Happy Pride everyone 🌈 Here are some titles that I’d like to watch this month to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community, and I hope you’ll consider watching them too. (Yes, there are some classics here that I haven’t even seen yet!)
💘 HEARTSTOPPER
format: series
genre: romcom / coming of age
where to watch: netflix
The story of two British teens, Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring, at an all-boys grammar school. Charlie, a high-strung, openly gay overthinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, one day are made to sit together in class. Their friendship quickly becomes something more for openly gay Charlie, but he initially does not believe he has a chance with Nick. But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realized. Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty, and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make something larger.
🐎 BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
format: film
genre: drama
where to watch: amazon prime video (rent or buy)
Over the years, a secretive, passionate relationship develops between two cowboys when they are hired to work together as ranch hands in the Wyoming mountains. Their relationship is further complicated when they wed their respective girlfriends.
(I know, I know. I haven’t seen it yet. Sue me!)
💬 LINGUA FRANCA
format: film
genre: drama
where to watch: netflix
Lingua Franca is a love story between an undocumented, transgender, Filipina caregiver and a Russian-Jewish slaughterhouse worker in Brooklyn, New York. The third feature from Isabel Sandoval — who wrote, directed, produced, edited and stars — the film comes from Ava DuVernay's ARRAY and made its world premiere at Giornate degli Autori/Venice Days and was the first Filipino film in main-competition at BFI London in its 63-year history.
🫶🏽 THE HALF OF IT
format: film
genre: romantic comedy / coming of age
where to watch: netflix
A shy, introverted, Chinese-American, straight-A student finds herself helping the school jock woo the girl they both secretly love. In the process, each teaches the other about the nature of love as they find connection in the most unlikely of places.
🏴☠️ OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH
format: series
genre: period romantic comedy
where to watch: hbo max
Based on the true adventures of 18th-century would-be pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby). After trading in the seemingly-charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede becomes captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew, Stede's fortunes change after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard. Stede and crew attempt to get their ship together and survive life on the high seas.
(I’ve actually already started watching this, but I haven’t finished it yet!)
🌈 SORT OF
format: series
genre: comedy
where to watch: hbo max
Life happens between the lines. SORT OF follows the journey of “Sabi Mehboob” (Bilal Baig), a gender fluid millennial who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family. Sabi feels like they’re in transition in every aspect of their life, from gender to love to sexuality to family to career.
There are plenty of other LGBTQ+ shows and films that I’d like to get to, but these are the ones on my watchlist for this month.
Do you guys have any recommendations? Leave them in the comments!