Bitter Christmas, The Altruists and Jack Innanen's face — Plus A Fantastic Woman and A Marvellous Mother

Hey! David here.

I've got some great news for you. Adults has FINALLY been renewed for a third season — it's longest yet! — which gives me the perfect excuse to remind you that Jack Innanen exists.

Not that you should need a reminder. He should be on the forefront of your mind, present in every thought.

If you decided to tattoo this image onto the inside of your eyelids, I'd get it, honestly.

Remember: This newsletter exists because people like you are queer and thirsty and give a shit about storytelling. There’s no media conglomerate behind Cruising Cinema, no sugar daddy funding the time and effort I put into this. It's just me and you and all the queer storytellers brave enough to bring their stories to life on screen.

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Queer and Now

Everything new in the world of queer TV and film

— Fraud, finances, a toxic love story... On the face of it, The Altruists sounds pretty damn straight to me. However, there are a few faces in the show which might make this one worth watching if you're queer, including A Nice Indian Boy star Karan Soni and my actual husband Hudson Williams.

(I'm calling him Williams, not Opie, because we're still waiting for some marriage paperwork to come through)

In the meantime, check out Anthony Boyle and Julia Garner's new Netflix series when it drops on November 19.

— Canada's Drag Race is back for season seven and it's technically the third season that's aired in 2026 after All Stars followed season six which ended in January.

But is this new season going to be "'All Stars' gaggy" like this trailer claims? Find out for yourself on November 19 via Crave in Canada and WOW Presents Plus in the rest of the world.

— Pedro Almodóvar is a national treasure, not just in Spain, but for the entire gay nation who have adored his films for decades.

In his later years, Almodóvar continues to craft cinematic gems because, you know, gays just know how to do stuff. His latest is Bitter Christmas, an introspective tale of two halves that connects an advertising director from 2004 with a domestic gay couple in 2026.

Go see it in US cinemas from today or rent it online now in the UK. Tis the season!

— The queer experience rarely follows a set path, as exemplified by the hybrid animated documentary TheyDream where William D. Caballero reckons with loss and identity through a mix of different animation styles and live-action footage.

Drawing from more than two decades of personal archives, Caballero and his mother turn to art to process their pain, and in doing so, they came up with one of the year's most fascinating docs.

Watch the Sundance winner first in New York City at AMC Empire 25 from today before it expands to other cinemas and cities in the coming weeks.

— Touching on the 2014 Sewol Ferry tragedy, The Dream Songs is a tender South Korean coming-of-age story about two teenage girls and the fear of losing someone you love.

Cho Hyun-chul's drama came out in 2023, but it's now available to watch on the lesbian streaming service Tello, and I can't recommend it enough.

59 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of 2026 Ranked (so far)

Plus where to watch them

In need of something new and extremely gay to watch? Look no further than my ranking of the 59 best LGBTQ+ movies released this year so far.

Check out the link below to see where your faves end up.

Celluloid Closet

Must-see queer classics no one should be without

Director Sebastián Lelio died on November 6, leaving behind an incredible collection of films that were just as fierce and defiant as they were passionate.

The Chilean government decreed two whole days of official mourning following his passing, so the least I least could do was dedicate a few words to his genius — and one film in particular that I would argue is a full-blown masterpiece.

While I really enjoyed many of Lelio's films, including Disobedience, which I previously wrote about here, not to mention both versions of Gloria, the one I urge you to revisit most is A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica).

Daniela Vega plays a trans woman named Marina who's happily in love with an older man. Like in Pixar's Up, this bliss is shattered very early on when the divorcee suddenly dies. Without any official record of their relationship, Marina is shut out by the man's family, denied the rights that usually come with such a partnership.

Hostile family members crawl out of the woodwork, each forcing more grievances on Marina that deny her the right to even mourn the man she loved so deeply.

This cold world, made even crueller by transphobic sentiment, tries to rob Marina of everything that makes her who she is. Yet even then, Marina forges on with a quiet, moving dignity that's truly remarkable to witness.

Vega is extraordinary here, deserving of an Oscar nomination in the very same year that she would up being the first trans performer to present at the ceremony. She anchors every scene with such grit and emotion. It's impossible to look away.

Lelio was a great humanist, but he was never afraid to imbue the everyday with touches of surreal poetry that lift us up out of our ordinary lives. There are moments like this threaded throughout A Fantastic Woman, unforgettable images and sequences, such as that mirror moment or the opera recital at the end.

Mournful yet celebratory, A Fantastic Woman is just as light and funny as it is heavy and frustrating. That Lelio could so easily balance such delicate feelings in such a gorgeous portrait is nothing short of miraculous, even more so when you consider that he was in fact straight himself.

A Fantastic Woman won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2018, Chile's first ever win, yet I find the film is rarely discussed in the same breath as other award-winning classics of our time such as Carol or Moonlight, for example.

If nothing else, I hope that Lelio's tragic demise can remind people of his gifts, and the true gift of this film in particular.

Find out where to watch A Fantastic Woman in full at the link below.

A Fantastic Woman - movie: watch streaming online

Watch "A Fantastic Woman" legally online now on Curzon Amazon Channel, ITVX, Amazon Video, Pijama Films & 5 other services. Updated on 11 November 2026.

JustWatch

58 Best LGBTQ+ TV Shows of 2026 Ranked (so far)

Plus where to watch them

Do you want gay shit? Of course you do. Do you want to spend hours looking for it? Obviously not. Thankfully, I'm here to help with this ranking of the 58 best LGBTQ+ shows I've seen so far this year.

Check out the link below to see where your faves end up.

Mother of the Week

Where Mothers Come To Mother

Welcome back to Mother of the Week where we celebrate icons who have been Mother to us all.

This week's choice is bewitching to say the least. The probability of you guessing this one is pretty high.

Have you guessed who it is yet?

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Hear that noise? It's the sound of gays screaming "MOTHER MOTHER MOTHER" until their vocal chords rip to shreds and their diaphragm's explode through sheer exertion.

Yep, that can only mean one thing. Wanda Maximoff has returned to us at last.

Who knew that this week's episode of VisionQuest would signal the second coming of Christ? Not I, that's for sure.

If grief is love persevering then dress me in black and slap a veil on me because my love for Wanda is like a never-ending funeral that knows no bounds.

I'd pretty much lost all hope that Wanda would be back on our screens again after she died in Doctor Strange's Multiverse of Madness, but here we are witnessing the rise of the Scarlet Witch on our screens once more.

And just like that, we're suddenly Team Doom.

The day that Wanda suddenly opened her eyes and was brought back to us is a day that will live forever on in infamy. Close the schools and make this a public holiday because the Scarlet Witch is back baby!

I for one can't wait to see Wanda kill and maim every Avenger on sight. In this house, we support women's rights and wrongs. Let's just hope Mother slaughters Channing Tatum's Gambit first before Marvel inevitably neuters her again. I honestly couldn't imagine a better Christmas present.

And while we're at it, she can stick it to Doctor Strange too after what he did to her.

Have I been holding onto this bitter resentment for four entire years? Of course I have, because gays are like elephants. We have long memories and we know how to handle a big trunk.

Go see Wanda: Wanda's Day when it arrives in cinemas on December 16! And then go see it another 10 times because what we're not going to do is disappoint Mother.

And just like that, we've come to the end of Cruising Cinema today. As a thank you for making it this far, here's Jonathan Bailey with a reminder to drink your milk. See you next Friday!

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