Cruising Cinema: Queer film and TV recs
Sending queer film and TV recs straight to your inbox.
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Do you want gay shit? Of course you do. Michelle Visage knows it, and I do too. But finding gay shit is a lot harder these days.
Don't get me wrong. More queer films and TV shows are being made than ever before. Yes, The Gay Agenda™ exists, and it's doing a fabulous job. But with so much to watch, it's easy for classic titles and hidden gems to get sidelined or lost in the shuffle. You know, like Gal Gadot's acting coach.
So how can you find the good gay shit? That's where Cruising Cinema comes in.
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter and you'll receive the very best queer film and TV recs straight direct to your inbox every Friday.
The free version includes new updates on what's going on in the world of queer media plus deep-dives into classic LGBTQ+ films you can't live without. A special interactive section named "Queer Awakenings" will also be included (because everyone deserves a little treat sometimes).
From next week, the paid version will come loaded with extras that include a spotlight on queer hidden gems, plus a database on every LGBTQ+ film and TV show I've watched this year (with links guiding you where to watch them).
So what are you waiting for? Subscribe now and support queer journalism. Because gay shit deserves love too.
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Queer and Now
Everything new in the world of queer TV and film
— "What's that noise?" I hear you ask. That's the sound of loins collectively girding worldwide as Prince Fiyero makes his grand return in Wicked: For Good.
I don't need to tell you how queer this film is already, but there's a scene where you glimpse a vein in Jonathan Bailey's bicep that deserves an entire sequel of its own. I'll be holding space for that in my dreams tonight.
— Drag Race Canada's Queen of the North herself, Brooke Lynn Hytes, is back to host Crave's sixth season (on WOW Presents Plus globally). The new queens have plenty to prove following the lacklustre response to last year's lineup, but I'm sure the Golden Beaver will shake things up regardless. (I might just be the first person in my bloodline to type such a sentence?)
— The Marathi-language drama Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda) is out in US cinemas following its Grand Jury Prize win at Sundance earlier this year. The film follows an Indian city boy named Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) who returns to his family's village following the death of his father. There, he meets a hottie farmer called Balya (Suraaj Suman) who distracts him in all the right ways.
— Then there's Come See Me in the Good Light, a documentary about genderqueer poet Andrea Gibson and their terminal cancer diagnosis. This one broke me at Sundance and it will break me again now it's out on Apple TV. Keep hydrated with a few bottles of water on standby as you watch Gibson and the love of their life navigate what precious little time they have left together.
— When you're done convulsing in a puddle of endless sobs, I recommend going back and binging all of Hazbin Hotel's second season now it's out in full on Prime Video. This sophomore run is a little hit-and-miss, but who cares when you get to enjoy cute Disney-style lesbian love songs like this one?
Mother of the Week
Where Mothers come to Mother
Mothers abound this week thanks to the arrival of Wicked: For Good in cinemas.
A never-better Ariana Grande and a never-better Cynthia Erivo both stun alongside a never-worse Michelle Yeoh, which made this week's deliberations tough to say the least.
How am I supposed to choose the best mother between them? Our Glinda and Elphie — or #Gelphie, if you're nasty — both sing like actual angels sent down by the gay gods on high.
Cynthia just beats Ariana in this Mother-off, however, because anyone who can pretend Fiyero's still hot in scarecrow makeup is a Mother to be reckoned with.
The concept of Cynthia Erivo winning Mother of the Week and GQ's Man of the Year... Honestly, it's the stuff dreams are made of.
Queer Awakenings
Which queer film or show spoke to you growing up?
Long before I knew I was gay, stories about outsiders and people who don't belong really spoke to me as a kid. And I know I'm not alone in that.
So I'm asking you, the beautiful, gorgeous, sexy and talented subscribers reading this right now; which stories inspired you growing up?
Did animated stories like Steven Universe speak to you on a deeper level? Did watching Moonlight rewire your brain chemistry as a teenager? Did you creep downstairs every night to watch Queer As Folk with the volume way down low?
Please send in your own stories, those early examples of shows and films that shaped who you are today, and I'll share them right here in the free edition of this newsletter (Don't worry, your accounts can be anonymous).
Send them to this email address and I'll start including them from next week onwards: cruisingcinema7@gmail.com. In the meantime, I'll go first.
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As a kid, I was obsessed with the 90s X-Men cartoon. Had a bald guy in a wheelchair asked me to run away and fight in his child army, I would have said yes in a heartbeat.
I had no idea back then that Marvel's mutants have long been a metaphor for queerness and other minority experiences. Yet there I was, maybe 7 or 8 years old, watching and rewatching every episode like my little gay life depended on it.
My Mum will remember this well, but I would even dance to the intro each week. You know, that iconic "Da nanana naaaa na na" where all the X-Men showed off their powers? I had full-blown choreography which I would perform every single time I watched it without fail.
I'd unsheathe "claws" like Wolverine, I'd throw cards like Gambit, and I'd summon lightning like my queen Storm, rolling around the living room with increasingly dramatic poses.
If the Gay Police were a thing, they'd have snatched my ass up in a heartbeat.
Jump forward 10 years and I grew up to be a very depressed 18-year-old. Around that time, I remember rewatching the entire series on every VHS or bootleg DVD I could get my hands on. And it helped! It took me back to those days when Marvel's merry band of mutants made me feel safe and special.
Who needs therapy when you can watch cartoons?
Looking back, I remember one episode in particular that really stood out to me. It was "Beauty & the Beast," the one where Beast falls in love with a blind patient of his named Carly. She loves him back, but they can't be together because he's a "filthy mutant" and the world won't allow it.
I sobbed watching this like you wouldn't believe. I felt so ugly back then, so unwanted, and a lot of that came from always trying so hard to fit in.
That's why the X-Men always brought me such comfort. To fight back against a world that didn't want them? To do so with a moving allegory around queerness, AIDS and all other kinds of experiences? Honestly, I don't know a better show.
Do yourself a favour and watch every season again on Disney+ before season two of the sequel show, X-Men 97, arrives next year. Then show it to your kids, your grandparents and every passerby on the street. You won't regret it.
Celluloid Closet
Must-see queer classics no one should be without
Can you even call yourself queer if you don't know every look of yearning in Carol, every read in Paris Is Burning, every glimpse of a guy's junk in God's Own Country? That's where the Celluloid Closet comes in.
Choosing the first entry was no task, but in the end, I went for The Living End (1992). Because at a time when the US President can get away with saying "Quiet, piggy" to a female journalist, at a time when the whole world is fucked in general, I can't think of a better film to watch than Gregg Araki's road-trip masterpiece.
The Living End is Thelma and Louise if the gals were two HIV-positive gay lovers on the run, but it's also a giant middle finger to society at large. The film opens with "FUCK THE WORLD" spray-painted on a wall, and every frame that follows continues to seethe with a righteous fury.
Seeing this queer rage at a time when people were convinced that all gays were sick and dirty? That we deserved the suffering that came our way? Araki's nihilistic breakout film was a scream of defiance against that tide, giving voice to an entire generation of queer men who had been silenced by death and legislation alike.
"What do you say we go to Washington and blow Bush's brains out?" asks Luke at one point. "Or better yet, we could hold him at gunpoint; inject him with a syringe full of our blood. How much do you want to bet they'd have a magic cure by tomorrow?"
Serious points were made, but it's also my duty to point out that the leads are seriously hot.
Craig Gilmore's Jon and Mike Dytri's Luke (a "sexy slab of buff beefcake") ride the freewheeling anarchic spirit of the story as hard as they ride each other. They have no fucks left to give, so all they do is fuck.
Imagine how freeing it must have been to see gay men enjoy sex at a time when love equalled death for so many. As the script says early on, "Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse."
And then there's Araki's dedication at the end: "Dedicated to Craig Lee (1954-1991) and the hundreds of thousands who’ve died and the hundreds of thousands more who will die because of a big white house full of Republican fuckheads."
With that, The Living End cemented its legacy in the New Queer Cinema wave of the 90s and beyond. If only more had changed on the "Republican fuckheads" front.
And just like that, we've come to the end of Cruising Cinema this week.
As a thank you for making it this far, here's a video of Jonathan Bailey hanging out with Elmo (It's hard seeing stuffed puppets live the life you want). And there'll be plenty more gay shit where this came from if you subscribe!
Remember to share your own Queer Awakenings for future editions (cruisingcinema7@gmail.com) and don't forget to follow the newsletter on Twitter here and Instagram here (other platforms coming soon).
Thanks again, and please tell a few friends, family members, or exes who you need an excuse to get back in touch with. Subscribe now and support queer journalism!
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