From Backspot to Cuckoo , 10 Queer Summer Movies to Add to Your Watchlist

The temperature is rising. If you listen closely, you might even hear the jingling of an ice cream truck on your street. That can only mean one thing: summer movie season has finally arrived! Time to beat the heat and hit the theater instead. Fortunately for queer filmgoers, the summer months are filled with scintillating LGBTQ+ cinema of all sorts. Challengers, which if we’re being honest was a summer movie in everything but release date, was only a taste of what’s to come.

The theme this summer is variety. We’ll get to see recent queer Oscar nominees Lily Gladstone and Colman Domingo headlining new dramas with similarly award-worthy performances. The season also offers a showcase for LGBTQ+ comedians of all generations, with a Netflix documentary offering a look at the medium’s past while the Megan Stalter vehicle Cora Bora offers a glimpse at its future. But that’s not all! Truly, this season has so much queer feature fare: the canonically pansexual Deadpool brings his strapped… gun to the MCU, Hunter Schafer faces her own Shining scenario, and Evan Rachel Wood plays your new cheer coach from hell. With so many titles bound to become classics, here are 10 summer movies worthy of your watchlist.

Backspot — May 31

If Whiplash was made for the cheer squad crowd and the conductor were recast as Evan Rachel Wood, you’d have Backspot, the Elliot Page-produced sapphic sports flick that officially kicks off the queer summer movie season. Toronto filmmaker (and DJ) D.W Waterson’s debut drama follows Riley (Devery Jacobs, also co-producer), a headstrong perfectionist cheerleader, scouted by merciless cheer coach Eileen McNamara (Evan Rachel Wood) to join her dream squad, the Thunderhawks. Alongside her relationship with girlfriend Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo), Riley’s grit and determination are tested as the sport's strenuous demands affect her psyche and sense of self. Backspot is committed to depicting the visceral and unsettling nature of the sport — which lest we forget tasks teens with endlessly backflipping into oblivion — making other cheer flicks like Bring it On look like an episode of Sesame Street by comparison. With a stellar performance from Jacobs and a frighteningly commanding turn from Evan Rachel Wood, you won’t want to miss it.

I Used to be Funny — June 7

Writer-director Ally Pankiw carries the same stylish flair she displayed in her Muna music videos and her Black Mirror episode to this poignant feature-length dramedy. Starring every queer Canadian filmmaker’s favorite Virgo actress muse, Rachel Sennott, I Used To Be Funny follows Sam Cowell (Sennott), a comedian struggling with PTSD over an incident that impacts her relationship with a previous nanny client, Brooke (Olga Petsa). While her roommates Paige (Sabrina Jalees) and Phillip (Caleb Hearon), along with ex-boyfriend Noah (Ennis Esmer), all try to help her out of her funk, Sam learns that Brooke has gone missing without a trace. As memories flood her mind, Sam takes matters into her own hands and goes searching for her friend. A deeply thoughtful dissertation on PTSD, both structurally and thematically, I Used to Be Funny marks an ambitious debut for Pankiw’s singular voice.

Cora Bora — June 14

Beloved Hacks star, comedian, and musician Meg Stalter finally takes center stage in this indie adult comedy about Cora, a polyamorous girl-failure musician visiting her Oregon hometown to win back her longtime girlfriend’s (Jojo T. Gibbs) affection after sensing her primary partner status has been threatened by a new bae (Ayden Mayeri). Cora’s brashness, however, gets her into all sorts of wacky scenarios, from losing her girlfriend’s dog to a Tinder orgy therapy session, but all of these misadventures help her grow up a little. If you consider yourself a Stalter-stan, Cora Bora is the ultimate Megan meal: a showcase for her remarkable range that cements her as the star she's always been.

Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution — June 18

To be an LGBTQ+ comedian is still a valiant feat, considering the fact that transphobic (so-called) humor still gets a pass from mainstream audiences. But it was an especially brave act for the queer comics who navigated the late 20th century, when even basic legal protections were piecemeal and social stigma was high. Pioneers like Margret Cho, Wanda Sykes, and Lily Tomlin, and more carved the way for contemporary voices like Fortune Feimster, Jerrod Carmichael, and Joel Kim Booster to slay on stage today. This documentary, coming to Netflix during Pride Month, chronicles the strides made by many iconic LGBTQ+ comics, detailing how their social fight for inclusivity became a revolution.

Fancy Dance — June 21

The Lily Gladstone era has only just begun. So far, 2024 has already delivered more of the Oscar nominee in the true-crime TV miniseries Under the Bridge. But come June, we’ll get to see Gladstone in Erica Tremblay’s directorial debut Fancy Dance as Jax, a queer hustler who has become the parental guardian to her niece Roki (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) on the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma, following her sister’s disappearance. After Roki’s deadbeat dad Frank (Shea Whigham) comes back into the fray flaunting his child custody card, Jax and Roki trek across the backcountry to find her mom, hopefully in time for the powwow Roki is preparing for. As they hit the road, they learn more about the American justice system's failure to protect Indigenous women. Following its film festival circuit run at Sundance, SXSW, and NewFest in 2023, this indie favorite will hit theaters before an Apple TV+ premiere, putting another incredible Gladstone performance on the books. (And she filmed this all during her breaks from Killers of a Flower Moon. Talk about a hustler portraying a hustler!)

Chestnut — June 21

If you have ever been in a homoerotic friendship with someone you follow around like a lost puppy, Jac Cron’s quiet indie drama Chestnut might feel almost painfully real. On the heels of graduating from her Philadelphia college, timid, bisexual 20-something Annie (Natalia Dyer) spends one last summer at her university town. During one of her lonely nights out, she befriends headstrong cool girl Tyler (Rachel Keller) and her laid-back friend Danny (Danny Ramirez) at a bar. After integrating herself into their friend group, Annie falls for Tyler. But Tyler’s hard-to-read attitude confuses Annie as she finds herself caught in the center of her crush’s on-again-off-again relationship with Tyler. If Challengers whet your appetite for love triangles, this one’s for you.

Sing Sing — July

Everyone I knew who saw both of the Colman Domingo films at the Toronto International Film Festival last year agreed that one of them contained his career-best performance — and it wasn’t the one he received an Oscar nomination for! In the complex prison drama Sing Sing, the Rustin star powerfully portrays Divine G, a wrongfully convicted felon imprisoned at the notorious correctional facility for over 20 years. At his most isolated, he finds hope and purpose by participating in a rehabilitating theater program that he and his fellow inmates craft from scratch every season. His thespian world is disrupted when Clarence (Clarence Maclin), a street-styled newcomer, enters the scene. Subtle and thoughtful in its deconstruction of masculinity while also illustrating the severe loneliness of prison life, Sing Sing is a remarkable drama that offers the strongest performance from Domingo yet. Don't be surprised to see him get a consecutive Oscar nomination.

Crossing — July 19

If Fancy Dance is about an aunt searching for her sister with her niece, then this drama reverses the order of those ingredients. Levan Akin’s (And Then We Danced) Crossing focuses on Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired Georgian teacher trying to fulfill her deceased sister’s last wish: to find her long-lost daughter. As she hits the road in search of her niece, Lia lands in Istanbul, where she meets up with Evrim (Lucas Kankava), a trans rights lawyer who offers help locating the missing girl. Capturing the texture of the Istanbul LGBTQ+ scene while telling a tale about connection, identity, and understanding, Crossing is a trip well worth taking.

Deadpool & Wolverine — July 26

The sexually fluid Merc With a Mouth is officially entering the not-quite-as-colorful world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But on the bright side, that does make him the first MCU character to have been canonically pegged! As worlds merge, Deadpool has to save the multiverse with none other than Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) at the behest of the Time Variance Authority, which threatens to destroy his own timeline. As part of their mission, they must face off against Charles Xavier’s twin sister Cassandra Nova (nonbinary actor Emma Corrin, in their first antagonistic role). Expect a bunch of gratuitous cameos and pray for some moments of playful sensuality between Wade and Logan.

Cuckoo — August 9

Hunter Schafer starring in a Shining-style thriller in the German Alps? What could possibly go wrong? On vacation with her father and stepmother, Gretchen (Schafer) discovers that harbored secrets run across the resort town where they are staying. Strange noises haunt her, as do ominous visions of a woman pursuing her. Now, it’s up to Gretchen to uncover the mystery of the resort town. Although this project doesn’t mark the film debut for the Euphoria Star — last year’s Hunger Games prequel claimed that honor — this is her first cinematic leading role, and we couldn’t be more excited to watch her scream on the big screen.

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