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Valentine’s Day is, aesthetically speaking, the second queerest holiday. Yes, Halloween is still in first place – I know how the community feels. Hear me out, though. The saccharine decorations, the chalky candy hearts that are better to give than to eat, and all of that pink, pink, pink. If we eschew all the capitalist traditions that straight people think Valentine’s Day is about, we’re left with a day full of love and glitter, and that sounds pretty damn gay to me.
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February 14 doesn't have to be about steak dinners or whatever it is the heterosexuals among us do under Cupid’s influence. It can be our thing, too. My favorite February activity, predictably enough, is curling up with a lighthearted romantic film of the LGBTQ+ persuasion — and I’d recommend you do the same! In fact, you can — and should — watch rom-coms any time of year.
However, the chocolate box of queer rom-coms is dismally small. This has been changing in recent years – Fire Island, starring Bowen Yang and Joel Kim Booster came out in 2022, along with Bros starring Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane – but we queer romantics are woefully understocked. As an added disadvantage, the independent nature of queer cinema means that a good chunk of LGBTQ+ rom-coms aren’t available to stream anywhere.
Perhaps you have scoured the LGBTQ+ sections of Hulu and Netflix, desperate for something you not only haven’t seen already, but that doesn’t end in tragedy. Generally speaking, queer rom-coms have followed a different trajectory from their straighter counterparts – they’re harder to sniff out and even harder to recognize, often breaking with popular genre tropes.
But we simply cannot allow straight people to have all the fun! As my gift to you, dear reader, I have plumbed the depths of your favorite streaming services and present to you 12 (actually good) LGBTQ+ rom-coms for your viewing pleasure:
Big Eden (2000) — Tubi
Quite simply, I am enamored with this movie. If I didn’t get to see a heartwarming gay romance featuring a shy general store owner, then what was the point of being alive?
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The film opens with Henry Hart (Arye Gross), a New York City artist, being called back to his small Montana hometown after his grandpa falls ill. Despite his trepidation, and the fact that his closeted ex is also in town, Henry decides to stay until his grandpa is fully recovered. Meanwhile, Pike (Eric Schweig), the quiet shopkeeper, has harbored an unrequited crush on Henry since high school. Love triangles, oh my!
Watching Big Eden is like a warm soak in a cedar-scented bath. The Montana backdrop is stunning, the love story is awe-inducing, and the whole town is rooting for them. If you want to believe in love, watch this movie – then watch it again for good measure.
Drive-Away Dolls (2024) — Prime Video
Drive-Away Dolls is The Big Lebowski for queer women who are overachievers but also occasionally hook up with strangers in the bathroom of a Waffle House. I don’t make the rules.
When messy lesbian Jamie (Margaret Qualley) tags along with her straight-laced friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) for a road trip to Florida in 1999, they get embroiled in a mistake at the car rental company and end up with a mysterious suitcase belonging to a trio of criminals. As one might imagine, shenanigans, gay sex, romantic entanglements and action sequences feature heavily.
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If you enjoy rom-coms of the messy screwball variety, say thank you to director Ethan Coen and his co-writer / lesbian wife Tricia Cooke. Drive-Away Dolls might just be your new movie night go-to.
Saving Face (2004) — VOD
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This one is a classic, as it should be. It was the first Hollywood movie since The Joy Luck Club to center Chinese Americans, and it’s about cute lesbians falling in love.
Wilhelmina Pang (Michelle Krusiec) is a closeted surgeon living in New York City. Her single mother tries in vain to set her up with men in their social circle but instead, Wilhelmina develops a crush on — and eventually a relationship with — ballet dancer Vivian Shing (Lynn Chen). Things go topsy turvy when Wilhelmina’s mother, pregnant with an unknown man’s baby, moves into her daughter's apartment. Wilhelmina must decide if she’s going to add to the drama by coming out, or resign herself to a life half lived.
In addition to being a delightful romance, Saving Face is also a fantastic rumination on the labyrinthine relationship between mother and daughter. And is it really a gay rom-com if there isn’t some kind of parental reckoning?
Fire Island (2022) — Hulu
Take Pride & Prejudice, add some poppers and Margaret Cho, and what do you get? Fire Island – Joel Kim Booster’s delightful romp and impressive entry into the queer rom-com canon.
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As a yearly tradition, the Elizabeth Bennet-coded Noah (Joel Kim Booster) and his friends –including Howie (Bowen Yang) as our Jane Bennet – take a pilgrimage to New York’s premier gay destination. While there, he encounters Will (Conrad Ricamora), a snobby lawyer who gives off Mr. Darcy energy the moment you see him. As their friend group parties its way across Fire Island, romance blossoms in a tale as old as time. Or at least as old as 1813, but we all know gay people can’t count.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) — Netflix
Is this movie from 1995? Yes. Is it also the lesbian rom-com version of a well-loved patchwork quilt that’s been passed from generation to generation and slightly scented with your mom’s Shalimar? Also yes. Thank Sappho that this movie is finally streaming.
Seventeen-year-old Randy (Laurel Holloman) is a baby butch who enjoys long chain smokes in meadows and illicit tumbles with her married girlfriend in between shifts at the gas station. Evie (Nicole Ari Parker) is a fellow student from a well-off family with rich friends and a brand-new Range Rover to show for it. In between music sessions and trading Walt Whitman, they fall for each other. A pair of gay aunts and an appearance of Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle are mixed in there somewhere, too. Duh.
Dating Amber (2020) — Tubi, Peacock
If Derry Girls had, like, one more gay person in it, it would be a lot like Dating Amber. Experiencing teenagehood in rural Ireland during the mid-1990s, Eddie (Fionn O'Shea) and Amber (Lola Petticrew) strike up a fake relationship to hide their gayness and lesbianness, respectively. Each starts blossoming beneath the beard. After a few secret trips together to Dublin, Amber meets a charming girl named Sarah, and Eddie entertains the idea of actually accepting himself.
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In addition to the puppy love between Amber and Sarah, Dating Amber is ultimately powered by the bond between two queer people who thought they were deeply, deeply alone. Wickedly funny and ultimately hopeful, Eddie and Amber’s story will stick with you. Also, there’s great scenery.
Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt) (2020) — Tubi
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Growing up as a chaotic and closeted queer girl, I never had characters who looked like me being equally chaotic and queer onscreen. This is all to say, if you have a baby gay in your life, show them this film.
The premise is (weirdly) simple: Ellie (Sophie Hawkshaw) wants to ask Abbie (Zoe Terakes) to formal. Ellie is nervous, and so naturally, her dead lesbian aunt manifests as an unwanted spiritual gay guide. A confused but enamored Abbie rolls with the punches.
At equal turns sweet and frustrating, Ellie & Abbie follows in the well-worn footsteps of teen rom-coms of yore. Think Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, but with more ghosts and a much smaller budget. It’ll fit right into your sticky-sweet sleepover lineup.
Challengers (2024) — MGM+, Prime Video
I know. I know. But I’m going to hold your hand when I say this: Challengers is a rom-com about a throuple who don’t know they’re a throuple until the final five minutes of the film.
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Zendaya plays Tashi, a rising tennis champion cut down in her prime while Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) are best friends who orbit around her like two bisexual tennis balls for the better part of two decades. Every point of this love triangle kisses and is kissed by the other two, with no small amount of heartbreak, and at the end of it all is the New Rochelle Challenger event. Tennis is a love letter between Art, Patrick, and Tashi that they can never seem to put down, and Challengers is Luca Guadagnino’s Wimbledon-scented answer to Love & Basketball. And I was in the theater on the edge of my seat screaming, “Finally!”
Were the World Mine (2008) — Roku
Calling all queer arthouse fans! Calling all queer Shakespeare fans! If you haven’t yet seen Were the World Mine, buckle in and hold onto your fairy wings. Framed as a modern take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the film follows Timothy (Tanner Cohen), an openly gay student who gets mercilessly bullied. When Timothy gets cast as Puck in the school’s production of (you guessed it) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he becomes Puck. Like, literally. In a cascading series of events, he turns the entire town gay using magic, including his crush – but what will happen after the curtain closes?
When I first saw this movie, I watched it on some random site that most likely gave my computer a virus, but the killer soundtrack, sweet romance, and grounding sentimentality were (and are) well worth it. Much like the play it’s adapted from, Were the World Mine is hazy, romantic, duplicitous and delightful. Plus you can stream it legally now.
Cloudburst (2011) — Prime Video
Sometimes a family can just be two elderly lesbians, their truck, and a himbo hitchhiker. After 31 years together, hot butch Stella (Olympia Dukakis) and cottagecore queen Dot (Brenda Fricker) find their relationship threatened when their granddaughter threatens to put Dot into a nursing home. Naturally, the pair embark on a Thelma & Louise-style road trip to Nova Scotia to get hitched before that can happen.
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Cloudburst is so painfully, memorably funny. For that alone, it’s worth the watch. However, the film is also a reminder that a rom-com doesn’t always have to be about falling in love. It can also be about staying in love, despite the odds. I’ll warn you, Cloudburst has a bittersweet finish — think of it like a strawberry covered in extra dark chocolate. But remember we aren’t coming in at the beginning of the romance, we’re coming in at the end. Stella and Dot show us who they are at their funniest, and at the culmination of a lifetime of love. It’s a moving thing to witness.
Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) — Prime Video
Based on the seminal book by Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue boldly answers the question: What if the president was a woman and her son was in an enemies-to-lovers romance with the prince of England?
Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the aforementioned First Son, has always disliked Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine). However, once a particularly nasty fight forces them to form a PR friendship, sparks fly. It’s cheesy and corny and contains a mild amount of green screen, but especially in today’s political climate, Red, White & Royal Blue offers enough escapism to last a lifetime — or at least the next four years.
The Wedding Banquet (1993) — DVD
Imagine The Farewell mixed with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and you get this film, soon to be remade by Fire Island director Andrew Ahn. The Wedding Banquet gives us a now-rare mix of sobriety, heart, and hilarity.
Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) is a happily gay Taiwanese realtor living in America with his boyfriend, Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). Wai-Tung’s oblivious parents, still living in Taiwan, won’t stop insisting that their son settle down. In a moment of delusion, Simon cooks up a scheme to get Wei-Tung married and secure their friend Wei-Wei a green card. Great plan – until the parents show up.
Near the end of the film, a few distinctly uncomfortable scenes steer us toward a heavier, more ambiguous tone. However, this is ultimately a tender time capsule of ’90s gay love. If you’re looking for a rom-com that showcases how queer life has changed since then — and how it’s stayed the same — this is your perfect match.
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