Top 10 Cult LGBTQ+ Movies

Happy Pride Month, readers!

I've already done a blog post on the best LGBTQ+ films in general, but my friend Viivi came up with a neat suggestion for this year's Pride Month post - the top 10 cult LGBTQ+ films. Of course, 'cult film' can be interpreted in many ways, which is why today's selection of films is one of the most varied and odd selections that I've ever listed. There are Pride-themed films that simply aren't all that mainstream and have found an underground fanbase, as well as films that weren't intended or marketed as LGBTQ+ films first and foremost (or at all), but for a variety of reasons, have found new meanings from the gay or trans communities and have become surprising cult hits for demographics other than the film's targeted core audience.

10. Tomboy (2011)

This lovely French film follows non-gender-conforming child Laure / Mickaël (Zoé Héran), in a nice coming-of-age narrative. I'm not sure if it's more attributed to the film's ambiguity or my less-than perfect mastering of the French language, but I recall the movie as being quite up to interpretation concerning whether it's the story of a little girl who simply doesn't want to conform to gender norms and expectations, or the story of a misunderstood trans boy finding his true self.

Legendary critic Roger Ebert himself said that it can easily be viewed in both ways, and either way, it ends up being quite a heartwarming story about belonging and understanding. While it was apparently made to be a mainstream film and not marketed as particularly LGBTQ+, Tomboy has gained a cult following within the trans community as it deals with the delicate subject of gender identity in quite a respectful and ahead-of-its-time manner.

9. Single All the Way (2021)

This holiday flick isn't quite the piece of cinema that Tomboy is, yet on the subject of best cult LGBTQ+ films, I find it to be slightly more commendable: after tens and tens of Netflix Original Christmas Movies about heterosexual romance, one was finally made for the rainbow community, and it's a hilarious testament to equality to witness that two men can star in a delightfully generic and over-sappy Christmas rom-com just as well as a straight couple.

Pride Month is obviously on the exact opposite side of the calendar year as the Yuletide season, so I'm not recommending watching this film right now to anyone (bar those who want it to be Christmas every day). I'm just saying - keep this in mind, if you want some entertaining-if-not-cinematically-great cult gay cinema sometime around the next holiday season!

8. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Now bear with me here - while this all-time classic of 50's youth culture is best remembered for James Dean being too cool for school right before his untimely death, and wasn't marketed or intended as a queer film (let's be real, such a movie wouldn't have seen the light of day in 50's Hollywood), Rebel Without a Cause has a foot or two in LGBTQ+ cultural history and has gained somewhat of a cult following in those circles.

This is largely thanks to Sal Mineo, who played Plato, one of the film's three main characters along James Dean and Natalie Wood. Plato is presented merely as a troubled youth from a difficult household, but when you think of Mineo's real-life story (he was one of the first big-name actors to publicly come out as bisexual), it's easy to interpret the character as a queer youth searching for his identity. Mineo even revealed later that he purposefully played the character as a take on being a gay teenager, although the producers, critics and viewers at the time didn't realize it.

7. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Sure, the cult following of The Rocky Horror Show musical and its cinematic adaptation has become so massive, that it can be very much seen as a mainstream phenomenon nowadays. I'm still including it on the list, because of its history as perhaps the most iconic cult LGBTQ+ film over the decades. In an era when mainstream queer cinema wasn't even a thing due to the homophobic norms of the time, The Rocky Horror Picture Show resonated with a lot of of people in non-heterosexual and non-cisgender circles, with its flashy and alternative costume design, satirical humor and playful look at gender identity.

While some aspects of the musical haven't aged in the best possible way (as can be expected for a film from the 70's), many still see it as very enjoyable LGBTQ+ cinema, especially when not taken too seriously - and really, can a film where Tim Curry plays a 'sweet transvestite' called Dr. Frank-n-Furter even be taken seriously?

6. Best in Show (2000)

This delightful dog show comedy by Christopher Guest gained a lot of praise at the time of its release, for how it seamlessly weaves gay romance into the story in a similar way as straight romance is generally presented in Hollywood, instead of turning it into a joke or highlighting the differences, as was the norm in the early 2000's. This was a time before Fox News waged war on Disney for including gay characters ("propaganda to turn our kids gay", they say - "Tucker Carlson can go fuck himself", say I), and before LGBTQ+ representation in media was particularly typical as it is today.

Therefore, a film treating gay characters and same-sex love interests in a healthy and normal manner was quite a groundbreaking move, so it's no wonder that this film has found a lot of love in the gay community (who are united with fans of dogs and fans of the late great Fred Willard as this underrated film's biggest fan demographics).

5. Tootsies & The Fake (2019)

Now we're really in the 'cult' end of things, as this bizarre Thai rom-com is anything but mainstream. A slapstick stylistic flair and an obscure combination of Thai cinema staples and modern Netflix norms set the mood for a colorful and queer film that feels like it's made to be watched at a late-evening hangout with all your gayest friends (perhaps with a drinking game involved), rather than be enjoyed as a serious piece of cinema. It's silly, it's entertaining, and like I said, cult cinema at its most delightfully absurd.

4. Dear Ex (2018)

This Taiwanese comedy-drama manages to be very sweet and wholesome, despite dealing with some heavy themes. We follow teenager Song Cheng-xi (Joseph Huang), as he deals with the loss of his father, the news that the aforementioned father had left his wife for a male lover, and the bitter family feud after the father's money was left with this strange man, instead of the boy's mother. The difficult family dynamics end up taking some uplifting turns, and the film isn't without its comedic moments. The film is fairly under-the-radar, but a deservedly appreciated cult hit.

3. Mulholland Drive (2001)

Once again, life finds a way for a David Lynch film to appear in any given top 10 list that I make. While it was a bigger hit than most of Lynch's films, Mulholland Drive was still too bizarre and Lynchian to become an especially mainstream film - yet it still remains very popular to this day, and this is partially thanks to the home it has found as a cult hit in LGBTQ+ circles.

The love story between Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring) is surprisingly healthy and moving for a love story in a Lynch film, as is the romance between Diane (also played by Naomi Watts) and Camilla (also played by Laura Harring), which can be seen as a different take on the same relationship where we follow alternate lives of the same people, or as a whole different love story in a different reality where the characters are played by the same actors for artistic reasons, or really any number of interpretations which are likely all wrong because none of us are on the same plain of existence as Mr. Lynch. Whatever the case may be, the sweet lesbian romance is a point of hope and beauty in an otherwise quite bleak and disturbing film.

2. The Merchant of Venice (2004)

There are cinematic Shakespeare adaptations that are very loyal to the original source material from start to finish. There are cinematic Shakespeare adaptations that take some wild points-of-view to present the story with completely new twists. And then there's The Merchant of Venice, which is otherwise a very straightforward page-to-screen adaptation with little creative twists, except for the fact that it massively zeroes in on the play's long-speculated alleged homoerotic undertones.

This is a wonderful thing, too, because based on all that I know about the iconic playwright (and I know a lot, having had a massive Shakespeare phase as we all do when we're nineteen), the Bard would've been very proud of this interpretation by all accounts. As much as conservative historians hate to talk about this, all signs point to Shakespeare having been very much not-straight, but the norms of the time wouldn't let him pour this into his works except in hidden undertones that later generations would wonder at (they might not tell you about the dick jokes and the sonnets clearly expressing love for a young man in English class, but that doesn't make them any less real). So, if you're queer and a Shakespeare fan (based on my findings on the internet, there's a massive overlap), this is most definitely the film for you.

1. Nightmare on Elm Street II: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

For me personally, this slasher sequel had to be number one. It is the first film to come to mind from the term "Cult LGBTQ+ cinema", partially because it is very cult-followed and very homoerotic (it also barely qualifies as cinema), and partially because it was my original introduction to the phenomenon of cult LGBTQ+ films. When I went through my project of watching all Nightmare on Elm Street films (as well as all Friday the 13th and Halloween films - what a time in my life that was), this wonderfully strange sequel stopped me in my tracks and reading up on it afterwards really opened my eyes.

The film bombed in the box office, but due to its homoerotic subtext, it has become a massive cult hit in gay circles, which apparently was not the intention of the filmmakers. To this day, the producers have claimed that the film's overt homoeroticism wasn't intentional, but when watching the film, one simply can't believe that to be true. The main character Jesse Walsh's (Mark Patton) struggle with Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) dreams are presented in such a metaphor-for-a-teenager-struggling-with-his-sexual-identity manner, that it all just fits. This makes for an entertaining and culturally fascinating, if not all that scary, horror film that has solidified its position as a true cult classic.

Thank you for reading! Also, to the select few who have read this thing all the way through - fuck it, I'm publicly coming out. I realized some years ago that I wasn't the complete heterosexual that I had thought myself to be up until the point that I found myself having a crush on a male friend of mine and thinking "Huh, this is something that can happen". Afterwards, it was easy to realize that I had always found men attractive alongside women, but being conditioned by this very heteronormative society of ours, I had never realized that it was romantic or sexual attraction until it hit me.

Most of my close friends know that I'm bi or pan or something like that (I'm not the biggest label guy, you can happily call me "Straight but with the occasional exceptions" or "Bi but with a strong female-leaning majority in persons of interest"), but I've never really 'officially' come out - not because of fear for being judged, but simply because I was worried it would be a bigger deal for relatives from older generations etc. than it was for me personally. But as I keep reading more and more stuff about how every coming-out helps encourage others to share their truths, I figured I'd do my part as the world really should be a place where everyone could be able to tell who they are without fear or worry.

"Every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place"

-Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), Brooklyn Nine-Nine