Nine queer com­ing-of-age films to watch before you see Love, Simon

Queer cin­e­ma has been expe­ri­enc­ing a boon of late, with inde­pen­dent pro­duc­tions earn­ing crit­i­cal acclaim and even, in the case of Bar­ry Jenk­ins’ Moon­light, major awards recog­ni­tion. In recent years the likes of Car­ol, Call Me by Your Name and A Fan­tas­tic Woman have all made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to queer cin­e­ma, and now Love, Simon sees a major stu­dio get­ting involved. To cel­e­brate the release of the first main­stream rom-com to fea­ture a gay pro­tag­o­nist, here are nine great LGBT-themed com­ing-of-age romances you may have missed.

Don’t be fooled by the sug­ar can­dy-coat­ing – Dar­ren Stein’s G.B.F. is an inci­sive look at com­ing out in high school in the era of gay-straight-alliances. When Tan­ner (Michael J Wil­lett) is forcibly out­ed, the three most pop­u­lar girls at school are deter­mined to have him as their gay best friend to secure their bids for prom queen. The film pro­vides a remark­able analy­sis on the com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty. While crush­ing stereo­types, it cre­ates a hilar­i­ous, heart­warm­ing, and end­less­ly quotable expe­ri­ence. It is also a cel­e­bra­tion of camp men, cel­e­brat­ing the embrace of typ­i­cal­ly fem­i­nine qualities.

“I’m not run­ning, I’m choos­ing,” claims Alike (Ade­pero Oduye in a bril­liant per­for­mance) a 17-year-old African-Amer­i­can who comes to embrace her sex­u­al­i­ty in Pari­ah. Dee Rees’ first fic­tion film is a ten­der and real­is­tic account of a girl unabashed­ly lov­ing her­self for who she is. Though her jour­ney is a dif­fi­cult one, there is nev­er any doubt that Alike is at peace with and embraces her butch­ness, find­ing com­fort in bag­gy clothes and box­er shorts. Fea­tur­ing sen­sa­tion­al cin­e­matog­ra­phy from Brad­ford Young (Arrival), Pari­ah is a pow­er­ful med­i­ta­tion on self-love.

Excit­ed to escape her depres­sive father, 16-year-old Cyd (Jessie Pin­nick) spends the sum­mer with her aunt, a nov­el­ist, in Chica­go. Direc­tor Stephen Cone expert­ly com­bines the warm nos­tal­gic colours of sum­mer­time with a thor­ough­ly mod­ern and of its time romance. Cone places equal inter­est in Cyd falling for a local girl as he does in Cyd’s rela­tion­ship with her aunt as they learn more and more about each oth­er. What makes Princess Cyd so love­ly is its host of fas­ci­nat­ing female char­ac­ters, all enveloped in a rich warmth and generosity.

Desiree Akha­van directs, writes, and stars in Appro­pri­ate Behav­iour as Shirin, an Iran­ian Amer­i­can bisex­u­al who is try­ing to rebuild her life after break­ing up with her girl­friend. The film has a par­tic­u­lar­ly fresh feel­ing, focus­ing not only on bisex­u­al­i­ty but also Iran­ian Amer­i­can cul­ture, two things brushed aside by Hol­ly­wood. The film has a lot to say about the pres­sures of being clos­et­ed while in a rela­tion­ship, and also hap­pens to be con­sis­tent­ly fun­ny through­out. New York rom-coms have been done to death, but Akha­van brings an irrev­er­ent and excit­ing take, mak­ing the film worth­while viewing.

Cana­di­an wun­derkind Xavier Dolan stars as Hubert in the semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal I Killed My Moth­er, which Dolan wrote and direct­ed at age 20. The film revolves around Hubert and his moth­er (the great Anne Dor­val), who are con­stant­ly fight­ing. Hubert has a boyfriend, unbe­knownst to his moth­er. The film has a sig­nif­i­cant art­house flair, but what is strik­ing about Dolan’s fea­ture debut is the way it tack­les the fear and self-loathing sur­round­ing com­ing out. Ooz­ing with style and deliv­er­ing wild per­for­mances, I Killed My Moth­er is a fas­ci­nat­ing look at being in the clos­et and moth­er son relationships.

C.R.A.Z.Y is anoth­er Cana­di­an film about a young gay man, but in this instance focus­es on the rela­tion­ship between father and son. Bol­stered by a ter­rif­ic sound­track with hits by David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and The Rolling Stones, the film explored the life of Zac as he deals with homo­pho­bia in 1960s, 70s and beyond in Que­bec. Direct­ed by Jean-Marc Val­lée, C.R.A.Z.Y. is a psy­che­del­ic, invig­o­rat­ing explo­ration of Zac’s life­long desire to find accep­tance with­in his own family.

One of the key fig­ures of the New Queer Cin­e­ma move­ment, Gregg Ara­ki deliv­ered his mas­ter­piece with Mys­te­ri­ous Skin. Araki’s film is a stag­ger­ing look at how a hor­rif­ic child­hood trau­ma can shape ado­les­cence. Joseph Gor­don Levitt shines as reck­less young pros­ti­tute Neil, while Brady Cor­bet plays Bri­an, who is con­vinced he was part of an alien abduc­tion. The film is fre­quent­ly hard to watch and emo­tion­al­ly drain­ing, but is absolute must-see cin­e­ma. A por­trait of grow­ing up not quite like any­thing you have seen before.

This Brazil­ian com­ing-of-age roman­tic dra­ma fea­tures Leonar­do (Ghil­herme Lobo), a blind teenag­er hun­gry for inde­pen­dence. He spends most of his time with his female best friend, but his world is changed com­plete­ly when a new male stu­dent arrives. Daniel Ribeiro’s direc­to­r­i­al debut is adapt­ed from his ear­li­er short film, and is a unique look at both blind­ness and homo­sex­u­al­i­ty. The Way He Looks is like being wrapped in a warm hug – it is charm­ing, sweet, and a wish-ful­fil­ment fan­ta­sy that feels right­ful­ly earned.

Lau­re is a 10-year-old girl mov­ing to a new home in Paris with her fam­i­ly. A local girl mis­takes Lau­re for a boy, and asks her name. Lau­re choos­es the name Mikael, and starts to present as a boy to the local kids. Céline Sci­amma directs with such nat­u­ral­ism that it feels more like the view­er is a fly-on-the-wall than an audi­ence mem­ber. Tomboy explores gen­der ambi­gu­i­ty, cre­at­ing a com­pelling inves­ti­ga­tion into a child’s quest to dis­cov­er their authen­tic self.