Queer Sh*t to Watch This Week
NewNowNext spotlights the latest (and queerest) movies, TV shows, web series, and other gay shit, for your viewing pleasure in our weekly watch list. Grab your popcorn, squirrel friends!
In Theaters
Bi actress Anna Paquin went full-tilt queer on an episode of Amazon’s Electric Dreams and now this 1950s Scotland-set drama, based on Fiona Shaw’s 2009 novel. Bees sees lesbian romance blossom between a newly arrived apiary-loving physician, Jean (Paquin), and a single mother, Lydia (Holliday Grainger). Fun fact: Twin sister screenwriters Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth also worked on the current season of Killing Eve! (Good Deed Entertainment)
Hey, if they could make Trolls work, why not an animated movie based on the early aughts’ stuffed critters that blew up with help from L.A.’s Giant Robot shop? There’s a message about acceptance and an LGBTQ-inclusive voice cast including Wanda Sykes and Janelle Monáe. (STX Films)
On Demand and DVD
John Waters’ annual “10 Best Movies” list for Artforum included provocative queer author Dennis Cooper’s recent collaboration with artist Zac Young. Inspired by the real-life tale of a young Aussie who joined ISIS to tragic ends (what other ends could there be?), Permanent Green Light follows a beguiling French teenager named Roman (Benjamin Sulpice) with a suicidal obsession. (Blu-ray, Altered Innocence)
Poetic and subtly queer, All About Lily Chou-Chou, a 2001 Japanese film about a 15-year-old boy (Hayato Ichihara) obsessed with ethereal pop singer Lily Chou-Chou and tormented by another teenage boy (Shugo Oshinari) with whom he may share a surprising connection, is finally available via Film Movement Classics. It's sometimes brutal, haunting stuff that should make you a fan of Salyu, the real-life singer who provides Lily’s lilting. (Blu-ray, Film Movement Classics)
Queer actor, filmmaker, and poet Wade Radford, AKA Jay Proctor, opens up in this documentary. It’s all in the title! (DVD, MVD)
TV and Streaming
Since documentaries about people coming out to their parents are getting rote, New York-based Chinese gay filmmaker Hao Wu amps things up a notch by deciding to have a baby via surrogate with his husband, much to the chagrin and confusion of family members in his home country. Next level stuff, y’all! (Netflix)
Yes, Cher, we believe. In you. In life after love. In another tour. You give it and we’ll take it, including this feature documentary about her rise and struggles with dramatizations featuring Cher lookalikes, archival material, and interviews with contemporaries and acquaintances. (May 5, REELZ)
Even if you’re not watching Game of Thrones, this Funny or Die recap series with Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness is gag-worthy fun. Gabrielle Union guested on the most recent episode, “The Dong Night.” It’s better lit than GoT, too! (YouTube)
Making the shift from Fox to Netflix, Season 4 of the fun DC Comics’ inspired L.A.-based procedural series about the bisexual Prince of Darkness, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), will see more of pansexual demon bounty hunter Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and possibly a little same-sex lover for the latter. Hot! (May 8, Netflix)
Photo Credits: Cher courtesy of REELZ. Lucifer courtesy of Netflix. Tell It to the Bees courtesy of GDE. All In My Family courtesy of Netflix. Permanent Green Light courtesy of Premium Films.
