LGBTQ+A Movies and Series That You Should Not Miss – The Pop Blog

It’s pride month once again, and what better way to celebrate it than watching LGBTQIA+ films? Apart from celebrating the pride community, as an ally and an entertainment blogger, I have the responsibility of recommending some of the best tv series and films that tell their stories–their struggles, celebrations, coming-of-age, being out, and embracing themselves.

These movies and series embrace what it is to become LGBTQIA+, and everyone, whether you’re part of the community or not, would be entertained, touched, and awakened (many of them are satires) by these films. I added my favorite ones; Some of them are intense, while some are just heartwarming and light. Nevertheless, they surely represent the pride community. I’ll add more titles as every year passes, so this blog post is evergreen, and you can keep coming back to it.

Disclaimer: Many of the films, series, and actors featured are embedded in controversy. Note that this blog post is about the story itself, not the issues of their filming, production, and the personal lives of the people involved.

Gaya sa Pelikula

One of the most popular BL series during the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaya sa Pelikula, tells the story of a mixed-up apartment arrangement of two college students who soon fall in love.

At first, Gaya sa Pelikula is like a heartful, funny, and giddy rom-com Korean drama, until pivots into a serious drama about coming to terms with one’s past and accepting the challenges that come from realizing one’s preference and accepting it, which can be tough.

There are no talks about a second season because the series was embroiled in a scandal, especially since it involved the writer/creator and one of the lead actors.

Tangerine

This street-cred LGBTQIA+ indie film, situated in West Hollywood, is one of my favorite pride films of all time. Tangerine is vulgar and raucous, and it is direct in its satirical outburst of depicting parts of LA, the city of dreams, in a state of poverty, danger, prostitution, illiteracy, and exploitation.

Despite feeling compassion and empathy over the hardships and madness of its main characters, I feel comfort in the film; what more the LGBTQIA+? The main characters of the film are transwomen, but people who are new to the several colors of the rainbow of the LGBTQIA+ community would be surprised to discover all the other colors and orientations of the cast.

Tangerine is funny, gentle, heartwarming, and poignant.

A Frozen Flower

Set in the Goryeo Dynasty, A Frozen Flower tells the story of The King who is married to the princess of the Yuan Dynasty. The King is secretly gay but is pressured by both his council and the Yuan Dynasty to have a child of his own, to be able to produce another heir to the crown.

Because of the necessity, the King tasked his secret lover, the leader of his palace guards, to sleep with his wife to bear a child. What is first uncomfortable becomes a secret affair of the two, which furthers the scandalous state of the Kingdom.

A Frozen Flower, as expected, is a very controversial Korean film, despite being 2008’s number one blockbuster movie. But its story, apart from the sex scenes (including a queer one) is a political satire on power, jealousy, anger, and betrayal. It’s a rare gem in Korean entertainment; definitely a must-watch!

Blue is the Warmest Color

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 / The Life of Adèle: Chapters 1 & 2) is an epic love and coming-of-age story of Adèle (played by Adèle Exarchopoulos), how the world revolved about her hardships and how she navigated it.

The film is about Adèle’s evolution as a bisexual woman who feels like she is never understood by anyone around her, even including her true love, Emma. The three-hour film is a mix of Adèle’s ups, her downs, and her complexities. Many times she loses control of her life and ends up making bad choices in the case of what is generally proper, but in Adèle’s case, sometimes I’m doubtful if the choices she made were bad or the only best ones she could do.

Blue is the Warmest Color could be one of the few reality-driven films about what it is to be human. Whether you’re part of the LGBTQIA+ or not, life is difficult. I admire Adèle Exarchopoulos’ portrayal of her namesake, Adèle. Up to this day, the character eludes me, and it’s the immaculate reason why the film is a success, despite its controversies.

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) is one of the crucial films in Philippine cinema. The movie cemented indie filmmaking’s significant stature in the Philippine industry. Yes, it’s one of the country’s most popular indie films, which also catapulted the main actors’ careers into the mainstream.

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The film has all the essential elements of every successful and critically-acclaimed film. It’s a coming-of-age story of a little LGBTQIA+ kid embedded into his family’s dangerous and crime-ridden connections. Hence, you feel several emotions while watching it–from being happy, nervous, compassionate, angry, and sad to being happy again.

Apart from being a pride film, it showed how oppressively corruption, poverty, and crime have bequeathed the poor parts of the Philippines, and even so, Filipinos have maintained to be generally-happy folks.

Kieta Hatsukoi

Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mixed-Up) is a treat for every Johnny’s Entertainment fangirl. For the first time, members from new generation Johnny’s and Associates groups, Snow Man and Naniwa Danshi, team up for a BL drama. Unsurprisingly, Ren Meguro and Shunsuke Michieda had such great chemistry. I felt very giddy even during their simple and subtle scenes.

While the series doesn’t dwell on serious LGBTQIA+ issues, it sure will delight every J-Pop and BL fan for its heartwarming and sweet essence. Each character is loveable and will make you root for each one of them.

Read my full review of Kieta Hatsukoi HERE.

Grace and Frankie

Netflix’s Original Series Grace and Frankie immediately starts with a bomb. Two married couples went on their usual double dates for several years, only for the two wives to be aghast. Their husbands are leaving them to marry each other.

The seven-season series may be mainly about the two titular characters, how they coped with their husbands divorcing them, their dating lives, their whole new friendship, and navigating life by themselves while still being with family and their two husbands who came out to them.

Overall, it’s a great story about love, friendship, endurance, and, best of all, acceptance–what it means to truly be an ally.

Die Beautiful

The epic film, Die Beautiful, celebrates Trisha Echevarria (played by Paolo Ballesteros) and her extraordinary story–her recent death and wake, and back to the life she lived–her struggles and the transitions of her life. The nonlinear film starts with Trisha’s wake and how her best friend, Barbs, transforms her into different characters (Mylie Cyrus, Angeline Jolie, etc.) every day until she is buried. The film then switches to different moments of her past–from fun to painful experiences at her high school, her lovers, the beauty contests she joined, her decision to adopt a child, and her ongoing family crises.

You can make out and describe Die Beautiful however you want because it is everything that contradicts one another: it’s both light and heavy, funny and sad, etc., except for one thing: it’s a beautiful masterpiece; it’s never ugly.

The Handmaiden

The Handmaiden tells the story of a wealthy heiress confined by the business of her aunt’s husband, to whom she is engaged. But her formidable future shifts when another gentleman ploys to marry her and her fortune with the help of a cunning handmaiden. She meets her new handmaiden, a pickpocketer set to deceive her. But both women felt something special while being together.

Directed by the great Park Chan Wook, The Handmaiden might be considered another tragic or traumatic masterpiece by those who haven’t seen it. However, while the film is critically-acclaimed, it makes any LGBTQIA+ and feminist viewer feel redeemed.

The Handmaiden is almost like a feel-good or superhero film that brings redemption to all the hardships that many women experience from abusive men, especially since the savior is another woman.

Muli

Muli, directed by indie-supremo Adolfo Alix Jr., is one of the forgotten but rare gems in Philippine queer cinema. It enjoys very few streaming opportunities, but in my opinion, it’s an important film.

Like some of the best rom-com movies, this type is about a “love that never dies” and is embedded into the transition of the Philippines from the time of the Marcos dictatorship until the early 2000s. While steering all the critical events of the country and being apart from one another, one thing is constant: Errol and Jun’s love and attraction every time they see each other.

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I watched Muli with my mother about 11 years ago, and during that time, she wasn’t completely accepting of LGBTQIA+ in relationships yet, but this film made her an ally. She was rooting for Jun and Errol’s relationship.

Orange is the New Black

One of the Netflix Original Series that was introduced to the streaming platform worldwide, Orange is the New Black is fresh, bold, heavy, and beautiful at the same time.

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The 7-season series showcases what it’s like to be in a women’s prison–one of the worst places for women to be (it never falls short on budget, food, but worst of all: rambles, anger, corruption, judgment, danger, harassment, etc.). Each season is more exciting and heavier than the last.

Orange is the New Black is honest and real. It is not for the weak of heart. No wonder why it’s one of the most critically acclaimed Netflix Originals.

Happy Together

Happy Together starts with a rough sex scene between the two main characters. Like their sex life, the lovers’ relationship is tough and complicated. That’s because Lai (Tony Leung) and Ho (Leslie Chung) are still being plagued by the shadows of their past. Hence, because their city eluded them, they decided to move to Argentina, only to make things more complex and turbulent. The film is heavy and sometimes exhausting, like a relationship you keep holding on to even if it doesn’t work or always leaves you astray.

Directed by Wong Kar-Wai and shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle (the great duo) in concurrence with the Neo Queer cinema in the 90s, the film, as a political satire, captures the uncertainty and complication after the UK brought Hong Kong back to China in 1997 (with a grace period of 50 years before it officially becomes a part of the latter country). While HK finally became free from the West conquest, the apparent anxiety of their people can’t be denied.

The satire of HK’s political angst coincides with the relationship between Lai and Ho. Of course, there are happy times, for which Doyle and Wong’s genius made out the scenes in color, while the turbulent times are in black and white. Happy Together is a classic queer film that the pride community shouldn’t miss.

Before Night Falls

Who would’ve thought that Johnny Depp had played a transwoman in his career? It’s an exciting bonus of this film, but more than anything, Before Night Falls is about the life of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas.

Based on the writer’s autobiography, the story revolves around Arenas’ challenging career and his yearning for freedom after coming to terms with his sexuality in a homophobia-laden revolutionary Cuba.

Boasting an Oscar-worthy performance by Javier Bardem and another exciting cameo by Sean Penn, the film is undoubtedly one of the best LGBTQIA+ films ever made.

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Boys Don’t Cry

Boys Don’t Cry is the tragic biographical film about the tragedy that befell Brandon Teena, an American transgender man who was raped and later killed by his two homophobic acquaintances due to hate and unacceptance of his gender.

The film is engraved in pop culture and society as the instrument that changed most of America’s perception of trans people. Upon its mainstream release, it suddenly opened new insights and discussions about society’s judgment and hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community.

Call Me By Your Name

‼️ Spoiler Alert! ‼️ My heart aches for Elio as tears run down his eyes after a phone call with Oliver, his “lover” whom he has not seen for a long time, announcing that he is getting married. The four-minute-long cry in front of the fireplace ending was an astounding, standing-ovation-worthy scene by Timothe Chalamet. It reiterated that Elio was very in love with Oliver and that he was his first heartbreak.

Set in a beautiful summer in Lombardy, Italy, the coming-of-age film, Call Me By Your Name is an unexpected love story, and to be honest, you won’t feel its emotions at the start, especially if you can’t relate to Elio. At first, everything was jud mundane until the main characters felt the connection and tension. That’s when a straight person feels elated and disheartened towards the end.

Armie Hammer, who plays Oliver, faced a major scandal that ended his Hollywood career. Although the production can always replace him for the sequel, director Luca Guadagnino decided against it, which is bad news to fans. Nevertheless, you can always read the book Find Me.

Billie and Emma

Billie and Emma is another coming-of-age Filipino indie film, but what makes it apart from other pride films is that it is set in a small rural town in the 90s. Despite that, the main and supporting characters in the film are very progressive. It even reminds me of Call Me By Your Name, whose supporting and side characters root for the two main leads (and also because of its beautiful setting).

It’s different for the school of the two lovers, however. Set in a typical and strict nun-run Catholic school, Emma (Gabby Padilla) is an achiever and a school leader. However, things get complicated when Billie (Zar Donato), a newcomer, beguiles her. The two become close and attracted to each other that Billie decides to break up with her boyfriend, only to complicate things more when she finds out she’s pregnant.

Billie and Emma is simple, heartwarming, and friendly to audiences of different generations. It can be new for a youngster exploring Feminism and LGBTQIA+ themes and nostalgic for millennials and Gen-X people who have been there and grew up in the 90s, who fought for inclusivity and gender equality. Despite that, the film is rarely politically correct. It’s mostly beautiful and nostalgic, especially with its rural setting and 90s alternative soundtrack. I wish I could watch the film again.

Conclusion / End Message

Thank you for reading. As I’ve said, this post will be evergreen, and the list only encompasses 16 out of the legion movies and tv series that I’ve seen. I’ll be adding more recommendations for you. If you have more queer film and series suggestions, feel free to contact me at thepopblogph@gmail.com, with the subject: pride movie recommendations or pride series recommendations. You may also message me on our Facebook page.

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