The Year in Gay Movies

Gay indie Kiss the Bride was about a straight wedding through the eyes of a gay man ... who used to sleep with the groom-to-be. A bit preposterous and uneven, the flick nonetheless had a few sharp observations about marriage (for anyone) and boasted some impressive eye-candy ... and Tori Spelling!

And finally, two major releases with wedding themes also pulled gay characters into the mix. Mamma Mia! is all about a wedding, and one of the main characters (and potential father of the bride) winds up coming out at the wedding and finding his own best man. Sex and the City: The Movie brought the Manhattan do-me feminists together again for Carrie's wedding, and of course gay BFFs Stanford and Anthony (out actor Mario Cantone) were on-hand for all the fussing.

Interestingly, both Mamma Mia! and Sex and the City were runaway global successes.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Four Calling Names (Sex Drive, Role Models, Hancock, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay)

Unfortunately, not all attempts at incorporating gay elements into otherwise straight comedies come off as well as the Six Comedies a-Camping above. And sophomoric humor's stubborn tendency to throw around hateful anti-gay words and jokes persisted in four major releases.

In disappointing pot comedy Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, prison rape jokes, gay terrorists and casually thrown-about hate-speech were enough to ruin an otherwise good reason to see Neil Patrick Harris on a unicorn. Gross-out teen road comedy Sex Drive actually did one worse by tossing in bathroom sex, more "fags" and "queers" than you can count, and then having the most homophobic and loathsome character come out as gay in the closing montage. Uh ... thanks?

Role Models — from otherwise gay-friendly folks like David Wain and Paul Rudd — casually used "homo" and "fag" as though those words don't still offend many of the gay people that might be watching their films. And superhero bomb Hancock had Jason Bateman's slimy character dismiss a few possible superhero costumes as too "homo", as though gay guys like putting on tights and boots any more than Spiderman or The X-Men. Sigh.

On the Third Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Three French Flicks (Before I Forget, Les Chansons d'amour, The Witnesses)

Let's face it, American movies have never exactly been the high water-mark for gay films to begin with. So it's not surprising that three gay films to push the boundaries and blur the edges most this year came from overseas.

Director André Téchiné (Wild Reeds) brought us The Witnesses, which told of the early days of the AIDS epidemic through the lens of a May-December romance and small group of friends in the 80's. Before I Forget took an unflinching look at the life of an aging gay hustler whose benefactor and lover dies, leaving him with nothing.

But perhaps the most strikingly original gay film of the year was Love Songs (Les Chansons d'amour), a kitchen-sink musical about a group of young lovers in Paris who sing their way through various affairs with various other musically-minded men and women. The film created a universe of fluid sexuality that is entirely foreign to American film, making it one of the year's stronger entries (and the sight of angel-voiced Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet rocking a pair of orange briefs didn't hurt either).