Love this scene from TRICK. Coco Peru is, of course, the funniest drag queen around. When this movie was made, there was a rash of quickly-done and sloppy gay movies, but this one really took the cake.

Another classic...

Girls Will Be Girls! Another Coco Peru joint, this time with Varla and Evie (both great comedy queens themselves). In fact, these queens are so good at comedic acting, the non-queens really fall flat.

Another one of my great homo-classics. Big Eden never got much press. Eric Schweig (who was also in Last of the Mohicans) plays a great character of a closeted wunderkind Native American in a sleepy ski-lodge town. I imagine many people could really relate to this film, actually. Especially Arye Gross' turn as Henry Hart, a discontent yuppie who moved away from the sleepy town to avoid stagnation.

Do yourself a favor! If you enjoyed Brokeback Mountain, this is right up your alley. It's not about sex as much as BBM is and the performances are genuine and heartfelt.

Another favorite, especially this magical scene. Charlize got a lot of attention for uglying it up so well, but the performance is simply spot on. It makes up for Christina Ricci's sometimes-half baked or vacant emotions. I admit that this film did bring me to tears on a few occasions! Not because I sympathize with the murdering aspect, rather I totally understand the scary romance side. Being the only gay folks in a town is really tough.

I always want to like gay cinema, but most of it falls really short for me. Here are a few scenes from some movies I really liked, though.

Wedding Banquet

Parting Glances--this one is really one of my all-time favorite movies, a really amazing film. It breaks my heart.

Torch Song Trilogy--duh. It's on everyone's list. This scene was amazing. I love the scene with Ed that follows right after it, too.

Beautiful Thing--love it.

Yeah, I feel you. Most gay cinema is not very good. I guess I could venture some guesses as to why this is the case, but my biggest gripe tends to be cruddy writing and bad production qualities. You can sometimes tell the budgets are so shoestring. Blech.

Oh and someone hipped me to Parting Glances not that long ago. Not sure who. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

I also dig Party Monster. That's gay cinema, right?

Spinlight said:

Yeah, I feel you. Most gay cinema is not very good. I guess I could venture some guesses as to why this is the case, but my biggest gripe tends to be cruddy writing and bad production qualities. You can sometimes tell the budgets are so shoestring. Blech.

Oh and someone hipped me to Parting Glances not that long ago. Not sure who. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

I also dig Party Monster. That's gay cinema, right?

I think Party Monster counts, although it's not something I liked all that much.

I think what I dislike about most gay cinema is that it's often a trifecta of bad moviemaking: bad writing, which leads to little to no budget, which leads to bad actors. I mean, even with Trick--good lord. Who would have thought that Neve got all the talent in that family?

I really loathe the Eating Out-type of movies, too, just because I don't find them funny...and sadly, it seems a lot of gay cinema right now is following that model (unless there's a bunch of it I'm not seeing, which is entirely possible). Gay cinema should be able to corner the market on wit and camp. The fact that it really hasn't, especially right now, is very disappointing.

yea, there is a whole lot of crap in gay film.

i at least like all the selections so far. am especially pleased with "big eden" as i love that movie and so few have ever seen it.

here's my contributions to the good list that arent already on it:

I really enjoyed this movie:

Here are some I like:

And The Band Played on

Longtime Companion

The Naked Civil Servant

Happy Together

Poison

The Fluffer

A Single Man

Oh, there's a documentary from the 90s called The Celluloid Closet that's all about moives with Gay charachters, themes, etc. They mention alot of films I never heard of. Recommended.

I love Beautiful Thing. It also has one of my favorite lines.

@ 1:14

I actually just wish more gay cinema was good. Gays make (or contribute to) a lot of awesome mainstream movies, but a lot of gay indie movies just plain suck. This has always baffled me.

Some I love...

Far From Heaven

Hedwig & the Angry Inch

Shortbus

Angels in America

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Trick

Big Eden

La Cage (not the Birdcage)

...anything Almodovar.

johnart said:

...anything Almodovar.

Yes. In particular, I feel warm and fuzzy about Volver, because it's such a love letter from a gay man to women. I love that.

johnart said:

Hedwig & the Angry Inch

Shortbus

two of my faves

I kinda Like Maurice.

Rococo said:

I kinda Like Maurice.

Oh Yeah!!

I agree with many of the films already mentioned:

Brokeback Mountain

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Milk

Monster

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

A Single Man

any Almodóvar film

And I will add:

Gypsy 83

The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love

The Kids Are All Right

Pariah

Love them all.

[Edited 3/16/12 11:42am]

I also agree with most films mentioned.

Can't wait to see Pariah.

Parting Glances was soooo amazing to me when I first saw it. Still love it.