Top Ten Campest Christmas Movies EVER

Christmas is the campest of all the holidays we celebrate : it is all shopping, tinsel and sparkly baubles and the season of both joy and sheer excess, and should always be a total blast. To help you plan to have a gay old time this December 25th, we have trailed our extensive queerguru Movie Library to give you our pick of the Top Ten Campest Christmas Movies Ever.

À l'intérieur (Inside) If you are big fan of horror flicks, then this is a real sick Christmas one for you. If this not a genre you like then STOP READING NOW. This exceedingly nasty French movie made in 2009 starts with a baby dying in utero in a car crash on Christmas Eve. This becomes one total bloody fest as one very pregnant woman attempts to stop a stranger in her manger from cutting her unborn baby out of her tummy before it’s fully cooked. It’s on this list as it is as camp as hell. Literally. Click Here to Buy.

A Merry Frigging Christmas:  This is one of the last movies that the late great Robin Williams made, and although is is not one of his finest performance, the film’s mix of elements of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “Bad Santa” is very amusing This mad-cap comedy also stars Candace Bergen, Oliver Platt, Lauren Graham, and Jeffrey Tambor. Click Here to Buy.

Ernest Saves Christmas. Santa travels to Orlando to pick his successor before his magic runs out. When he arrives, he just happens to meet Ernest, a bumbling taxi driver who is filled with holiday joy. Ernest drops Santa off so he can meet with the next Santa, Joe Carruthers but forgets Santa’s magic bag in the trunk. This very silly comedy is a great way to just laugh that excessive Christmas Day dinner off.   Click Here to Buy.

Go. This is a wonderfully funny action flick that follows several separate storylines on one very strange Christmas in Los Angeles and Vegas. For purposes here it’s worth noting that the most Christmassy of the storylines involves insanely hot Timothy Olyphant as a drug dealer in nothing but sweatpants and a Santa hat who holds Katie Holmes hostage.   Click Here to Buy.

Gremlins. The star of this movie is the mogwai who is a small, furry, fictitious creature that looks something like a cuddly teddy bear with the ears of a rabbit, a Bambi-like nose, eyes as round and deep and dark as glass buttons, a sweet disposition and a physical nature more unstable than hydrogen gas. When Rand gives one to his son Billy (who fervently does not believe in Santa) as Christmas gift, all hell lets loose in their small town.  Silly fun. Click Here to Buy

Meet Me In St Louis. Christmas without Judy Garland would be unthinkable and the best one of her movies we think you should watch over the holiday is this classic film, which is one of her very best. After all. MGM promoted this as ‘Technicolor Romance of Gaiety and Song’. Exactly!    Click Here to Buy.

Miracle On 34th Street. The original version made in 1947 (and the ONLY one worth watching) earned this Santa Claus played by Brit Actor Edmund Gwenn, a Best Supporting Actor Oscar (one of 5 Academy Awards the movie picked up)  and it still never ever leaves a dry eye in the house.   Click Here to Buy

The Nightmare Before Christmas. In Tim Burton’s delightful animated movie Jack Skellington, king of Halloweentown, discovers Christmas Town, but doesn't quite understand the concept. A wee gem of a film.  Click Here to Buy  

The Silent Partner. This camp almost forgotten Canadian gem from 1978 stars Christopher Plummer as a very hammy psychopath Santa Claus whose attempt to rob a Bank is foiled when the timid Teller (a very young Elliot Gould) beats him too it. Also stars an almost unrecognizable John Candy and Suzannah York. Click Here to Buy. 

White Christmas. This list would not be complete with one of the all-time camp Christmas movies that in 1954 Paramount claimed was ‘the most fabulous music and mirth show in motion picture history’. Starring Bing Crosby & Danny Kaye but our favorite track is Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen singing the original version of "Sisters".    Click Here to Buy.

“Ten Best LGBTQA Films Every Non-LGBTQA Person Should See!”

The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA.org) (of which we are one of the 120 proud members) today announced its membership’s picks for their second "Ten Best” list: The 10 Best LBGTQA Films Every Non-LGBTQA Person Should See : Oscar winners to community classics to modern independent discoveries — there’s a movie for every persuasion here.  The primary goal was to present films that not only best reflected LGBTQA life and history — but which were also cinematically compelling and even groundbreaking. They weren't looking for a traditional list of feel-good, positive portrayals of our world. They looked for love and stars. Laughs and scars. Bad boys, mean girls and veritable wars. They looked at it all. The films on this list run the gamut, from realism to sensationalism to eye-catching stops in between. They may not always be the most perfect representations of our community, but they are facets.

(here in alphabetical order)

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The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Twenty-one years ago, Australia brought the world this tale of the outlandish and endearing adventures of two drag queens and a transsexual, a trio who blaze a trail across the Outback to a drag performance at the continent’s center. Mitzi Del Bra (Hugo Weaving), Felicia Jollygoodfellow (Guy Pearce) and Bernadette Bassenger (Terence Stamp) embarked on a clandestine journey fueled by an infectious disco soundtrack (Gloria Gaynor! ABBA!) that would be at home in any good club.

More than portraying drag queens with a sensational truth, director Stephen Elliot’s joyful film glimmered with vibrant visuals and Oscar-winning costume design that remain influential today. Yet amid the lip-syncing, frock-wearing and smack-talking irreverence is a simple story of three men. One wants to be there for his son (Weaving). One wants to escape the misery surrounding the departure of an accepting husband. One just wants to explore life outside the cesspool of the big city without realizing that finding safety so far from home isn't as easy as it seems. A holiday parable, if you will.  (U.S. release date: August 10, 1994. Running time: 104 minutes. Fox Home Entertainment.)

Boys Don’t Cry: A provocative milestone in LGBTQA cinema, co-writer/director Kimberly Peirce’s knockout feature debut relays the true-life story of Brandon Teena (Oscar winner Hilary Swank). Born Teena Brandon, as a young trans man Brandon assumed his male identity and went out looking for love, peace and harmony in the politically repressed community of Falls City, Nebraska. Living in the closet, Brandon found little peace and harmony, but he did find love in the form of a woman, Lana Tisdel (Oscar-nominated Chloë Sevigny). His love and his time here would be short-lived.

Upon release, Boys Don’t Cry opened up widespread dialogue about gender identity, violence toward the LGBTQA community, female sexuality and a lot more that, frankly, too many take for granted as par for the discourse in today’s discussion about queer identity, theory and rights. Let your conversations begin.  (U.S. release date: Oct. 8, 1999. Running time: 116 minutes. Fox Searchlight Pictures.)  

Brokeback Mountain: Modern audiences have become increasingly more accepting of gay relationships on the big screen, with much of the credit going to the decades-spanning Brokeback Mountain. Painted with humanity and genuine emotion by master filmmaker Ang Lee, the film followed two ranch hands, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), as they find love and fairly graphic passion on a bleak mountainside in 1963. Returning to the “normal" world, over the years they find their hearts crushed by the strictures of society. 

Ledger and Gyllenhaal, both nominated for Oscars, are superb crafting scintillating portrayals of tortured gay men at a time that the general public demeaned and isolated them. One the most famous and influential gay dramas ever made, the Brokeback Mountain speaks achingly to the power of love, regardless of gender, and to the unhealthy mandates of a society that builds itself on prejudice and hate. And the ending puts it in the ranks of classic tear-jerkers like Splendor in the Grass.  (Release date: December 9, 2005. Running time: 134 minutes. Focus Features.)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch: The film version of John Cameron Mitchell's stage musical, about an East German singer who attempts to come to terms with the botched sex-change operation that left her with an "angry inch," has rightly developed a cult following. Taking musical conventions and turning them on their bejeweled ear, the movie digs its painted nails into an infrequently celebrated subculture and winds up more than enlightening.

Starring Mitchell in the title role, Hedwig angrily, but astutely, observes the state of gender identity at the turn of the 21st Century, long before the transgender rights movement went into full swing. It's a rousing, intense experience— powered by original, hard-pounding rock tunes — that demands at least one viewing even if said intensity seems initially off-putting. Sorry Dr. Frank-N-Furter, but this is one triumphant, and wicked, little musical. (U.S. release date: January 19, 2001. Running time: 91 minutes. New Line Cinema)

The Kids Are All Right: In the end, all any of us can hope for is a little piece of this world where we can build a family and live the life we've always wanted. Co-writer/director Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right vividly paints the portrait of a suburban family whose peaceful veneer is cracked by curiosity and doubt. Starring Oscar nominees Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple whose two children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) seek out and insert their biological father (Oscar-nominated Mark Ruffalo) into their dynamic, the film tackles common issues facing many modern families.

Equally strong performances from Ruffalo, Wasikowska and Hutcherson make this a wonderful slice of modern-family life, albeit a slightly idealized version. Anyone who champions a functional and loving world will find Kids perfect long-weekend company. (U.S. release date: July 9, 2010. Running time: 104 min. Focus Features.)

Longtime Companion: That title suggests coziness, but Companion’s subject matter — and effect — is profound. Exploring the AIDS epidemic at a time when film was too afraid to even utter the acronym, this drama, set in the early 1980s, features a group of gay friends as they come to terms with the mysterious disease that is killing them off. The panic and the outcry within the community contrasting, the prejudice and willful ignorance on both sides . . . this is a true tragedy.

The film’s cinematic importance cannot be understated. The film’s studio release, at a time when the fear of AIDS was reaching a nadir, was something of a marvel. Another brick in the wall of hate crumbled. Knowing this film is tantamount to feeling enlightened and enriched.  (U.S. release date:  May 11, 1990. Running time: 100 minutes. Samuel Goldwyn Company.)

Maurice: Who doesn’t love a clandestine period romance compliments of Merchant-Ivory productions? In 1909, Maurice (James Wilby) meets fellow Cambridge student Clive Durham (Hugh Grant). At first each man is unsure if the other is, well, you know . . . and it’s not like they can ask around to find out. As the two negotiate their feelings, the pressures of society mount until one of them — spoiler ahead — capitulates to the bourgeois society and enters into — oh, dear — a lovelorn marriage. The remaining bachelor moves on, hoping to find the love that does not bare its name.

Director and cowriter James Ivory’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel exquisitely captures the love and longing of young gay men in Edwardian England. From the sets to the scenery to the (Oscar-nominated) costumes, the film is loaded with such style, one may wish it were once again those grand ol’ repressive times. Viewers will relish, though, the progressive-thinking capper. Sit down, swap out Downton Abbey, and pass the cognac. (U.S. release date: Sept. 1, 1987. Running time: 139 mins. Lorimar Home Video.)

Milk: Featuring a thoughtful, tour-de-force performance by Sean Penn (Oscar’s choice for Best Actor), director Gus Van Sant’s biopic of civil rights icon Harvey Milk  — the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California (in 1978) and who was later assassinated by a former colleague — stands as a supremely affecting biopic.

Politics, betrayal, love, lust, jealousy, suicide — Milk’s story was all there in the halls of history, and the screenplay by Dustin Lance Black (also an Oscar-winner) brought it to vivid life before our eyes. James Franco charms as one of Milk’s lovers. And, yes, Josh Brolin chillingly evinces the icon’s killer Dan White. But Milk’s message of courage lasts on and on, instilling an image of its firebrand subject as fun, big-hearted, confident and persistent. He’s good company. (U.S. release date: Nov. 26, 2008. Running time: 128 min. Focus Features.)

My Beautiful Laundrette: Set against the backdrop of Thatcher’s tumultuous and reactionary England, director Stephen Frears’ film tells the tale of two lovers, Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a Pakastani, and his old friend, Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), a local gang member. Thanks to Omar, the two begin to run a laundry matt together. But this is lower-class England, where there is always trouble looming for immigrants and young, gay men.

Featuring Hanif Kureishi’s Oscar-nominated screenplay, My Beautiful Laundrette sets itself in a milieu where most films, let alone gay films, fear to tread. Its characters are real working class people with real, hard-to-fix problems. Laundrette also put Day-Lewis, in just his fourth film, on Hollywood’s hot list. For good reason! (U.S. release date: Sept. 7, 1985. Running time: 93 mins. Orion Classics.)

Weekend: One Friday night, Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New) meet at a gay club. The two go back to Russell’s and have sex. From that night on, these two strangers begin to develop an intimate and somewhat intellectual relationship, delving into the nature of identity and love over the course of a weekend. Russell and Glen’s encounter will leave an indelible impression on each other — and viewers as well.

The youngest title on our list, writer-director Andrew Haigh’s second narrative feature was also GALECA’s Dorian Award winner for 2011’s Film of the Year and LGBT-Themed Film of the Year. Obviously, we dig this film. What more do we need to say?(U.S. release date: Sept. 23, 2011. Running time: 96 min. IFC Films.)

10 of The Best Coming Out Movies

To celebrate National Coming Out Day queerguru picks 

10 of The Best Coming Out Movies 

1) The Way He Looks : An award winning Brazilian film written and directed by Daniel Ribeiro about a blind schoolboy and his virginal innocent friend who are slow to realize their feelings for each other.  Tender, with some neat touches of humor, none more so than when Gabriel insists that Leo learns how to dance. What does make it all so compelling is the captivating performances of the young lead actors, particularly Ghilherme Lobo who was so pitch perfect as Leo.

2) Out In The Dark : From LA-based Israeli newbie director/writer Michael Mayer, a heart-string- tugging story of forbidden love between an Israeli and a Palestinian in Tel Aviv where the later risks his life if he comes out to his Arab family back home. It’s all the more remarkable that after all the horrors the pair go through, that the overwhelming feeling that one comes away with from this compelling and enchanting film, is of hope.

3) In The Name Of :  Polish LGBT movies are a great rarity and this one from writer/director Malgoska Szumowska is a remarkable and unpredictable drama that deals with a repressed Catholic Priest’s personal struggle with his homosexuality. Brave, controversial and extremely moving: like (No. I in our list) it won a prestigious Teddy Award for best LGBT film at Berlin Film Festival.

4) Free Fall : This rather compelling debut feature from writer/director Stephan Lacant about forbidden love in a very rampant homophobic community is a  hot and steamy German tale where one straight trainee Policeman discovers that probably he shouldn’t be getting married to his pregnant girlfriend after all when he has a very physical relationship with one of his colleagues. Very well written, and beautifully acted.

5) Beautiful Thing : From 1996 this wonderful British film version of Jonathan Harvey’s hit stage play about two gay teenagers finding themselves and each other in a Council Estate in London. Young Jamie is escaping sport hours, to avoid being the victim of his comrades and  Ste, his neighbor, is beaten by his father, and comes to sleep overnight. They discover new feelings, sleeping in the same bed.

6) Circumstance : This coming-of-age story from first time director Maryam Keshavarztells is of two teenage girls, who are best friends, dealing with all the restrictions of growing up in Iran today.  The girls are exploring their emerging sexuality as they become part of Tehran’s underground party scene. Superb, if not scary, look at some of the conflicts and struggles in contemporary Iran.

7) Beginners : Christopher Plummer’s Oscar winning turn as newly widowed 75 year old Hal who declares to Oliver his son that he is now gay and is determined to make the most of the time he has left.  Written and directed by Mike Mills and evidently based on his own father's life. Sweet and very funny.

8) Edge of Seventeen : Directed by David Moreton, this sentimental story set in small town America in 1984 teaches High School student Eric that love and sex are not the same thing and he almost goes back into the closet. Great period piece, well acted and a neat happy ending.

9) Mixed Kebab : Bram a good looking Belgian/Turkish 20 year old gets thrown out of his family home in Antwerp when he comes out although his father is happy to house his other sons who are crooks which is far better than being gay. An intelligent drama from writer/director Guy Lee Thys that becomes an entertaining romance.

10) White Frog : Nick, the youngest son of a wealthy Chinese/American family tries to put the pieces together of his older brother’s life after he was tragically killed in a car crash and discovers that he had wanted to ‘come out’ to him before he had died. Very endearing.

Top Ten German Gay Movies

Since it produced one of the world’s first ever explicitly gay films called ‘Different From The Others’ back in 1919, Germany has been at the forefront of making really good LGBT movies. They are usually very sensual with a penchant for really hot looking men but all with highly original and compelling plots like 'Free Fall' featured above.  (Incidentally, that one was so successful that Free Fall 2 is already in the works.  Here then is queerguru's pick for our Top Ten German Gay Movies.    

Click HERE for the full List complete with Trailers

Top Ten Israeli Gay Movies

Over recent years Israel has become a great source for LGBT movies that have found an eager worldwide audience.  Probably the most successful and prolific filmmaker who has emerged from there is Eyton Fox who along with his writing/producing/life partner Gal Uchovsky could fill half of the slots on this list alone. However we have trawled our library at queerguru and looked at as many Israeli movies as we could find : both big hits and small hits to give you our very comprehensive choice of our Top Ten Israeli Gay Movies and here they are in alphabetical order (they even include some which don’t end in tragedy for a change!)

Antartica : Two days before his 30th birthday Omer has still not ‘found himself’ let alone a boyfriend too.  However as he hides away in the library where he works he only sees books on life and not the real thing.  Plus his cute 20-year blind-date dancer is sadly not it either, and then just when he is about to give up he meets Ronan.  Turns out he was looking for love in all the wrong places. Sound familiar?  It's a rather wonderful touching romantic comedy from writer/director Yair Hochner.

City Of Borders:  This excellent documentary follows the lives of five different and totally diverse gay men and women in Israel who’s common link is the fact that they all hang out in Shushan, Jerusalem’s only gay bar.  This is the one place where gays and lesbians of all nationalities, religions and social backgrounds can forget their differences for a few brief hours and hopefully have some fun. The Bar has since closed, but the memories remain.

Eyes Wide Open: A handsome stranger turns the life of a Hassidic family butcher upside down when they act on their mutual attraction. This beautiful story of how conflicted a modern ultra-orthodox life can be, tells its story quietly and responsibly without sensationalizing this sensitive issue at all, making it even more powerful and moving. An impressive directing debut from Haim Takabkamn, it gives the best insight into gay Orthodox Jews outside of a documentary that I have ever seen, and is heart wrenchingly wonderful too.

Family Time : Israeli filmmaker Nitzan Gilady crammed his parents and two grown up brothers and one sister in law into an R.V. to travel thousands of miles across the USA for a week to go visit the Grand Canyon. Anybody who has had to deal with raw emotional exchanges with their own family (isn't that all of us?) will really relate to this wonderful wee documentary, although in our own case, it has put us off RVs for life!

Out In The Dark : This heart string tugging movie of forbidden love from LA based Israeli newbie director/writer Michael Mayer is the story of how being gay just adds yet one more obstacle to living in this troubled region. The convincingly very real love story between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab who have to make some very tough choices just survive, is totally unmissable.

The Bubble: If we had been forced to pick an absolute favorite of all-Israeli gay movies, it would probably be this one.  In this remarkable and moving take on 'Romeo & Juliet' director Eyton Fox’s story of a Middle-Eastern tragic romance that crosses the racial divide, will not leave a dry eye in the house.  Completely wonderful.

The Invisible Men: The only way that handsome young Louie can be openly gay is to leave his home in Ramallah and sneak across the border to Tel Aviv.  The trouble is as he is Palestinian he is illegal and so is constantly hunted down by the Israeli authorities who then drop him back home where he could be killed because of his sexuality. This remarkable new award-winning documentary from Israeli filmmaker Yariv Mozer tracks Louie as he goes about his harrowing daily life, which does (thank God) have somewhat of a happy ending.

Snails In The Rain: A rather intriguing drama about repressed homosexual feelings and desire set in 1989 acutely brings back an era when lust was often hidden and unrequited. The movie, based on a short story by Yossi Avni Levy who is (most intriguingly) currently the Israeli Ambassador in Serbia, was directed and written by Yariv Moser and starred talented newbie actor Yoav Reuveni (who’s an ex underwear model).

Walk on Water.  A homophobic Mossed Agent is assigned to befriend a young gay German to try and establish if his late Grandfather was a notorious Nazi. This tense and compelling thriller, which was Eytan Fox’s sophomore film, went on to becoming the 2nd highest grossing Israeli film in their domestic market

Yossi & Jaegar:  Eytan Fox’s multi-award winning drama about a initially hesitant romance that slowly blooms into an old-fashioned style love affair between two soldiers stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border. A heartbreaking tearjerker of the finest sort.  P.S.  Fox’s later sequel ‘Yossi’ which it’s surprisingly upbeat ending should also be on this list, but I wanted to give other filmmakers a chance too.

And highly commended comes ......

A Matter Of Size: A group of delightful obese Israelis abandoned their unhappy (and unsuccessful) Diet Club to take up Sumo wrestling which they have the perfect shape.  This odd collection of engaging men includes a closeted gay who is so happy to ‘come out’ when he stumbles on gay bear culture.  A joyous wee gem of a comedy.

James Franco : Gay For Pay

When James Franco's movie 'I Am Michael' finally gets released later this year it will be the 'actor's' 10th movie that he has played 'gay for pay'.  In most instances he plays it very safe indeed but in 'Broken Tower' he actually  gives a very explicit blow job sucking a rather substantial  penis which he claims was merely a dildo, and in 'Interior Leather Bar' he is just four feet away from two naked guys having very real anal sex.  With rumors always flying around about his real sexuality he finally addressed the matter in the March issue of Four Two Nine Magazine when he 'argues' with himself about about what he really is .

Straight James: Let's get substantial: are you f**king gay or what? 

Gay James: Well, I like to think that I'm gay in my art and straight in my life. Although, I'm also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I'm straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay. If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I'm straight. In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would f**k guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren't considered gay.

Here then is queerguru's Top Ten Picks of James Franco being 'versatile' .

10). I Am Michael (2015) is in last place as this is the rather irritating story of obnoxious Michael Glatze, a gay activist who denounces homosexuality and becomes a right-wing Christian pastor and turns on everyone in his past. Poorly written and lamely directed by newbie filmmaker Michael Kelly, the movie is often promoted on the promise of a titillating hot sexy threesome including Franco (playing Glatze) which is actually a brief scene shot from a distance with all the men wearing underwear.

9) Interior, Leather Bar  (2013) this hybrid docu-fiction movie that Franco co-directed and starred in with Travis Mathews set out to re-create the missing 40 minutes of deleted and lost sexually explicit footage from William Friedkin's controversial 1980 film 'Cruising'.  Instead it is the story of Franco and Matthews mainly over-intellectualising about putting together their own idea of what was missing, and then filming some disjointed and explicit sex scenes that fall very flat.

8) If Tomorrow Comes (2000) is one of those cheap low budget movies that looks like someone's cousin shot on their home video camera, and is one that even Franco must wish could be erased. He plays a guy named Devin who is apparently gay but also not, and has to shoot a guy he doesn't want to kill. Confused? Then don't watch this hilariously bad trailer as it will only make matters worse.

7) Blind Spot (2002).  Franco plays Danny Alton, a troubled teenager who has fallen in love with the rough-edged street kid, Darcy in this noir-thriller which quickly disappeared without a trace even though Franco himself got good notices in the very few reviews the movie received.

6) The Broken Tower (2011) This is a black-and-white movie that Franco directed, written, produced, edited by and starred in for his Masters thesis for his MFA in filmmaking from New York University. It's the true story of troubled gay American poet Hart Crane who took his own life at the age of 32.  One reviewer summed it up as 'an obscure and difficult to watch movie about an obscure and difficult to read poet.'

5) Wild Horses (2015). In this drama which Robert Duvall directed and also starred in, Franco plays Ben the son of rancher who is thrown out of the family home as a young man when his father discovered he was gay.  At the same time that  Ben scurried off to the city for a new life, Jimmy his boyfriend completely disappeared and now years later, his mother persuades the Rangers to investigate what really happened.   Franco puts in a good performance but the movie was quickly dismissed by critics as being a muddled mess.

4) Sal (2011).  This one slipped into the list even though Franco who wrote and directed this bio-pic about openly bi-sexual Oscar nominated actor Sal Mineo, actually  played the part of Mineo's teacher Milton Katselas (who's sexuality is not disclosed). Mineo who had starred alongside James Dean in 'Rebel Without A Cause'  was brutally murdered on the way home from rehearsing the gay  play 'P.S. The Cat is Dead'.  He was just 41 years old.

3) Howl (2010). Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's docu-fiction movie about Allen Ginsberg the ougay poet and the obscenity trial over one of his most infamous poems 'Howl' was a big hit at Sundance when it premiered but soon disappeared after playing the Film Festival circuit.  Franco received good notices for playing Ginsberg even though it was noted in more than one of them that he was much better looking than the poet had ever been.

2). Milk (2008) In Gus Van Sant's movie on the life of the slain gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk that picked up an Oscar for both actor Sean Penn in the title role and Dustin Lance Black for the screenplay, Franco got to play Milk's first and main boyfriend Scott Smith.  Going 'gay' in this mainstream movie earned Franco an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor.

1) James Dean (2001) In first place we have chosen a made-for-TV biopic of the iconic troubled talented actor even though director Mark Rydell deliberately opted not to include a single reference to Dean being gay.  It is there however in the subtext and in a role that the sexually ambiguous Franco seemed born to play, and for which he deservedly won a coveted Golden Globe Award for his pitch-perfect and faultless performance.

P.S. Franco won a coveted LGBT Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009 for his short film 'The Feast of Stephen' that dealt with bullies and homosexuality.  It was based on a poem by Anthony Hecht.

The feast of Stephen: Extrait court métrage de... by GayClic

10 of the best Robin Williams Movies

Over the course of his long and distinguished career Robin Williams won four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmys, and an Oscar.  Although he started off his career as stand-up comedian who became a household name as the star of TV’s 'Mork and Mindy', a silly show about Aliens, some of the finest work he went on to create were in some superb highly dramatic movies. Now at the first anniversary of his untimely death, QUEERGURU has have chosen 10 of the BEST OF ROBIN WILLIAM movies to remember him by. One of which, BOULEVARD was released after his death still showing us what a great acting talent he really was 

In alphabetical order …..

ALADDIN (1992) Robin Williams is credited as ad-libbing most of his role as the Voice of the Genie with his hilarious performance in this Disney Animated movie.  So much so that they created a special Golden Globe Award for him for his work.

AWAKENINGS. (1990) In this movie based on the true story of British neurologist Olivier Sacks, whose pioneering pharmacological studies help achieve a breakthrough with a catatonic patient, Robin Williams gives what critic Roger Ebert described as one of the finest performances of his career in this stunning Penny Marshall film.

BOULEVARD (2015) In his latest movie that has just been released, Robin Williams plays a man who has waited almost five decades to confront his own homosexuality.'The Hollywood Reporter' wrote 'it’s tender but unsentimental take on a story that benefits from finesse', and claims that it is one of the least showy performances of his career.

DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) In this inspirational drama Robin Williams played an embattled English teacher at a private academy in a movie now hailed as one of the very best of the 1980’s.  Williams got another Academy Award Best Actor Nomination for his pitch perfect performance.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (1987) In Barry Levinson’s wonderful war movie Robin Williams superbly played an unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam.  He won a Golden Globe for his performance, and another Nomination for an Oscar.

GOOD WILL HUNTING (1987) Playing the therapist who helps Will Hunting move beyond his troubled past, Williams provided an impetus for the film's touching final act while delivering some of his best work ever.  After receiving Oscar nominations for his work in Good Morning America, Dead Poets Society, and The Fisher King, Williams finally scored a win this role.

MRS DOUBTFIRE (1993) Robin Williams won a Golden Globe for his totally hilarious performance as an actor whom after a bitter divorce disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife.  He had been in talks to reprise this one of his most popular roles in a sequel.

ONE HOUR PHOTO (2002) Robin Williams's performance as the creepy employee of a one-hour photo lab becomes obsessed with a young suburban family was scarily chilling and showed the full range of his remarkable talent.

THE BIRDCAGE (1996) In this Hollywood remake of the French gay cult classic 'LA CAGE AUX FOLLES' Robin Williams's generous performance as the straight man to a very camp Nathan Lane, was one of the highlights of this delightfully entertaining movie.

THE FISHER KING (1991) This was the second movie Robin Williams made with filmmaker Terry Gilliam.  This heartfelt  drama is about an abrasive radio deejay who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a homeless man (Williams) who has a poignant connection to his past.  This was Robin Williams on the top of his form for which he collected another Golden Globe Award, as well as a Best Actor Oscar Nomination.

Robin Williams : July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014