Is “Imagine Me & You” Even Good? I Don’t Know, But I Keep Rewatching It
Arranging flowers is gay — you heard it here first.
movie review
“Desert Hearts” Remains One Of Cinema’s Greatest Lesbian Love Stories
Donna Deitch’s queer love story is set in the ’50s and was filmed in the ’80s, and is still, in 2020, a radical piece of filmmaking.
Newfest 2020 Preview: Trans Teens, Jewish Funerals, and So Much More
If you live in the US you can watch the films! Even if you’re not in New York!
Jenni Olson’s Films Are Now On Criterion — Butch Dyke Longing For the Moment
When Jenni Olson made these films, she wasn’t thinking about pandemics or quarantines or anything else this year has wrought, and yet there has never been a better time to revisit these five movies.
“Chutney Popcorn” Is the South Asian Dyke Rom-Com I Always Wished “Bend It Like Beckham” Had Been
I wish I could go back and show this film to my baby gay self.
Yes, “Loving Annabelle” Is Problematic — But it Was a Vital Film in My Own Queer Journey
There’s a reason forbidden romances like this spoke to me as a closeted person!
“Kissing Jessica Stein” Is a Classic of Queer Jewish Anxiety
I hope those of you who celebrate had a relatively joyous Rosh Hashanah. And now please join me in the High Holy Day of revisiting a Jewish queer woman classic.
“The Handmaiden” Dares You to Look
This movie is simultaneously sexy and fucked-up, and its paradoxes mesmerize.
“Lingua Franca” Is a Masterpiece — Written By, Directed By, and Starring a Trans Woman
Not only is this film more than its labels because Sandoval sees her character’s humanity — it’s more than its labels because Sandoval is so good in all her roles. This is a patient and artful film, nuanced in its writing and direction, and filled with stellar performances.
Throwback to Shakedown: LA’s Black Lesbian Strip Club
In Los Angeles in the early 2000’s (I’m talking 2002, 2003 when J Lo released her Glo perfume) and long before social media could tell you where to go out, Shakedown was a famously hot party for the Black lesbian community. Even after LAPD shut down Shakedown in 2004, we came out and supported Leilah Weinraub to finish a documentary on the scene and carve out a piece of history.
“Summerland” Is An Escapist Gay Melodrama And That Might Just Be Enough
There is charm to be had in watching two phenomenally talented straight actresses play out a lesbian relationship in the kind of wartime melodrama that is so often straight and white.
“Shirley” Dominates the Viewer in This Queer Psychodrama Fictionalization of Shirley Jackson
How the fictionalized film on the horror writer Shirley Jackson bends the line of reality.
“Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen” Is a Vital Document of Trans Cinema
Trans film history — like all film histories — is one filled with contradictions. “Disclosure” succeeds by making these contradictions its subject.
“Saint Frances” Is The Fascinating Story of a Straight White Woman Aiding a Beautiful Interracial Lesbian Couple
It was fascinating to watch a young white woman enter the home of two gay women of color and make a concerted effort to support them, without centering herself or her own personal experience.
“Kajillionaire” Review: Evan Rachel Wood Deals in Queer Romance, Trauma, and Petty Theft
Miranda July’s new feature, starring a magnificently weird Evan Rachel Wood, is a careful, long-game-playing meditation on how we can learn to parent ourselves when our own families refuse to do the job.
“Birds of Prey” Is the Chaotic Sparkly Queer Misandrist Comic Book Movie of My Dreams
With two on-screen queer women characters, “Birds of Prey” is an irate, sparkle laden, middle finger in the air to a society that otherwise cowers to the angry whims of men. Who the hell wouldn’t sign up for that?
“2 in the Bush” Is a Funny, Warm, Daring Love Story
Untimely deaths, lesbian bed death, a creepy heterosexual polyamorous couple; you won’t find it here. Instead, the film takes the approach of exploring the many different loves we have in our lives.
Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” Gave Me Permission to Be Sad
The most remarkable thing about Gerwig’s film isn’t that it leaves room for queerness – it’s that it leaves room for sadness.
Kate McKinnon Finally Gets to Play an Actual Lesbian in “Bombshell”
I’m not talking about dyke-y hair and gun-licking as subtext. I’m not talking about just her general way. I’m talking about Kate McKinnon’s character having sex with Margot Robbie’s character and their relationship becoming the most emotionally resonant thing in the entire movie.
Lena Waithe’s “Queen & Slim” Left Me Still Hungry for Black Queer Freedom
“For a work touted as blackness for Black people, Queen & Slim ultimately offers not hope or a way forward, but more images of beautiful Black corpses added to the growing canon of Black death for consumption. And I’m simply not able to keep bearing witness.”