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I also am partial to Far From Heaven, The Hours and A Single Man. Both demonstrate the difficult emotions that tore apart the lives of many men and women in the closet, and weave in interesting stories about artistic sensibilities. The movies are subject to a fair criticism - that they feature tragic, death-destined gay characters - but that is true, unfortunately, of many gay-themed movies, as you will see from the main list. It is no stretch to say that these films are a cathartic experience about the closeted pains experienced by the filmmakers, and others in the community. Perhaps Todd Haynes, the director of Far From Heaven, will have another movie for this list with his highly anticipated Carol being released later this year. For now, however, it is another five that occupy the list.

A shout-out is also in order to movies that explore another important topic for the gay community - the HIV/AIDS crisis. I mentioned Philadelphia, but the important documentary How to Survive A Plague and even the touching Philomena are worthy of honorable mentions here.

Oh, and one final shout-out to our straight allies goes here: The lesbian psycho sexual thriller Bound is sure to excite many members of both genders. I’ll just leave it that, if you haven’t seen it, Corky.

Here we go.

5. Trick (1999)

I’ll start with the only uplifting entry in the bunch, the now-iconic gay romantic comedy Trick. Starring a young Christian Campbell (Neve’s brother), it tells the story of a young, semi-closeted kid who meets a hot young man at a bar in New York and wants to have a one-night stand with him. But Campbell’s character has an annoying roommate, the other guy is not out, and they have nowhere to go. Campbell’s token hag (Dictionary: woman who loves the company of gay men), played by a ditzy Tori Spelling, is of no help.

The film follows the two as they spend the entire night looking for a place to hook-up in in New York City. A whirlwind romance a la the one explored ten years later in Weekend then (somewhat predictably) develops, but the film’s even corny denouement is still touching. The movie may not be a trailblazer in the LGBT rights movement nor have that much to say about the struggles of the individuals involved, but it does honestly explore a quintessential element of gay culture: the gay bar hookup.

This is truly a heartfelt and funny film that is in ways anachronistic today (fewer men are afraid to bring love interests home to straight roommates). But don’t get your spirits up too high, because the rest of the list is vein-cutting galore…

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