75 finest LGBTQ movies to stream proper now

Pleasure is a time wherein everybody below the LGBTQ umbrella is inspired to return out and wave their flag in spectacular parades. However for each wild night time out, we’d want a comfy night time in, maybe with a film that retains the occasion going?

Many a streaming service will make a rainbow present of their LGBTQ titles in June. Allow us to be your information by way of the necessities, highlighting motion pictures throughout Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Kanopy, and past.

Whether or not you are within the temper for a thigh-slapping comedy, a heart-wrenching drama, a pulse-pounding romance, a mind-expanding documentary, or spine-tingling horror, we have you coated.

Here’s a sensational choice of LGBTQ motion pictures to observe this Pleasure and past.

1. The Individuals’s Joker (2022)

Probably the most unique comedian e book film in years simply so occurs to be a trans coming-of-age story. In The Individuals’s Joker, director Vera Drew (who additionally co-wrote, edited, and stars within the movie) performs a closeted trans girl who leaves her hometown of Smallville to pursue her goals of changing into a comic in Gotham Metropolis. On this wacky political parody of the DC universe, Batman is the villain and Gotham has turn out to be a fascist police state the place comedy is outlawed, Bat Drones surveil the town, and docs prescribe an antidepressant gasoline that forces individuals to smile. After Drew’s aspiring comedian begins an underground anti-comedy membership that turns into a hangout for Batman villains, she falls for Mr. J, a transmasc Joker who helps her come out and transition — from Joker to Harlequin, as she says. 

A playful riff on the age-old trans-women-as-villains stereotype in media, Drew brilliantly creates her personal fusion of Joker and Harley Quinn to inform a posh story of a lady discovering herself amid techniques of abuse and oppression. Warner Bros. might by no means dream of creating one thing this ingenious. — Oliver Whitney, Contributing Author

Find out how to watch: The Individuals’s Joker is streaming on MUBI, and is accessible to lease or buy on Apple TV+, Prime Video, and Google Play.

2. I Noticed the TV Glow (2024)

Anybody who felt like an outsider as a child and relied on fiction to flee their actuality, and particularly particularly queer and trans people, will discover one thing relatable in I Noticed the TV Glow. Jane Schoenbrun’s movie manages to fantastically and hauntingly seize the facility of escaping and coping by way of fictional worlds, solely with the added layer of gender dysphoria.

In I Noticed the TV Glow, teenage buddies Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Jack Haven) are obsessive about a present about two psychic teen ladies, blurring the road between their lives and what’s on the display. We comply with Owen over time as he goes from depressed teen to depressed grownup, frozen right into a shell of an individual. Whereas Schoenbrun’s characters aren’t explicitly trans, it is not laborious to see the parallels to an expertise of being an egg, dysphoria, and feeling trapped and afraid to transition to 1’s more true self. Emotional and devastating — in a Charlie Kaufman kinda method —  I Noticed the TV Glow is a masterful meditation on nostalgia, escapism, and the painful journey of discovering your self. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: I Noticed the TV Glow is streaming on HBO Max.

3. Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

A brilliant homosexual, tremendous steamy crime thriller cloaked in neon lights and splattered with blood and sweat — what extra might you ask for? Set within the ‘80s, Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart as Lou, a reserved health club supervisor in New Mexico. She units her eyes on Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a jacked bodybuilder passing by way of city on her method to Vegas. In traditional U-Haul fashion, the 2 instantly hit it off, fall in love, and transfer in collectively, however quickly their blissful romance turns into interrupted by Lou’s violent household. Oozing with moody visuals, a tense synth-heavy rating, and loads of intercourse enchantment, Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding will scratch the itch for anybody craving a lesbian neo-noir that appears like “San Junipero” crossed with a Coen Brothers’ thriller. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Love Lies Bleeding is streaming on HBO Max. 

4. L’immensità (2022)

With L’immensità, we get one thing extremely uncommon and lengthy overdue — a narrative a couple of younger trans boy grappling with gender id, advised by an precise trans filmmaker. The semi-autobiographical movie is predicated on Italian author/director Emanuele Crialese’s personal childhood and his recollections of rising up in Nineteen Seventies Rome. 

Penélope Cruz performs Clara, a mom of three younger children and the spouse of a distant, abusive husband. Clara’s eldest introduces himself as Andrea, but the remainder of his household nonetheless name him by his feminine beginning identify, Adriana, and declare he is solely pretending to be a boy. Refusing to cover himself, he confidently rocks a good-looking quick haircut, wears masculine jumpsuits, and tells his mom he appears like an alien from one other galaxy. L’immensità is harking back to Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy in the way it captures the world by way of the eyes of a kid struggling to know his gender with out the language or steerage. But it is also one thing wholly its personal and private, and carries the authenticity of being advised from a trans expertise. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: L’immensità is streaming on Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla, and Darkroom.

5. Hearth Island (2022)

Calling all queers who love Pleasure and Prejudice, Hearth Island is the film for you! This homosexual revamp of the Jane Austen traditional swaps the Nineteenth-century social decorums and hetero romance for slutty underwear events, drag bars, and loads of messy drama set within the titular Lengthy Island homosexual trip spot. In director Andrew Ahn’s movie, Joel Kim Booster (who additionally wrote the screenplay) performs Noah, a bookish nurse from Brooklyn, and our Elizabeth Bennet. Enter our Mr. Darcy: a standoffish lawyer named Will (Conrad Ricamora) whose judgy angle and reserved nature instantly flip Noah off. Ultimately Noah warms to Will’s charms, and the 2 get their Pleasure and Prejudice love story, iconic rain scene and all. What’s most spectacular about Hearth Island is the way it makes use of the traditional straight romance to deliver parts of homosexual male tradition to the display, earnestly pertaining to racism and fatphobia within the homosexual group, in addition to telling a narrative with a predominately BIPOC forged and a number of Asian leads. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Hearth Island is streaming on Hulu.

6. Maggots and Males (2009)

Maggots and Males, a movie you have doubtless by no means heard of, is a radical imaginative and prescient of gender utopia and revolution that occurs to have the biggest forged of trans actors — and much more groundbreaking, of transmasculine actors — in any movie, ever. 

An experimental work of historic fiction, Maggots and Males reimagines the true story of the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion wherein a gaggle of sailors launched a revolt in opposition to the Bolshevik Get together in post-revolutionary Russia. The movie jumps between a theater troupe efficiency narrating the story and scenes of sailors in leisure and revolt, advised with filmmaking methods that wink at Soviet cinema and the Czech New Wave. However you needn’t perceive the revolutionary politics of the time or be a movie nerd to understand the sensible method filmmaker Cary Cronenwett makes use of his forged to ascertain an alternate world of liberated, self-made masculinity. Right here, transmasc our bodies overtly frolic, swim, and work within the glistening sunshine. It is a movie for anybody longing to spend a while in a world the place trans our bodies exist overtly and freely, outdoors the constraints of cis-centric gender norms. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Maggots and Males is streaming on The Criterion Channel. 

7. Maurice (1987)

Earlier than Name Me By Your Identify, there was Maurice. Within the homosexual interval drama from beloved and just lately out homosexual filmmaker James Ivory (who wrote the screenplay for Name Me by Your Identify), we comply with a younger man’s journey of sexual acceptance in Twentieth-century London. Whereas learning at Cambridge, Maurice (James Wilby) and his closest good friend Clive (Hugh Grant) quickly uncover that what they really feel for one another is deeper than any mere friendship. As time passes and the 2 males should go away college to enter a society the place being homosexual is extremely criminalized, Clive should determine whether or not or to not embrace his sexuality. Informed with tenderness and sensitivity, Maurice will make your coronary heart ache and flutter in one of the best of the way. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Maurice is streaming on Peacock, Kanopy, Philo, Cineverse, and Fandor, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video.

8. T-Blockers (2023)

Not often can we get the deal with of an ultra-low price range campy horror movie nowadays, particularly one a couple of trans vigilante looking down hateful males. In T-Blockers, the younger Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay interprets the present political assaults on trans existence right into a pulpy sci-fi horror story the place the varieties of males who take heed to Jordan Peterson turn out to be injected with mind worms that flip them into seething, anti-trans, flesh-eating zombies. After Sophie (Lauren Final), a struggling trans filmmaker, discovers she has the facility to sense these monsters, she recruits her buddies to take justice into their very own arms.

With campy B-movie aesthetics harking back to Ed Wooden combined with the queer, punk vitality of Gregg Araki movies, T-Blockers is stylized, gory, and has a really DIY really feel — in spite of everything, Mackay made the movie when she was 17 years previous on a teeny price range of $10,000. It is the kinda film you’d uncover in an previous video retailer as a teen and obsess over together with your weirdo buddies. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: T-Blockers is streaming on AMC+ by way of Prime, Shudder, and Philo. 

9. All of Us Strangers (2023)

Considered one of our favourite movies from 2023, author/director Andrew Haigh’s  All of Us Strangers tells a story surreal and deeply private. Tailored from Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers, this horror-laced drama was shot partially in Haigh’s childhood house. There, a lonely screenwriter (Ripley‘s Andrew Scott) visits the ghosts of his long-dead dad and mom (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), permitting them to get to know him because the grownup they didn’t within the intervening many years. This consists of an unexpectedly cathartic coming-out arc. But for as tender and unhappy as this drama is, it is also alive with love and lust — the latter due to Scott’s onscreen romance with Aftersun‘s Paul Mescal, who performs a neighbor is determined want of human connection. Altogether, this ensemble affords a film that can make your spirit soar, your pulse race, and your coronary heart shatter. — Kristy Puchko, Leisure Editor

Find out how to watch: All of Us Strangers is accessible to lease or purchase on Amazon Prime.

10. The Queen (1968)

You will have seen Paris Is Burning, however have you ever seen The Queen? Frank Simon’s seminal 1968 documentary particulars the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Magnificence Pageant, a aggressive drag pageant put collectively by trans and drag icon Flawless Sabrina. Simon’s just lately restored doc is so many issues directly: an archival treasure of early drag performances, an intimate take a look at the lives of queer males and trans ladies offstage, and, most famously, a file of 1 notorious incident that might later give method to the beginning of home tradition and the ballroom scene: Crystal LaBeija’s scorching tirade to the digital camera after dropping to a white queen. LaBeija later went on to discovered the seminal Home of LaBeija, which led to the very inception of ball tradition we see in Paris is Burning, and has been massively influential to Black queer tradition at present. As an artifact of misplaced and, to many, largely unknown queer historical past, The Queen is crucial Pleasure viewing, and truthfully, important each rattling day viewing. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: The Queen is accessible to stream free of charge on Kanopy or for lease or buy on Kino Now and Prime Video.

11. Rope (1948)

Rope could also be recognized to most as Hitchcock’s experimental try and shoot a whole movie in what seems to be a single shot, nevertheless it’s additionally the filmmaker’s gayest. The traditional psychological thriller is a couple of homosexual couple who murders a person, then throws a cocktail party utilizing the trunk the lifeless physique is in because the buffet — fairly actually “be gay, do crime,” Hitchcock-style. In fact, this was 1948, and that queerness is all subtext, nevertheless it roars to the floor due to homosexual screenwriter Arthur Laurents’ script and performances by its notably homosexual leads, Farley Granger who performs Phillip Morgan with an anxious flamboyance, and John Dall, whose Brandon Shaw embodies a extra reserved, posh queerness. That is not even to say the oozing eroticism of the opening scene — a closed curtain, a roaring scream, a shot of man sandwiched between two others, with a rope round his neck. Oh, the abhorrent perversions two (or extra) males commit behind closed doorways! — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Rope is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video.

12. The Stroll (2023)

There’s nothing extra highly effective and extra urgently wanted than trans individuals telling their very own tales. In The Stroll, filmmaker Kristen Lovell (making her directorial debut alongside co-director Zackary Drucker) does precisely that, gathering the trans people she labored with in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District to recount the historical past of The Stroll, an space that was a hub for trans intercourse staff from the Nineteen Seventies by way of the early 2000s. The ladies and nonbinary interviewees recount not solely the horrific police violence and neighborhood harassment they continuously confronted, however, and maybe most importantly, they communicate to how The Stroll helped them discover a resilient group that enabled them to outlive. 

Via a mixture of interviews, collage-style animation, and archival footage — together with some probably never-before-seen late footage of trans heroine Sylvia Rivera and an ultra-cringe clip from The RuPaul Present — Lovell and Drucker, who’re each trans, obtain one thing past the attain of most cis filmmakers. Instead of sorrowful trauma porn, the directing duo create a shocking ode to the facility and resilience of trans sisterhood. The Stroll is not solely a necessary doc of trans historical past, it is a revitalizing reminder for trans people that collectively now we have the facility to pave a path for a greater trans future. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: The Stroll is now streaming on HBO Max.

13. Bottoms (2023)

Craving a raunchy teen comedy that’ll have you ever howling with laughter? Bottoms delivers. The Bear‘s breakout It Woman Ayo Edebiri stars with Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies‘ Rachel Sennott (who reunites with Shiva Child‘s director Emma Seligman). Collectively, they craft a story of an all-girls struggle membership created to assist two “ugly and untalented” gays Josie (Edebiri) and PJ (Sennott) hook up with their cheerleader crushes. One good lie results in a violent after-school exercise, do-it-yourself explosives, sloppy sexcapades, and probably the most weird scene involving pineapple juice you will ever see. However that is not all. With a depraved wit, Bottoms not solely roasts the supposed “glory days” of teendom but in addition takes photographs at rape tradition, pushes queer lust to awkward (and relatably so) locations, and brings on the blood. This comedy went so laborious it not solely had critics raving, it had audiences cheering out of its SXSW premiere and ever since.* — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Bottoms is now streaming on MGM+ and Prime Video.

14. Wearing Blue (1983)

Watching Wearing Blue for the primary time appears like discovering a long-lost treasure, one you virtually cannot consider exists and which you solely want you’d seen sooner. This docudrama from Antonio Giménez-Rico mixes docu-style interviews with narrative reenactments to inform the life tales of six Spanish trans ladies residing in post-Franco Madrid. Josette, Loren, René, Eva, Nacha, and Tamara collect within the dazzling Palacio de Cristal in Madrid to commerce tales, gossip, bicker, giggle, and gossip some extra as Giménez-Rico jumps out and in of scripted moments of their pasts. The distinctive framing offers the movie one thing of an ethereal high quality, particularly paired with Teo Escamilla’s dreamy cinematography that imbues every girl with a glowy, virtually goddess-like high quality. Depictions of trans life have lengthy been sufferer to the gaze of cis creators, and although this movie from a cis male director is not any exception, Wearing Blue does really feel like one thing of an anomaly, particularly for its time, by permitting these ladies extra company in recounting their most personal recollections. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Wearing Blue is streaming on Tubi and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and YouTube.

15. Born in Flames (1983)

For anybody in want of some radical-as-hell queer dystopian fiction throughout these more and more darkish and fascistic political instances, Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames will show to be a most satisfying balm. Set in a futuristic New York Metropolis after a socialist revolution, the movie imagines America residing below democratic socialism, however the place the guarantees of that society are proving unfulfilled. Droves of ladies are dropping their jobs, sexism and racism run rampant, and a queer Black revolutionary has simply been captured and murdered by the state. This kicks off a brand new fiery revolt the place feminist teams led by two radical radio hosts crew as much as take motion into their very own arms, from plotting direct motion in underground conferences to instructing squads of ladies learn how to shoot rifles. 

This searing anti-capitalist, anti-racist, pro-feminist treatise is as related as ever. Listening to one queer radio DJ shout, “We’re being murdered out there in the streets. Wake up, it’s time to fight!” you possibly can’t assist however really feel the parallels to the present assaults on queer and trans life and bodily autonomy taking place on this nation at present. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Born in Flames is streaming on Kanopy and The Criterion Channel, and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

16. Sure (1996)

A lesbian neo-noir directed by two trans ladies — there has by no means been a greater mixture of phrases. Sure, the debut function from Lilly and Lana Wachowski, is a cult favourite for a motive, or perhaps 10. It options Gina Gershon enjoying a tough-as-nails butch lesbian named Corky (only a 12 months after Showgirls‘ Cristal Connors, thoughts you), who falls for her sultry femme fatale neighbor, Violet (Jennifer Tilly). That is no mere queer romance although, however a razor-sharp crime thriller the place two peculiar ladies determine to tear off the mob. Violet’s abusive boyfriend (an ideal Joe Pantoliano) is about to return right into a load of money, so why not steal it, body him, and make a getaway for it? Any informal Wachowskis fan can see the sisters’ stylistic fingerprints throughout Sure, nevertheless it’s particularly a pleasure to see the methods the 2 boost traditional noir style conventions with queer intercourse, startling violence, and a complete lot of queer badassery. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Sure is streaming on MGM+ and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+. 

17. No Unusual Man (2020)

There are myriad methods to make a documentary about historic figures, however in No Unusual Man, Chase Joynt and Aisling Chin-Yee take a novel and even dangerous inventive method that lands fantastically. To inform the story of Billy Tipton, a jazz musician whose stealth trans standing was outed after his demise and grossly mistreated for years within the press, No Unusual Man appears to be like to at present’s trans group to seek for the misplaced and ignored truths of his life. Joynt and Chin-Yee invite a group of transmasculine actors to learn scenes from a story script about Tipton’s life. This manifests into one thing profound, with every actor wrestling with learn how to painting a person who lived at a time the place his transness needed to stay secret, and with near no fashions to form himself after. It is an enchanting and extremely transferring inventive train that each makes an attempt to restore the painful historical past hooked up to Tipton’s legacy, and showcases the need for trans performers to embody the roles of trans characters. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: No Unusual Man is streaming on Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video.

18. All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed (2022)

One of many absolute finest movies of 2022, Laura Poitras’ Oscar-nominated documentary All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed manages to perform a number of issues: documenting the activism of acclaimed photographer Nan Goldin in a tireless pursuit to takedown the rich household chargeable for the opioid epidemic, commemorating the huge cultural significance of Goldin’s artwork, and detailing the private lifetime of the girl behind the digital camera. A distinguished identify within the Nineteen Eighties New York Metropolis artwork scene, Goldin, who identifies as queer, is most recognized for her visceral, probing images that captured a group ignored not simply by the artwork world however by your entire world — queer and trans people, intercourse staff, and people residing with and dying from HIV/AIDS. All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed fuses previous and current, the person and the collective, to inform a narrative that is achingly human, filled with urgency and rage but nonetheless simmering with hope. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed is streaming on HBO Max, and is accessible to lease or buy on Prime Video.

19. Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses is an absolute journey, and it is perhaps probably the most enthralling items of filmmaking about trans femininity. This 1969 Japanese New Wave movie fuses avant-garde modifying with meta-documentary fashion filmmaking and non-linear storytelling to comply with Eddie (performed by androgynous cis actor Peter), a trans girl who works as a hostess as a homosexual bar — the strains between trans and homosexual id are messy at finest, given when this was made. With jarring modifying, we’re torn between Eddie’s love triangle with the bar’s proprietor and his different mistress, fragmented recollections of a traumatic childhood incident, and meta-interviews with the opposite trans bar hostesses. It is all fairly disturbing and disorienting, each aesthetically and thematically, and that is kinda of the purpose — as critic Willow Maclay has written, Matsumoto’s movie “mirrors the breaking down of gendered perception through the destruction of cinematic form.” It is the kinda factor you simply want to observe to get, and perhaps greater than as soon as. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Funeral Parade of Roses is streaming on Kanopy and NightFlight+.

20. God’s Personal Nation (2017)

Typically homosexual romance dramas are tender, and typically they’re simply tremendous sizzling. God’s Personal Nation holds the honour of being each, leaving you crying one second and indescribably turned on the following. Set on a farm within the Yorkshire countryside, Francis Lee’s movie traces the lonely and pained day-to-day lifetime of Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a younger homosexual man who buries his anger at his father with binge ingesting and nameless hookups. However when Gheorghe (Alec Secăreanu) arrives for a brief stint to work on the farm, one thing shifts, and the newcomer’s presence begins to soften Johnny’s hardened aggression. A candy gentleness blossoms, together with one of many hottest (and muddiest) intercourse scenes in current reminiscence. If horny emotional homosexual farmcore was a film, this is able to be it. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: God’s Personal Nation is streaming on Kanopy and Tubi, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

21. Shinjuku Boys (1995)

It’s the mid-’90s in Tokyo, and also you stroll into the New Marilyn nightclub. You are all of the sudden charmed by a flock of dapper studs in flashy fits with cool-as-ever haircuts. It is a paradise of transmasc cuties.

In Shinjuku Boys, a brief documentary from Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, we meet three transmasculine people who work at a nightclub that caters to doting feminine clients. Tatsu, Gaish, and Kazuki, who all use he/him pronouns, describe themselves as “onabe,” a broad Japanese time period that is been used to explain a wide range of identities from trans man to butch lesbian. The doc captures a not often seen slice of transmasc life (together with some not-so-great poisonous masc habits), and affords a collection of extremely uncooked interviews that talk to issues not typically proven in movie. From private disclosures about intercourse and dysphoria to a T4T couple lovingly gushing over how seen they really feel by each other, Shinjuku Boys is a snapshot of a novel and little-known piece of Japanese trans historical past. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Shinjuku Boys is streaming on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy.

22. Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

It is Katharine Hepburn in masc drag, what extra might you want? How about her trying as dashing as ever in a fedora and popped collar, flirting with Cary Grant and Brian Aherne and complicated the hell out of them each? On this 1935 movie that marks the primary collaboration between Hollywood homosexual icons Hepburn, Grant, and director George Cukor, Hepburn performs Sylvia, the meek daughter of a bookkeeper who disguises herself as a boy to assist her father flee playing money owed. Now going by the identify Sylvester, Hepburn’s character finds a swaggering confidence round different males whereas passing as one. Launched through the begin of the Hays Code, Sylvia Scarlett was a daring danger, and at present stays an enchanting exploration of gender play, queer need, and the inside empowerment one can uncover in distorting gender expectations. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Sylvia Scarlett is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and VUDU.

23. Altering the Recreation (2021)

When Altering the Recreation was launched in 2021, it felt like a dire time for trans athletes in America — on the time, 17 anti-LGBTQ payments had been handed. As of 2023, of the present proposed 530 anti-trans payments, 79 have been handed. A big chunk of these particularly goal trans children who simply need to play sports activities, and greater than ever, Altering the Recreation stays an important movie that highlights the experiences of younger trans athletes. 

The documentary from Michael Barnett follows Mack, a trans boy who’s the Texas state wrestling champion…of ladies’ wrestling; Andraya, a Connecticut observe star who, although in a position to compete on her college’s ladies crew, is met with harassment from dad and mom; and Sarah, an alpine skier who splits her free time between activism and a make-up vlog. Whereas circumstances have solely gotten horrifically worse for trans youth, Altering the Recreation is a reminder that the resilience and diehard activism of youthful trans generations will not be dying down anytime quickly. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Altering the Recreation is streaming on Hulu.

24. Desert Hearts (1985)

Set in 1959, Donna Deitch’s indie traditional Desert Hearts finds Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver), a straight-laced English professor wearing pearls and a skirt go well with, arriving in dusty Reno to file for a fast divorce. The primary time she meets Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), an overtly queer, free-wheeling native, Cay’s riotously racing down the freeway backwards, like a lesbian James Dean straight out of Insurgent With out A Trigger. It is a traditional story of opposites attracting as Cay begins to pursue the hesitant and old style Vivian. Brimming with quiet ardour and craving, and lit stunningly by grasp cinematographer Robert Elswit, Desert Hearts is a must-watch for any lover of queer cinema. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Desert Hearts is streaming on The Criterion Channel and HBO Max.

25. Adam (2019)

Filmmaker Rhys Ernst’s directorial debut does one thing sudden and controversial: It portrays an genuine transmasculine expertise, however with no trans character because the lead. In Adam, Nicholas Alexander (a cis male actor) performs Adam, a cis male character who, after stumbling into New York Metropolis’s queer scene, winds up pretending to be a trans man. It sounds horrible, I do know! However hear me out — Adam makes use of this state of affairs to flip expectations and, within the course of, heart transness whereas placing cis views on the sidelines. Ernst (a trans man) does this by way of the friendship between Adam and trans man Ethan (The L Phrase: Gen Q‘s Leo Sheng). Their relationship proposes an alternative choice to a world the place trans males develop up studying about masculinity (fairly often poisonous) and sexuality (additionally typically poisonous) from a cis-centric perspective. Right here, Adam comes of age by way of the knowledge of a person who has deeply investigated his relationship to traditional masculinity. Although a divisive movie, Adam’s price seeing for the complicated conversations it will give method to. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Adam is streaming on Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

26. Colette (2018)

The one factor higher than a Keira Knightley interval piece? An unabashedly queer one. In Colette, Knightley portrays the titular well-known French novelist finest recognized for her 1944 work, Gigi, who for years was the ghostwriter of novels her husband took credit score for. Wash Westmoreland’s movie is not most attention-grabbing as a literary biopic, although, however for the way in which it spotlights how Colette was overtly and radically queer, particularly for the early Twentieth century. Knightley’s Colette has affairs with ladies, together with a protracted relationship with Mathilde De Morny, a French trans man and aristocrat known as Max and Missy all through historical past (although performed right here by cis actress Denise Gough). Their onstage kiss on the Moulin Rouge in 1907 famously sparked a riot. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Colette is streaming on Kanopy and Prime Video, and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

27. The Aggressives (2005)

In Daniel Peddle’s documentary, there’s one factor that every of his 5 topics has in frequent: All of them establish as “Aggressives,” or “AG.” That time period can imply vastly various things from one individual to the following. For Octavia, they’re only a one who attire like a dude with dude methods, whereas to Tiffany, it means carrying a femme-aggressive angle and performing extra like a homosexual man. Rjai, then again, is a ballroom champ with rows of trophies for strolling in each masc and butch classes. After which there’s Marquise Vilson, who binds his chest and describes himself as a trans lesbian; he is gone on to turn out to be a notable trans actor. Peddle’s movie is a uncommon doc of Black and brown butch, transmasc, and gender nonconforming people within the early aughts New York Metropolis that continues to be a gorgeous showcase of the expansiveness of gender id and expression outdoors the binary. — O.W.

Mashable High Tales

Find out how to watch: The Aggressives is streaming on Kanopy and Tubi, and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

28. Caravaggio (1986)

In the event you like your historic dramas ripe with unabashed queerness, look no additional than the work of grasp British filmmaker Derek Jarman. In Caravaggio, Jarman queers the historical past of the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio by taking the extremely homoerotic subtext of his work (together with age-old suspicions about his sexuality) and injecting it proper into the textual content, reimagining the artist in overtly homosexual affairs. This dazzling and layered meditation, with a mise en scène that evokes the compositions of a Caravaggio portray, finds the artist (performed by Nigel Terry) engaged in romances with a avenue fighter (Sean Bean) and his girlfriend (Tilda Swinton). Even with no data of Caravaggio or artwork historical past, Jarman’s movie is kind of a visit, and one effervescent with queer need. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Caravaggio is streaming on Kanopy.

29. Something’s Doable (2022)

A candy coming-of-age romantic comedy the place a younger trans woman will get to be charmed and beloved and swept off her toes like each different girl of rom-coms’ previous? Sure, please! Something’s Doable is the directorial debut from Billy Porter, with a script by trans screenwriter Ximena García Lecuona. Eva Reign stars as Kelsa, a highschool senior who begins crushing on Khal (Abubakr Ali). The 2 flirt, go on a cute first date, and romance begins to brew. However jealousy and backlash from Kelsa’s good friend group will get ignited, and for the primary time, Kelsa’s transness turns into a subject of fiery consideration at her college — and in her relationship. Something’s Doable has all of the allure of a teen rom-com like To All of the Boys I’ve Beloved Earlier than, however facilities the story on a trans woman with out making her id the only focus of her character. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Something’s Doable is streaming on Prime Video.

30. Dicks: The Musical (2023)

Think about The Mother or father Lure as a scorching satire of queer tradition and homophobic fears, and you will get some concept of what is in retailer with writers/stars Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson’s outrageous musical comedy. However nothing can put together you for Megan Thee Stallion’s ode to placing alpha males of their place, or the madcap chaos of Megan Mullally’s ad-libs, and even nationwide treasure Nathan Lane spitting ham at his beloved Sewer Boys. It is additionally bought Bowen Yang as God, and a finale quantity that’s as joyous as it’s completely iconoclastic. Looking for one thing unapologetically outrageous? Nothing made us chortle as laborious or loud or lengthy as Dicks: The Musical.* — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Dicks: The Musical is now streaming on HBO Max.

31. Disclosure (2020)

Ask anybody over 20 to call the primary time they noticed a trans character portrayed on display, and it will doubtless fall into one of many following classes: a villainous monster, a mocked shame, or a tragic tragedy ending in demise. Sam Feder’s documentary Disclosure charts the historical past of transness depicted throughout movie and TV, exhibiting that from cinema’s silent origins to the fashionable collection of at present, trans individuals have all the time been current, however largely solely to be derided, misrepresented, and gawked at. With a mixture of archival footage and speaking head interviews with dozens of trans actors, administrators, and authors, Disclosure affords a uncommon glimpse of a trans perspective on the painful historical past of illustration in media. It is important academic viewing for cis audiences. For trans people, it supplies a cathartic look again on an unpleasant historical past, however with a hopeful promise of what visibility can appear like. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Disclosure is streaming on Netflix.

32. The Matrix (1999)

What higher method to have fun Pleasure than by watching probably the most well-known trans film of all time, The Matrix? (It is canon, take care of it.) The sci-fi motion epic might not be explicitly trans on the floor, however as trans critics and audiences over time have noticed, Neo’s story down the rabbit gap is suffering from subtextual allusions to trans id. There’s the crimson/blue capsule “splinter in your mind” metaphor for hormone remedy, the “waking up” and “unplugging” from the Matrix as a realization of 1’s gender when the egg shell cracks, the truth that Neo retains getting deadnamed by Agent Smith, the entire essence of Trinity — you possibly can go on and on. Learn this sci-fi traditional how you’ll, however when you begin recognizing all of the trans symbolism, within the phrases of Morpheus, “There’s no turning back.” — O.W.

Find out how to watch: The Matrix is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

33. Swan Track (2021)

Impressed by the real-life “Liberace of Sandusky, [Ohio],” Swan Track stars heralded character actor Udo Kier as a Mr. Pat, a retired and unapologetically flamboyant hairdresser out to safe his legacy with one final hurrah of a hairdo. Striding again into his previous haunts to reconcile along with his previous, this wickedly humorous hero finds new buddies, previous foes, and the glory of a mint-green classic go well with. With a superb wit, daring fashion, and an enormous coronary heart, author/director Todd Stephens’ movie pays dazzling tribute to a era of homosexual males who have been decimated by AIDS and societal indifference. Swirling collectively rage and gratitude into an intoxicating cocktail, Kier offers one of the best efficiency of his lengthy and storied profession.* — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Swan Track is now streaming on Kanopy and accessible to lease or purchase on Amazon Prime.

34. Moonlight (2016)

Director Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award-winning Finest Image could use among the formulaic elements seen in different coming-of-age tales, nevertheless it imbues them with such immense inventiveness and originality that to check Moonlight to the rest appears like an insult. This movie has rightly been known as among the most impactful filmmaking in historical past, a perennial meditation on abuse, remorse, ache, and acceptance. — Alison Foreman, Leisure Reporter

Find out how to watch: Moonlight is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

35. Hedwig and the Indignant Inch (2001)

Hedwig and the Indignant Inch is all the time finest loved on the stage. However when a go to to the theater is not an choice, director and star John Cameron Mitchell’s display adaptation greater than does the trick. On this musical dramedy, Stephen Trask’s spectacular songs as soon as once more come to life because the titular and iconic East German rock singer explores revenge, betrayal, and acceptance. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Hedwig and the Indignant Inch is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

36-38. The Concern Road Trilogy (2021)

A stellar instance of queer horror hit in three elements in 2021, when R.L. Stine’s beloved YA e book collection impressed a slasher trilogy centered on a lesbian couple. Kiana Madeira and Olivia Scott Welch are struggling the usual torments of teendom when the native legend of a vicious witch upends their lives — and will finish them! Director Leigh Janiak ushers audiences by way of three eras of terror, chasing her heroes by way of buying malls, summer time camps, and colonial forests to unearth the darkish fact of Shadyside. — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Concern Road: Half One: 1994 is streaming on Netflix.

Find out how to watch: Concern Road: Half Two: 1978 is streaming on Netflix.

Find out how to watch: Concern Road: Half Three: 1666 is streaming on Netflix.

39. The Watermelon Girl (1996)

Director Cheryl Dunye’s cinematic debut brings utter fearlessness to righting wrongs. On this romantic comedy, Dunye performs a pseudo-autobiographical model of herself intent on giving credit score to the Black actors and filmmakers that got here earlier than her however have been too typically left unnamed. Broadly thought to be the primary feature-length movie directed by an overtly lesbian Black girl, The Watermelon Girl stays a triumph virtually 30 years later. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: The Watermelon Girl is streaming on Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

40. My Lovely Laundrette (1985)

On this charming, horny, and foolish comedy from Stephen Frears, Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis play childhood friends-turned-lovers struggling to benefit from their meager means. When the pair take over a laundromat collectively, they need to face the conventional pitfalls of working a enterprise in addition to battle the political local weather surrounding immigrants in ’80s Nice Britain. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: My Lovely Laundrette is streaming on Kanopy and Pluto TV, and is accessible to lease or buy on Prime Video or Apple TV+.

41. Rift (2017)

Need one thing uniquely chilling? Then take a look at this 2017 Icelandic thriller set in a frigid and frightful panorama. Written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen, Rift follows a person (Björn Stefánsson) to a distant cabin, the place he hopes to assist his distraught ex-boyfriend (Sigurður Þór Óskarsson) and perhaps discover some closure over their breakup. Nonetheless, their reunion is rattled by a collection of unusual occasions that counsel they don’t seem to be alone. One thing is within the darkness, watching and ready. This incredible movie lures you in with lovely vistas and a slow-burn tempo, then spirals into scares certain to linger like a chilly shiver down your backbone.* — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Rift is streaming on Kanopy and is accessible to lease or buy on Prime Video.

42. Carol (2016)

Primarily based on Patricia Highsmith’s groundbreaking 1952 novel, Todd Haynes’ Carol brings the lives of Carol Aird and Therese Belivet to the display by way of actors Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. This masterful rendition of a Christmas-set romance will pull at your heartstrings in all the proper methods, completely nestling right into a nook of your soul. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Carol is streaming on Hulu and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

43. Benedetta (2021)

If you hear that the director of Showgirls made a film about lesbian nuns, you may suspect Benedetta to be outlandishly raunchy and ferociously campy, reveling within the trashy tropes. Nonetheless, Paul Verhoeven brings beautiful artistry to this stranger-than-fiction story, delivering a biopic filled with outrageous moments with a complicated but depraved wit. Virginie Efira stars as Seventeenth-century Italian nun Benedetta Carlini, who drew raised eyebrows in her convent not solely due to the miracles she appeared to carry out but in addition due to her romance with a fellow sister (Daphne Patakia). — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Benedetta is streaming on AMC+, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

44. Weekend (2011)

Tom Cullen and Chris New redefine the prospect encounter in director Andrew Haigh’s Weekend. Informed over the course of a 48-hour interval, this stirring, passionate romance considers the impacts strangers can have on each other — even when their time collectively is reduce all too quick. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Weekend is streaming on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

45. Tongues Untied (1989)

Artist Marlon Riggs’ experimental movie Tongues Untied addresses the onslaught of racist and homophobic prejudices Black homosexual males have been pressured to endure and navigate for many years. Combining documentary footage with scripted private accounts, this 55-minute movie stays an impactful and related level of reference in intersectional LGBTQ activism. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Tongues Untied is streaming on Kanopy.

46. Love, Simon (2018)

People in search of a heartwarming, candy, and goofy romp to accompany the right at-home Pleasure celebration can cease their search. Love, Simon, starring the all the time charming Nick Robinson, broke floor as the primary main studio movie to give attention to a homosexual teen romance. Pleasant as it is crucial, this film combines one of the best of rom-coms and popping out tales to examine each field on a film lover’s checklist. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Love, Simon is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+, YouTube, and Google Play.

47. Shiva Child (2021)

This is a nightmare state of affairs: You are a younger, bi Jewish girl (Rachel Sennott) who simply completed hooking up with one among your sex-work purchasers — he is wealthy and cute and, hey, perhaps you kinda like him. You present up on the shiva your dad and mom dragged you to, and oh fuck, Sugar Daddy walks in…with a sizzling spouse…holding a new child child. And he is aware of your dad and mom. Oh, and your ex-girlfriend, who’s been a complete flake recently, is there too. Emma Seligman’s debut function is just like the Jewish comedic model of Trey Edward Schults’ Krisha, solely it finds the humor (and the suffocating nervousness) within the chaos. And it does all of it in solely an hour and 17 minutes.* — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Shiva Child is streaming on Kanopy and Netflix, and is accessible to lease or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

48. Joyful Collectively (1997)

Directed by Wong Kar-wai, this nail-biting romantic saga depicts a tumultuous relationship getting ready to collapse. The movie’s leads, Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, discover ardour and its limitations as Joyful Collectively supplies a novel, if not jarring, glimpse into affairs of the center. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Joyful Collectively is streaming on HBO Max.

49. However I am a Cheerleader (2000)

Natasha Lyonne stars as a cheerleader pressured to attend a conversion remedy camp in what could very nicely be the best lesbian fairytale of all time. Directed by Jamie Babbit, However I am a Cheerleader was met with lukewarm critiques in 2000 however has since garnered a well-deserved cult following. Come for the promise of RuPaul attempting to fake he is straight; keep for a primary kiss scene that includes Clea DuVall that can knock your pom-poms off. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: However I am a Cheerleader is streaming on Tubi and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

50. Wig (2019)

One of the iconic occasions of New York Metropolis Pleasure, Wigstock has taken many kinds over time. Watch as director Chris Moukarbel follows present-day queens as they try and revitalize the pageant made in style by legends, like Woman Bunny, in 2018. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Wig is accessible to stream on HBO Max.

51. Velvet Goldmine (1998)

One other glittering present from Todd Haynes, this ’70s-set drama performs like fan fiction, penned about queer icons like David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Oscar Wilde. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as a glam rock star who wins the center of a headstrong American punk (Ewan McGregor), a glitzy occasion woman (Toni Collette), and the devotion of a younger teen coming into his personal (Christian Bale). Full of unbelievable music, scintillating spectacle, and unapologetically queer lust, Velvet Goldmine is gorgeous and daring even earlier than you understand Haynes mopped its narrative construction from Citizen Kane. — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Velvet Goldmine is now accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video.

52. Paris Is Burning (1990)

It is the movie you knew needed to be on this checklist. Director Jennie Livingston’s unparalleled documentary Paris Is Burning captures the New York Metropolis drag ball tradition of the late ’80s with fashion, grace, and intelligence. It is a highly effective reflection on wealth disparity, race discrimination, and stigma surrounding the LGBTQ group — a must-see if there’s ever been one. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Paris Is Burning is now streaming on The Criterion Channel and on HBO Max, and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

53. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger shepherd a nuanced narrative of ardour, worry, romance, and disgrace in director Ang Lee’s story of star-crossed lovers in rural Wyoming and Texas. A timeless reflection on what it takes to unite who you’re anticipated to be with who you actually are, Brokeback Mountain is usually a little sappy — however its faultless message all the time lands. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Brokeback Mountain is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

54. Find out how to Survive a Plague (2012)

Reporter David France appears to be like again on the HIV/AIDS epidemic on this riveting, complete documentary. Weaving a whole lot of hours of archival footage right into a cohesive narrative on the LGBTQ group’s struggle in opposition to biased healthcare practices, Find out how to Survive a Plague bottles what it means to make societal change occur earlier than it is too late. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Find out how to Survive a Plague is streaming on Pluto TV, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

55. Portrait of a Woman on Hearth (2019)

Author-director Céline Sciamma will blow you away with this historic French drama. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel lead as a painter and her unwilling topic whose intimate time collectively begins a secret romance that threatens to unravel them each. Painful and poetic, Portrait of a Woman on Hearth is the under-appreciated watch it’s worthwhile to find time for. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Portrait of a Woman on Hearth is streaming on HBO Max and Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

56. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Man Pearce star as drag performers touring the Australian outback on this heartfelt comedy full of iconic one-liners and costume adjustments. (It ought to be famous that this movie comprises some outdated, racist portrayals of non-white characters. Many argue the movie stays a historic textual content for the adjustments it led to in mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ artwork.) — A.F.

Find out how to watch: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is streaming on Tubi and Prime Video.

57. Upstairs Inferno (2015)

Documentarian Robert L. Camina remembers the catastrophic hearth that took the lives of 32 individuals at New Orleans homosexual bar UpStairs Lounge on June 24, 1973. Witnesses to the tragedy mirror on the lives misplaced, the anticipated arsonist behind the assault, and the town’s missing response to group devastation. It is a heartbreaking however important chapter in any LGBTQ historical past e book. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Upstairs Inferno is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

58. Kiki (2016)

There has by no means been a greater time to revisit Sara Jordenö’s breathtaking Kiki. Centered on the drag and ballroom scene of New York Metropolis and people communities’ roles in rebuffing systemic intersectional bias, this documentary is an inspiring reminder that pleasure and love can result in lasting change — however not with out profound wrestle. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Kiki is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

59. Pariah (2011)

Adepero Oduye devastates on this coming-of-age story. A cinematic journey that leaps from the display straight to your soul, Pariah follows a 17-year-old Black woman as she fights to simply accept her lesbian id and reconcile her sexual orientation together with her household’s imaginative and prescient of the longer term. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Pariah is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

60. Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Road (2019)

Queer horror is a style filled with cringeworthy strikes. However followers of the much-maligned A Nightmare on Elm Road 2: Freddy’s Revenge got here to embrace its quirky dance quantity and its groundbreaking scream queen, Mark Patton. Teaming with documentarians Tyler Jensen and Roman Chimienti, this fascinating main man steps again into the highlight to share his story as a closeted homosexual actor who survived public mockery and the AIDS disaster to discover a love and group that takes pleasure in him. — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Road is streaming on Tubi, and is accessible for lease or buy on Apple TV+.

61. The Favorite (2018)

Solely star Olivia Colman walked away with an Oscar for her work on The Favorite, however the 2018 historic black comedy greater than earned its justifiable share of reward. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, this Finest Image nominee tells the story of two courtiers, performed by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, vying for the favor of Queen Anne (Colman). A wonderful argument in opposition to aristocracies — and proudly owning too many rabbits — this darkly hilarious and queer romp is nicely price a watch. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: The Favorite is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+, YouTube, and Google Play.

62. We Have been Right here (2011)

Director David Weissman’s documentary We Have been Right here transports viewers again to the San Francisco LGBTQ scene of the ’80s and ’90s as interview topics relive their wrestle to cope with the unfathomable HIV/AIDS disaster. A testomony to the energy of the human spirit and the facility of group, it is a historical past lesson price taking note of. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: We Have been Right here is streaming Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

63. Name Me by Your Identify (2017)

Timothée Chalamet leads in director Luca Guadagnino’s beautiful coming-of-age romance. Winner of Finest Tailored Screenplay on the ninetieth Academy Awards, Name Me By Your Identify approaches its starring couple with tenderness, understanding, and unshakable heat. That is the right decide for a cozy-yet-ethereal night time in. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Name Me by Your Identify is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

64. Tomboy (2011)

One other installment from writer-director Céline Sciamma. Tomboy paints a staggering portrait of a gender non-conforming youngster grappling with societal expectations in a brand new atmosphere. Filled with hope however grounded in its true-to-life performances, this movie exists as a testomony to changing into who you actually are at any age. Then-10-year-old Zoé Héran positively dazzles together with her lead position. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Tomboy is streaming on The Criterion Channel.

65. A Unbelievable Girl (2017)

Winner of Finest International Language Movie on the ninetieth Academy Awards, director Sebastián Lelio’s A Unbelievable Girl is a tragedy and triumph for the ages. Daniela Vega performs a lady who loses her companion unexpectedly. Amidst her grief, she should contend together with her late companion’s household and their transphobia. This movie affords beautiful cognizance of the ache prejudice can add to current loss. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: A Unbelievable Girl is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

66. My Personal Personal Idaho (1991)

Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix star on this Twentieth-century retelling of Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Henry V. Director Gus Van Sant guides his leads by way of a tense, melancholy exploration of intimacy, energy, and uncertainty that by no means fails to ship poignant reflection regardless of its adventure-fueled storyline. Oh, and the pair’s chemistry is…searing. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: My Personal Personal Idaho is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Google Play.

67. The Half of It (2020)

Since arriving on Netflix final 12 months, The Half of It has quietly constructed a following of younger queer individuals enchanted by its presentation of popping out. Starring Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu, an introverted Chinese language-American excessive schooler, this romantic comedy is yet one more retelling of the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, however with an intense honesty to its topic that makes it stand out. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: The Half of It is streaming on Netflix.

68. Milk (2008)

In director Gus Van Sant’s astounding biopic, Sean Penn stars as activist and politician Harvey Milk. The primary overtly homosexual man to be elected to public workplace in California, Milk progressed the rights of LGBTQ People by unprecedented leaps and bounds. Milk honors that legacy with its heartfelt imagining of an icon. Penn gained Finest Actor for his portrayal of Milk on the 81st Academy Awards. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Milk is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

69. Tangerine (2015)

Director Sean Baker’s low-budget tour de pressure follows transgender intercourse employee Sin-Dee Rella (performed by the bubbling Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) as she seeks to enact revenge on the person who cheated on her and the cisgender girl he cheated with. Bittersweet and hysterical, Tangerine is a one-of-a-kind viewing expertise you will cherish perpetually. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Tangerine is streaming on Kanopy and HBO Max, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

70. The Birdcage (1996)

Within the wake of an sudden wedding ceremony, The Birdcage chronicles the chaotic mixing of two very totally different households. Alongside the way in which, Nathan Lane dons full drag, Robin Williams dances his pleated pants off, and Gene Hackman brings exceptional depth to his straight-man position. That is the right decide if you would like one thing gentle and enjoyable to observe together with your chosen household. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: The Birdcage is now streaming on Hulu and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

71. Rafiki (2018)

Starring Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva as burgeoning lovers, Rafiki was banned in Kenya “due to its homosexual theme and clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law.” Because of this, after all, a lot of the remainder of the queer world embraced it as an emblem in opposition to censorship. Director Wanuri Kahiu treats these viewers to a positively enchanting romance, one which solely emphasizes the necessity for LGBTQ equality in all places. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Rafiki is streaming on Kanopy, and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

72. Welcome to Chechnya (2020)

The third movie from Academy Award-nominated documentarian David France, Welcome to Chechnya takes viewers on a guerilla-style investigation into the anti-gay purges that also plague the constituent republic of Russia. 

Not solely does the explosive venture element the abhorrent insurance policies created by Vladimir Putin and Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov to criminalize homosexuality, it additionally delves into the insidious tradition the federal government has instilled in its residents to encourage hate crimes. It’s a painful watch that calls for consideration from viewers, focusing largely on the brave efforts of underground networks working to assist LGBTQ individuals escape the area.*  — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Welcome to Chechnya is streaming on HBO Max, and is accessible to buy on Apple TV+.

73. The Residing Finish (1992)

Typically dubbed the homosexual Thelma & Louise, Gregg Araki’s The Residing Finish follows the reckless highway journey of two HIV-positive, anti-establishment homosexual males who go on the run after killing a homophobic cop. There’s Jon (Craig Gilmore), a slender, downbeat movie critic who simply came upon his HIV standing, and Luke (Mike Dytri), a hustler hunk who appears to be like like he walked proper out of Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising. The 2 turn out to be lovers and shortly set out on a fuck-everything crime spree throughout California. A fixture of New Queer Cinema that put Araki on the map, this low-budget punk queer highway film is scorching with radical rage, and feels as contemporary as ever at present. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: The Residing Finish is streaming on Kanopy and is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

74. Think about Me and You (2005)

There are two varieties of queers: those that noticed beloved lesbian rom-com Think about Me & You early of their queerness and have been perpetually modified, and people who’ve by no means heard of the undersung British film. In the event you’re within the latter camp, I’m so thrilled to lastly introduce you to this foolish, charming romance. Rachel (Piper Perabo donning a British accent) is about to marry her finest good friend, Heck (Matthew Goode), however as she’s strolling down the aisle, her eyes catch a lady named Luce (Lena Headey), and one thing indescribable occurs. It is love at first sight, as they are saying, and thus begins a candy love story between Rachel, who’s solely ever dated males, and Luce, an overtly homosexual florist in probably the most ’00s lesbian wardrobe you have ever seen. It is delightfully cheery and has an ending that can, shockingly, go away you teary-eyed with pleasure. A queer rom-com traditional by way of and thru. — O.W.

Find out how to watch: Think about Me & You is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and YouTube.

75. Earlier than Stonewall (1984)

Filmmakers Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg did a public service of their creation of the seminal documentary Earlier than Stonewall. An academic but humorous work that gives important context to the LGBTQ group’s long-fought marketing campaign for civil rights, it is a nice beginning place for anybody keen to higher admire simply how far acceptance has come and the way far it nonetheless has to go. — A.F.

Find out how to watch: Earlier than Stonewall is accessible for lease or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Asterisks (*) point out the write-up comes from a earlier Mashable checklist.

UPDATE: Might. 23, 2025, 2:57 p.m. EDT This checklist has been up to date with lively hyperlinks and extra film suggestions.