The fall movie season of 2014 will not go down in history as offering up a bumper crop of queer female characters, especially after the particularly great 2013 season where we saw Blue Is the Warmest Color, Concussion, and Reaching for the Moon land theatrical releases. Still, there are some great performances by women on tap this fall including Emma Stone playing a lesbian in Birdman, and there are several lesbian characters in the UK film Pride. Add to that another release from bisexual director Lynn Shelton, who seems to have cornered the market on indie quirk in this decade, and some real star power from the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain.
Get your popcorn and Swedish Fish handy. It’s time to go to the movies.
Check back this November for hour lesbian-approved holiday movies list!
In Theaters
The Calling
Oscar winner Susan Sarandon stars as a dogged police detective tracking down what she believes to be is a serial killer in small town Ontario in this big-screen procedural. Along the way she faces resistance from a male colleague. Donald Sutherland, Topher Grace, and Gil Bellows costar. We especially care because Susan gives us some Marge Gunderson realness in the role!
The Congress
It doesn’t get much more meta than Robin Wright playing herself in a movie that skewers the Hollywood ideal of women and aging when she’s approached to retire from her career if only they can preserve her visage circa The Princess Bride era. Throw in a whole lot of animation -- this is from Ari Folman, who directed the beloved animated Waltz with Bashir after all. Harvey Keitel and Jon Hamm costar.
September 12
The Skeleton Twins
We're just going to say it. We love Kristen Wiig in slightly more serious roles, and she appears at the top of her game in this gem about a woman who reunites with her estranged gay brother played by fellow SNL alum Bill Hader. Luke Wilson and Ty Burrell costar.
This is Where I Leave You
Four words - Tina Fey, Jane Fonda! The Oscar-winning septugenarian plays the silicone-enhanced matriarch of a dysfunctional family. She forces her four kids to stay put and bond at the family home for seven days following their father's funeral. Tina plays the sole daughter while Jason Bateman, Adam Driver, and Corey Stoll play the sons. Connie Britton, Rose Byrne, Kathryn Hahn, and Dax Shepard costar. We're about to book our tickets for opening day already.
September 19
Pride
Set in 1984, Pride has the scrappy, ultimately feel-good tone of so many terrific little movies about working class people that come out of the UK in the ‘90s –thinkThe Commitments and The Full Monty… The wonderful Imelda Staunton stars with Bill Nighy, Dominic West, and Paddy Considine to tell the true story of LGBT activists who threw their support behind miners during a strike. Many of the miners bristle at the thought of their cause being picked up by “pervs,” as one woman says in the trailer. But after several marches and a few gay bars later it’s just one big happy family.
September 26
The Two Faces of January
Mystery, intrigue, and psychosexual games abound in this period piece thriller set in Greece and based on queer writer Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name. Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortenson and Oscar Isaac star in the adaptation. There’s not a whole lot of queer content per se, but Highsmith’s work has spawned the term “Highsmithian” for a reason. Her stories are distinctly of her mind much in the way Hitchcock’s films were.
October 3
Gone Girl
Possibly the most highly anticipated film of the fall season, Gone Girl may be all about a heterosexual marriage gone wildly awry, but we can’t wait to see it! Reese Witherspoon produced the film based on Gillian Flynn’s mega-popular novel, with a script from Flynn, and with the excellent David Fincher at the helm. Gone Girl stars Rosamund Pike as the “gone” girl Amy and Ben Affleck as her husband Nick, who looks guilty as hell of killing her. Carrie Coon stars as Nick’s tomboyish, tough sister who never liked Amy to begin with. Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Casey Wilson, and Sela Ward costar.
The Good Lie
It’s really no surprise that this film comes from the same folks who brought us the tear-jerking, beloved The Blind Side.The Good Lie stars Reese Witherspoon (she’s been very busy this year) as a scrappy, plucky single woman who helps four Sudanese refugees (who’ve won a lottery of relocation) to find jobs and build a life in the United States. From producers Ron Howard and Brian Glazer the film has heart-tugging manipulation and Oscar bait all over it, but Reese looks like she’s at her level best in the role, and that’s worth the price of admission.
October 10
You’re Not You
Once a decade Hilary Swank seemingly comes out of nowhere and turns in an Oscar-winning performance. And this could be that film for her this decade. She stars as a pianist diagnosed with ALS (no need to explain what that is anymore thanks to so much Ice Bucket awareness. And that's a good thing) who hires a wild, aimless college student as her caretaker. Enter Shameless star Emmy Rossum as said caretaker. That's worth the price of admission right there. Judging from the trailer (that incidentally made us tear up) the duo has excellent chemisty together. Josh Duhamel plays Hilary's loving husband, but really, this is all about Hilary and Emmy for us.
Oct. 17
Birdman
One of the fall season’s shockingly few queer characters turns up in an even more surprising movie. If Birdman, directed by Babel's Alejandro González Iñárritu, wasn't on your radar, it is now. Michael Keaton stars in the apparently semi-meta film as a washed up actor best known for once playing an iconic superhero who attempts to put on a Broadway play in order to reignite his career. When personal demons, egos, and family issues get in the way, his return to the spotlight doesn't go quite as planned. What we can count on, however, is the appearance of Emma Stone as his lesbian daughter, so now matter how crazy this movie looks, we'll be there! And wow, does this movie look crazy. – Rebekah Allen
October 24
Laggies
From out director Lynn Shelton (Your Sister's Sister, Touchy, Feely) comes a charming little film about a quirky woman with arrested development who befriends a teenaged group of girls only to hook up with one of the girl's dads. The always welcome Keira Knightley (sporting a pretty spot-on American accent) stars as the young woman, while 'it' girl of the year Chloë Grace Moretz stars as the teen. Sam Rockwell plays the dad that Keira's character falls for much to the disdain of her teenaged girl friends.
November 7
Interstellar
The trailer for Christopher Nolan's post-apocalyptic space movie sure serves up a whole lot of its star Matthew McConaughey, but we're looking forward to this film for two reasons. Jessica Chastain holds down the fort on earth as McConaughey's grown up daughter while Anne Hathaway dons this year's spacesuit as part of a team of explorers who investigate a wormhole that can theoretically connect various regions of space and time in hopes of saving the planet. We just hope that Anne gets to wear Sandra Bullock's space shorts!
