Amazon Prime members have access to some awesome LGBT movies.
If you’ve already binge watched your way through awesome LGBT Amazon shows like One Mississippi and Transparent, don’t cancel your Prime membership just yet. Here are 10 LGBT films you should stream on Amazon.
If you’ve ever walked into a room, driven through a small town, or simply existed in a space where white cis-het norms were mandatory—and felt the dreaded weight of unwelcome eyes upon you—then the pervasive sense of dread and foreboding that writer-director Vera Miao and cinematographer Heyjin Jun capture in Rock Springs will be eerily and achingly familiar.
The film, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival last month, stars out actressKelly Marie Tran—once again delivering a powerhouse performance—and follows an Asian family: Emily (Tran), her daughter (Aria Kim), and her mother-in-law (Fiona Fu). After the death of Emily’s husband, they move to the small town of Rock Springs, Wyoming.
Aria Kim in 'Rock Springs'
Sundance
It’s certainly not a place Emily would have chosen for her family, but one selected out of necessity. A professional cellist, Emily took the only job she could find to support her family. Beneath the stares—quickly masked by a friendly veneer—it becomes clear they aren’t truly welcome.
There’s something intrinsically sinister about this otherwise bucolic town. Something in the soil. That something? Blood. Without spoiling the film, it’s worth noting that Miao did her research in crafting this supernatural slow burn, which is based on the tragic history of the 1885 massacre in Rock Springs.
Jimmy O. Yang and Benedict Wong in 'Rock Springs'
Sundance
This heartbreaking and enraging chapter of U.S. history is brought to life on screen by Benedict Wong and Jimmy O. Yang, who portray brothers and Chinese immigrants working in the mines. Although their screen time is limited, their segment lays bare a chapter of history as horrifying as it is haunting—in every sense of the word.
Here, the legacy of that massacre and the countless atrocities that pepper American history endure. It’s not hard to see how the sins of our nation’s past—and its people—continue to stretch their gnarled, icy claws into the present. Just turn on the news.
That legacy of trauma continues to haunt, whispering from the darkness into the hearts of those impacted, even generations later.
The film is somber and unnerving, as it should be, pairing body horror with Chinese folk horror. The result is an emotionally poignant slow burn, anchored by stellar performances from both Tran and Wong.
Amazon may have spent an outlandish amount of money on Melania, the documentary about first lady Melania Trump, but that hasn’t stopped the film from receiving harsh criticism both from industry insiders and the general public, who haven’t stopped laughing at the film that is predicted to be a history-making flop.
Amazon paid $40 million for the rights to Melania and spent another $35 million on marketing, including a coveted commercial spot in the NFL playoffs, which is 10 times what other high-profile documentaries have spent on promotion.
This has Hollywood questioning the motives behind Amazon’s acquisition and the hefty price tag. “This has to be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing,” Ted Hope, who worked at Amazon from 2015 to 2020 and was instrumental in starting the company’s film division, told The New York Times. “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe? How can that not be the case?”
The film gives a fly-on-the-wall view of Melania Trump in the days leading up to Donald Trump taking office for his second term, a topic that no one has any interest in seeing, as ticket sales and public backlash are anything to go by.
Unlike with the typical promotion of a new film, Amazon didn’t release advanced screeners of the film to journalists and reviewers, and all scheduled Thursday screenings in theaters were cancelled, according to NPR. The documentary can't even fill seats at the movie theater closest to Mar-a-Lago, where only 13% of seats were sold for the opening weekend.
Ticket sales have also been so lackluster that there is a growing trend on social media of people posting screenshots of their local theater’s seat availability for the film’s premiere to show that theaters across the country are empty.
A Craigslist ad offering to pay people $50 to fill seats at screenings of Melania has also gone viral on social media. It’s unclear if the listing is legitimate or was placed on the site as a joke, but regardless, it does seem to point to people’s feelings about the film.
Not only have people been roasting the film on social media and review bombing it on Letterbox, but vandals also targeted ads for the film on buses in Los Angeles, where the transport authority was forced to reassign some of the city buses. One vandal wrote “My husband f–--s kids,” across one of the movie posters at a bus stop, The Daily Beast reports.
The film has sparked controversy not only for focusing on the MAGA first lady, but because it was helmed by disgraced director Brett Ratner, who was once considered to be a highly bankable filmmaker before six women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, including actresses Olivia Munn who alleged he had “furiously” masturbated in front and Natasha Henstridge, who claimed he he “physically forced” her to perform oral sex.
The film is opening in 1,500 theaters across the U.S. on Friday, but CNN is predicting the film will be a massive flop, with data expert Harry Enten saying that there is a 63 percent chance Melania will be considered “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes and will only make $1 to $5 million during the opening weekend.
And people on social media aren’t letting this opportunity to make fun of the Tumps pass them by. Keep scrolling to see the funniest reactions.
From left: Lez Bomb, Loving Annabelle, and D.E.B.S.
Gravitas Ventures; Wolfe Video; Warner Brothers
There are some truly amazing lesbian films out there for the sapphic cinephiles among us, like Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Carol, or Bound, but if in your heart of hearts you really love bad movies, we see you.
Sometimes you want to be challenged when you sit down to watch a movie, and other times you want to watch something fun and mindless or a film that falls into that “so bad it’s good” sweet spot.
These movies might not be critical darlings or destined for the Criterion Collection, but they are appreciated by people with real taste.
D.E.B.S.
D.E.B.S.Warner Brothers
D.E.B.S. is a campy, lesbian, early aughts parody of Charlie’s Angels that is cheesy but in an intentional way you can’t help but be entertained by. Add in Jordana Brewster as the delightful villain Lucy Diamond and some funny action scenes with young women in short skirts kicking ass, and you’re in for a good time.
If you thought a musical prequel to a web series with songs that would embarrass Broadway is a bad setup for a movie, you’re not wrong, but if you skip Girltrash: All Night Long you’d also be missing out on a great time. Gabrielle Christian and Mandy Musgrave star in this film set over a single night. The film follows a group of queer women who are navigating hookups, a Battle of the Bands competition, and a gay awakening, and it’s just as fun and chaotic as it sounds.
Better Than Chocolate might not be a “good” movie, but it’s a foundational film for Gen X sapphics for a reason. It follows Maggie (Karyn Dwyer), who ends up with her mom and younger brother as roommates right when she’s falling for her hot neighbor, Kim (Christina Cox). Better Than Chocolate is a good time, but let’s be real, this movie has its problems, it just also has an iconic body-painting moment that is followed by a shower scene where the two women manage to get clean and a little dirty.
Loving Annabelle may be a problematic fave, but we can’t stop rewatching this taboo film about bad girl Annabelle (Erin Kelly), who starts a sexual relationship with her new English teacher (Diane Gaidry) after she is expelled and sent to a Catholic boarding school. The film may romanticize the power imbalance between student and teacher, but if you saw this as a baby gay, it probably holds a special place in your sapphic heart.
Kissing Jessica Stein has been panned for being a sexless lesbian movie where the sapphic protagonist decides she’s not that into being a lesbian in the end, but it’s also a fun lesbian rom-com which are few and far between. It might not hold up to scrutiny more than two decades after it first came out, but stars Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt are so much fun to watch together, you’ll end up forgiving it’s issues.
Vampy lesbian couple Carmilla (Natasha Negovanlis) and Laura (Elise Bauman) settle down and try to live a normal life until Carmilla’s past comes back to bite them, in this follow-up to a web series. The Carmilla Movie has a big gay fanbase even though it’s objectively not a great movie. The sapphic themes are definitely the selling point, and not the plot or horror elements, but you can’d help but have a good time with the cheesy dialogue, pulpy plot, and chemistry between the two leads.
Lez Bomb, about a closeted woman (Jenna Laurenzo) who brings her girlfriend (Caitlin Mehner) home for Thanksgiving, may drag on a little too long and have some tone-deaf scenes, but it’s also a fun sapphic twist on the traditional comedy of errors. It has just as many cringe-worthy moments as hilarious ones, and while some of the emotional beats of the film fall flat, the farcical plot will have you laughing and loving the characters.
From left: Shortbus, The Third one, and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.
Oscilloscope; TLA Releasing; Annapurna Pictures
There are a lot of great movies out there with hot queer sex scenes (although we could always use more!), but what’s hard to come by are films with sexy threesomes.
Mènage á trois are inherently exciting, still somewhat taboo — especially when you add the queer element – and are three times the fun, which is why we’ve hunted high and low for the best queer movies with hot threesome scenes out there.
From classic period pieces to a film with unstimulated sex and everything in between, these movies are sure to get your motor revving and have you seeking out a third of your own in no time.
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
Annapurna Pictures
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women might be the most well-known movie about polyamory out there, and so of course, it features a threesome sex scene between psychologist William Moulton Marston, played by out actor Luke Evans, his wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), and their lab assistant turned lover Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote). The trio dances around things for a while before they finally have sex after a particularly revealing lie-detector test.
The Third One is an Argentine movie about a 22-year-old man who goes to hook up with an older gay couple and ends up having a transformative experience. The film includes an extended three-way sex scene that is hotter and more graphic than we’re used to seeing in the U.S.
I Am Michael stars out actors Charlie Carver and Zachary Quinto alongside James Franco, who plays Michael Glatze, a gay activist-turned-"straight" pastor. The film features a hot three-way sex scene where the three men start making out after meeting in a club, before they become a tangle of limbs when things move to the bed.
My Own Private Idaho is not only a foundational part of queer film history, but it features a sex scene between Mikey (River Phoenix), Scott (Keanu Reeves), and a client they meet on their journey. It might not be the hottest or most graphic scene on the list, but it’s one you’re unlikely to forget because of the artistic way director Gus Van Sant filmed it.
In Appropriate Behavior, closeted bisexual Shirin (Desiree Akhavan) is trying to pull her private life and career together after a bad breakup. This leads to a failed date with a women that turns into her hooking up with a married couple played by Christopher James Baker and Robyn Rikoon. The movie addresses stereotypes about bisexuals in a refreshing way, and has a threesome scene that is equal parts hot and awkward, making it one of the most realistic you’ll find.
King Cobra, about the rise of gay porn star Sean Paul Lockhart and the grisly 2007 murder of Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis, somehow manages to star Molly Ringwald, Alicia Silverstone, Christian Slater, and James Franco. The film is full of fairly graphic gay sex scenes, but it’s the one with three men that will stick in your memory for years to come.
No list of threesome scenes would be complete without Shortbus, which has gained a cult following over the years for not just being explicit but for featuring unstimulated sex scenes. Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s John Cameron Mitchell also helms this film that will provide early aughts nostalgia and a three-way blowjob scene and orgy that are both more creative and acrobatic than we ever see in traditional movies.
If you love All of Us Strangers, Moonlight, or Brokeback Mountain, good for you. Those are all fantastic movies that were critical darlings. But there are also some gay movies that are both "bad" and indicative of exquisite taste.
If you can find just as much enjoyment in a raunchy comedy as an arthouse movie like Queer, then we want to be friends because clearly you are a person of taste and sophistication.
Some of these are hidden gems that deserve to be cult classics, and others are so-bad-its-good movies that will have you laughing so hard you start crying. They might not be critical faves, but that's ok because only people with amazing taste will get how great they are.
Eating Out
Eating Out
Ariztical Entertainment
The first movie that spawned a five-film franchise should be required viewing. Yes, it’s cheesy and raunchy, relies on mistaken identity and mishaps, and the one-liners feel outdated nearly two decades later, but it’s also hilarious and a perfect time capsule of the 2000s.
Another Gay Movie is a queer and very campy parody of American Pie, which follows a group of high schoolers who make a pact to lose their anal V-cards before heading off to college. The satire is silly and raunchy, and while the humor might not work for everyone, it’s another of those must-see early aughts movies.
BearCity is one of those movies you never hear people talking about, but it turned into a trilogy for a reason. First of all, bears don’t get enough love, and this movie is full of hairy men with tummies and big daddies decked out in leather, but second of all, if you want a movie that is both funny and earnest, then look no further. This movie is a cult hit for a reason!
This movie, about three Mormon missionaries who end up living next to a gay guy who makes a bet that he can sleep with one of them, somehow stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Amber Benson, Rob McElhenney, and Jacqueline Bisset — yes, the Jacqueline Bisset. Latter Days may fall into cliched tropes and veers close to the idea that a guy has to turn away from his slutty ways to find true love, but it also manages to queer so many of the rom-com staples we’re used to seeing in hetero movies in a truly delightful way.
Touch of Pink is about a gay man who escapes the clutches of his conservative Muslim mother by running off to London. While it is a technically a coming out film and those can get dreadfully boring, and the culture clash is a little cartoonish, this one also stars Kyle MacLachlan, who is playing an imaginary friend version of Cary Grant. How can you go wrong?
If you’ve already seen Trick, then you are in good company, but if you’ve somehow missed out, you are in for a real treat. Trick is one of the best gay date/sex comedies we’ve ever gotten, and the chemistry between the two leads will pull you in. Plus, between hot half-naked men and Tori Spelling turning in a spectacularly cheesy performance, how can you go wrong?
Cherry Pop may only have a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes and got dragged (get it?) in reviews, but it has a slew of Drag Race faves like Drag the Bob Queen and Detox, and also somehow America’s Next Top Model Toccara Jones. Is it bad? Kind of, but it’s also one of those so bad it’s good movies that will have you laughing and make you smile.
D.E.B.S.Warner Brothers
Girl Trash: All Night Long Courtesy of POWER UP
Better than Chocolate Lionsgate
Jessica and Helen, Kissing Jessica Stein
The Carmilla MovieFilm Movement
