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Five Great Gay/Lesbian Films
If you are looking for a great film to curl up with this Friday, why not check out one or more of these?
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Bent (1997)
Bent is the first and only movie I’ve seen to date to deal with a largely forgotten piece of Holocaust history – the imprisonment and in many cases murder of an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 gay men. An excellent cast (including Mick Jagger in drag!) tells the story of Max, a man who after being forced to kill his lover vows to never love again. Of course life has other plans for him and he falls for Horst despite his best efforts. This is a real tear-jerker so be sure to have a box of tissues handy! The MPAA slapped it with an NC-17 rating, but don’t let that deter you from seeing Bent as the rating is widely regarded as unjust and to be blunt, wrong. Stars include Clive Owen, Jude Law and Ian McKellen.
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Angels in America (2003)
This is the first of two picks to deal with HIV/AIDS. The 6-part miniseries originally aired on HBO and is easily one of the best adaptations of a stage play I have seen. With Al Pacino, Mary Louise Parker, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson, just to name a few, if you have a lazy weekend ahead of you, why not pick it up at your local video store?
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Finn’s Girl (2007)
If Finn were a man, this movie would be recognized as the gem it is, but of course some of the best movies do not receive the widespread acclaim they deserve. Brooke Johnson shines as Finn, a lesbian widow who is struggling to juggle her grief with raising her deceased wife’s daughter, running the abortion clinic her wife founded amid death threats, and moving on, maybe even finding love. This one’s Canadian so may be hard to find.
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Before Night Falls (2000)
A look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas starring Javier Bardem as Reinaldo. Other stars include Sean Penn and Fidel Castro in archive footage. There is also a crotch-grabbing scene with the ineffable Johnny Depp. I’m not saying you should watch it solely for that scene, but come on, he is Johnny Depp!
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Lost and Delirious (2001)
This is easily one of my favourite movies. Piper Perabo plays Paulie who is madly in love with Jessica Pare’s character Tori who seems to feel the same way until they get caught in bed together. Being at an all-girl boarding school, if anyone else found out it would be scandalous, so of course Tori denies her feelings and turns her back on Paulie. Thrown into the mix is Mischa Barton as “Mouse”, a shy girl who watches as the whole situation quickly goes from bad to worse…
