It’s a no-budget comedy and is the perfect follow-up to any serious gay movie because, at least to me, it’s hilarious. It will cleanse the palate of a more mainstream movie’s depressing ending if needed.
The trailerdoesn’t do it justice but I’ll link anyway as it should give you an idea, and the trailer doesn’t have anywhere near the funniest lines or moments. (“Have I had an abortion? Coco I’ve had more kids pulled out of me than a burning orphanage.”)
A cute (not great, but has moments) romantic comedy by the same writer is STRAIGHT JACKET. The main character is Guy Stone, a 1950s closeted movie star who falls in love with a blacklisted screenwriter just before he marries a studio picked beard. Very light considering the subject matter- played for laughs more than reality- but still cute.
I considered GWBG when I mentioned Trick, because Miss Coco Peru reminded me, but I demurred because it really does take a certain sensibility to enjoy. It’s definitely not an “out of the box” movie…it’s hilarious, but it’s HIGH (it’s over-the-top of over-the-top) camp and extremely tasteless. I mean, I loved it, but I don’t know mika well enough to know if she’d like it.
Try it, though, if you enjoy camp. And if you do, there is a whole OTHER bunch of movies we can recommend you.
If lesbian is ok, you might want to try Imagine Me and You. Woman meets cute with another on her wedding day and their friendship turns into a mutual infatuation.
It’s got Piper Perabo (hot!), Lena Headey (hotter!), Matthew Goode (charming!) and Anthony Head (Giles!).
One film i really like is a relatively unknown Australian film with a very well-known actor in the lead role.
The movie is The Sum of Us, and stars Russell Crowe as a young gay man living with his widowed father in Sydney.
It’s about the relationship between father and son, as well as about the relationships they each pursue for themselves. It was very well received in Australia, but never got a whole lot of attention elsewhere. Jack Thompson (from Breaker Morant and many other Australian films) is great as the father.
Only sort of teen but a really good movie: But I’m a Cheerleader. Natasha Lyonne is Megan, a high school cheerleader who everyone thinks is gay. She keeps denying it. Her family is unconvinced and eventually send her to a camp that “deprograms” gay teens. When she gets there she meets Graham (played by Clea DuVall) who is an openly gay teenager also sent to be deprogramed. Megan hands out with Graham, they become friends, and then Megan realizes she’s fallen in love with Graham and is, in fact, gay like everyone always told her she was.
I have to mention this film that probably no one else here has ever seen or heard of, but I think is just really cute and fun, Broadway Damage. (One of the stars is a friend of mine which is the only reason I know of it.) It’s a light romantic comedy about two gay best friends looking for love in 1990s Greenwich Village.
I’d say “A home at the end of the world” is really good, but it has AIDS in it. Not in an oppressive way, and it’s definitely funny, but it ends on a serious downer. Colin Farrell gay kissing, yum.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is kinda transexual and gay; the lead undergoes a sex change, but it’s not the usual ‘I was always a woman inside’ situation. It is also a bloody hilarious movie.
Better than Chocolate has cute lesbian romantic leads but, as if often the case, it’s the secondary characters who really make the film worth watching, and some of them are gay men. Very fun romcom.
Wilby Wonderful is an ensemble film, not a romance, and there’s definitely some sad parts. On the plus side, the two gay men characters who form a relationship are attractive (especially since one is Callum Keith Rennie, mmm), the ending is wonderful, and it’s full of great Canadian actors.
So… it might not be what you’re looking for, but I’d recommend watching it anyway.
Yes! I forgot about this movie. It is really quite good.
I was also able to get a hold of Shelter last night and have to second the suggestion. What could have been a cliche coming out/coming of age story works really well because the acting and directing are perfectly understated.
And since there seems to be a shift towards mentioning lesbian romantic movies, I’d be remiss to not mention Kissing Jessica Stein. It’s a very cute and heartwarming story.