It’s Easter weekend, so what better excuse to curl up with all your chocolate eggs and watch a good movie — and that’s where Netflix comes in.
The service has plenty of LGBT+ films that are good enough to distract you from the fact that you’re not lounging on a beach somewhere sipping cocktails in the sun…
Okay, maybe not. But they are good. Grab a cup of tea, five Cadbury’s Creme Eggs and tune into one of these nine films and enjoy your long weekend, wherever your sofa may be.
1. The Way He Looks (2014)
Ahh, young love. This subtitled Brazilian film tells the story of Leo, a blind teenager who craves independence, and what happens to him when a new student called Gabriel arrives at his school. They face allllll the growing pains you’d expect of two teens experiencing love for the first time, but the feel-good storyline will leave you smiling as you should be this holiday weekend — and really every weekend, for that matter.
2. Boy Meets Girl (2014)
You can imagine small-town Kentucky, U.S.A., isn’t the most welcoming place for a young trans woman. Fortunately, Ricky has her life-long BFF Robby to keep her sane until she moves off to New York City to start fashion school. Of course, no film can be that simple — so a new love interest for Ricky comes into the picture and causes major drama.
3. Gayby Baby (2016)
Documentary lovers, listen up: Gayby Baby follows four children growing up in Australia with gay or lesbian parents and how they handle being “different” from their peers. The film was made in response to Australia’s marriage equality debate when filmmaker Maya Newell — daughter of a lesbian couple — realised no one was talking about what such recognition would mean to children with same-sex parents.
4. Big Eden (2000)
Big Eden is your classic American tale: boy from small-town America moves to New York City, comes out and eventually has to return home and confront his feelings for his high school best friend. While he’s home, protagonist Henry connects with both his best friend and another local man, slipping into a love triangle that might just change his life.
5. Man on High Heels (2014)
Man on High Heels seems like your typical film about a top-notch detective who chases down hardened criminals. But this South Korean noir flick has a bit more of a story to tell: protagonist Yoon Ji-wook has tried to suppress his desire to be a woman since he was a teen, but has found his efforts to be in vain. Just as he retires to begin the transition he’s always wanted, some of the criminals he’s nabbed come back to seek revenge, and Ji-wook decides to fight back.
6. Holding the Man (2015)
You might want to grab a box of tissues for this one. Holding the Man brings Timothy Conigrave’s 1995 memoir to the screen and tells his incredible story of love and loss. All we’ll tell you is that Timothy and his college classmate John Caleo fall in love in 1970s Australia and go on to face some of life’s most difficult obstacles together — and apart.
7. Other People (2016)
Jesse Plemons plays an almost-30-year-old gay man who has just broken up with his boyfriend, which is arguably a bad enough situation. But pile on top of that the fact that his mother — played by Molly Shannon — has cancer and that his family has yet to accept his sexuality, and you’ve got the recipe for an emotional, touching story with laughs at just the right moments, thanks to Shannon’s comedy chops.
8. Hurricane Bianca (2016)
Bianca Del Rio won the sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and made us all laugh our arses off in the process. The good news is that she’s still at it, and Hurricane Bianca is a full-length film full of her signature insult comedy. Oh, and if that’s not incentive enough to watch, everyone from Alan Cumming, to Rachel Dratch, to Mama Ru herself play supporting roles.
9. Paris Is Burning (1990)
It’s a classic, but it never gets old. Make sure you’ve brought your finest threads and your fiercest moves, as Paris Is Burning is taking you to the Harlem drag balls of the 1980s. If you think the queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race know how to rule a runway, you ain’t seen nothing yet…
