If you are already have ‘festive fatigue’ from the holiday season already OR just want to enjoy an alternative view of Christmas then you may like to sample one of these kooky LGBT holiday movies that queerguru has dragged out of our movie library.
Scrooge And Marley : The setting for this adaption of Dickens classic tale is transposed from the darkly-lit Victorian London to an equally dark Screws, a gay club in contemporary Chicago. Starring ex-Playgirl model turned actor Ronnie Kroll. this very camp drama will put you in the Christmas spirit (especially if you have downed a few first too).
A Diva’s Christmas Carol ( 2000) : This is as camp as Christmas gets in this TV movies starring Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) who takes the lead in Charles Dickens’ tale but her Ebenezer Scrooge becomes Ebony Scrooge a very successful pop singer. Go figure.
Holiday Heart : This made for TV Movie, also from 2000, stars big strapping Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission Impossible) as an unlikely drag queen who takes in crack-addict hooker Wanda (Alfre Woodard) and her daughter for Christmas so that they can escape the physical abuse from her boyfriend. Hardly a laugh a minute, but this tough-to-find DVD is well worth a look, BTW the title is also Mr. Rhames drag name.
Out (and now quite proud) Jodie Foster’s sophomore movie as a director is an ensemble comedy/drama about an out-of-work single mother (Holly Hunter) who heads home to see her eccentric family. Her mom and dad are the fabulous Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning, but it’s her gay brother played by Robert Downey Jr. who really steals the film. One of the best bickering family films ever made, which is often what Christmas turns out to be anyway.
Miss Richfield 1981 : Fall On Your Knees Christmas Extravaganza. The infamous potty-mouthed Drag Queen from Minnesota is an absolute hoot in her live music Holiday Show, and this perfect gay Christmas fare for any time of the year.
Make The Yuletide Gay is about Olaf a college student who is very out and proud at the University he attends. At home it’s a different story, and his Midwestern parents still don’t know he’s gay. For holidays his boyfriend Nate was planning on flying home to see his own parents , but when they ditch him for a cruise, he decides to surprise Olaf at home having no idea that he is still in the closet. What follows is a series of double entendres, funny moments of misunderstandings in this very sweet crowd-pleaser of a movie from gay writer/director Rob Williams.
Red Lodge : The premise of this very touching drama from 2013 is simple. A man proposes to his boyfriend with a cockring (!) and is accepted, and then quickly rejected, all in the days leading up to Christmas.
The Family Stone : dysfunctional families seem to feature big time in festive Christmas movies. This one pushes out the boat as far as it can go when the gay deaf son and his partner come home for the holidays an announce they’re trying to adopt a baby. It’s a weepie with a lot of heart and includes Sarah Jessica Parker as a stuck-up New Yorker and Rachel McAdams as a razor-tongued would-be hippie.
24 Nights : When Jonathan Parker was 4 years old, his mother’s words and a chance encounter with a Salvation Army Kris Kringle instilled in him a lifelong belief in the legend of Santa Claus. Now 24 and his parents long passed, Jonathan is a spacey, pot-smoking college drop-out and multi-time loser in romance who has one shot left to find his true live, he writes a letter to Santa Claus. This micro-budget gay movie is far from perfect BUT that aside, if you still believe in Santa too, then you will love watching this sweet romantic comedy.
