Recommendations for more movies featuring men who love men.
I already wrote a list of movies (and one or two TV series) in a rec list in 2021, and I’m not going to be repeating any of those recommendations here. There’s fifty feature-length or more pieces of media on the old list, plus three short films!
Just a disclaimer as I put on the other list, not all of these movies are made by explicitly queer creators or for queer audiences, and some of them are queer only in the subtext or I’m only presenting a queer reading of the text as a lens through which to view them.
For these rec lists it’s more about the impact of the men who love men in the piece rather than how much they “count” as representation.
It’s here:
Some more basic gay movies that are absolutely worth watching but are recommended commonly enough that I’m not going to dig into them in detail, are Your Name Engraved Herein (2020), Angels in America (2003), Rocketman (2019), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Capote (2005), Boy Erased (2018), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Free Fall (2013), The Boys in the Band (1970) or (2020), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), or Love is Strange (2014).
The further recommendations on this list are not in any particular order, and are numbered for the sake of easy reference if you’re regularly coming back to the list.
There’s a list for easily adding these films to your Letterboxd if you use it — More gay (or bi) dudes in movies.
Please note that I’m not including content warnings for anything, nor noting any of these films for their value as moral education. None of these recommendations should be taken as me advising that one should base one’s ethics or one’s queerness on however it’s portrayed in each film.
1. Benediction (2021, dir. Terence Davies)
Queer themes are explicit throughout, there are a variety of men who love men depicted in the text, and it’s broadly a film that explores the depths and limitations of queer identity.
LOVE IS NEVER STILL.
Poet Siegfried Sassoon survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery, but became a vocal critic of the government’s continuation of the war when he returned from service. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London’s literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.
Benediction (2021) on Letterboxd
In my last list I linked a bunch of movies centred around Siegfried Sassoon and/or Wilfred Owen, and this one has come out since! It’s a slow-moving film, contemplative and full of very deep-running, painful feelings.
There’s a lot of abstraction in it that I really enjoyed — because Sassoon was a poet, the film not only takes the time to meander, but also to focus on specific places, sensations, emotions, people, and take its time digesting those things and the themes they’re related to? It also really plays with a lot of aspects of the gay experience in this period that often aren’t discussed in detail, like the ways in which some people could be public but not obvious, and the ways others could be obvious but not public, and how attitudes towards both approaches changed and morphed all the time.
So much of this film is about repressed emotion and the difficulty of repressing them, the way that they work their way out from under the skin like splinters from under scabbing. And Peter Capaldi plays older Sassoon, which is great!
Christopher and his Kind (2011, dir. Geoffrey Sax) is a biopic that explores the life of Christopher Isherwood, as well as other famous queer poets of the 30s such as W.H. Auden, and is really well-done. Especially to watch side by side with Benediction, comparing pre- and post-WW1 England with pre-WW2 Berlin for queer men, there’s a lot of interesting points of comparison.
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018, dir. Xavier Dolan) is also a contemplative film that digs a lot into repression versus openness of feeling, but also it plays with epistolary and record-keeping in a way that I think makes it a good pair with Benediction — it also explores themes of like, the boundaries a repressed or closeted gay guy has to sort out for himself, which are appropriate or inappropriate, and where and whom he goes to to feel seen, and to feel loved?
Sekigahara (2017, dir. Masato Harada) is a different film entirely, but I recommend it alongside Benediction because you see a lot of the political and social dynamics of these soldiers on- and off- their battle and strategic fields. There’s themes of self-sacrifice and duty explored throughout, and like… Of course a lot of these men were intimate with ech other and with other men — I’m always a slut for anything that even touches on the relationship between Ishida Mitsunari and Ōtani Yoshitsugu, and while there’s not as much of that in this film as I would like, there is a bit!
2. Transylvania 6–5000 (1985, dir. Rudy De Luca)
This is a silly 80s movie and the gay subtext is provided purely because the actors are offscreen besties and very touchy-feely with each other.
WANTED: TWO THRILL-SEEKING REPORTERS, BRAINS OPTIONAL, LOOKING TO DIG UP THE STORY OF THE CENTURY. FOR INFORMATION CALL…
Two reporters travel to a strange castle in Transylvania to investigate the apparent reappearance of Frankenstein, and encounter the sensitive Wolfman, the Vampiress Odette and a whole cast of other weirdos.
Transylvania 6–5000 (1985) on Letterboxd.
Is this a good movie? No.
But is it a funny movie? Yes. Goldblum and Begley Jr. have great on-screen chemistry together and they obviously had so much fun with this dynamic as like… Two lanky giants who physically cannot keep their hands off each other. Seriously, you’ll watch this movie and you’ll see them constantly stepping apart and then reaching back for each other and putting their hands all over each other, and it’s so fucking funny.
Just watch this scene:
“You wanna kill me?”
“No! I love you, Jack!”
“If this is love, please hate me.”
Also, fully between his legs while strangling him. Incredible.
If you’re in the mood for more 80s silliness after TR 6–5000, Mannequin (1987) is a fun movie and like… Hollywood Montrose is not the main character, he’s a very enthusiastic gay sidekick, and he’s honestly my dream. He’s so unapologetically gay and so flamboyant, and he honestly makes the movie for me every time I watch it.
Free Guy (2021) is a fun but basic fantasy adventure flick set in a videogame universe, but the dynamic between the protagonist and his buddy is very gay! I was almost surprised when they didn’t go for that, because it seemed like it was being foreshadowed as romantic — either way, it’s definitely a loving connection.
Set It Up (2018) and What Men Want (2019, dir. Adam Shankman) both have Pete Davidson in minor roles where he’s slutting it up with different men, and it’s so charming in both.
3. This is Going To Hurt (2022, dir. Lucy Forbes and Tom Kingsley)
A TV miniseries featuring a gay protagonist who is cold and caustic throughout.
The unvarnished truth of life as a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology.
This is Going To Hurt (2022) on Letterboxd
This isn’t a movie! Because I am a liar. But this is genuinely really fucking good and I love Ben Whishaw, so hey.
This is a series that really delves into the limitations of the straining NHS in the UK, the pressure particularly put on junior doctors, nurses, and administrative staff, contrasting it with the different ways that staff are treated in private care, but how private care falls down in care for patients because of its focus on a for-profit model.
It’s really interesting seeing the way his personal life is affected, but also the way that different people respond to him as a white gay man with a Southern English accent versus how they treat a lot of the other doctors.
If you’re in the mood for more TV drama, you might want to check out Cucumber (2015), which is about the mess and chaos of middle-aged gay relationships. Look up content warnings for violence as needed because it’s pretty hard-hitting, but it plays a lot with sexuality, intimacy, and the layered traumas of being gay and otherwise marginalised, and it’s really good. Con O’Neill is also so fucking hot in it and isn’t that all that matters? Banana (2015) is a series of 8 standalone comedy episodes that are set in the same universe and continuity, and the third part of the collection, Tofu (2015) is a series of related interviews on modern sex and sexuality.
4. Bad Education (2019, dir. Cory Finley)
A classic in the be gay, do crime genre, this is a lot of drama and introspection in a bit of biopic, with a gay main character and a lot of gay themes.
SOME PEOPLE LEARN THE HARD WAY
A superintendent of a school district works for the betterment of the student’s education when an embezzlement scheme is discovered, threatening to destroy everything.
Bad Education (2019) on Letterboxd
I love this movie a lot and I’ve watched it a few times since it came out — this is a film that doesn’t have the main character’s romance as its central driver or central theme, but nonetheless how gay he is (and particularly how closeted he is in his workplace) seems to suffuse his entire character.
Like, I love seeing a gay conman, I’m always in favour of movies that dig into the multiplicity of people’s personalities, code-switching, and how safe it is to be oneself or one’s full self from one community to another, but this movie goes a bit deeper than that. There’s a particular motif where Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) is repeatedly looking at himself in the mirror, is uncomfortable with signs of his ageing, and spends a lot of time and money on beauty products and plastic surgery, and like…
There are a few movies that play with gay men’s fear of ageing, often as a subject of humour, and generally as a play on misogynistic tropes about ageing women — in this film, it feels way more attached to the desirability politics and sense of impermenance that comes with many queer men’s experiences of life, and the fear that we’ll become irrelevant to other queer men, and to society, as we grow older or less attractive.
There are a bunch of other aspects to the film, I think it’s sharply-written and well-paced, I think it balances a broad cast of characters really well, but Frank’s character particularly I just fucking loved.
If you’d like a more light-hearted take on gays doing crime, I Love You Phillip Morris (2009, dir. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) is the obvious classic, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. It’s silly, it’s not very deep, and McGregor is a dream, as ever.
Klaus (2019, dir. Sergio Pablos) is a kid’s movie that centres a character called Jesper who’s a sort of cross between Discworld’s ADHD bisexual icon Moist von Lipwig and the The Emperor’s New Groove’s favourite Disney twink princess Kuzco, and it’s very easy to read him as bisexual and having a very cute dynamic with the titular Klaus.
GONIN (1995, dir. Takashi Ishii) is a heist movie that centres a group of five chaotic men who attempt to rob a local yakuza chapter, and they basically all get hunted down and killed — two of them have an extremely hot and weird dynamic, and although this kind of action thing isn’t really my bag, their relationship is worth the whole movie to me.
5. Fire Island (2022, dir. Andrew Ahn)
This is explicitly a gay romantic comedy, and the cast of characters is almost entirely made up of explicitly queer men, the majority of whom are Asian-American.
IT TAKES A MATCH TO LIGHT A FIRE.
A group of queer best friends gather in the Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter, but when a sudden change of events jeopardizes their summer in gay paradise, their bonds as a chosen family are pushed to the limit.
Fire Island (2022) on Letterboxd
This film is a fairly new release, and I’m hoping that people have seen it and loved it already, but just in case you haven’t… Holy fuck, go watch Fire Island right fucking now. It’s a gay Pride and Prejudice retelling with Joel Kim Booster as the Elizabeth Bennet character and Conrad Ricamora as the Mr Darcy! It fucking rocks!
This movie is just brimming over with incisive wit, it really keeps the intpersonal dynamics and cattiness and politicking that’s present throughout the original, but it’s all updated to the period and modified to fit the setting and the cast of extremely gay, extremely wonderful characters. I cannot recommend it enough.
I will say that one place where the film does fall down a bit for me is that it recognises the difficulty and prejudice that many BIPOC queer men face amongst the broader queer community, especially in a white male dominated space, but the film is extremely homogenous in another way — except for Torian Miller (who is gorgeous in this film), basically every man on screen is a painfully thin muscle twink, most of them hairless. I’m not trying to hold this film to a different account than the others on this list, it just really stands out that there’s no trans men or like, bears, in the background of a lot of big party scenes, and it just ends up feeling weird that every body onscreen is so identical when the point is that it’s a big queer party, you know?
With that said, it’s still fucking gorgeous and a lot of fun, and I wholeheartedly recommend it with that caveat taken into account.
If you did enjoy Fire Island (2022) and you haven’t checked out his body of work, I would recommend digging into more from the director, Andrew Ahn — particularly his film Spa Night (2016), which is about the isolation of a young Korean-American man as he starts exploring hook-up culture in Korean spas around L.A. Fire Island was written by Joel Kim Booster, its star, and if you haven’t checked out his comedy I would recommend that, as well — his special, Psychosexual (2022) came out the same year.
Bros (2022, dir. Nicholas Stoller) came out the same year too, and is often compared with Fire Island, which is a shame, because it sucks. There is the barest hint more diversity of body types in this movie, and it does have some background trans people (the trans mascs are only signified by their bad haircuts and are very blink-and-you’ll-miss-them), but the film itself comes off as a mean-spirited compilation of good TikTok and SNL sketch concepts in amongst the most mind-melting whiny drama you can imagine. With that said, it exists, I guess.
Fire Island uses the beach and beach parties as a tool to strip off the characters’ clothes and also their vulnerabilities while exploring the prejudices and politics of gay men’s spaces, and another film that uses the same motifs but with an entirely different tone (and admittedly, less skill and nuance) is Beach Rats (2017, dir. Eliza Hittman).
6. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, dir. Peter Weir)
Master and Commander is a blockbuster seafaring adventure film, and while the relationship between the two MCs is broadly interpreted and read as homoromantic and homoerotic, it is not explicit and is merely a popular reading of the text.
THE COURAGE TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE LIES IN THE HEARTS OF MEN.
After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship’s thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.
Master and Commander (2003) on Letterboxd
There’s an interview somewhere where Taika Waititi is asked his favourite romance movie and he immediately goes “Master and Commander” and listen. He is so right.
The original books, called the Aubreyad after the main character, Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) are a series of 20 Napoleonic historical fiction novels, all of them featuring the careers and the relationship between Aubrey and his surgeon and bestie, Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany). They’re gorgeously written books and I absolutely recommend them, but the movie is wonderful too.
There’s so much tenderness between men in this, so much depth and intimacy to the relationship between Aubrey and Maturin, the trust, the mutual criticism, the tension, the fucking desire and love.
Obviously Black Sails and Our Flag Means Death are gay pirate shows, and Pirates of the Carribbean (particularly At World’s End (2007)) has some capital U Undertones between Jack Sparrow and various men around him, but Master and Commander really leads the charge when it comes to homoerotic dynamics at sea.
If you have a taste for more hot men at sea after this, In The Heart of the Sea (2015, dir. Ron Howard) is not incredibly homoerotic, but scratches the itch a little bit — it does have Herman Melville as a character as the incident that the film is about inspired in large part the famously homoerotic Great American Novel, Moby Dick, and Melville was obviously one of us.
White Squall (1996, dir. Ridley Scott) is not a spellbinding film by any means, but if you’re still itching for nautical stuff, this is a coming of age drama à la Dead Poets Society, but with its young men crewing a sailship in the 1960s. The Terror (2018)’s first series obviously features a lot of homoerotic dynamics, both explicit and implicit between different characters, and if you like your gay sailors with a side of brutal horror and fierce anti-colonial messaging, this might be the show for you.
If you have a taste particularly for Russell Crowe in another gay role, there’s of course The Sum of Us (1994, dir. Geoff Burton and Kevin Dowling) which is an Aussie picture about a young gay man, Crowe, attempting to bond with his father; if you’re in the mood for Crowe DILFing about at his DILFiest, his relationship with Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys (2016, dir. Shane Black) is as hilarious as it is weirdly intimate.
7. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, dir. Marielle Heller)
This is a drama that centres on a lesbian conwoman, but is recommended on this list because of her bestie and literal partner in crime, who is gay. Queerness in this film is explicit throughout, and is thematically deeply queer.
When a bestselling celebrity biographer is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) on Letterboxd
This movie is a real trip. Purely for its own sake, I do recommend it — I fucking love Melissa McCarthy as a dramatic actress, and this flick really does let her dig right down into the role of Lee Israel, especially because so much of this film is about the marketability of identity, of queerness, the fear of irrelevance, and most of all, like… The gun to your head as a queer person creating art, and how jumping for those layered and hidden identities, how jumping for dishonesty, is the only way you can put food on your table and pay for medicine for your poor sick cat.
It’s recommended on this list because Richard E. Grant plays across from McCarthy as her best friend, fence, and fellow conartist — I recommended Withnail and I (1987, dir. Bruce Robinson) on my last list, and fuck me, but this is Grant 40 years on and still absolutely rocking the part of a mean and traumatised bitch of a gay guy who’s just trying to keep himself alive and, more importantly, drowned in fucking booze. His character is so fucked up, so much fun, so painfully realistic, and like —
He’s a man constantly making the worst decisions, he’s opportunistic, calculating, biting, but at the same time, he’s genuinely trying his fucking best to help his friend and connect with her? He’s just also fundamentally irresponsible, and the two of them can’t be everything for each other when they’re both so messed up already.
If the vibe of fucked up lonely, isolated people clawing at everyone and each other to stay alive, but also being unbelievably mentally ill and honestly terrible about it, Banshees of Inisherin (2022, dir. Martin McDonagh) obviously plays out a deeply fucked up relationship between Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006, dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) features Steve Carrell as a depressive suicidal mess of a gay academic who goes back to his chaotic and messy family whilst in recovery, and he pitches in with the rest of the family to try to help his niece win a beauty pageant. It’s a really fun film, and I think Carrell’s character in this is honestly a fucking mood. Paul Dano is in Little Miss Sunshine, and if you have a hankering for him after watching this flick, try Swiss Army Man (2016, dir. Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan), which is all about his character, Hank’s, journey of transfeminine self-expression whilst isolated on an island with a corpse he falls in love with.
If dark comedy is still what you’re in the mood for, The Whole Nine Yards (2000, dir Jonathan Lynn) pairs everyone off heterosexually in the end, but in the meantime is wildly homoerotic, and it really took me by surprise how much I enjoyed the dynamic between, of all actors, Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis.
8. Taboo (1993, dir. Nagisa Ōshima)
This is a jidaigeki that explicitly explores and centres gay desire with a variety of characters.
HOW AM I INSANE?
Set during Japan’s Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school’s stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
Taboo (1999) on Letterboxd
This is a slow-brewing movie that’s full of tension — it’s all about one young wakashu who’s the subject of a lot of desire and attention from the other samurai around him. They have a lot of conflict out of jealousy and competition for the wakashu’s attention, but also like…
Matsuda’s character manipulates and plays them off each other, and we love that in a little murder twink.
I have to say, I’m always craving more jidaigeki that actually play with men who have sex with men, and it’s a disappointment that this is the only around when sex between men was entirely normal in Japan until Christian influence and social mores made their impact.
Another period piece, although this is just a tiny short film, is Shudō (2015, dir. To-Anh Bach, Charles Badiller, & Hugo Weiss) — it’s fucking gorgeous, and I really do recommend it.
There are two other movies that are about men focused on their task and their work, but who are super isolated by that and separated from other people — The Lighthouse (2019, dir. Robert Eggers) was a much bigger film, obviously starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, but I felt that Cold Skin (2017, dir. Xavier Gens) did virtually the same concept better and in a more engaging way. Both are about lighthouse keepers who are isolated together and who end up seduced by a monstrous creature from the sea — both explore themes of sexual violence and captivity from very different angles.
9. Pornographer (2018, dir. Koichiro Miki)
Kuzumi Haruhiko is a university student. One day, he causes a bicycle accident. The accident causes novelist Kijima Rio to break his arm. Kuzumi doesn’t have insurance or money to pay Kijima for his injury. Kijima then asks Kuzumi to transcribe a story he is writing. Kuzumi is surprised to learn the story is obscene.
Pornographer (2018) on Letterboxd
This is another TV series rather than a movie, but it’s so fucking hot and I fucking love it, so listen. It’s on the list.
This is also known as The Novelist — this student accidentally breaks a novelist’s arm, and the novelist asks him to write down his fiction for him because he can’t currently handwrite with a broken arm. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of layers of deception and manipulation here, and later develops a lot of power play, and it’s fucking fun.
This is a series I really laugh at a lot because the funny bits are so sharp, but the characters themselves feel so real and fleshed out, and at the same time are allowed to be super fucking messy and lead equally messy lives. Pornographer — Spring Life (2019, dir. Koichiro Miki) and Mood Indigo (2019, dir. Koichiro Miki) are part of the same continuity, and I also recommend them!
Athlete (2019, dir. Takamasa Oe) isn’t as good and attempts to be a lot sweeter, but it explores themes of sex work and the vulnerability and lack of autonomy in that work, plus the age gap!
10. Apartment Zero (1988, dir. Martin Donovan)
DANGER LURKS THOSE WHO OPEN THE SECRET DOORS OF APARTMENT ZERO.
In a rundown area of Buenos Aires, at the dawn of the 1980s, Adrian LeDuc owns both a struggling movie theater and a shabby apartment building filled with eccentric, squabbling tenants. To make ends meet, Adrian takes in a roommate, Jack Carney, but soon begins to suspect that the quiet American is responsible for a series of political assassinations that are rocking the city.
Apartment Zero (1988) on Letterboxd
Like me, you might be like, what? Baby Colin Firth was in a gay psychosexual thriller about doppelgangers and homoerotic violence in the 1980s set in Buenos Aires? And. Yeah. Why does no one fucking tell me these things?
But honestly, this is a fun little flick — it’s a little slow, but it’s dark, it’s layered and complex, it’s biting and fucking brutal, and there’s so much commentary in this about class, about the truth of identity, about what it means to build a relationship with someone and how much honesty needs to be or should be a part of that?
And, you know. Murder Husbands.
Rent-A-Pal (2020, dir. Jon Stevenson) is an interesting flick that is about a fantasy of male intimacy, about jealousy and desire, about possessiveness and violence — effectively, the main character in this is isolated and angry because he can’t be intimate with women, but ends up obsessed instead with a man he “meets” via VHS tape. It actually does a lot of the stuff that Joker (2019) failed at doing really well. If you’ve got a hankering for this sort of dynamic of intimacy with an imagined man, Daniel Isn’t Real (2019, dir. Adam Egypt Mortimer) does something not dissimilar!
And Batman: The Killing Joke (2016, dir. Sam Liu) is famously one of the most homoerotic Batman movies, adapted from the comic — I love the dynamic between Batman and Joker in the Arkham games, it’s really my favourite portrayal of their unique dynamic, but after the Arkham games and alongside the animated series, this one is my next favourite! It really gets to the heart of the ways in which Batman engages Joker and craves Joker’s understanding of him, even to the point of self-destruction and harming others that Batman loves.
11. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985, dir. Jack Sholder)
This is a slasher that features a young man in the place of the traditional final girl’s role in a horror film, and continuously explores lines of desire, repressed and unleashed, between men.
SOMEONE IS COMING BACK TO ELM STREET!
A new family moves into the house on Elm Street, and before long, the kids are again having nightmares about deceased child murderer Freddy Krueger. This time, Freddy attempts to possess a teenage boy to cause havoc in the real world, and can only be overcome if the boy’s sweetheart can master her fear.
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge on Letterboxd
The description of this movie would make you think that Jesse, the protagonist, was even remotely attracted to Lisa, “his sweetheart”, but listen. The movie does not communicate that hetero vibe at all.
This is honestly astoundingly gay, and I had no idea how deep the gay undertones would be when I watched it, nor the extent to which it grapples with straight men’s fetishistic desire for queer boys’ bodies, metaphorical fears of AIDs, etc.
If you like slashers and you’re interested in the idea of a Final Girl actually being a gay boy, this film might click for you! I don’t ordinarily like slashers that much, but I was super engaged with this throughout because of how deeply it is about like, repressed desire and desirability.
I go into far more detail and analysis here:
If you do watch the above, Mark Patton, who plays Jesse, has a documentary from a few years ago all about his experiences as a closeted gay man acting in the film, and his experiences of homophobia and the homophobic backlash after the release of the film — it’s called Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019, dir. Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen).
If Freddy’s Revenge puts you of a mind for a movie about an older man torturing and seeking to entirely destroy a twink, you might also enjoy The Hitcher (1986, dir. Robert Harmon). Lots of saliva in this one.
Shadow of the Vampire (2000, dir. E. Elias Merhige) is a story where men are intimate with a monster, and while it’s not explicitly about queerness or homoeroticism, it’s present just because, you know, vampires. Blood and feeding. All that jazz. Also Eddie Izzard is in this, and we love her!
If you watch this film and come away with a hankering for another 80s film about repressed gay desire and the weird intimacies built up between men under conditions of repression and isolation, you might like Re-Animator (1985, dir. Stuart Gordon) and Bride of Re-Animator (1990, dir. Brian Yuzna). Herbert West is like a scuttling transmasculine beetle who loves to handle human organs.
And it’s a minor side element, but if you’re in the mood for a bit of 80s horror where there is a background M/M dynamic that’s actually explicit in the text, even if only for a barest bit, Richie Tozier has an unrequited (or at the least, unadmitted) desire for Eddie Kaspbrak in It (2017, dir. Andy Muschietti) and It: Chapter Two (2019, dir. Andy Muschietti).
12. Whiplash (2014, dir. Damien Chazelle)
THE ROAD TO GREATNESS CAN TAKE YOU TO THE EDGE.
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
Whiplash (2014) on Letterboxd.
If you’ve seen Secretary (2002), and you thought, hey. I wonder what it would be like if instead of a young depressed woman becoming a man’s secretary if a young depressed man tried out for a man’s jazz band, but the movie was still about the push-and-pull of their dynamic, the rebellion against ritualised humiliation, the power struggle but also the desperate submission to that power struggle in the name of kink, and ultimately a mutually beneficial sadomasochistic dynamic between two fucked up and deeply strange people?
They made Whiplash for you. It’s got all the same storybeats as Secretary. I don’t think the people who made it even realise what they’ve done. They think it’s about men trying to be powerful and impressive and not forgotten or whatever, but they’ve accidentally created a BDSM movie where they play the drums instead of spanking each other.
It’s surprisingly good! JK Simmons is Daddy!
If you like the age gap and play-out of the push-and-pull with power dynamics present in Whiplash, you might enjoy Method (2017, dir. Pang Eun-jin)! It’s about a veteran actor who plays across a pop star, and the pop star blurs the lines between their fictional relationship and their actual one, drawing the veteran in and fucking heavily with his head.
If you enjoyed the psychological power play and the pressure put on the daddy issue aspects of Whiplash, The Devil’s Advocate (1997, dir. Taylor Hackford) has certain flavours you might enjoy. The dynamic between Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino is so fucked up and weirdly intimate, and also like… This movie plays a lot with mythology around The Devil and demonic ideas, where Reeves is the son of said devil.
Okay. So, on the plus side, there’s no incest between Reeves’ character and his dad. It’s kind of present as an implicit threat/implication? Like, it’s there? But it doesn’t actually happen. They don’t actually do it.
What does happen is that Reeves’ character’s dad is like, “Listen. I want you to have sex with your sister.” So there is that. I would say that’s on the negative side. But it’s fucked up and complicated in a way that’s very entertaining, and I absolutely recommend it.
13. In & Out (1997, dir. Frank Oz)
AN OUT-AND-OUT COMEDY.
A midwestern teacher questions his sexuality after a former student makes a comment about him at the Academy Awards.
In & Out (1997) on Letterboxd
This movie is so fucking stupid, and I say that with the most love in the world. My boner for Kevin Kline is one of my most negative traits, and let me tell you, it’s on full blast for this one.
Kevin Kline plays an English teacher who finds out everybody knows he’s gay when one of his students mentions basing his acting performance of a gay man off him. Only, Kevin Kline doesn’t even know he’s gay. This is news to him.
So this whole movie is Kevin Kline flouncing about limp-wristedly in tight trousers that do great things for his ass, always in a bowtie or riding a bicycle, and being like, “Whaaaat? Me?? Gay? How could anybody think that!?” and then Tom Selleck starts grabbing him to make out.
It’s ridiculous! It’s so cringey! It’s so much fun!
I will note that in the background there’s an extremely fatphobic plotline with Kevin Kline’s fiancée where she’s constantly taking diet pills and dieting to keep thin, and where most of the film’s cringier and more offensive parts you can look past, that one’s very in your face and might be triggerng for an ED, so keep that in mind.
Another 90s film that’s very silly but still a lot of fun is Bedrooms and Hallways (1998, dir. Rose Troche) — Con O’Neill is in this one, and so is Hugo Weaving. It’s a pretty honest look, I think, on the chaos of some gay households, and the chaos is honestly a lot of fun as it unfolds. Hugo Weaving particularly plays a dirtbag estate agent that keeps wanting to have kinky sex in other people’s houses, and it’s really funny.
And finally, it doesn’t really fit with most of the other movies above, but if you haven’t seen The Odd Couple (1968, dir. Gene Saks), it might be worth a look! It’s obviously from the 60s and is by no means super gay, but I really liked it as a look at the “marriage” between the two men, and the flick itself is really funny.
Also I recommend The Ice King (2018, dir. James Erskine), which is a documentary about James Curry, the first openly gay Olympian!
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