Ever want movies a little more sad, melancholy or sweet and simple? If you said yes, then I have the perfect thing for you. Here are four LGBTQ+-friendly movies, all of which include accurate younger LGBTQ+ representation, emotions and storytelling.
The Half of It (PG-13)
The Half of It (2020) takes the cake for showing teenage emotions and forging identity through Ellie Chu, a Chinese-American student who starts a business writing essays. She ends up getting herself stuck between a rock and a hard place when she agrees to write a love letter to a girl named Aster Flores for a boy named Paul Munsky who is in love with her.
I’ve actually always wanted to write a love letter, so the buildup to her writing the letter was very impactful to me. That and the depth that was in the acting was really well put together with the cinematography, so it all just blended together in perfect harmony.
This is a really cute movie that checks all the boxes for typical high school problems: drama between popular people and non-popular people; choosing friendship over status; and moments of confusion about who you are and who you love. I’d definitely recommend this movie to Netflix originals enjoyers, but also younger people looking for good representation when it comes to LGBTQ feelings and growing up feelings in general. And for those who are still growing up, it makes you realize, you’re living the nostalgia you’ll feel when you’re older, at least for me.
It’s got a good, whimsical soundtrack as well, with lots of music from the Ruen Brothers, including the song “Break the Rules.” The score adds a lot of depth to the ending of the movie and puts a huge amount of weight behind characters’ words. Such as when there is a revelation about Chu finding out she’s in love with Flores. “If You Leave Me Now” by Chicago’s soft vocals and lyrics make it sound serious during certain scenes.
The song I love the most is “Annie’s Song” by John Denver. The somber-ness of the song has always made my heart ache. Pairing it with this movie is both a curse and a blessing: the curse being it makes me cry more, and the blessing being the bittersweet, and exciting scenes.
Overall, this is a film I highly recommend for all these reasons, but mainly because of how sweet like honey the coming of age story and lovey-dovey theme of pining is.
Brokeback Mountain (R)
Who loves a good Western gay romance? I sure do, and you should too! Based on a short story written by Annie Proulx in 1997, you’ll love this film because of its LGBTQ+ inclusion–and sentimentality.
This film is for those who want something a little more melancholy and slower-paced. It is shot with slow, long landscape shots and back-and-forth close-ups of actors pining for one another. It works like bread and butter!
The fact this film is also based in the 60s and 70s, when LGBTQ+ wasn’t as inclusive in media portrayals, it adds depth to the emotions you’ll feel during the movie.
It stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as the main cowboys Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist. These two characters will win your heart in many ways, one being through their forbidden love and another being through an adventurous mountain escape.
If you like to theorize about what a character is thinking in a moment or freak out about subtle movements and touches, then this is the movie for you.
It’s definitely a movie to sit down and watch, but make sure you’re watching it while it rains since in my opinion the movie itself gives a feeling of raining melancholy, which isn’t hard for those who live in Oregon to imagine because it makes it more dramatic and relatable that way.
The Hours (PG-13)
This movie takes perspectives from three women: Virginia Woolf, the author of Mrs. Dalloway; Laura Brown, a pregnant housewife reading Mrs. Dalloway 28 years later; and Clarissa Vaughn, a lesbian publisher living the life of Mrs. Dalloway 78 years later.
Three extremely skilled actresses making a movie that won an Oscar yet you’ve never heard of it? Woolf, Brown and Vaughn are played by Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep respectively, which makes it well-known that this film is so good, yet severely underrated. As I feel I’m the only one who has seen it. A societal mishap, let’s change that!
The best thing to note about this movie is it’s very eerie and gives familiarity, both through action shots and revelations, such as when we see Vaughn living the life of Mrs. Dalloway, when we have already seen how Mrs. Dalloway’s life was. In the book Mrs Dalloway is described as a good hostess and the same happens to one of the women, it’s a strange parallel. It’s extremely haunting.
From the quick panning perspectives between the three women and the implied parallels between their lives., the filming style is varied, but simple. Back and forth shots travel between perspectives of people really telling out the story of the book and the reader’s reaction to it, such as when Brown is reading the book and relates to the character Mrs. Dalloway’s perspective of life in the 1920s. She hints at her love of women, and her coarse financial standings. It’s perfect storytelling!
Another reason to watch it would be if a person wanted to shed some tears by relating to others, due to its realism of women struggling with themselves, identity and society.
The Hours is also one of those rare LGBTQ-friendly movies that actually is PG-13 and not rated R, therefore making it even more special.
Breakfast with Scot (PG-13)
A cute movie, starring Tom Cavanagh as Eric McNally, Ben Shenkman as Sam, and Noah Bernett as Scott, portrays two gay men who end up taking in a young flamboyant boy, which neither of them know how to really raise.
Given this movie was released in 2007, the home video vibes it gives off–or sometimes Christmas Hallmark–should steal your heart away.
I personally think it’s a really good example of the problems gay men face when having kids, and it shows a lot of the turmoil the kids go through as well since there’s lots of moments that make your heart hurt, due to Scott being harassed by others or McNally just trying to be a good dad. I feel it adds to the emotional impact of the movie.
It’s extremely sentimental with how the dads interact with Scott and I think it’s really cute, and it shows good representation in LGBTQ+ relationships, and experiences.
Overall these four movies have been a wonderful experience for me, and they hopefully will be for you too. I highly encourage people to watch these for more reasons than one, a few being their tones, soundtracks, perceptions and storytelling.
If you want to see the previous column similar to this one, check it out at mhsnews.org: LGBTQ+-friendly shows with darker tones to hyperfixate on.
