Bad Santas, earnestly charming boyish elves, Scrooge, the whole Jesus is the Son of God thing... Holiday movies are notoriously devoid of strong women, let alone gay women. But we at SheWired scoured the archives of holiday films, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, to find the ones that offer snappy women, gay girl eye candy or in the very rare instance, a lesbian character. If Hanukkah movies are scarce, then women of substance in those films are even harder to spot, hence the omission of the minute genre of Hanukkah flicks.
From Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis to Holly Hunter in Home for the Holidays and Janeane Garafalo in 200 Cigarettes, throughout the years, there has been the occasional holiday movie that transcends, eviscerates or lovingly plays right into the cloying themes of the holiday redemption movie or romantic comedy. Here's a smattering of holiday movies that won't make the gay girls run screaming for worn / torn copies of The L Word.
Home for the Holidays--1995
This Jodie Foster helmed modern masterpiece stars Holly Hunter as a newly jobless single mom wracked with a cold who's daughter -- played by Claire Danes -- is on the verge of losing her virginity, headed home to share Thanksgiving with her wildly dysfunctional family. The star-studded cast includes Robert Downey Jr. as Hunter's endlessly-fascinating gay brother, Anne Bancroft as her cynical mother, Charles Durning as her lovable dad and Geraldine Chaplin as her woman-on-the-verge-of-dementia aunt. And Hunter does it all in her mother's "enormous coat."
What's Cooking? --2000
One of the few holiday movies to boldly feature lesbian characters, in this multi racial film with several storylines, Kyra Sedgwick plays a Jewish woman who takes her 'shiksa' girlfriend, The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies, home to meet her conservative and often insular Jewish family. Toss in one hell of a make out scene between these two now titans of the small screen and that's worth the price of a rental. The film also includes heavy hitters Mercedes Ruehl, Alfre Woodard and Saving Face's Joan Chen.
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Meet Me in St. Louis - 1944
An American classic, Vincent Minnelli's musical revolves around a turn-of-the-century St. Louis-based family about to become uprooted and move to bustling New York City. While the story is rooted in the four seasons and the inevitable changes they hold, it's the film's heart-stopping, tear-jerking Christmas segment that gives the musical it's everlasting appeal. One of the stars of the ensemble that includes Mary Astor, Marjorie Main and a young Margaret O'Brien, Judy Garland's devastating rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is the heart and soul of the film.
Love Actually -2003
It doesn't get much more heterosexual than Richard Curtis' romantic Christmas comedy, but the sheer volume of eye candy on screen in this charmer makes it worth a holiday viewing. Case in point -- Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, Claudia Schiffer, January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Shannon Elizabeth and Denise Richards. Throw in a subplot revolving around Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, and it's even more compellingly lez.
The Ref-1994
For those who like their holidays with a healthy serving of hardcore dysfunction, Ted Demme's The Ref offers plenty, especially with the marvelous Judy Davis as Kevin Spacey's long-suffering wife, who is not to be fucked with! Denis Leary stars as a thief who picks the wrong couple to kidnap while on the lam on Christmas Eve in a posh Connecticut neighborhood. Davis and Spacey are fantastic at illustrating the underbelly of domestic life. Christine Baranski and Glynis Johns offer strong support.
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Christmas in Connecticut-1945
A quintessential 40's flick, replete with the snappy talking -- long-rumored lesbian-- Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a vintage version of Martha Stewart who writes for food and good housekeeping type publications. But here's the rub, Stanwyck's Elizabeth is a charlatan claiming to have a husband, a baby and a farm, but she's really a business woman who can't cook, decorate, clean or cater to a man. Insert lesbian subtext here.
Domestic mayhem ensues when Elizabeth turns up at a bucolic Connecticut farm for Christmas, where her lack of traditionally feminine attributes is threatened to be exposed. A charming hetero romantic comedy, Stanwyck's decidedly anti-domestic character pleases her lesbian fans.
A Christmas Tale-2008
A perfect mélange of the tried-and-true fucked-up holiday family film and art cinema, Arnaud Desplechin's 2008 film A Christmas Tale is a dark, brooding and deeply funny look at an estranged family forced together under impending tragedy. The ever-watchable Catherine Deneuve plays the matriarch with staid sex appeal and ennui. This is Foster's Home for the Holidays on fine scotch and Valium bender. It's a challenging and rewarding study of family featuring stunning and often-claustrophobic camera work.
The iconic Deneuve has been a gay girl favorite since her foray into lesbian roles in the eighties with The Hunger and Entre Nous. Plus, while the family's grandmother has long since passed, her female life partner is an unquestioned staple at family meals / battles.
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The Holiday-2006
Two words: Winslet and Diaz. Of course, gay girls would have preferred if chick-flick writer and director extraordinaire Nancy Meyers had eliminated the middle men Jack Black and Jude Law, and just made The Holiday a love story between two lonely ladies who travel the 7,000 miles between them after they hit it off online. Alas, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz's characters never meet, but they are both fun to watch as they flop around in each other's beds and drink each other's booze after swapping homes for the holidays.
200 Cigarettes-1999
It's New Year's Eve 1981 with Martha Plimpton, Courtney Love, The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love's Nicole Ari Parker, Monster's Cristina Ricci, Janeane Garafalo, Gaby Hoffman, Exes and Ohs Angela Featherstone and Kate Hudson in one of her first roles. Nuff said. While there's nothing particularly gay about director Risa Bramon Garcia's 1999 paean to ringing in the new year, the ensemble cast playing New Yorker misfits, plus the early 80's soundtrack, makes it good fun for all!
GO!--1999
GO!'s not your Grandma's holiday film. Full of sex, drugs, rave's and even a little murder, the s 1999 Doug Liman indie is a favorite with lesbians for the dynamic leading ladies: a resourceful Ronna played by Sarah Polley and an effervescent young Katie Holmes, being adorable and Joey-esque, long before she ever conformed to Cruise. The dark comedy follows the disastrous intersection of several Los Angelino characters on Christmas Eve and is a perfect safe haven from any warm and fuzzy holiday fair. Throw in Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf playing gay and Go! is an adrenaline-filled 90 minutes of fun.
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