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ELEVEN
SUMMER (or WINTER) FEEL-GOOD GAY AND LESBIAN VIDEOS!
by Jed Ryan
Monday,
February 4, 2002 (orig. May 29, 2001)
OK... it's the end of a long hot summer day in June (or
perhaps a short cold day in February - Ed.). Maybe you
spent the day at the parade. Maybe you sat in the hot Fire
Island or Montauk sun for hours. Maybe you spent the day with
your straight relatives at a barbeque (My condolences!). But
no matter what you did today, the sun's down now. You're sweaty
(possibly stinky), tired, maybe covered with sand, and possibly
sunburnt. What do you do now? Here's a trick: put a container
of scented lotion in the fridge for a few hours, turn up the
A.C., and put on some campy music. (Barbra Streisand's "Wet"
or any of Donna Summer's greatest hits CD's works perfectly.)
Then, after the lotion is chilled, rub it all over your partner's
tense and/or sunburnt areas. No partner? It works just as
well if you're alone! To make the picture complete, pop in
one of these gay classic flicks. Here's 11 of the best feel-good
gay and lesbian movies on video and DVD to celebrate Gay Pride.
I guarantee you'll like any of these: (Click on the movies
you are interested in purchasing - Ed.)
1. TRICK
 (1999,
rated R) A sexy gay comedy... without sex! This funny flick
builds up the sexual tension as we follow the two hot lead
characters as they search for a place to...well, "trick."
Their adventures take them through New York City where they
encounter loud and smoky gay nightspots, a bitter drag queen,
a middle-aged theater queen singing a campy ode to the penis,
and, the biggest obstacle of all-- an annoying but charming
Tori Spelling! Genuine Manhattan locations (Hey, you might
have even been to some of these places!) and a sense of both
humor and sweetness make this a must-see. The final scene
may be one of the most romantic scenes in recent gay cinema.
Plus, the DVD version is so clear that you can see all of
cute Christian Campbell's freckles and dim but hunky J.P.Pitoc's
abdonimal ripples.
2. GO
FISH
 (1994,
rated R) Long unavailable on video, but recently re-released,
this delightful lesbian flick was regarded my many lovers
of film to be largely responsible for the explosion in gay
and lesbian independent cinema. It's sexy, saucy, and a sheer
delight! Shot on a low budget, in black-and-white, this was
one of the first lesbian flicks do deal not with COMING
out, but rather with BEING out-- lesbian living, learning,
and loving. Max, (played by real-life lesbian actress Guinevere
Turner, who used to model for the now-extinct Shocking Gray
mail-order catalog), cute and sexy in a free-spirited way,
searches for love in the big city-- and finds it in an unlikely
candidate named Ely (V.S. Brodie), a slightly older, sort
of dorky, overly serious woman. This movie has a cast of young,
multi-ethnic, mostly non-professional actresses who make "Go
Fish" refreshingly real-- not Hollywood fakeness. Go for it!
3. THE
ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
 (1994,
rated R) When this colorful, roaringly comic Australian movie
played at the Cinema
Arts Center in Huntington back in '94, the rowdy audience
went absolutely wild! How did a foreign movie dealing with
such an outrageous story (Three "showgirls," two drag queens
and a transsexual, travel across the Australian outback in
a lavender bus.) manage to infiltatrate into the American
pop culture landscape, even inspiring a big-budget, high profile
American remake ("To
Wong Foo...")? Because, simply put, it's FAB-U-LOUS!
The costumes go for the impossibly outrageous, then kick it
up another notch, and the dialog is enough for a whole weekend
at Fire Island's worth of one-liners. But despite all the
glitter, we also see the three lovable characters in a sensitive,
humanistic light. This is one of the only movies I know where
BOTH the soundtrack and the movie are equally excellent.
I dare you not to lip-synch right along with this film when
you see it.
4. JEFFREY
(1995, rated R) Patrick Stuart! Steven Weber! Sigourney Weaver!
Kathy Najimy! Nathan Lane! What a cast! When this movie came
out (no pun intended), the advertisements had the tag line,
"Love isn't easy when one of you is sure... and the other
is positive." Indeed, despite the colorful charactersoften
hilarious script, the flick has a sensitive and emotional
love story at its center: Jeffrey, an oversexed young man
(Steven Weber) meets the man of his dreams (striking Michael
T. Weiss), who reveals that he's HIV positive. Not knowing
how to handle the situation, Jeffrey then vows to give up
sex altogether (yeah, right... how many times have we all
tried that ourselves?) and to leave New York City. Does Jeffrey
stick with his vow? Does true love triumph? See for yourself
in this funny and touching 1994 gem. Also starring the omnipresent
beloved fag hag Olympia Dukakis and the late Mother Theresa
(I'm not kidding!).
5. THE
WATERMELON WOMAN
 (1997,
unrated) This funny, sexy, low budget sleeper video, recently
re-released on video, offers a slice-of-life look at an often-overlooked
segment of the lesbian population: lesbians of color. The
plot concerns a young African-American lesbian aspiring filmaker
named Cheryl (portrayed by the real-life writer/director Cheryl
Dunne) who spends her spare time watching vintage race-relations
movies of the 30's and 40's. While watching one of those old
melodramas, she becomes smitten with a black actress playing
the mammy. Cheryl becomes inspired to do research on the actress,
who is billed only as the "Watermelon Woman." Through hard
work, she learns not only the actress's real name but also
that the actress was a lesbian (Wow!) who was romantically
involved with a prominent white female director. During this
project, Cheryl finds her own life beginning to mirror the
life of the Watermelon Woman, as she also becomes romantically
involved with a white girl (played by "Go Fish"'s sexy Guinevere
Turner). A fun, breezy film which has some VERY explicit
woman-on-woman sex-- and a cameo by famed lesbian author Camille
Paglia!
6. BILLY'S
HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS
 (1998,
rated R) Trivia question: What did Sean Hayes appear in before
nabbing the role of Will's flamboyant, sharp-witted gay friend
on "Will and Grace?" Billy, a flamboyant, sharp-witted gay
guy in "Billy's
Hollywood Screen Kiss," a perfect gay "just for fun" flick.
What does Jack, uh...I mean, Billy... do when he falls head
over heels for a handsome Brad Pitt look-alike (Brad Rowe)
with whom the sexual orientation jury is still out? The sexual
tension in this flick is so thick that you can cut it with
a knife. Is he or isn't he? Will they or won't they? This
movie is hip, fun, saucy, and very "gay"-- meaning "happy."
There's a happy ending which doesn't feel artificially tacked
on or make us feel stupid.
7. WIGSTOCK
the MOVIE
 (1994,
rated R) I hesitate to recommend this flick, because I think
that everyone should go and see the real thing. If you can't
be in Manhattan in September for "Wigstock,"
the famous annual drag-fest, then get a glimpse of what you're
missing with "Wigstock:
The Movie." This documentary crams so much music, mayhem,
and makeup to its 82 minutes that if you don't feel inspired
to get up, put on a wig, and lip-synch (at least in private)
by the time the movie's over, something's wrong with you!
Sort of like a "who's who" of New York City drag personalities,
you'll see dazzling perfmances by divas Lypsinka, Crystal
Waters, Deee-Lite, Jackie Beat, Mistress Formika, RuPaul (before
she became Queen of All Media), and Alexis Arquette (YES,
the brother of David, Patricia, and Rosanna, in his alter
ego, Eva Destruction!). Wigstock
has gone from being a free, loosely-organized annual event
to being a highly structured event which sadly now charges
for admission and attracts gawking straights, but it's still
a bona-fide great time. And like the event, this movie is
campy, colorful, and absolutely fabulous. Two snaps up! And
the soundtrack is a must-have for any aspiring or established
drag artist.
8. BETTER
THAN CHOCOLATE
 (1999,
rated R) When the Cinema
Arts Centre booked this lusciuous lebian flick on it's
roster for the 1999 Long
Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, they were hardly
ready for the response. Nearly 300 women came to see "Better
than Chocolate" on that Saturday night. The staff at the
theatre graciously made arrangements to accommodate everyone.
This Canadian import is frisky,campy, sexy, and as sweet and
indulgent as its name would imply. Plus, the DVD comes in
an uncut, unrated version. Watch this with your lover, and
bring the whipped cream!
9. BEAUTIFUL
THING
 (1996,
rated R) "Beautiful
Thing" is on many of my friends' lists of favorite movies.
I dare anyone to see this flick and not be teary-eyed at the
end. Arguably the best film to date made about teenage gay
love, this British movie is a comedy-drama about two teenage
boys in a working-class section of London who fall in love.
On their long road to accepting their feelings for each other,
they face predictable homophobia from their friends, neighbors,
and family; as well as their own coming out issues. There's
no forced sentiment here; the relatively unknown British cast
depicts a rare unblemished realness. After a successful run
in New York City, "Beautiful
Thing" was reworked as an off-Broadway stage play, with
two male leads who were a bit too...shall we say, "mature,"
to be playing innocent teenagers. It's just as well the play
was short-lived. But the movie is still with us... and it's
warm, sweet, and a must-see!
10. THE
BIRDCAGE
 (1996,
rated R) A runaway box office hit, Hollywood's big-budget,
big-star remake of the French farce "La
Cage aux Folles" was the first gay movie that both your
gay office co-worker and the your tightassed conservative
boss could talk about at the water cooler the next morning--
and both like! OK, the formula was a "can't miss" one-- Robin
Williams and Christine Baranski in the cast, Nathan Lane in
drag, a lush South Beach locale, and loads of camp. Yet beneath
the blindingly bright color schemes and snappy dialog, there's
a message about the true meaning of "family values" and the
importance of accepting yourself and your loved ones for who
we are. Nathan Lane and Robin Williams are believable as a
gay couple that's been married a while-- they bicker just
as much as a straight husband and wife, but you can tell they
really love each other. Worth another rental, even though
the jokes about fossil Bob Dole are already horribly dated.
11. THE
BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: A ROMANTIC COMEDY
 (2000,
rated R) When I saw this movie, I liked it a lot-- but I also
had a queasy feeling that someone had been secretly videotaping
my life while I was asleep. Yes, the movie is a VERY
realistic depiction of a group of gay male friends-- flaws
and all-- in West Hollywood, California. As gay men, many
of us have a bad tendency to neglect the friends around us
when we become involved with other things in our life-- ESPECIALLY
when we start a new romantic relationship. The characters
in "The
Broken Hearts Club" are a lovable and very subtly diverse
bunch. Stars Dean Cain and Timothy Olyphant are very easy
on the eyes! True friendship shows its strength when the boys
pull together in the face of life's highs and lows. A truly
modern, funny, and sexy look at the challenges of twenty-something
gay men today. Plus, a sassy lesbian couple goes on a quest
to become parents! One question: How come those "Broken
Hearts Club" softball jerseys never became the next trendy
fashion craze?
Honorable mentions:
"To
Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" (1994,
rated PG-13) The costumes are fabulous, the dialog is snappy,
the music is great... but just don't expect anything close
to reality. "Leather
Jacket Love Story" (1997, unrated) Ultra low-budget, cute
yet sexually explicit black-and-white romantic comedy which
played last year at the L.I. Film Festival to an very pleased
audience. "Bedrooms
and Hallways" (1998, rated R) From the director of "Go
Fish," an absolutely hilarious, ultra-stylized (love those
color schemes!) British comedy guaranteed to please. Does
the girl get the guy? Does the guy get the guy? I'm not saying
a word... but I promise you'll be surprised! "The
Wedding Banquet" (1993, rated R) The now-classic that
started the gay independent film movement! Warm, sweet, touching
story from Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") "The
Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love" (1995,
rated R) A sweet, warm, VERY funny lesbian movie for
the whole family! Young love never was depicted as endearingly
as the story of Evie, an African-American young beauty from
an affluent family; and Randy, a tomboy white girl who works
part-time in a gas station. "Stonewall"
(1995, unrated) A colorful, campy, low-budget but well-made
fictionalized look at New York City on the eve of the Stonewall
riots. The movie successfully blends humor with the hard,
not always pretty story about gay life before the liberation
movement. A must see for lovers of gay history. And what a
soundtrack!
Dishonorable mentions:
"In
and Out" (1997, rated PG-13) Did anybody really think
this movie was funny? Or were we just laughing out of embarrassment
for Kevin Kline's character? "Kiss
Me Guido" (1997, rated R) This "comedy" was reworked as
the UPN sitcom "Some of My Best Friends." Need I say more?
"But
I'm a Cheerleader!" (2000, rated R) The subject of "converting
gays to straights" is definitely worthy of a big screen parody,
but this satire of a young lesbian trying to "turn heterosexual"
is a must for morons. This flick will actually damage brain
cells.
Also
See the Related Article:
10 Recommended Lesbian Movies!
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