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semi-queer
(not queer-focused, but has a noteworthy queer character, subplot, or subtext

All About Eve {editor's pick!}
1950, Joseph Mankiewicz (Suddenly Last Summer), black & white. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders.
As with most older films, the gay content in "All About Eve" is mostly subtextual. George Sanders’ drama critic character, Addison DeWitt, comes across as very gay despite his proprietary attitude towards Eve, and Eve herself, supposedly, was originally intended to be a lesbian character. All of this, plus the clever and catty presence of Bette Davis (heroine to many a drag queen) makes for a rather queer experience. (Oh, and this isn’t queer-related, but Marilyn Monroe is featured in a small role.)

Almost Famous {editor's pick!}
2000, Cameron Crowe. Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand (Wonder Boys), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Magnolia, Flawless, Talented Mr. Ripley), Kate Hudson, Jason Lee (Chasing Amy).
Okay, there is really only one tiny little gay part, but I really like this movie so I had to include it. Full review coming soon.
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American Beauty {editor's pick!}
1999, Sam Mendes. Starring Kevin Spacey (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), Annette Bening.
Featuring Jim and Jim, the gay couple next door, and a repressed ex-Marine who doth protest too much on the subject of faggots. Complete review coming later.

As Good As It Gets
1998, James L. Brooks. Helen Hunt, Jack Nicholson, Greg Kinnear.
Kinnear plays the gay artist next door in this film that seemed to get a lot more attention than it deserved.

Basic Instinct
1992, Paul Verhoeven. Sharon Stone (If These Walls Could Talk 2), Michael Douglas (A Chorus Line, Wonder Boys).
It’s mostly the straight-guy-titillation factor, but the Sharon Stone character does have a lesbian lover in this film. And a great big icepick. Hee hee hee.

Being John Malkovich {editor's pick!}
1999, Spike Jonze. Produced by Michael Stipe of REM. John Malkovich, John Cusack (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), Cameron Diaz (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Catherine Keener.
Lottie likes to be John Malkovich while Malkovich is having sex with Maddy. (Complete review coming later.)

Ben-Hur
1959, William Wyler (The Childrens Hour). Starring Charleton “I did not play a homosexual in Ben-Hur” Heston.
Screenwriter Gore Vidal and director Wyler confirm that they deliberately instructed Stephen Boyd to play Messala as though he and Ben-Hur had been not just friends, but lovers; both screenwriter and director also confirm that they deliberately hid this fact from Chuck Heston.

Best In Show {editor's pick!}
2000, Christopher Guest. Michael McKean, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey (Tales of the City), Michael Hitchcock, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Fred Willard.

Billy Elliot {editor's pick!}
2000, Stephen Daldry. Jamie Bell, Gary Lewis, Julie Walters (Sister My Sister, Just Like A Woman).
Billy’s little friend Michael (Stuart Wells) likes to cross-dress and reads too much into Billy’s love of ballet. A charming story and a helluva good movie in general.

Bridget Jones's Diary
British, 2001, Sharon Maguire. Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant (Maurice), Colin Firth (Another Country).
James Callis plays Bridget’s gay friend in this adaptation of Helen Fielding’s bestseller. Zellweger’s charm and some quirky characters enliven this otherwise typical story of a woman who is unlucky in love.

Bring It On {editor's pick!}
2000, Peyton Reed. Kirsten Dunst (Interview With The Vampire), Eliza Dusku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union.
Fluffy but still funny, this cheerleading comedy has something for everyone: for gay guys, there are cute male cheerleaders (one of whom is straight, the other, “controversial”) and plenty of catty quipping from the girls (I know at least three gay guys who have tried to memorize the cheer from the beginning credits); and for lesbians, there are….well, there are cheerleaders! Women in teeny little skirts = good. There are a couple of dyke jokes, but the overall charm of the movie outweighs the insult.

Car Wash
1976, Michael Schultz.
Antonio Fargas as Lindy the transvestite, originator of the now-classic line: “Honey, I am more man than you’ll ever be, and more woman than you’ll ever get!”

Center Stage
2000, Nicholas Hytner. Susan May Pratt, Peter Gallagher, Amanda Schull, Eion Bailey.
“Center Stage” is like a cutesy, benign 21st century version of “Fame.” It features the hormonal struggles of a bunch of young ballet dancers, including the obligatory (yet minor) gay character (Bailey). The main come-on for this film should be the dancing; however, as there isn’t really that much of it, and it isn’t that exciting, “Center Stage” is a ultimately a let-down. Its the kind of movie you’d watch if it happened to be on television, but wouldn’t bother paying three bucks to rent.

Cruel Intentions
1999, Roger Kumble. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon (Election), Ryan Philippe (Nowhere), Selma Blair.
It’s not technically a gay film, but this remake of “Dangerous Liasons” is noteworthy for two scenes. The first, an amusing little interlude featuring Joshua Jackson (aka that other guy from “Dawson’s Creek”) as a young gay man who outs a closeted football jock in a rather embarrassing fashion; the second, an idyllic picnic scene wherein Sarah Michelle Gellar kisses Selma Blair. So what if it’s only there to titillate straight male viewers? Its "Buffy" kissing a girl!

Dog Day Afternoon
1975, Sidney Lumet. Al Pacino, Chris Sarandon.
Based on the true story of a bank robber and his transgendered lover.

Dude, Where's My Car?
2000, Danny Leiner. Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, David Herman.
Tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of the homoerotic undertones in male buddy flicks is all that redeems this otherwise vapid teen movie. Contains a memorable scene wherein the two male protagonists (Kutcher and Scott) engage in a game of one-upmanship with Fabio and his date, culminating in Kutcher and Scott defiantly tongue-kissing each other ;-)

Ed Wood {editor's pick!}
1994, Tim Burton, black & white. Johnny Depp (Before Night Falls), Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker.
Ed Wood’s girlfriend wonders why her sweaters are getting all stretched out. One of the few films where you’ll encounter a straight male character who cross-dresses not out of kinkiness, or as a disguise, but simply because he likes it. I’ve read, however, that the movie makes Wood (who directed such films as "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Glen or Glenda?") a little more “cuddly” than he actually was, so if you’re really interested in the man and his work, you should probably seek out a biography of another kind.

Election
1999, Alexander Payne. Matthew Broderick (Torch Song Trilogy), Reese Witherspoon (Cruel Intentions), Jessica Campbell, Frankie Ingrassia, Chris Klein. Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta.
An amusing subplot featuring Campbell (who is cute despite a mouthful of braces) as the unfortunate baby-dyke Tammy. First, Tammy’s girlfriend, Lisa, defects and starts dating Tammy’s football star brother, Paul. Tammy is crushed, and when Lisa begins running Paul’s campaign for student council president, Tammy strikes back with her own campaign—to get herself transferred to a Catholic girls school. Tammy’s character has a few choice scenes, like her speech about the pointlessness of student government, or the wistful look on her face as she watches the girls soccer team practice.
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Foxfire
1996, Annette Haywood-Carter. Angelina Jolie (Gia), Hedy Burress, Jenny Shimizu.
Okay, so it’s mostly subtextual. There’s still a strong lesbian vibe in this movie. For instance, Maddy telling Legs “I love you, but I’m not like you” certainly implies that Legs is a lesbo. And even though the (totally unnecessary and gratuitous) lets-all-take-our-shirts-off-to-get-tattoos scene is only included to add sex appeal to this friendship-focused chick-flick, it’s still a bonus for lesbian viewers. If you’re going to watch “Foxfire,” I strongly recommend that you also read the book (by Joyce Carol Oates). It doesn’t have the same lesbian subtext, but it is still better and more serious than the movie.

Gothic
British, 1987, Ken Russell. Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson, Myriam Cyr.
Although it’s freaky as all hell, this movie might be a bit slow for most horror movie audiences. The plot takes some liberties in dealing with the actual historical evening in 1816 when Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstien. Lots of homoerotic Romantic-poet posturing by poets Byron and Shelley, plus a spooky soundtrack by Thomas Dolby.

Heathers
Winona Ryder (Reality Bites), Christian Slater (Interview With the Vampire, Pump Up the Volume).

Home For The Holidays
1995, Jodie Foster. Holly Hunter, Claire Danes, Robert Downey Jr. (Wonder Boys), Dylan McDermott (Three to Tango).
Robert Downey Jr. is very cute as the prodigal gay brother.

Interview With The Vampire
1994, Neil Jordon (The Crying Game). Based on the novel by Anne Rice. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst (Bring It On), Christian Slater (Pump Up the Volume, Heathers), Antonio Banderas (Philadelphia).
Anyone familiar with vampire lore knows that there is a sexual element to the bloodsucker’s bite, and so when you have men biting men…well, you get the idea. The heady energy of Rice’s novel emerges in the film as a sort of free-floating eroticism that tinges all of the relationships in one way or another. Also, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are basically forming an “alternative family” when they adopt little vampire Kirsten Dunst.

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
Dave Foley, Scott Thompson (More Tales of the City), Bruce McCullough (Further Tales of the City), Mark McKinney, Kevin McDonald.
The Canadian comedy troupe ventures into feature films with this story about an experimental antidepressant drug. Real life homo Thompson is marvelous as a test subject whose depression lifts when he comes out of the closet--in a fabulous and all-too-brief musical number. Also, like all of the Kids’ work, “Brain Candy” contains a substantial amount of cross-dressing.

Magnolia {editor's pick!}
1999, P.T. Anderson. Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman (Flawless, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Almost Famous), Julianne Moore, William H. Macy (Happy Texas), and lots more. Incredible soundtrack by Aimee Mann.
William H. Macy wants braces so he can be like the gay bartender he’s fallen in love with. (He has a lot of love to give.)
Official site.

The Maltese Falcon {editor's pick!}
1941, John Huston, black & white. Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre,
In this classic noir detective film, Peter Lorre’s shady character is effeminate and wears perfume; in Hammett’s novel, it’s clearly stated that he is “queer.”

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
1997 Clint Eastwood. John Cusack (Being John Malkovich), Kevin Spacey (American Beauty), Jude Law (Wilde, The Talented Mr. Ripley), Jack Thompson (The Sum of Us), Lady Chablis.
From the book by John Berendt. (Review coming later.)

Mrs. Doubtfire
1993, Chris Columbus. Sally Field, Robin Williams (The Birdcage), Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy, Common Ground).
Fierstein is the gay make-up artist who helps Williams transform from divorced dad to Irish nanny. A generally ridiculous family farce.

My Best Friend’s Wedding
1997, P.J. Hogan. Rupert Everett (The Next Best Thing, Another Country), Cameron Diaz (Being John Malkovich), Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney.
Everett manages to be quite funny, even when he’s typecast as the latest Hollywood stock character: the heroine’s gay friend. Normally I loathe the heterosexual-romantic-comedy, but this one just sort of carries you away on it’s own ridiculousness—how could you not love a scene where Rupert Everett gets an entire restaurant to sing Dionne Warwick's “I Say A Little Prayer?”

Pump Up The Volume {editor's pick!}
1995, Allan Moyle (Times Square). Christian Slater (Interview With The Vampire, Heathers), Samantha Mathis (her first film).
A pirate radio DJ revolutionizes the youth of a small Arizona town. One of the callers responding to the plea for “something real” tells the DJ how he’s gay and was abused by members of the football team.

Reality Bites {editor's pick!}
1994, Ben Stiller. Winona Ryder (Heathers), Janeane Garafalo (Tales of the City), Steve Zahn, Ethan Hawke (The Velocity of Gary), Ben Stiller.
Steve Zahn is adorable as Sammy, the token gay member of a group of friends in this classic “Generation X” film. (My apologies to Mr. Coupland.)
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Rebel Without A Cause {editor's pick!}
1955, Nicholas Ray. James Dean, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood.
This classic film about disenchanted teenagers searching for sincerity features two queer actors (Dean and Mineo) and at least one gay character. The screenwriter has stated that if he were making this film today, he would make it clear that the other kids didn’t like Plato because he was a “fag.” The tenderness of the relationship between Plato and Jim adds to the gay undertones of the film.

Rope
1948, Alfred Hitchcock. James Stewart, Farley Granger, John Dall.
Hitchcock’s take on real-life murderers (and lovers) Leopold and Loeb. (For a more explicit look at Leopold and Loeb, see “Swoon.”) I could go on about the subliminal queer sensibility of Hitchcock’s films in general, but that would take too long. However, I will say that 1951’s “Strangers On A Train” also has a character that reads very queer—Robert Walker as Bruno Anthony puts the moves on Farley Granger (again).

Silkwood
1983, Mike Nichols (The Birdcage). Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher.
Cher plays the best friend of anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood. Casting Cher as a grungy, factory-working dyke might seem far-fetched, but it’s a credit to her acting skills (apparently she does have some) that the character is quite believable, if a little bit pathetic.

Songcatcher
2000, written and directed by Maggie Greenwald. Janet McTeer, Aidan Quinn, Jane Adams (Wonder Boys), F. Katherine Kerr, Emmy Rossum, Pat Carroll.
Dr. Lily Penlaric (McTeer) goes to Appalachia to collect versions of Old English ballads that are still alive in the mountain people. She stays with her schoolteacher sister Eleanor (Adams), who happens to have fallen in love with her fellow teacher Harriet (Kerr). This situation becomes complicated, however, when some of the townspeople find out about the teachers’ relationship. Personally, I enjoyed the music more than the actual film. (The beautiful scenery of Appalachia is a bonus for me, since I currently live in the Swannanoa Valley, and "Songcatcher" was filmed not too far away from here. In fact, one of the professors at my school was an extra in movie.)

Suddenly Last Summer
1959, Joseph Mankiewicz (All About Eve). Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn.
Elizabeth Taylor is used as bait for her cousin Sebastian to lure young boys, and in the end he is overwhelmed by a huge crowd of them and savagely murdered, a la Lord of the Flies. You never even see his face—the vilified queer of old Hollywood. Pretty much anything else by Tennessee Williams will have some gay sensibility to it as well—“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” etc.

The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999, Anthony Minghella. Jude Law (Wilde, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman (Flawless, Magnolia, Almost Famous). From the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Review coming later.

Twelfth Night {editor's pick!}
Ben Kingsley (Maurice), Helena Bonham-Carter.

Wild Side
1995, Donald Cammell. Anne Heche (If These Walls Could Talk 2), Joan Chen, Christopher Walken (who, as usual, looks like Satan).
A little bit of sex, a lot of wasted time. Don’t bother.

Wild Things
1998, John McNaughton. Neve Campbell (Three to Tango), Denise Richards, Matt Dillon (In & Out), Kevin Bacon, Bill Murray, Daphne Rubin-Vega (Flawless).
When two high-school girls and their accomplice accuse a teacher of sexual harassment, it’s only the beginning of this film’s endlessly twisting plot. Whatever you do, do not see this travesty of a film! The babelicious Rubin-Vega (who played Mimi in the original cast of “Rent”) was ugly-fied and pitifully wasted in a boring (and largely extraneous) role—which pissed me off, since she was the only reason I bothered to watch this movie. Well, that, and because I was told that the primary relationship in the film was that of the two girls. In actuality, the lesbian relationship is reduced to the usual Hollywood ploy: a cheap thrill for straight male viewers. (Not that I’m averse to cheap thrills, but what’s a catfight if it hasn’t got heart?) The best thing about this movie was Bill Murray’s brief turn as a crackpot lawyer in a neck brace. And the worst thing....well, jokes about “Kevin’s bacon” aside, let’s just say you see more of this actor that you ever wanted to. Yuck.

Wonder Boys {editor's pick!}
2000, Curtis Hanson. Michael Douglas (Basic Instinct, A Chorus Line), Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr. (Home For The Holidays), Frances McDormand (Almost Famous), Katie Holmes (making James Vander Beek the only Dawson’s Creek-er to not be in a gay movie), Rip Torn (The Man Who Fell to Earth), Jane Adams (Songcatcher). Based on the novel by Michael Chabon (which happens to be one of my favorite books).
Again, Robert Downey Jr. plays gay, as the quirky editor who ends up in bed with the compulsive-liar/aspiring writer played by Tobey Maguire (who is sooo cute—Tobey is my newest imaginary boyfriend). Official site.
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