For ages my best friend and I have joked about Lesbiannica, our made-up movie genre for flicks centering queer lady romance. We grew up in North Carolina, well away from any in-person models for what adult life could be for gay women. Although happy consumers of any and all textual affirmation, we got something more from actually seeing queer women doing queer things on-screen.
Our running joke continues because, though it’s been two decades, there’s not really been a meaningful expansion of the genre. To get very specific, there’s a real absence of competently choreographed queer sex scenes. It’s like The L Word’s Jenny says while directing a scene, “It might be nice if you look like you’re actually giving her pleasure, rather than moving furniture.” The L Word, of course, was an exception to the general rule. Things are improving slowly, but so long as the male gaze film dominates film and television, it’ll remain noteworthy when a production gets things right.
Carol’s first. “Atmospheric,” a word I’ve never previously used to describe a film, is the only thing that comes close to doing this subtly wrought, indelibly fraught drama justice. It’s truly stunning how beautifully it evokes the source material, Patricia Highsmith’s Price of Salt, which was, for me, a revelatory text.
Bound is a noir-type caper flick that came out in 1996, which makes it all the more fascinating that the Wachowskis’ centered a lesbian relationship. There’s plenty of romance, but the fact that the leads are two women in love with one another doesn’t define the story. More than 20 years later, there’s nothing in the canon that rivals Bound for either intensity or cinematic inclusivity.
But I’m a Cheerleader may be Lesbiannica’s cult classic. A teenager with a fondness for those Georgia O’Keefe paintings and Melissa Etheridge posters gets sent to a conversion therapy bootcamp. There, she—of course—discovers the LGBT community and falls in love. The movie’s quirky, campy, and rough-edged only in the best ways.
Yes, Natasha Lyonne is straight, but she plays queer so, so well—hence her “lesbian icon” status. Plus, there’s the fabulous Clea Duvall, who is gay. Duvall’s continued acting, but moved on to writing and directing queer AF stories, including one in which she and Lyonne once again play a couple.
While it’s Lena Headey’s starring role that catapults Imagine Me & You to second, it’s also a rare solid romcom. Which is to say, only slightly schmaltzy, there’s actual character development, and the humor is generally decent.
Loving Annabelle is unforgivably bad; fortunately, it’s unapologetic. A rebellious senator’s daughter is shipped off to Catholic boarding school where she falls for her teacher, who’s been walking the straight and narrow, forgive the pun, since a major heartbreak. If you can handle just how angsty and low-budget the production is—and the dialogue’s lack of sparkle—the student-crushing-on-teacher dynamic played out between two women is just kind of delightful.
Other worthy candidates that’ll warm your LGBT soul? Saving Face, a romance between two Chinese-American women, and The Gymnast. Having saved them for the holidays, I’m nonetheless confident that this time next year there’ll be two more entrants: Disobedience and The Miseducation of Cameron Post.