- Zita R.
- Friday, October 01, 2021
Sometimes you just want to watch a movie with a happy ending. But if you want one about women who love women- it's not always easy. The following is a list of fun or funny movies where none of the women in love get sick or murdered!
Bound
Set in Chicago, this sexy noir movie was made by the Wachowskis in the 90s. A reclusive butch ex-con (Gina Gershon) gets a job making repairs on an old apartment. Right next door lives a femme fatal (Jennifer Tilly) with a gangster boyfriend (Joe Pantoliano). The two fall in love and hatch a plan to rip off the abusive boyfriend and run away. But, naturally, things get complicated. This movie is everything I wanted those lesbian pulp novels from the 50s and 60s to be. It’s dramatic, stylish, seductive and pure fantasy fulfillment.
The Watermelon Woman
This is a movie about a black lesbian making a movie about a black lesbian that she saw in a movie. It’s set in Philadelphia in the 90s, almost every character is gay, and the costumes are great. Cheryl (Cheryl Dunye) and her best friend (Valarie Walker) work in a video rental store but are filmmakers on the side. Cheryl becomes obsessed with an actress in an old movie and decides to research her for a new film project. She wants to tell her story. But figuring out who “The Watermelon Woman” is tells a story of its own. We get to see what it was like to do research before the internet. And when your topic doesn’t interest the white patriarchal establishment, are you going to find anything in their archives? At every turn, our narrator faces the road blocks to her research with humor and sarcasm, but in the end she's faced with an important question: If you are writing a history that you are a part of, how do you accept the fact that it really is yours to write?
Butch Jamie
“So like Tootsie, but in reverse?”
This mid 2000s comedy is about a butch actress named Jamie (Michelle Ehlen) who finds herself playing the role of a man in a no-budget movie. When a “straight” girl on set starts to fall for “Boy Jamie,” Girl Jamie can’t say no to a date... or two... or three. But maybe she knew about Jamie’s gender complexity the whole time? Is that why she came on so strong in their first conversation? Why she flirted with Boy Jamie the way a woman flirts with another woman, but not how she would flirt with a man? Or maybe something else is going on. Wait, how does gender affect flirtation? Jamie asks her bisexual roommate how dating men and women is different, and it’s these little conversations that make this movie great. The snarky humor of this movie is a perfect slice of Butch Culture. It might be a good one to watch with the family, since it’s thought-provoking, funny, and doesn’t have any nudity.
Princess Cyd
16-year-old Cyd (Jessie Pinnick) leaves Columbia, South Carolina to get away from her dad and “sorta boyfriend” to visit her aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence) in Chicago. Miranda is an author living in one of those cool old houses in Ravenswood that she could have only inherited. Although at first it seems they have little in common, Cyd’s curiosity and relentless questions draw them together. They teach each other about life, love, and the beauty of taking care of each other. There is a scene where Cyd goes on a date with a coffee shop girl (Malic White) that was the cutest moment I’d seen in a movie in years. This movie romanticizes the magic you feel when you share your favorite book with someone you love. It's one of those heartwarming and relaxing movies that I know I will be rewatching when I’m feeling blue, and I want something quiet and “easy to watch.”
Suicide Kale
Disclaimer: despite the plot, this movie is hilarious. Just trust me.
New couple Penn (Lindsay Hicks) and Jasmine (Brittani Nichols) visit their “perfect couple” friends Jordan (Brianna Baker) and Billie (Jasika Nicole) for lunch at their perfect house in their perfect neighborhood. But after finding a suicide note in their bedroom, Penn and Jasmine are unsure how to proceed. This movie feels so deeply real, it’s embarrassing. It reveals that strange moment where young couples are starting to live their lives differently and the weird struggle of wearing your “good vibes only” face. It tackles important lesbian issues like, “Is Starbucks a Coffee Shop?” and “If you can’t see yourself getting married to your girlfriend, why are you dating her?” and “Is it okay to feed your Vegan friend a recipe with chicken broth if they don't know it’s in there?”
If you want to make sure that the movie you are about to watch doesn’t “Bury the gays,” you can check on this website
Happy Watching!