In 2020, the future of queer cinema has never looked so bright. With smash hits like Call Me By Your Name, Love, Simon, and Moonlight, it’s fair to say that queer coming-of-age movies are having a moment — and that’s opened huge doors for LGBTQ representation. See, unlike what Hollywood depictions would have you believe, LGBTQ people have stories to tell that go beyond their queerness. And while it’s valuable and important to see films that grapple with the experience of coming out or struggling to fit in, it’s just as important to see characters whose queerness is simply the premise. 2019’s Booksmart was a flawless example of the type of queer coming-of-age story we want to see more of in the future, a movie that treats its gay characters’ sexuality with exactly as much curiosity as its straight characters’ sexuality: none.
Of course, it’s only recently that LGBTQ youth have had the possibility of a coming-of-age story like the one shown in Booksmart. LGBTQ youth have lived in fear of bullying, harassment, and abuse for decades, and it’s important to tell those stories to let those suffering know they’re not alone. Many of my favorite coming-of-age stories are heartbreaking for just how poignantly they show this plight, from Hilary Swank’s performance in Boys Don’t Cry to Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain.
We should not only insist on more queer coming-of-age stories, which can be life-changing for LGBTQ youth who don’t see themselves depicted elsewhere, but insist on our inclusion in so-called “regular” coming-of-age stories. Why do we need the word “queer” to expect to see queer characters? Don’t we all encounter LGBTQ people every day? And why don’t our “regular” movies reflect that?
From stories that nail the hardships of LGBTQ teens to those that capture the magic of a first love, here are our favorite queer coming-of-age stories.
A version of this story was originally published in March 2018.
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‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’
Image Credit: Pyramide Films. This stunning French film set in the late 18th century explores the relationship between Héloïse, a young woman whose family is trying to marry her off, and Marianne, a painter hired to make a portrait. This love story is gorgeous and intense, start to finish.
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‘Booksmart’
Image Credit: F Duhamel/Annapurna/MGM/Kobal/Shutterstock. Amy and Molly are best friends graduating high school together, going out on one big night to try and make up for all the fun they missed studying. Part of Amy’s bucket list? To finally approach her crush Ryan, a skater girl she’s pined over all year.
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‘Love, Simon’
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox. This teen rom com follows a closeted high school student, Simon, as he struggles with his sexuality and searches for an anonymous classmate who he’s fallen in love with online. Based on the book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Love, Simon also sees Simon deal with a blackmailer who threatens to out him to his entire school.
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‘Call Me by Your Name’
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics The critical darling of 2017, Call Me by Your Name focuses on Elio, a teen from a scholarly family living in Italy during the summer of 1983. When one of his father's graduate students, Oliver, comes to stay with the family, Elio finds himself attracted to Oliver is such a powerful way that the two young men begin a passionate and transformative relationship.
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‘Moonlight’
Image Credit: David Bornfriend/A24 The Oscar-winning film Moonlight tells the coming-of-age story of Chiron in three parts, with each part focusing on a pivotal point in his life as he understands what it means to be a gay black man and then what it means to be a gay black man in a poorer black community that wouldn't readily accept him if he did choose to come out. As Chiron tries to explore his sexuality, he faces tough life choices that sometimes pull him closer to coming out and sometimes push him further away from it.
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‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’
Image Credit: Wild Bunch Blue Is the Warmest Color is a devastatingly honest depiction of a young woman's first love, first real relationship and her queer coming-of-age. The film follows French teen Adele as she explores her queerness and soon falls in love with Emma, a mercurial artist, through the rise and fall of their sexually explosive and emotionally fulfilling relationship.
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‘Pariah’
Image Credit: Focus Features Pariah tells the rare story of a young black woman, Alike, who faces criticism from her family and peers about her masculine presentation and who must come to terms with her queer desires in a world that tries to stamp them out of her.
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‘My Summer of Love’
Image Credit: Focus Features My Summer of Love centers on two women exploring their queerness during a very hot summer in the English countryside. As the moneyed Tamsin charms the working-class Mona, the two women teach each other more than a few lessons about the perils of love, all from a queer perspective.
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‘Carol’
Image Credit: The Weinstein Company A modern classic, Carol follows the sexual awakening and queer coming-of-age of Therese, a young woman working in a department store who happens to meet the very rich, very beautiful and very closeted Carol. The two women embark on a secret affair that forever changes them both.
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‘The Handmaiden’
Image Credit: Amazon Studios Based on the English novel Fingersmith, this modern film noir-like story also relies heavily on the queer love story between its two central characters, the rich and beautiful Lady Hideko and her maid, Sook-Hee. Together, the women develop a close, romantic relationship and eventually conspire to take all of Lady Hideko's husband's money and run away together. Watching Lady Hideko and Sook-hee both explore their transgressive sexual desires in a world where they were likely not taught about what it means to be a lesbian makes for a tempting portrait of sexual awakening.
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‘Thelma’
Image Credit: The Orchard One of the more recent queer coming-of-age films is also one of the most intriguing: the Norwegian film Thelma. It follows the ultra-religious Thelma as she attempts to explore her romantic feelings for her female friend while being plagued by potentially supernatural occurrences, and it makes for an intriguing exploration into the queer female heart and its desires.
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‘Boys Don’t Cry’
Image Credit: Bill Matlock/Fox Searchlight/Kobal/Shutterstock. Warning: Hilary Swank’s award-winning performance as Brandon, a young transgender man looking for safety and acceptance, will definitely make you cry. Brandon is chased from his home when a man in town finds out he’s transgender and threatens to kill him. When Brandon falls in love in his new town, he tries to build a future, but his girlfriend’s male friends’ suspicion threatens to bring everything crashing down.
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‘Brokeback Mountain’
Image Credit: Focus Features This gut-wrenching queer film might not feel like a coming-of-age film, but you could most certainly make an argument that the story of two closeted gay men living in the very conservative American West of the 1960s and 1970s, who must find a way to honor their hearts and desires and well as fulfill their duties to their families, is as relevant to the coming-of-age genre as it gets.
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‘My Own Private Idaho’
Image Credit: Fine Line Features Falling into the angstier, darker side of LGBTQ coming-of-age films, My Own Private Idaho follows young hustlers Mike and Scott, who go on a number of trips to find Mike's father. Along the way, the men grow in their sexuality, often having sex and falling in love with both men and women as a means of fulfillment and survival.
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‘Imagine Me & You’
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures A film for late bloomers, Imagine Me & You is a sweet queer rom-com that tells the story of Rachel, a woman about to marry the man of her dreams — until she meets Luce, the florist who stirs up feelings within her that she never knew she could have. This sweet film examines what it's like to process a once-untapped part of your sexuality when it suddenly comes to the forefront.
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‘3 Generations’
Image Credit: Walter Thomson/The Weinstein Company A stirring portrayal of what it's like to transition as a teen, 3 Generations stars Elle Fanning as Ray, a transgender man coming of age in the modern world. As Ray figures out how to tell his female friend he has a crush on her and find the right way to present himself to the world, his mother and grandmother (both self-proclaimed feminists who seem to have a way harder time with his transition) try to deal with all of these changes.
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‘Personal Best’
Image Credit: The Geffen Company Personal Best, starring then-ingenue Mariel Hemingway, focuses on bisexuality and coming of age. In this 1982 film, Hemingway plays Chris Cahill, a track star who vacillates between romances with her male coach and with her close female friend and competitor.
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‘Get Real’
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock. This 1998 dramedy takes on an old classic. Steven pines after handsome high school alpha John, who he thinks is a lost cause. But as their paths cross, Steven realizes there could be more to John than he realized.
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