NewNowNext spotlights the latest (and queerest) movies, TV shows, web series, and other LGBTQ shit for your viewing pleasure in our weekly watch list. Grab your popcorn, squirrel friends!

In Theaters

Don’t Be Nice

Our Trumpy, racist-cops-gone-wild times have produced powerful storytelling in The Hate U Give, Netflix’s When They See Us, Lena Waithe's upcoming Queen & Slim, and Don’t Be Nice, Max Powers’ doc following the Bowery Slam Poetry Team, a quintet of queer, African-American and Afro-Hispanic 20-something artists. As they prepare for the National Championships and find their voices while embracing the title’s credo, expect spirited, cathartic wordplay and performances—and a whole lot of slay. (Now playing, Juno Films)

Downton Abbey

It’s time to get out the tea—like, literal tea, bitch—and stan for the 1927-set feature film follow-up to the hit TV series Downton Abbey. After having dealt with blackmail threats, conversion therapy, and other homosexuality-is-still-illegal horrors, the Crawley family’s gay butler, Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), endures, and is even afforded a little time away from the manor. What transpires is a “vignette off on the side,” says James-Collier, which we’re guessing involves the mystery man Thomas kisses in the trailer. (Now Playing, Focus Features)

Where’s My Roy Cohn?

Maleficent had nothing on evil, self-loathing queen Roy Cohn, a lawyer who made a career of destroying lives, persecuting his fellow Jews and gays, and grooming Donald Trump. Studio 54 director Matt Tyrnauer examines Cohn’s mentorship of the lying, corrupt POTUS, and the endless ways he dicked over friends and clients, consorted with criminals, violated ethics and the law, dodged taxes and debts, expertly manipulated the media, and lied shamelessly until he died from AIDS-related complications in 1986 (he was disbarred a couple of months before his death). This is a history lesson you can’t miss, in part because we may be living it again. (Now Playing, Sony Pictures Classics)

DVD and VOD

All Male, All Nude: Johnsons

BearCity star and Daddy director Gerald McCullouch takes us into the world of gay strip clubs with his graphic All Male, All Nude documentary series. Chock-full of exactly what the title suggests, his second entry focuses on Matt Colunga, owner of Johnsons in Wilton Manors, Fla., and its staff of pole-dancing hotties. Tea will be spilled, laps will be danced upon, and you might still be thirsty for more. Plus, no tipping necessary! (Available September 24 on DVD, Breaking Glass Pictures)

Fireflies

A gay Iranian refugee living in a Veracruz, Mexico hostel, Ramin (Arash Marandi) pines for the boyfriend he left behind and communicates with him only via Skype, since returning home would be costly and dangerous. With sparse dialogue, Iranian-born writer and director Bani Khoshnoudi offers an aching character study that touches on issues of immigration, homophobia, and bigotry. (Available September 24 on DVD, TLA Releasing)

Hate Crime

When a young gay man, Kevin (Chasen Joseph Schneider), is beaten to death, his murderer, Raymond (Jordan Salloum), faces the death penalty for committing a hate crime. Screenwriter Jonah Tapper and director Steven Esteb focus on their respective distraught parents in the run-up to the execution, including the victim’s father (John Schneider of iconic early-1980s TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, who also produced), who ultimately seeks closure. A date movie? Not so much. But still worth watching. (Available September 24 on VOD, TriCoast Entertainment)

TV and Streaming

The Conners

"Cancel culture" has its upsides. Evidence: this hit Roseanne spinoff, which did away with that show's toxic, off-the-rails title star. Darlene’s (Sara Gilbert) genderfluid son Mark (Ames McNamara), who admitted to having a crush on another boy last year, will return for its 13-episode second season, while Katey Sagal plays a love interest for Dan (John Goodman). Meanwhile, two nights later marks the return of ABC’s A Million Little Things, which made conservatives lose their shit last winter when 11-year-old Danny (Chance Hurstfield) came out of the closet. (Premieres September 24 on ABC)

The Dare Project

Director Adam Salky and writer David Brind’s sexy 2005 short film, Dare, about an eventful swimming pool encounter between high schoolers Ben (Adam Fleming) and Johnny (Michael Cassidy), receives a follow-up with the same stars and creative team. While you can screen it online, both shorts plus extras are available on Blu-ray. Fun fact: Dare also spawned a 2009 feature version, which co-starred Alan Cumming and played at Sundance. (Streaming September 24 on DareShortFilm.com)

Buzz

While collaborating with Caitlyn Jenner on her 2017 memoir, The Secrets of My Life, Pulitzer Prize–winning Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger started to explore his own gender and sexuality. Longtime friend and director Andrew Shea chronicles this evolution—and its effects on Bissinger’s wife and family—in this vérité-style documentary. (Premieres September 25 on HBO)

Superstore

It’s shaping up to be a watershed year for LGBTQ Asian-American representation in comedy: Bowen Yang is joining the SNL cast; Yang and BD Wong are playing Awkwafina’s family members in Comedy Central’s Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens; Joel Kim Booster will appear in Hulu’s second season of Shrill; Kyle Casey Chu has his audacious, ultra-queer, and sassy Chosen Fam webseries; and NBC’s big-box-store sitcom, Superstore, is back for its fifth season. This time around, Nico Santos’ gay character Mateo Liwanag is “trying to stay within the Cloud 9 world… and the country” after ICE took him into custody in last season’s shocking finale. (Premieres September 26 on NBC)

Photo: Sean DesVignes in Don't Be Nice.