Gay film titles
10 great British gay films
Few countries can rival the UK when it comes to making excellent and diverse gay films. This may come as a surprise from a country where male homosexuality was illegal until as recently as , and where gay marriage continues to ruffle right-wingers, swivel-eyed or otherwise. Yet despite their often taboo nature, films with gay characters contain been around since the silent era.
So what key British gay films are out there? We’ve narrowed down the list to films easily available on DVD, although honourable mention must go to the über-rare Two Gentlemen Sharing (), a swinging slice of the 60s that hinted at interracial homosexuality. And if you like Vicious (millions seem to), you may get a perverse kick out of Staircase (), a dreadful vehicle for Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as two ageing queens in a perpetual state of mutual- and self-loathing.
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The 50 Best LGBTQ Movies Ever Made
Love, Simon ()
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If it feels a bit like a CW version of an after-school particular, that's no mistake: Teen-tv super-producer Greg Berlanti makes his feature-film directorial debut here. It's as chaste a love story as you're likely to see in the 21st century—the hunky gardener who makes the title teen question his sexuality is wearing a long-sleeved shirt, for God’s sake—but you know what? The queer kids of the future need their wholesome entertainment, too.
Rocketman ()
AmazonHulu
A gay fantasia on Elton themes. An Elton John biopic was never going to be understated, but this glittering jukebox musical goes way over the top and then keeps going. It might be an overcorrection from the straight-washing of the previous year's Bohemian Rhapsody, but when it's this much fun, it's best not to overthink it.
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Handsome Devil ()
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A charming Irish movie that answers the question: "What if John Hughes were Irish and gay?" Misfit Ned struggles at
55 of the Best LGBTQ Films of All Time
'Bottoms' ()
If ever there was a Superbad for queer girls, Bottoms is it. The second film from director Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby) follows two uncool high school seniors (Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott) who start up a academy fight club to try and hook up with their cheerleader crushes (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu).
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'Bound' ()
In the Wachowskis’ landmark erotic thriller predating the Matrix trilogy, butch ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) is the newly-hired handyperson at an apartment building when she meets her next-door neighbors: mobster Caesar (Joe Pantoliano) and kept lady Violet (Jennifer Tilly). As Corky and Violet strike up an affair, they hatch a verb to flee Violet’s abusive relationship—and steal $2 million of Caesar’s mafia money along the way.
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'Circus of Books' ()
Southern Californians will likely recognize Circus of Books as the famed porn shop and dirty bookstore that has presided over the gayborhood of West Hollywood since the e
The best LGBTQ+ movies of all time
Photograph: Kate Wootton/TimeOut
With the assist of leading directors, actors, writers and activists, we count down the most essential LGBTQ+ films of all time
Like queer culture itself, queer cinema is not a monolith. For a prolonged time, though, that’s certainly how it felt. In the past, if gay lives and issues were ever portrayed at all on screen, it was typically from the perspective of ivory, cisgendered men. But as more opportunities have opened up for queer performers and filmmakers to tell their own stories, the scope of the LGBTQ+ experiences that have made their way onto the screen has gradually widened to more frequently comprise the trans community and queer people of colour.
It’s still not perfect, of course. In Hollywood, as in society at huge, there are many barriers left to breach and ceilings to shatter. But those recent strides deserve to be celebrated – as do the bold films made long before the mainstream was willing to accept them. To that end, we enlisted some LGBTQ+ cultural pioneers, as well as Time O