10 LGBTQ+ films to watch this Memorial Day weekend
Focus Features; SonyPictures; Music Box Films
The long Memorial Day weekend is a perfect time to catch up on the latest movies. Here are 10 LGBTQ+ films that have come out in 2024 that we think you should watch, from the acclaimed Zendaya-scene-stealing flick Challengers to the Indigo Girls jukebox musical Glitter & Doom. So sit back, take it easy, and have yourself a proper queer movie marathon.
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Drive-Away Dolls
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters February 23
For those craving a wild ride of a lesbian road trip, look no further than the Drive-Away Dolls from filmmakers Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. The film is a good old-fashioned romp with lesbian bar scenes, queer actors, bad guys, intrigue, and an epic car ride all wrapped up with Coen’s signature wackiness. An Oscar winner for No Country for Old Men with his brother, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen credits cowriter Cooke as the film’s “de facto co-director.” It’s a passion project that began years ago and stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Matt Damon, and Pedro Pascal. The premise has Qualley’s Jamie and Viswanathan’s Marian hauling ass to Tallahassee with a briefcase of precious cargo that is both elicit and illicit and belongs to Domingo’s character bad guy. Queer actor Feldstein plays Sukie, a soft-butch cop who is also Jamie’s recent ex. It’s a frothy adventure replete with all-girl make-out scenes and a Miley Cyrus cameo.
Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleeding | Official Trailer HD | A24
A sexy, bloody, and funny thrill ride, Love Lies Bleeding, from Saint Maud director Rose Glass, stars Kristen Stewart as Lou, an ennui-ridden gym employee who sees the world anew when Katy O’Brian’s iron-pumping Jackie arrives in town. Soon the two are live-in lovers turning out some of the wildest lesbian sex scenes on screen in years. Jena Malone stars as Lou’s beleaguered sister Beth, who’s married to Dave Franco’s violent JJ. There are a few crimes, Lou’s mob boss dad played by Ed Harris, and a scene-stealing Anna Baryshnikov as Daisy, a bored townie who is crushed out on Lou. There’s no explaining Love Lies Bleeding without revealing spoilers. It’s best to just watch it for the first or 35th time.
Challengers
CHALLENGERS | Official Trailer 2
“The relationship for me was always between the three of them,” Challengers’ star Josh O’Connor tells The Advocate. He’s talking about the three-way love affair between his character Patrick, his best friend Art, played by Mike Faist, and the woman they both love, Tashi, played by Zendaya in Luca Guadagnino’s new queer film set in flashbacks and a current riveting tennis match.
Though best friends and friendly tennis rivals Patrick and Art don’t fully consummate their love with one another (that we see), they do via their mutual attraction to Tashi, a former tennis ace forced out of the game by a career-ending knee injury while she was still playing at Stanford. The unabashed and confident Patrick is the first to win Tashi’s affection in the months following a three-way motel make-out session at Tashi’s behest that has garnered loads of attention on social media.
A high-octane game of wits and attraction, Challengers is a heart-stopping movie-making at its best.
I Saw The TV Glow
I Saw The TV Glow | Official Trailer HD | A24
A frightening TV show about teen girls fighting monsters seeps into the daily lives of friends Owen and Maddy, blurring the line between reality and the images they consume in the film festival hit I Saw the TV Glow from nonbinary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun. The film stars queer actors Justice Smith (The Get Down, Genera+ion) as Owen and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Atypical, Bill and Ted Face the Music) as Maddy, friends who bond over the Buffy the Vampire Slayer-esque series The Pink Opaque.
Helena Howard (The Wilds, Shoplifters of the World ) and queer Snail Mail singer Lindsay Jordan play the monster-fighting teens within The Pink Opaque. I Saw the TV Glow also stars Till's Danielle Deadwyler, Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst as Owen's father, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Amber Benson. Also appearing in the horror flick are musicians Phoebe Bridgers and Sloppy Jane's Haley Dahl. The soundtrack features an original track from Jordan and a collaboration between Bridgers and Dahl, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Anyone But You
ANYONE BUT YOU – Official Trailer (HD)
The romcom Anyone But You stars Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell as star-crossed loves who initially can’t stand each other a la Much Ado About Nothing. But a lesbian wedding Down Under is the central event around which Sweeney’s Bea and Powell’s Ben orbit. Queer actor Alexandra Shipp, who graced our sibling magazine Out’s cover last summer when she costarred in Barbie, plays Claudia, half of the queer women couple whose destination wedding is the setting for quick-witted barbs and romance. The Boys in the Boat costar Hadley Robinson plays Halle, who marries Claudia against the backdrop of a stunning Australian vista.
The film from Sony Pictures costars Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths, GaTa, Michelle Hurd, and Nat Buchanan.
Glitter & Doom
GLITTER & DOOM | Official Trailer | In Select Theaters March 8
It’s the best of queer worlds in Glitter and Doom as Glitter (Alex Diaz), described as a “carefree circus performer” and Doom (Alan Cammish), a struggling musician, fall in love at first sight set to Indigo Girls’ lush canon of music.
“An undeniable spark throws them into a summer of camping trips, late-night conversations, and innovative song-and-dance numbers – until the real world comes calling,” reads the synopsis, according to Music Box. “Their relationship is put to the test as Doom confronts the realities of finding success in the music industry and Glitter has an opportunity to run away to Paris as a circus performer.”
Queer faves Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Peppermint, Ming-Na Wen, Missi Pyle, and Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, appear in the film.
Glitter and Doom features 25 reimagined Indigo Girls songs, including “Closer to Fine,” “Galileo,” “Get Out the Map,” and “Power of Two.” In addition, the Indigo Girls wrote and recorded a new song, “What We Wanna Be,” for the film.
I.S.S.
I.S.S. | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street
While the world burns, humanity versus nationalism plays out in the International Space Station 250 miles away in Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s taut sci-fi thriller, I.S.S. Renowned for her socially penetrating documentaries like 2013’s Blackfish and the 2022 series Children of the Underground, Cowperthwaite’s first fiction film about the struggle for control of the I.S.S amid a fiery war on the ground between the United States and Russia is as prescient as her nonfiction storytelling.
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose stars as Dr. Kira Foster, an astronaut and scientist on the I.S.S. where astronauts and cosmonauts live peaceably until they’re given the order to turn on each other. Grounded in a belief in her work and hope, Kira seeks alternatives to the instructions she’s been given by the U.S. government.
Prom Dates
Prom Dates | Official Trailer | Hulu
The new comedy Prom Dates features a lesbian lead character who is imperfect, messy, and enjoys so many of those John Hughes (Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful) movie moments like an uncontrollable house party at a rich kid’s house and run-ins with frat boys and strippers.
The slightly raunchy/gross-out comedy stars High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ queer actor Julia Lester as Hannah, a lesbian whose prom plans get a shake-up when she comes out to her best friend, Jess (Antonia Gentry), and has her first romp with cool girl Angie (Terry Hu), all on the evening before prom. Though Prom Dates includes a coming-out story, unlike early teen movies with queer kids, there’s no anguish or pathos. Hannah admits to having a relatable crush on Rachel Weisz in The Mummy, comes out to Jess, and sets out in search of her first Sapphic interlude.
Prom Dates’ premise involves a pact between Hannah and Jess years earlier to have the best prom ever. Just as the big night approaches, Jess dumps her cheating boyfriend and goes in search of the perfect guy to parade around at prom while Hannah copes with breaking her theater nerd boyfriend’s heart as she steps into her queerness.
Mother of the Bride
Mother of the Bride | Official Trailer | Netflix
As with most romantic comedies, much of Mother of the Bride’s comedy relies on misunderstandings and blunders. And those sorts of comedic miscommunication abound in the Brooke Shields-led Netflix comedy, except when it comes to the movie’s stable and blissfully married gay couple, Scott and Clay. They’ve been together since college and are in a position to help Shields’s Lana and Benjamin Bratt’s Will, who were together decades earlier, find their way back to one another.
Mother of the Bride’s plot turns when Lana’s social-media influencer daughter Emma (iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove) announces to her mom that she’s engaged to her boyfriend, RJ (Sean Teale), whom Lana has yet to meet since mom and daughter live in San Francisco and London, respectively. But soon they’re off to a social-media-sponsored wedding at an upscale resort in Thailand. There, Lana and her best friend and Emma’s de facto aunt, Janice (Rachael Harris), run into their old Stanford pals Scott and Clay (Michael McDonald). The high jinks ensue when it’s revealed that RJ is the son of Will, who ghosted Lana in college. When Will arrives, Lana attempts to put on a good face for her daughter's wedding despite her misgivings about Will. As the medium of the rom-com dictates, it’s all a misunderstanding that's resolved once Lana and Will get some situational alone time.
Housekeeping for Beginners
HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS - Official Trailer [HD] - In Select Theaters April 5
Poignant and kinetic, Housekeeping for Beginners is a love letter to queer love and chosen family. The film won the Queer Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. Ali (Samson Selim) meeting Dita (Anamaria Marinca of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) and Suada (Alina Serban), the lesbian couple who eventually take him in.
North Macedonia’s official Oscar submission this year, the film is the third feature from gay director Goran Stolevski, who was born in Macedonia and emigrated to Australia as a teen. His gay-themed feature Of an Age put him on the radar of LGBTQ+ viewers in 2022.
A queer extended family dramedy and celebration of life, Housekeeping for Beginners also touches on ethnic disparities for the Roma people like Suada and her daughters, who face segregation in schools. The film stars Dita (Anamaria Marinca of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) and Suada (Alina Serban), a lesbian couple of with a blended family who take in teen Ali (Samson Selim) just as one of them receives a cancer diagnosis. The movie also explores how queer people primarily remain closeted for their safety.
