes me regret investing time in his story. Yes, I know I'm being judgmental. All I can say is that response is true across the board and not limited to gay men.

 

As for disappointments, Brokeback Mountain is way up there for being timid, having no sexual chemistry between Ennis and Jack until the scene in the tent, which I saw after I'd become a yaoi and slash fangirl, so it's not for lack of sensitivity to sexual tension, and a story that to my mind was about two men who were neither 0s or 6s on the Kinsey scale who used sex together as a way of escaping the grind of their everyday lives behind their spouses' backs. Who wouldn't want to get away from the family and have satisfying sex to boot?

 

I did not view it as some huge romance. The short story it's based on, imo, does a better job of making an emotional connection between the men. For one thing, in it Ennis doesn't enter into another het relationship after his marriage breaks up. I forget exactly how Jack was depicted, but movie Jack was turned on by the woman he married as well as by more than one man. Ennis was portrayed a little more ambiguously, but I'd still classify him as a 5 at best.

 

Sebastiane, which I watched recently, was also a disappointment for being an incoherent and pretentious mess. It had its moments, but they were too few. That said, I'm eager to watch other films by the same director (Derek Jarman, a great friend of Tilda Swinton's), especially Caravaggio.

 

Hated Strangers By The Lake because it was completely unbelievable. Erotic yes, believable no.

 

Transamerica is absolutely wonderful. The first "Tales Of The City" series is great, largely due to the spot-on casting. All the Christopher Guest movies are hysterical.

 

"Die Mommie Die" is nothing but a series of one brilliant one-liner after another. But I think my favorite gay-themed movie overall is still "Beautiful Thing," which is a British film about two students and neighbors who come out to each other.

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For me it was Brokeback Mountain. Interesting analysis by quoththeraven. I didn't see the movie the same way. I thought the sexual tension was one of the more powerful elements of the movie. Timid, perhaps a bit, but I thought that the movie stayed true to itself from beginning to the end....and the end, it was just brilliantly done.

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my favorite gay-themed movie overall is still "Beautiful Thing," which is a British film about two students and neighbors who come out to each other.

 

Have you seen Get Real? I found it much more touching than Beautiful Thing (which didn't really resonate with me).

 

Kevin Slater

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Not necessarily the best, rather the films I watch the most:

 

Maurice, Gods and Monsters, Shelter, Yossi, The Opposite of Sex, Steam, Head On

 

Head On is an Australian film.

 

Finally, Eating Out, solely for Ryan Carnes

 

There was a musical version of The Opposite of Sex at Williamstown, MA starring David Burtka (NPH's husband) -- pretty awful. However, Burtka was very good in Albee's "Play About the Baby." It helped that it played off-Broadway and David was naked most the time. I understand why NPH wanted to meet David Burtka!

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Not necessarily the best, rather the films I watch the most:

 

Maurice, Gods and Monsters, Shelter, Yossi, The Opposite of Sex, Steam, Head On

 

Oh yes, another thumbs up for Maurice and Gods and Monsters.

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At heart, I'm a romantic. Here's 5 gay romances:

 

Boy Culture

 

Brokeback Mountain

 

Latter Days

 

The Wedding Banquet

 

Trick

 

Not to sound ageist, but it didn't hurt that all five movies were bursting with smoking hot twenty somethings: White, Latino, Black, Asian.

 

Youth may be sexy, but drug addiction ain't. A few honorable mentions:

 

Circuit. I saw it with my dearly missed escort buddy Bill [RIP], who was adamantly against drugs, and his first words after the movie were, "I want to go to the White Party!" I saw it a second time with my escort buddy Adam, who had suffered a drug addiction and gone through rehab, and his first words after the movie were, "That was really depressing. It's so true." It says everything you need to know about the lure and lunacy of combining muscles, steroids, sex, and drugs.

 

"Man of the Year." Funny. I include it because it was another good film by Dirk Shafer, who we just lost, probably due to the very things he so correctly illuminated in Circuit.

 

Rest In Peace, Sexy Man

 

http://bisexual.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/19-Dirk-Shafer-picture-215x300.jpg

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Ah yes, Mr. Kesslar, The Wedding Banquet, a really fine and good-spirited film about culture clash. An excellent movie directed by Ang Lee and one of his earlier English language films.

 

TruHart1 :cool:

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I was only thinking of movies with MSM. That's what I meant by gay, in deference to the makeup of this forum. But queer cinema? Boys Don't Cry would tie or slightly exceed Mysterious Skin.

 

I picked Maurice first because it beautifully portrays the dilemma of MSM at the time, yet has a happy ending for the main character. My heart ached for the compromises Hugh Grant's character made. Unlike many others, I didn't hate him. I felt sorry for him.

 

I didn't realize -- or had forgotten -- that Torch Song Trilogy was made into a movie. I've never seen it, but the touring company performance I attended was the most electrifying theatrical experience I've ever had.

 

Another problem I have with Brokeback is that it's another example of a gay tragedy. You could make the same objection to Boys Don't Cry, but trans people have it much tougher, the story was based on real life, and I was less conflicted about the characters. And Brokeback does a lot of telling instead of showing.

 

The Wedding Banquet is on my Netflix queue. It's so refreshing to be able to watch what I want when I want without being asked why I feel the need to watch all this gay stuff. Don't worry; my ex is totally in favor of equal rights, and a cousin of his is the only out gay man I've had sustained contact with.

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http://33.media.tumblr.com/806c9382c8e48e8ec513270d17da233c/tumblr_inline_n6q5loiO681rll1xc.gif

 

http://33.media.tumblr.com/543e41f77bac2cf9c19c560735fb0edd/tumblr_m2skawZCwa1qakh43o6_r1_250.gif

 

http://33.media.tumblr.com/1158f388021a9f9235189d4e61330370/tumblr_m2skawZCwa1qakh43o4_r2_250.gif

 

 

R.I.P. Robin Williams

 

 

Irish69

RentMen Rick :-)

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The Boys in the Band....no one? Am I that old?

 

In many respects it broke barriers, and was one of the first. I remembering watching it and not completely understanding the dynamics between all the characters. Age has allowed a look back, and I realize how brilliant it was.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/The_Boys_in_the_Band-1970_movie_poster.jpg/215px-The_Boys_in_the_Band-1970_movie_poster.jpg

 

http://www.mattfind.com/12345673215-3-2-3_img/movie/j/y/h/the_boys_in_the_band_1970_500x409_724265.jpg

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..and The Birdcage. Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Hank Azaria...brilliantly played.

 

Uh, you forgot Daniel Futterman.

 

I'll let you off with a warning this time. Next time, I'm punching a hole in your Gay Card.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/675x380/2014/11/MCDBIRD_EC007_H_a_l.jpg

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/298323426_572235e2fc.jpg?v=0

http://www.mancrushes.com/sites/default/files/dan-futterman-the-birdcage-4.jpg

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I was born and raised in Utah as a Mormon. I even did a 2-year stint as a missionary. So, by far, my favorite gay-themed movie is Latter Days. That movie was so emotional for me.

 

I think the first gay-themed movie I saw was Crusing with Al Pacino. It was before I was totally out of the closet was intrigued by it. But, it also scared me to death because I thought the entire gay lifestyle was like the stereotypes in the movie.

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The Broken Hearts Club. I remember that one of the characters called Patrick (top right) ugly. This came late in the movie and was treated like the elephant in the room. I remember thinking, "Wow, gay men definitely have high standards."

 

The other one is a documentary called Gay Sex in the 70s that I saw with a date. (Classic Fluffy) It was long, and people were yawning by the end.

But it was fascinating to learn about all the stuff that happened on the trucks, the Christopher street piers, and the streets of NY as a whole.

 

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0000/297/MI0000297929.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

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Uh, you forgot Daniel Futterman.

 

I'll let you off with a warning this time. Next time, I'm punching a hole in your Gay Card.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/675x380/2014/11/MCDBIRD_EC007_H_a_l.jpg

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/298323426_572235e2fc.jpg?v=0

http://www.mancrushes.com/sites/default/files/dan-futterman-the-birdcage-4.jpg

I thought about mentioning him...lol...for the "hot" factor alone, if nothing else, but in the end, I actually had a difficult time with his character, which is why he didn't make the cut. I was bothered by his shame of Armand and Albert, and wanting them to be something other than....I got it, that was the guts of the movie, but it still bothered me, especially when Albert loved him unconditionally.

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The one that remains in my memory is Death In Venice, which bared the trauma of an older man battling/denying his homosexual desires complicated by his obsessive attraction to an underage boy. Gustav von Aschenbach portrayed by Dirk Bogarde, was a truly tortured soul. I am both glad and sorry I ever saw that film.

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I thought about mentioning him...lol...for the "hot" factor alone, if nothing else, but in the end, I actually had a difficult time with his character, which is why he didn't make the cut. I was bothered by his shame of Armand and Albert, and wanting them to be something other than....I got it, that was the guts of the movie, but it still bothered me, especially when Albert loved him unconditionally.

 

LOL...you are right on both counts. Writing his character the way it was written was essential to the narrative, and it still bothered me. But, hell, he just looked so pretty.

 

Seeing as how I was such a picky bitch on the other thread about "white twenty something," funny how all it takes is one handsome white twenty something (I think he was 29 when Bird Cage was released) to make me suspend critical judgment.

 

Life is nothing if not ironic.

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