4 LGBTQ Films for Valentine’s Day

Way back when, in an attempt to rid myself of the bad juju that I had accumulated as a result of watching Blue is the Warmest Color (feelings over here), I checked around the Internet for recommendations on LGBTQ films. With V-Day coming up, some of our readers might be looking for some decent ones to watch. I’ve got two for the ladies in the house, and two for the boys. Prepare your tubs of ice cream and your tissue boxes, folks!

LATTER DAYS (2003)

This LGBTQ film deserves some loving for the sheer novelty of it. The IMDB entry describes the plot of Latter Days as “A promiscuous gay party animal falls for a young Mormon missionary, leading to crisis, cliché, and catastrophe”. What it doesn’t talk about is how the movie moves from psychedelically portrayed love story to a frightening look at the brutality behind religious treatment camps that believe in “praying the gay away”. Directed and written by C. Jay Cox, and starring Steve Sandvoss and Wes Ramsey, Latter Days is worth looking at if only because of the subject matter at hand. Also, a surprise Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

IMAGINE ME AND YOU (2005)

They’ve hit this movie for being as cliché as romance movies go beyond the fact that it’s lesbian, but it’s not as if we go looking for riveting storylines and thought-provoking messages all that often in romance movies, right? Directed and written by Ol Parker, Imagine Me and You is a nice, light story that takes a look at what could happen if someone who’s believed she’s been straight her whole life ends up falling in love with another woman soon after her marriage. If that doesn’t get you, then maybe seeing Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly, The Prestige and TV series Covert Affairs) and Lena Headey (300, TV series Game of Thrones and TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) in an adorable lesbian romance will.

SHELTER (2007)

Not to be mistaken for the 2009 supernatural flick, Shelter is a poignant twist on two types of stories: the May-December Romance™ and the Single Dad/Dad Figure Meets Love™. Directed and written by Jonah Markowitz, and featuring Trevor Wright (The Social Network) and Brad Rowe (Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss) as our star couple, Shelter is a romance film that is pretty well-grounded in the social milieu of America, and the sorts of issues that gay men have to deal with regardless of how liberal their state might make itself out to be. Hey: it won for the category “Outstanding Film – Limited Release” at the 2009 GLAAD Media Awards for a reason, right?

I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT (2008)

What starts out looking like another run-of-the-mill campy Bollywood movie turns into an adorable lesbian romance with oddly incisive political commentary. Directed by award-winning filmmaker and novelist Shamim Sarif and starring Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth, I Can’t Think Straight follows the story of a strong, independent young woman who rejects all cultural tradition by refusing to get married to no man – and then ends up falling in love with a shy, aspiring writer who never knew she played for the other team until she MEETS said strong, independent young woman. The sheer novelty of this being the work of a female, non-white, LGBTQ-friendly voice in white, heteronormative Movieland is something to consider.

Have any of you guys watched these movies? What did you think of them? I’m always on the lookout for good or plain out fun LGBTQ films (or television shows) to check out. Feel free to comment with your own recommendations!