8 Queer Films You Can Watch on Prime Video
Nov 29, 2022 • Eli Magsaysay
Nov 29, 2022 • Eli Magsaysay
Hi, fellow gays! Are you excited for Drag Den, too? Do you have a Prime Video account? Are you, like many others, also dreading the prospect of subscribing to yet another streaming service just for one show? Eep so, then this article is for you.
As excited as a lot of us are for the nearing premiere of the much anticipated original Filipino drag competition show on Prime Video, there are still a lot of drag fans who hesitate to subscribe to a new streaming service for it. And for good reason (read: inflation). But just in case you decide to do so – which I think you should because Drag Den looks like it’s worth it! – worry not for there are definitely more queer content to get your hands on once you get that account.
In this article, we’ll list queer films from fluffy direct-to-streaming to classic and arthouse that you can watch on Prime Video. Let’s start.
While everyone fixated on the whole mess that was Don’t Worry Darling, Harry Styles also appeared in what is hands down his better film – and his better performance, to be frank. Based on the Bethan Roberts novel of the same title, Styles plays Tom, a police officer who marries a woman, Emma Corrin (The Crown), whilst having an affair with a museum curator played by the heartbreaking David Dawson.
Revisit the MMFF 2016 hit and the film that won the Drag Race Philippines host, Paolo Ballesteros, his Best Actor trophy at the Tokyo International Film Festival. After her untimely death at a pageant, we learn about a transgender woman’s colorful life while her friends transform her face every day at her wake to prevent her father from burying her as a man. (Spot pre-Drag Race Precious Paula Nicole when you watch it!)
We have had too many coming-of-age movies about cishets about to graduate high school, but never one whose central character is someone who is both black and trans. Pose’s Billy Porter’s directorial debut “brings his boundless energy and exuberance to every frame, which makes the romance between Kelsa and Khal so beguiling and inspiring to watch.” (IGN)
It’s another senior high movie, sure, but it’s a musical and it’s about a young boy who dreams of becoming a drag queen. Based on a true story, Jamie is a delightful watch about a young queer person owning their light and asserting their right to take up space as their true authentic self in an environment threatened with anything they deem as other. Oh, and Bianca del Rio who played drag mother Loco Chanelle in the West End production of this musical makes a cameo in this one!
Jake (Dylan Sprouse) is so done with his best friend Andrew’s (Keiynan Lonsdale) on-again-off-again relationship with a horrible man, so he does what any straight ally/best friend should do: digitally create a new perfect boyfriend for him and make them famous on social media to ward off the toxic ex. This poses a problem, however, when Andrew finds a man he actually likes.
There’s a reason this Mike Nichols adaptation of the beloved play Le Cage aux Folles remains iconic: it’s a whole lot of fun! In The Birdcage, a gay drag club owner and his partner must pretend to be a heterosexual couple to please their son’s soon-to-be in-laws. Armed with pitch-perfect performances of legends Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Diane Wiest, this movie is definitely a must-watch.
If you, like me, are a sucker for period pieces about forbidden love, this is the one for you. In The World to Come, two farmer’s wives played by the glorious Vanessa Kirby (The Crown) and Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts) are drawn to each other and find a connection and intimacy that their respective marriages could not provide. I mean, fine, it isn’t Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but hey, when it hits it hits!
Filipina superwoman Isabel Sandoval wrote, directed, and starred in this deeply intimate, breathtakingly beautiful film about an undocumented transpinay overseas Filipino worker in New York who resorts to paying someone to marry her for a green card. Rolling Stone writes, “Lingua Franca is indeed a perfect example of representation, and Sandoval’s low-key portrayal of transgender life — she’s as adept a performer as she is a writer and director — is both singular and extraordinary in its ordinariness.”
Did we miss anything? What other queer films and shows on Prime Video would you recommend? Head to the comment section below
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