Not porn. Not porn, I tell you. And I really don’t want to watch any where one person is dying of AIDS and I must cry through the whole movie, or anything like Brokeback Mountain, where the sex scene is practically rape (albeit avoided by the other’s timely compliance), a few minutes long, and the rest of the movie is one angsty heartbreaking scene after another.
No, I want to watch some plain old romantic movies, with hot male leads. I understand these are few and far between but there’s got to be some, right? Independent movie makers maybe? Softcore sex is welcomed and even encouraged, but also a good look at the intimacies and romances involved.
I watched Shortbus - something like that would be acceptable, except it was still focused on the (straight) female lead.
Do I have any chance of finding anything like this? I am flexible. I have a Netflix account. Entertain me! Please?
My personal favorite in this category–and among my favorite movies generally–is “Maurice.” An Edwardian romance by Merchant-Ivory based on a novel by E.M. Forster (as the best Merchant-Ivories often are). It’s got a happy ending, is beautifully filmed, and James Wilby looks like a terrific kisser.
I second The Lonely Hearts Club. It’s a really fantastic movie that’s not quite a romance, but at the same time has several beautifully realized romances in it and isn’t heavy on the angst. I also second Maurice.
Both Mambo Italiano and Lonely Hearts Club (gay Dean Cain!) are great! Good call, kath94.
Also, try Trick. You’ll fall in love with it.
Incidentally, if you’re Italian-American (or Italian-Canadian), Mambo Italiano will have you on the floor gasping for breath from laughing so hard. We watched it with my mother and neither of us could stop laughing at some parts…too close to life.
Ooh…Jeffrey’s good! It DOES have AIDS in it (hell, it’s about AIDS), but it’s not a sobfest. It’s definitely on the Comedy side of “Romantic Comedy”. And it has (gay!) Tim Daly and (gay!) Patrick Stewart! No, they’re not the main couple. That involves (gay!) Michael T. Weiss.
Nina’s Heavenly Delights. Synopsis:
Shelley Conn plays Nina, a young woman who ran away to London to avoid an arranged marriage. She returns to Glasgow three years later (after her father dies unexpectedly of a heart-attack) to find his gambling problem means the family restaurant has to be sold. To save it Nina decides to compete in a TV curry competition.
What’s nice is the gay romantic part is just a PART of the movie and the movie doesn’t revolve around it.
That movie depressed me. I mean, it has some light parts, but it’s so AIDS-centric and infidelity-centric and the ending is just…:(. I wouldn’t really consider it a romantic comedy.
“Did you ever get c*m in your eye, JayJay? It burrrrrrrrrrrns!”
Probably my favorite gay romantic comedy.
LATTER DAYS, about the romance between an openly gay man and a closeted Mormon missionary, isn’t that great as a movie but has some wonderful eye candy and gratuitous nudity.
OMG I love you guys. I expected to hear I was asking for something that was too difficult. I am writing all of these titles down and I’ll throw them on my netflix. Thank you!
Oh, and I am not Italian-American but Indian-American families and Italian-American families actually aren’t that different.
And of course the entirety of QUEER AS FOLK on DVD. Last time I checked the U.S. version was the only one available, but the Brit (original) version may be by now; the first episodes have the same plots but after that they diverge. LOTS AND LOTS of gratuitous gay sex and lesbian sex scenes.
I should add, I am not averse to tragedies. I don’t always need a happy ending. What I demand is a complete ending. By this I mean:
[ul]
[li]No depressing ending shoehorned in because that’s the way life is or something[/li][li]No constant barrage of upsetting, heartbreaking scenes, full of angst and pathos[/li][li]No grinding the main characters into dust just cause.[/li]
[/ul] Good tragedies are some of the best things in the world. But it seems like way too many directors just like angst for the sake of angst. I think there needs to be a reason. if at the end of the movie, all of the plot endings are wrapped up satisfactorily I will be content even if there isn’t a happy ending.
it’s remarkable how some things stay the same across so many cultures. For example, when I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I laughed, but it was also uncomfortable since so much of it was familiar.
