If “Barbie” tells us anything, it’s that a movie doesn’t have to be gay to be, well, gay. So what makes a movie gay if it isn’t explicitly? Cast a few top-shelf gay icons in there — your Bette Middlers, your Joan Crawfords, your Faye Dunaways playing Joan Crawford — and especially have them reparteeing bitchy lines tearing each other to pieces, and have an aesthetic that’s outre and unironically camp, and you’ve got the winning-formula starter-pack for something deliciously fabulous and queer, even if not by intentional design.
Some films have gotten swept up into the queer canon by virtue of their unintentional awfulness or arguable quality (“Showgirls,” “Mommie Dearest,” “Glitter,” that ghastly but delightful remake of “The Stepford Wives”) while others actually push forward the cinematic medium to create something that stands the tests of time and the weathers of queer folks and their mercurial tastes. Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning “Death Becomes Her” boasts the double whammy of Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn ripping each other apart in an actress-diva showdown that’s about actress-diva showdowns, but the campy classic also broadened the borders of in-camera and CGI effects in cinema. How did they get Goldie Hawn to look like she actually had a hole in her stomach (“There’s a hole in my stomach!”) after Meryl Streep shotguns one right through her? It’s simpler than it looks.
But setting a precedent for movies now canonized by gay culture that don’t technically have any (non-coded, anyway) gay characters were some of Hollywood’s most all-time legendary actresses: Bette Davis in “All About Eve” made “it’s going to be a bumpy ride” an idiomatic quip, while Elizabeth Taylor then made Bette Davis’ “what a dump” even more iconic again in the opening line of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” delivered while gnawing down on a chicken wing. And what’s queerer than a biting or saucy comeback in the age of Reading? Whoopi Goldberg in “The Sister Act” made “it’s better than sex” a retort so embedded in the cultural consciousness that we almost forget where it came from.
Ed Bianchi’s 1981 “The Fan,” meanwhile, delivered perhaps the greatest gift to gay film fans of a certain era in casting Lauren Bacall as an aging actress struggling to hold onto her legacy while being stalked by, what else but, a psychotic gay fan. Films like “9 to 5” and “Steel Magnolias” keep captivating us because their casts are all top-to-toe, iconic-among-the-gays women who can induce tears and laughs and shout unforgettably quotable lines in the same scene. Even documentaries can resonate among the queer community who’ve adopted the films’ banter into their own everyday speech: What really is the best costume for today, as Little Edie says in the Maysles’ monumental “Grey Gardens”? There’s also, of course, the trend in many of these movies of men being humiliated and debased — something the gay males in the audience love to partake in — leaving our iconic women with all the chips in the end and whom we can leave the theater rooting for.
Below, IndieWire rounds up some of the best decidedly non-gay films that are actually gay after all — and gayer than many contemporary movies proclaiming themselves as such actually are. Horror films have been excluded (since there’s a separate list for that), and all entries are ordered chronologically.
With editorial contributions by Tom Brueggemann, Wilson Chapman, and Mark Peikert.
[Editor’s note: This list has been updated in July 2023 to reflect the release of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.”]
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“All About Eve” (1950)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: A classic story of showbiz scheming, “All About Eve” is named after its central villain Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter): a young woman taken under the wing of famous Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis), all while plotting her rise as an actress.
Why it’s gay: Bette Davis, we (the queer community) love you. “All About Eve” has long been analyzed through a queer lens, with many interpreting Eve and the character of Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) as gay. But even if you think everyone in the film is heterosexual, its gay appeal is undeniable, with an icon like Davis in the lead, gorgeous costumes, and all of the delightfully bitchy snark between the magnificent actresses. —WC
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“Johnny Guitar” (1954)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: A female-fronted Western shot in lurid Technicolor and starring Joan Crawford in one of her most outré performances
Why it’s gay: Nicholas Ray’s cult classic plays out like a demented, closeted lesbian love story. If they can’t be together, saloon owner Vienna (Crawford) and angry townie Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge) will murder each other instead. “I’m going to kill you,” Emma tells Vienna. “Not if I kill you first,” Vienna replies, and it feels like a kiss. —MP
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“The Long Gray Line” (1955)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Marty Maher (Tyrone Power), an Irish immigrant, spends decades as an athletic instructor at West Point. He bonds with an ever-changing collection of young men in peak condition and masculine traits overlapping two world wars and cadets including George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley. He marries a feisty cook (Maureen O’Hara), another Irish immigrant, but their son doesn’t survive birth. That tragedy is muted by the continuity of cadets who remain his raison d’etre.
Why it’s gay: America’s arguably greatest director is normally regarded as heteronormative (Westerns, war films, John Wayne, American history), but his work is full of subtextual gay interest, rarely as much as here. The visual cues (Marty at one point straddles and fondles the famous cannon overlooking the Hudson, frequent eye candy shots of the handsome young cast, often in athletic poses) are matched by Marty’s fanatical commitment to the young men he teaches and mentors. When his son is born, the focus is on Marty being presented a saber by serenading cadets. Tragically the boy dies, with his wife and her grief downplayed beyond her telling him, “We have so many fine boys here.” Needless to say, none of this was noted as the film reached a wide audience. The core theme — the glories of a lifetime replenishment with top of the line young male companionship — is staring viewers right in the face. —TB
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“Picnic” (1955)
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection What it is: A prominent theater director, Joshua Logan made his film debut with this adaptation of a Broadway hit from Daniel Taradash. Hal (William Holden), a handsome drifter, comes to visit his frat brother in small-town Kansas. Though his interest lies with local beauty queen Madge (Kim Novak), her little sister Millie (Susan Strasberg) and aging spinster Rosemary (Rosalind Russell) also vie for attention.
Why it’s gay: Beyond its possible inclusion because of the bare-chested Holden — a 1950s Hollywood beefcake, seen here deep into his career — what is notable is a possible alternative interpretation of two female characters. The ridiculous Rosemary, sympathetically portrayed, has overtones of common older gay lust fantasies for younger men. And Millie, like Inge Kansas-born with aspirations for New York life, is an ambiguous character who exists outside normal schoolgirl crush territory. —TB
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“Auntie Mame” (1958)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: The fabulous Mame Dennis takes in her orphaned nephew, Patrick, and introduces him to a wild, cosmopolitan world while battling a stuffy banker over his future.
Why it’s gay: Mame Dennis Burnside is, quite simply, mother. She shows Patrick sophistication, adventure, and her chosen family: all while maintaining a fabulous wardrobe and an absolute refusal to kowtow to close-minded bigots. When she tells Patrick’s trustee that she won’t allow him to marry her nephew off to “some Aryan from Darien with braces on her brains,” you can practically hear the queer audiences booking their tickets to go live with her, too. After all, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” —MP
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“Valley of the Dolls” (1967)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Three women — good girl Anne, self-destructive starlet Neely (inspired by Judy Garland), and voluptuous Jennifer — navigate love, careers, and an addiction to pills in this camp classic.
Why it’s gay: What makes it gay? Everything! From the catfight in the powder room to the over-the-top dialogue to the jaw-dropping musical numbers and not one but two montages that serve as mind-boggling time capsules of the ’60s, the film is so outrageous that it inspired generations of gay viewers to scream, “Sparkle, Neely, sparkle!” Not to mention Susan Hayward’s towering performance as an ice-cold diva that feels like the ur-text for Charles Busch’s performances. —MP
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“Barbarella” (1968)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Jane Fonda’s least favorite role is also one of her most iconic. Directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, this bizarro sci-fi comedy sees Fonda playing a scantily clad astronaut who lives in a shag carpet-lined spaceship.
Why it’s gay: A wacky sexploitation film with high camp production values and a killer theme song, Barbarella must fight the evil Durand Durand (from which iconic New Wave band Duran Duran took its name), while seducing a shirtless Aryan angel and outlasting an evil sex machine. —JD
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“Grey Gardens” (1975)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Albert and David Maysles had already made a name for themselves by 1975, but they tapped into a new audience with their fly-on-the-wall look at this forgotten corner of the American bourgeoisie. The film follows a mother/daughter duo known as Big Edie and Little Edie — cousins of Jackie O’s — who spend their days bickering and feeding the cats and raccoons that reside at their crumbling East Hampton estate.
Why it’s gay: Endlessly quotable and dripping with the indefatigable spirit of a staunch character, the tragic woman takes on a theatrical magnificence with Little Edie’s every twirl and outfit change. Toying coquettishly with the men behind the camera and reminiscing about her high society days, Little Edie is the very picture of beleaguered femininity — something every old queen can aspire to. —JD
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“Brief Encounter” (1974)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Although it has been staged with two men (in 2015 in London), the straight couple’s situation in “Brief Encounter” — a drama of two married people (Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard) meeting by chance and their growing mutual affection — works fine as a metaphor for barriers to gay romance.
Why it’s gay: More than the one-act Noel Coward play (the gay writer expanded the screenplay), this denies the possibility of realistic consummation, elevates the frustration in impossible love, and deals with the costs of turning honest people into liars. The barriers to adultery among 1940s bourgeois English suburbanites are achingly clear here, but decades later, and still in many societies, the realities of impossible love have rarely been so emotionally portrayed. —TB
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“9 to 5” (1980)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: A defining film of the late days of the women’s liberation movement, this workplace comedy starred Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda as an unlikely trio of working women who kidnap their sexist boss to run the company themselves.
Why it’s gay: Starring a trifecta of hilariously talented legends, “9 to 5” uses slapstick, sexuality, and men’s humiliation to shine a light on workplace harassment and discrimination. We like our politics with a heaping dose of comedy and fabulosity. —JD
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“Mommie Dearest” (1981)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: An adaptation of Christina Crawford’s controversial autobiography about her life growing up as the daughter of iconic actress Joan Crawford (played in the film by Faye Dunaway), in which she alleged numerous incidents of abuse from the star.
Why it’s gay: Although “Mommie Dearest” was negatively received at the time of its release, it attracted a strong gay fanbase pretty much immediately, due to Dunaway’s performance, which was received by many as camp — most famously, in the iconic “no wire hangers” scene. And in the years since its release, many queer cinema figures have defended the movie as a misunderstood and accurate portrait of abuse; most famously John Waters, who did an entire audio commentary for a collector’s edition DVD release. —WC
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“The Fan” (1981)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Director Edward Bianchi’s 1981 box-office and critical flop stars Lauren Bacall as an aging-out stage and film actress rehearsing for a major Broadway musical while also being terrorized by an obsessive male fan who’s also a serial killer.
Why it’s gay: What’s gayer than a movie with Lauren Bacall being stalked by a closeted musical buff than also that same movie segueing into an out-of-nowhere stage musical medley a la “Singin’ in the Rain’s” entr’acte, featuring Bacall speak-singing onstage while being lifted and twirled around by a pack of male dancers? —RL
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“Big Business” (1988)
Image Credit: ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: What’s better than Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin onscreen together? TWO Bette Midlers and Lily Tomlins onscreen together. This mistaken identity farce stars the comedy divas as two sets of twins separated at birth — one country, one city.
Why it’s gay: Ridiculous, silly, and totally over the top, this sleight piece of slapstick would be totally forgettable were it not for Tomlin and Midler’s performances. —JD
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“Steel Magnolias” (1989)
Image Credit: ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Screenwriter Robert Harling adapts his 1987 play into a soulful cinematic portrait of six Louisiana women or “steel magnolias”: southern ladies who are tough as nails, but stereotypically feminine in their sensibilities. When the youngest of the group dies suddenly, her mother and friends grieve against a backdrop of melancholy, sweet, and culturally specific camp.
Why it’s gay: What’s gayer than women trying to hold their shit together, while men repeatedly fail them? With a bespoke cast of thespian heavy weights/queer idols — Julia Roberts! Dolly Parton! Tom Skerritt! I said what I said! — “Steel Magnolias” explores the highs and lows of sisterly dramedy like a heaving sob rolling into a deep belly laugh. It’s an earnest story of found family (gay!), punctuated with unforgettable lines: “All gay men have track lighting, and all gay men are named Mark, Rick, or Steve!” —AF
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“Road House” (1989)
Image Credit: ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Outside of “Cruising,” no other 1980s studio film captured the hyper-masculinity/high testosterone content of “Road House.”
Why it’s gay: Those who had already read queer cues in “Top Gun” three years earlier saw some in the story of Dalton (Patrick Swayze, his first major film after “Dirty Dancing”), as a “cooler” imported to a Missouri small-town bar from New York to impose order. That means confronting other equally pumped up toughies. In the climatic fight, his biggest rival sneers at Dalton: “I used to fuck guys like you in prison.” Swayze, shirtless, sweaty, and leanly muscular, rises to the challenge. An off-Broadway music later played up the campness. Jake Gyllenhaal, today’s sensitive hunk, is mentioned as the lead in a possible remake. —TB
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“Mermaids” (1990)
Image Credit: ©Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Cher plays a spectacularly messy mom to Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci in this moving family dramedy from “Made in America” director Richard Benjamin.
Why it’s gay: Plenty of queer people will see the trauma of instability reflected in the tumultuous childhoods of the two “Mermaids” girls. But they’ll also see themselves in the spectacular resilience of Cher’s imperfect Rachel Flax, whose volatile outbursts are as gay as her best lines (“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do — or do anything I would!”) Plus, Cher dressed a mermaid. I repeat, Cher dressed as a mermaid. —AF
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“Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: What could be a heartbreaking two-hander between Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker becomes a devastating and delicious group affair told in two time periods, with a wraparound story featuring Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy. Adapted from Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe,” one story is that of two really good “friends” (OK, sure, right, that’s a lie) who open a restaurant in Alabama in the 1940s. The other frames their story through the lens of a dejected housewife connecting with a wisecracking woman in a 1980s nursing home.
Why it’s gay: There’s a real “dyke who is tired of your shit” energy to Bates’ singular performance as unhinged legend Evelyn Couch. (Long live, Towanda.) But “Fried Green Tomatoes” is first and foremost known among lesbians for its poignant and painful portrayal of two rural women falling head over heels, and never requiting their love for one another. The bee charmer scenes alone are enough to make you cry. —AF
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“Death Becomes Her” (1992)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Here we are again with those fading actresses. This one is Madeline Ashton, played by Meryl Streep, who happens upon an immortality treatment patented by Isabella Rossellini, that will make her instantly younger. Unfortunately, she’s vying against her longtime rival Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), who’s also taken the serum.
Why it’s gay: If any of that didn’t sound self-evidently gay to you, then I can’t help you. —RL
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“Sister Act” (1992)
Image Credit: ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Whoopi Goldberg solidified her box office gold status with this clever comedy about a Vegas showgirl who must go under cover as a nun as part of a witness protection program.
Why it’s gay: A reverent rendition of “My Guy” that truly slaps, a breakout performance from Kathy Najimy as a jubilant nun, and Whoopi proving why she was comedy queen of the ’90s. This movie is so full of hilarious women, it’s sad how much of a rarity that is these days. —JD
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“Hocus Pocus” (1993)
Image Credit: ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as three sister witches, this kids’ comedy was panned upon release only to become one of the most popular Halloween movies of all time.
Why it’s gay: Three comedic divas in a flamboyant comedy with an occult twist? Many a ’90s child was turned out by “Hocus Pocus” before they knew what hit them. —JD
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“Muriel’s Wedding” (1994)
Image Credit: ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Toni Collette’s star-making role was in this irresistible dark comedy with a quirky ’90s aesthetic about an avid ABBA fan who will stop at nothing to find love and acceptance.
Why it’s gay: Collette is hilariously pathetic as the eccentric outcast who longs to leave her podunk town, and Rachel Griffiths is fabulously glib as her best friend Rhonda. Though she puts her trust in all the wrong people, including an impossibly hunky Olympic swimmer, Muriel’s misplaced ambition is sadly relatable. —JD
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“Showgirls” (1995)
Image Credit: ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: A notorious flop that divides people into “it’s brilliant” and “it’s trash” camps to this day, Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls” is the NC-17 story of Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley), who travels to Los Angeles, and gets a job as a stripper in the hopes of finding stardom.
Why it’s gay: A spiritual successor to “All About Eve” where Eve is our protagonist, “Showgirls” was destined to be queer cinema from the moment it was released. Its camp value is evident, with so many iconic moments to obsess over: the pool sex scene, “different places,” “man everybody’s got AIDS and shit.” But what really pushes it into the gay film canon is Gina Gershon’s hammy performance as bisexual star dancer Cristal, and the love/hate chemistry she builds with Berkley, which arguably single-handedly lifts the film from so bad it’s good to just plain good. —WC
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“Welcome to the Dollhouse” (1995)
Image Credit: ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Todd Solondz invented the overused term “quirky comedy” with this zany coming-of-age dark comedy. Starring Heather Matarazzo, who would later come out as queer just in time to terrorize Jenny Schecter, the film is a love letter to losers and weirdos.
Why it’s gay: With her garish sweaters and scrunchies to the high heavens, Dawn Winer is a true gay icon of her time. A horn-ball with no game who gets rejected at every turn, she is the misguided epitome of every awkward queer kid. —JD
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“The First Wives Club” (1996)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Three divorcées — played by Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hawn — seek retribution against the ex-husbands who’ve left them for much younger women after their friend (a brief yet boozy Stockard Channing) commits suicide when her husband leaves her for the same.
Why it’s gay: Any 1990s Bette Midler joint is inherently gay on its own terms, but Hawn as a washed-out actress pumping herself with fillers and Keaton as her usual shriekingly neurotic self certainly help. So does the climactic song-and-dance sequence featuring the three women belting out Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” dressed in all white. —RL
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“Glitter” (2001)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Mariah Carey officially entered her early 2000s fallow period (or flop era, as modern parlance deems it) with “Glitter,” a musical drama that bombed at the box office so hard people declared her chart-topping days over (she would prove them wrong with “The Emancipation of Mimi” in 2005). Carey stars in the film from Vondie Curtis Hall as “Billie Frank,” an aspiring singer who chases her dreams while falling in love with DJ Dice (Max Beesley).
Why it’s gay: Gay people love Mariah Carey. Gay people love pop music. Gay people love flop eras (it’s kind of camp to be a celebrity and still fail). “Glitter” was destined to be embraced by queer fans who adore its cheesy as hell storyline and tenuous connection to reality (Literally why is this movie set in the ‘80s?) But what really elevates the film to gay movie status is the soundtrack, which is full of sad bangers like “Never too Far” and regular bangers like “Loverboy.” Initially subject to negative reviews, it was rediscovered and embraced by fans in 2018, who used the campaign #justiceforglitter to push it onto the top of the iTunes charts. If you’re the subject of a stan campaign, you know gay teenagers love you. —WC
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“The Stepford Wives” (2004)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: Nicole Kidman shines to the point of blinding in 2004’s “The Stepford Wives”: Frank Oz’s remake of the 1975 film, which in turn adapts the 1972 feminist satire from “Rosemary’s Baby” novelist Ira Levin.
Why it’s gay: Even for the man who has everything, there’s no beating a Stepford Wife. Everything you’d hoped “Don’t Worry Darling” would be but wasn’t, this kitschy sci-fi hellscape pushes heteronormativity and pastel color blocking to their most perfectly repellant. Come for the promise of a suburb populated by the most awfully flawless nuclear families in cinematic history. Stay for those characters being played by queer comedy mainstays from Matthew Broderick and Glenn Close to Roger Bart and Bette Midler. —AF
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“Burlesque” (2010)
Image Credit: ©Screen Gems/Courtesy Everett Collection What it is: The blissfully one-note “Burlesque” is your basic Hollywood Cinderella fantasy, but with the audacity to cast pop superstars Christina Aguilera and Cher as its starry-eyed ingénue and her underdog LA mentor.
Why it’s gay: The bedazzled pin-up girl look so many shes, theys, and gays enjoyed in the aughts was already on its way out when “Burlesque” hit theaters. But writer/director Steve Antin’s 2010 musical cult classic remains a dazzling tribute to sexed-up chair dancing, big light-up letters, and those sequined body suits from the “Lady Marmalade” music video. Covering crooner classics and introducing a few bangers of its own, this campy lap dance of a movie is flawlessly frenetic. Christina and Cher lip quiver the hell out of each other. Stanley Tucci plays a gay man with a glitter gun. The whole things gets solved because of a nonsensical twist involving air rights. Beautiful (“beautiful, beautiful, beautiful“). —AF
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“Venom” (2018)
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection What it is: This rom-com tracks the classic love triangle between a boy (Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock), a girl (Michelle Williams’ Anne Weying), and an extraterrestrial symbiotic parasite living in the boy’s body (Venom, voiced by Hardy).
Why it’s gay: Outwardly, Sony superhero flick “Venom” is an extremely heterosexual movie, with a brooding macho antihero fighting against crime. But the relationship between Eddie and the symbiotic Venom has always had a queer tinge to it in the comics, and it’s very apparent in this film, where their bond takes the form of a bickering screwball comedy duo that eventually learns to love each other. The subtext veers extremely close to plain text in the film’s emotional climax, where the symbiote possesses Anne and kisses Eddie. But even if you don’t see the romantic heat between Hardy and the CGI monster living in his body, the film’s po-faced seriousness combined with its utter ridiculousness creates something deeply, wonderfully camp. Is there a moment in superhero film history more gay than when Michelle Williams very sincerely tells Tom Hardy “Hey. I’m sorry about Venom?” Not in our books. —WC
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“Barbie”
Image Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. What it is: Greta Gerwig’s take on the Barbie toy franchise stars Margot Robbie as the leading doll, a cheerful being who must leave Barbie Land to find her purpose after she suddenly begins acting less than perfect.
Why’s it’s gay: Women. “Barbie” is filled with brilliant female actresses as the iconic dolls, from Robbie to trans model Hari Nef to “Insecure’s” Issa Rae, and they’re dressed to the brim in immaculate and gag-worthy outfits. And Barbie Land’s delightful inversion of gender norms, where the Kens are the arm candy to the independent Barbies, makes for an amusing and subtly queer romp through the hot pink world. —WC
