Best Gay Themed Movies

by terrence-gale | created - 17 Feb 2014 | updated - 28 Feb 2015 | Public

Here is my selection of best gay themed movies.

 Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc
  • Instant Watch Options
  • Genres
  • Movies or TV
  • IMDb Rating
  • In Theaters
  • Release Year
  • Keywords





IMDb user rating (average) to
Number of votes to »




Reset
Release year or range to »




































































































1. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

R | 134 min | Drama, Romance

87 Metascore

Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid

Votes: 382,592 | Gross: $83.04M

2. Milk (I) (2008)

R | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History

83 Metascore

The story of American gay activist Harvey Milk, who fought for gay rights and was elected as California's first openly gay official.

Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna

Votes: 179,895 | Gross: $31.84M

3. Longtime Companion (1989)

R | 96 min | Drama, Romance

The emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic is chronicled in the lives of several gay men living during the 1980s.

Director: Norman René | Stars: Stephen Caffrey, Patrick Cassidy, Brian Cousins, Bruce Davison

Votes: 6,135 | Gross: $4.61M

4. A Single Man (2009)

R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

77 Metascore

An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.

Director: Tom Ford | Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult

Votes: 117,805 | Gross: $9.17M

5. Gods and Monsters (1998)

R | 105 min | Biography, Drama

74 Metascore

The last days of Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale are explored.

Director: Bill Condon | Stars: Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich

Votes: 32,779 | Gross: $6.39M

6. Maurice (1987)

R | 140 min | Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

Two English school chums find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. To regain his place in society, Clive gives up Maurice and marries. While staying with Clive and his wife, Maurice discovers romance in the arms of the gamekeeper Alec.

Director: James Ivory | Stars: James Wilby, Rupert Graves, Hugh Grant, Denholm Elliott

Votes: 23,608 | Gross: $3.13M

7. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

An ambitious Pakistani Briton and his white boyfriend strive for success and hope when they open a glamorous laundromat.

Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Graham

Votes: 17,305 | Gross: $2.45M

8. C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)

Not Rated | 129 min | Comedy, Drama

81 Metascore

A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Émile Vallée

Votes: 34,136

9. All About My Mother (1999)

R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

87 Metascore

A comedy-drama about a bereaved mother, and overwrought actress, her jealous lover, and a pregnant nun.

Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan

Votes: 102,954 | Gross: $8.26M

10. Lilies (1996)

R | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy

When a bishop comes to a prison to hear the confession of an old friend he is forced to watch a play, performed by the inmates, about their youth together, love and betrayal.

Director: John Greyson | Stars: Ian D. Clark, Marcel Sabourin, Aubert Pallascio, Jason Cadieux

Votes: 2,843 | Gross: $0.22M

11. Bad Education (2004)

NC-17 | 106 min | Crime, Drama

81 Metascore

An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.

Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Javier Cámara, Daniel Giménez Cacho

Votes: 63,441 | Gross: $5.21M

12. The Normal Heart (2014 TV Movie)

TV-MA | 132 min | Biography, Drama, History

In the early 1980s, the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York led to an emergence of homosexual activists. With support from the medical community, they try to raise awareness about the disease.

Director: Ryan Murphy | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Jonathan Groff, Frank De Julio, William DeMeritt

Votes: 37,803

13. Another Country (1984)

PG | 90 min | Biography, Drama, History

Based on the life of the young Guy Burgess, who would become better known as one of the Cambridge Spies.

Director: Marek Kanievska | Stars: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Michael Jenn, Robert Addie

Votes: 6,969

14. Torch Song Trilogy (1988)

R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Arnold is a gay man working as drag queen in 1971 NYC. He meets a handsome bisexual man.

Director: Paul Bogart | Stars: Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick, Harvey Fierstein, Brian Kerwin

Votes: 7,824 | Gross: $4.87M

15. The Hanging Garden (1997)

R | 91 min | Drama, Romance

William, a once obese and depressed adolescent, is able to move past his teenage years when he moves to the city and comes out as being gay. When he returns home though, he can't cope with his memories.

Director: Thom Fitzgerald | Stars: Chris Leavins, Kerry Fox, Ian Parsons, Peter MacNeill

Votes: 3,079 | Gross: $0.93M

16. An Early Frost (1985 TV Movie)

95 min | Drama

A young lawyer hasn't told his parents about his homosexuality. Now he must tell them--at a time when the diagnosis was still a death sentence--that he has AIDS.

Director: John Erman | Stars: Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Sylvia Sidney, Aidan Quinn

Votes: 2,222

17. The Wedding Banquet (1993)

R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Winston Chao, May Chin, Ah-Lei Gua, Sihung Lung

Votes: 17,160 | Gross: $6.93M

18. Keep the Lights On (2012)

Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Romance

79 Metascore

In Manhattan, film-maker Erik bonds with closeted lawyer Paul after a fling. As their relationship becomes one fueled by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries while being true to himself.

Director: Ira Sachs | Stars: Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, Souleymane Sy Savane

Votes: 6,143 | Gross: $0.25M

19. And the Band Played On (1993 TV Movie)

PG | 141 min | Drama, History

The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic, and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.

Director: Roger Spottiswoode | Stars: Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Patrick Bauchau, Nathalie Baye

Votes: 11,016

20. Trick (1999)

R | 89 min | Comedy, Music, Romance

The misadventures of two young gay men, trying to find a place to be alone, one night in Manhattan.

Director: Jim Fall | Stars: Christian Campbell, John Paul Pitoc, Tori Spelling, Brad Beyer

Votes: 9,231 | Gross: $2.05M

21. In the Gloaming (1997 TV Movie)

PG | 67 min | Drama

A loving mother, a son in search of peace, four people separated by more than miles. Now, in the twilight of their time together, reconciliation finally begins for a family who never really knew each other until it was almost too late.

Director: Christopher Reeve | Stars: Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Sean Leonard

Votes: 1,469

22. Love and Death on Long Island (1997)

PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy, Drama

81 Metascore

Giles De'Ath (Sir John Hurt) is a widower who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to movies and falls in love with movie star Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestly). He then investigates ... See full summary »

Director: Richard Kwietniowski | Stars: John Hurt, Jason Priestley, Fiona Loewi, Sheila Hancock

Votes: 4,159 | Gross: $2.54M

23. Prick Up Your Ears (1987)

R | 105 min | Biography, Drama

72 Metascore

Biographer John Lahr is writing a book about playwright Joe Orton. Joe and Kenneth meet at drama school and live together for ten years as lovers and collaborators. Both want to be writers, but only one of them is successful.

Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Gary Oldman, Alfred Molina, Vanessa Redgrave, Wallace Shawn

Votes: 6,541 | Gross: $1.65M

24. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

R | 104 min | Comedy, Music

70 Metascore

Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.

Director: Stephan Elliott | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Rebel Penfold-Russell

Votes: 55,194 | Gross: $11.22M

25. Philadelphia (1993)

PG-13 | 125 min | Drama

66 Metascore

When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic-small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.

Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Roberta Maxwell, Buzz Kilman

Votes: 258,256 | Gross: $77.32M

26. Priest (1994)

R | 98 min | Drama, Romance

A homosexual Catholic priest finds out during confessional that a young girl is being sexually abused by her father, and has to decide how to deal with both that secret and his own.

Director: Antonia Bird | Stars: Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson, Robert Carlyle, Cathy Tyson

Votes: 11,041 | Gross: $4.18M

27. Bent (1997)

NC-17 | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance

In 1930s Berlin, a gay Jew is sent to a concentration camp under the Nazi regime.

Director: Sean Mathias | Stars: Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Mick Jagger, Brian Webber

Votes: 8,824 | Gross: $0.37M

28. Mysterious Skin (2004)

Unrated | 105 min | Drama

74 Metascore

Two pre-adolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.

Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Chase Ellison

Votes: 76,372 | Gross: $0.70M

29. Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

59 Metascore

Gregory invites seven friends to spend the summer at his large, secluded 19th-century home in upstate New York. The seven are: Bobby, Gregory's "significant other," who is blind but who ... See full summary »

Director: Joe Mantello | Stars: Jason Alexander, Stephen Spinella, Stephen Bogardus, Randy Becker

Votes: 3,699 | Gross: $2.87M

30. Edge of Seventeen (1998)

TV-MA | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

67 Metascore

A teenager copes with his sexuality on the last day of school in 1984. It shows him coping with being gay and being with friends.

Director: David Moreton | Stars: Chris Stafford, Tina Holmes, Andersen Gabrych, Stephanie McVay

Votes: 7,108 | Gross: $0.87M

31. The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)

R | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

51 Metascore

An insight into the turbulent lives and loves of a gay clique based in Los Angeles.

Director: Greg Berlanti | Stars: Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Zach Braff, Ben Weber

Votes: 8,188 | Gross: $1.74M

32. Jeffrey (1995)

R | 92 min | Comedy, Drama

A poignant romantic comedy about the quest for love and intimacy in the age of AIDS. A story of a thirtyish gay actor/waiter who decides to become celibate...the risk of AIDS has taken all the joy from sex.

Director: Christopher Ashley | Stars: Steven Weber, Michael T. Weiss, Peter Jacobson, Tom Cayler

Votes: 6,773 | Gross: $3.49M

33. Shelter (II) (2007)

R | 97 min | Drama, Romance, Sport

66 Metascore

When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend's brother.

Director: Jonah Markowitz | Stars: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes, Jackson Wurth

Votes: 24,049 | Gross: $0.14M

34. Edward II (1991)

R | 87 min | Drama, History, Romance

In this Derek Jarman version of Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan drama, in modern costumes and settings, Plantagenet king Edward II hands the power-craving nobility the perfect excuse by ... See full summary »

Director: Derek Jarman | Stars: Steven Waddington, Kevin Collins, Andrew Tiernan, John Lynch

Votes: 3,038 | Gross: $0.69M

35. The Object of My Affection (1998)

R | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

52 Metascore

A pregnant New York City social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.

Director: Nicholas Hytner | Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Kali Rocha, Lena Cardwell

Votes: 21,533 | Gross: $29.11M

36. Making Love (1982)

R | 113 min | Drama

A successful young L.A. doctor and his equally successful television-producer wife find their happily-ever-after life torn assunder when he suddenly confronts his long-repressed attraction ... See full summary »

Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, Wendy Hiller

Votes: 2,961 | Gross: $11.90M

37. Consenting Adult (1985 TV Movie)

100 min | Drama

A young gay man tries to find acceptance from his shocked mother and disgusted father. Through this journey, he also learns to accept himself for who he is.

Director: Gilbert Cates | Stars: Marlo Thomas, Martin Sheen, Barry Tubb, Talia Balsam

Votes: 446

38. Velvet Goldmine (1998)

R | 118 min | Drama, Music

65 Metascore

In 1984, British journalist Arthur Stuart investigates the career of 1970s glam superstar Brian Slade, who was heavily influenced in his early years by hard-living and rebellious American singer Curt Wild.

Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christian Bale, Toni Collette

Votes: 38,322 | Gross: $1.05M



Recently Viewed