February has been a good month for new LGBT content added to HULU the subscription-on-demand TV service that is mainly owned by Disney (but then what isn’t these days?). As well as one of queerguru’s favorite queer movies of 2017 BEACH RATS it has added these LGBT films that we are so very happy to recommend. With changes to the ASC 606 finance regulations that have been explained well by groups such as Salesforce, the onus is on subscription based services such as Hulu to thrive in an economy that now favours this kind of company.
A DATE FOR MAD MARY: This is a delightful Irish comic drama that is a compelling and very warm story of an endearing young woman whose bluff exterior is a defense mechanism against what she rightly perceives is a hostile society who simply cannot adjust to anyone like her who dares to be different. Mary sees that there never will be much opportunity to escape her working-class background or this small town mentality that seems to both confine and confuse her until she meets Jess.
BEACH RATS: This coming-of-age drama is set in Brooklyn where 19-year-old Frankie (HARRIS DICKINSON) is struggling hard to find his own identity, sexual and otherwise. Newcomer Dickinson gives a powerful performance as Frankie who is maddeningly difficult to make out, but he is no more complex than any other teenager trying to discover if he fits somewhere along the LGBT spectrum.
BLAZING SADDLES: Mel Brooks’s Oscar-nominated 1974 cult classic which is the funniest parody of a cliched Western movie ever, is technically not an LGBT movie, but if you have not seen it and fallen under its spell then you are in serious danger of losing your ‘gay card’. Watch out though as this campiest movie of all time will be on Hulu for one month only.
TOM OF FINLAND: This rather excellent biopic is on the life and work of one of the most influential and celebrated figures of twentieth-century gay culture the Finnish artist known as Tom Of Finland. When he first created his erotic art it encouraged gay men emerging from the shadows to embrace this whole ultra-macho role which no-one had ever publicly identified as a homosexual trait.
WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZARD This intriguing thriller from leading queer filmmaker Greg Araki that stars Shailene Woodley as Kat is about the sudden disappearance of her mother which defies all the normal possible reasons until the explanation, which had been staring us in the face, was eventually revealed at the end. It is a very taut tale, and as it is by Araki, it’s very sexy too.
BOULEVARD: In one of his very last movies ROBIN WILLIAMS plays a closeted gay man who finally wants to come to terms with his sexuality and he befriends a young street hustler, even though he doesn’t want anything physical from their encounters. Willams gives a powerful and moving performance as the sad and morose man whose best friend tries to help steer him with ‘maybe it’s never too late to start living the life that you really want‘. Boulevard will be added to the Hulu line up in March.
Full list of all HULU programming at www.hulu.com 