Brokeback Mountain: Modern audiences have become increasingly more accepting of gay relationships on the big screen, with much of the credit going to the decades-spanning Brokeback Mountain. Painted with humanity and genuine emotion by master filmmaker Ang Lee, the film followed two ranch hands, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), as they find love and fairly graphic passion on a bleak mountainside in 1963. Returning to the “normal” world, over the years they find their hearts crushed by the strictures of society.

Ledger and Gyllenhaal, both nominated for Oscars, are superb crafting scintillating portrayals of tortured gay men at a time that the general public demeaned and isolated them. One the most famous and influential gay dramas ever made, the Brokeback Mountain speaks achingly to the power of love, regardless of gender, and to the unhealthy mandates of a society that builds itself on prejudice and hate. And the ending puts it in the ranks of classic tear-jerkers like Splendor in the Grass.  (Release date: December 9, 2005. Running time: 134 minutes. Focus Features.)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch:
.The film version of John Cameron Mitchell’s stage musical, about an East German singer who attempts to come to terms with the botched sex-change operation that left her with an “angry inch,” has rightly developed a cult following. Taking musical conventions and turning them on their bejeweled ear, the movie digs its painted nails into an infrequently celebrated subculture and winds up more than enlightening.

The Kids Are All Right: In the end, all any of us can hope for is a little piece of this world where we can build a family and live the life we’ve always wanted. Co-writer/director Lisa Cholodenko’s
The Kids Are All Right vividly paints the portrait of a suburban family whose peaceful veneer is cracked by curiosity and doubt. Starring Oscar nominees Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple whose two children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) seek out and insert their biological father (Oscar-nominated Mark Ruffalo) into their dynamic, the film tackles common issues facing many modern families.

Equally strong performances from Ruffalo, Wasikowska and Hutcherson make this a wonderful slice of modern-family life, albeit a slightly idealized version. Anyone who champions a functional and loving world will find Kids perfect long-weekend company. (U.S. release date: July 9, 2010. Running time: 104 min. Focus Features.)

Longtime Companion: That title suggests coziness, but Companion’s subject matter — and effect — is profound. Exploring the AIDS epidemic at a time when film was too afraid to even utter the acronym, this drama, set in the early 1980s, features a group of gay friends as they come to terms with the mysterious disease that is killing them off. The panic and the outcry within the community contrasting, the prejudice and willful ignorance on both sides . . . this is a true tragedy.

The film’s cinematic importance cannot be understated. The film’s studio release, at a time when the fear of AIDS was reaching a nadir, was something of a marvel. Another brick in the wall of hate crumbled. Knowing this film is tantamount to feeling enlightened and enriched.  (U.S. release date:  May 11, 1990. Running time: 100 minutes. Samuel Goldwyn Company.)

Maurice: Who doesn’t love a clandestine period romance compliments of Merchant-Ivory productions? In 1909, Maurice (James Wilby) meets fellow Cambridge student Clive Durham (Hugh Grant). At first each man is unsure if the other is, well, you know . . . and it’s not like they can ask around to find out. As the two negotiate their feelings, the pressures of society mount until one of them — spoiler ahead — capitulates to the bourgeois society and enters into — oh, dear — a lovelorn marriage. The remaining bachelor moves on, hoping to find the love that does not bare its name.

Director and cowriter James Ivory’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel exquisitely captures the love and longing of young gay men in Edwardian England. From the sets to the scenery to the (Oscar-nominated) costumes, the film is loaded with such style, one may wish it were once again those grand ol’ repressive times. Viewers will relish, though, the progressive-thinking capper. Sit down, swap out Downton Abbey, and pass the cognac. (U.S. release date: Sept. 1, 1987. Running time: 139 mins. Lorimar Home Video.)

Milk: Featuring a thoughtful, tour-de-force performance by Sean Penn (Oscar’s choice for Best Actor), director Gus Van Sant’s biopic of civil rights icon Harvey Milk  — the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California (in 1978) and who was later assassinated by a former colleague — stands as a supremely affecting biopic.

Politics, betrayal, love, lust, jealousy, suicide — Milk’s story was all there in the halls of history, and the screenplay by Dustin Lance Black (also an Oscar-winner) brought it to vivid life before our eyes. James Franco charms as one of Milk’s lovers. And, yes, Josh Brolin chillingly evinces the icon’s killer Dan White. But Milk’s message of courage lasts on and on, instilling an image of its firebrand subject as fun, big-hearted, confident and persistent. He’s good company. (U.S. release date: Nov. 26, 2008. Running time: 128 min. Focus Features.)

My Beautiful Laundrette: Set against the backdrop of Thatcher’s tumultuous and reactionary England, director Stephen Frears’ film tells the tale of two lovers, Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a Pakastani, and his old friend, Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), a local gang member. Thanks to Omar, the two begin to run a laundry matt together. But this is lower-class England, where there is always trouble looming for immigrants and young, gay men.

Featuring Hanif Kureishi’s Oscar-nominated screenplay, My Beautiful Laundrette sets itself in a milieu where most films, let alone gay films, fear to tread. Its characters are real working class people with real, hard-to-fix problems. Laundrette also put Day-Lewis, in just his fourth film, on Hollywood’s hot list. For good reason! (U.S. release date: Sept. 7, 1985. Running time: 93 mins. Orion Classics.)

Weekend: One Friday night, Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New) meet at a gay club. The two go back to Russell’s and have sex. From that night on, these two strangers begin to develop an intimate and somewhat intellectual relationship, delving into the nature of identity and love over the course of a weekend. Russell and Glen’s encounter will leave an indelible impression on each other — and viewers as well.

The youngest title on our list, writer-director Andrew Haigh’s second narrative feature was also GALECA’s Dorian Award winner for 2011’s Film of the Year and LGBT-Themed Film of the Year. Obviously, we dig this film. What more do we need to say?(U.S. release date: Sept. 23, 2011. Running time: 96 min. IFC Films.)