Top Five Lesbian Movies

And the lists continue to pour in... some of these movies are specifically about lesbians some just have lesbian characters and some are just dyke cult classic movies

5.) Bend it Like Beckham: Gurinda Chadha. This movie isn't actually about lesbians but at one point I do believe they either think Keira Knightley's character is a boy or a lesbian. I don't know anyone who doesn't love this movie, lesbians included and it is all about women who kick ass in soccer (football.) And the rest of the cast is amazing too, especially Parminder Nagra-hott and amazing.

4.) Fire: Deepa Mehta. I wasn't sure about this movie at first I felt that the ending was too happy in some ways. But the more I have seen it and thought about it, when do you ever see two lesbians of color actually on screen together in a relationship? Very rarely. And when do they actually make their relationship work? Very rarely. And also the filming is beautiful even if over romanticizing the who lesbo thing.

3.) Chasing Amy: Kevin Smith. Many people would question my putting this movie on the list because it is about a lesbo who falls for a guy. I have a few reasons and here are the top ones. There are some great conversations filmed in this movie. The swing set where Joey Lauren Adams deconstructs "standard" notions of sex for Ben Afflex who thinks there has to be penis pentetration for sex to count as sex. Also when they are lying in bed and JLA is telling BA that the reason she began dating women was because she felt that she shouldn't cut women out of her population for dating and now she feels she should do the same for men. Reason number two-this movie is very honestly first and foremost about identity. JLA has a huge fit when she realizes that she will have to give up her whole life in order to date a man-oh how the tables have turned. And while we always think of hetero as a position of power, within lesbian circles I think there is a lot of pressure to be gay and when a person may choose to date someone hetero or trans they may fear losing their community. So I think this struggle is real and they portray it acurately with the women sitting around an apartment sipping wine discussing how they are losing another one to the land of the hets. Number three-JLA at the line "I loveyou Holden, I always will. Know that. But I am not your whore." SLAP!!

2.) If These Walls Could Talk 2: Jane Anderson, Martha Coolidge, Anne Heche. This movie which is an HBO television special takes us through three decades of lesbian drama starting in 1961 and ending in 2000. This movie has an all star cast including Vanessa Redgrave, Michelle Williams, Chloe Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne, Sharon Stone, Ellen DeGeneres, and Kathy Najimy. Although these stories all take place throughout time and are obviously historical and contextual they could all also happen right here in good old 2008. People are constantly denied access to their partner's hospital rooms because they are not real "family," butch lesbians and trans men tend to face more discrimination in general and trans people especially from lesbian communities, and getting pregnant and having children is something that is a constant battle for same-sex couples. I love this movie, despite the saddness-and there is some super hott sex scenes too.


1.) But I'm A Cheerleader: Jamie Babbit. This is my coming out movie for sure. I have seen it so many times I could probably recite the entire story. It is also great because the video store in Estes Park actually carries it (of course it is run by two dykes fo sho!) I like this movie and think it should be shown in entry level critical theory classes in colleges. Why? because it shows the ways in which gender and sexuality are so often conflated into one another. One is gay if they don't conform to stereotypical normative ways of doing femininity for females and masculinity for males. This is often miscontrued as not having normative sexuality. But as Jan proves you can play softball, have facial hair, and short buzzed hair cut and still want "a Big Fat Weiner." It is also so over the top that the point it makes is done in a comical and exaggerated fashion making it the fantasy of ture wo/man hood appear to be the huge phallacy that it is.

And there you have it my favorite lesbian movies (of the ones I have seen so far in my life...)