Grandma enjoyed an early December UK release date (September in the US), and who doesn’t love a feel-good family movie in the run up to Christmas? Not that Grandma – in this case an uproarious lesbian poet in her 70s called Elle – exactly fits the mould. Grandma stars Lily Tomlin and Julia Garner – and also Laverne Cox! In compiling this list of the year’s best ‘gay’ films (and once again, we’re using the term loosely), what goes without saying is, wherever you fall on the sexuality spectrum – gay, lesbian, trans, and we’re including straight people here – these films are absolutely essential viewing for all. ‘You don’t want to put a label on things and a tag on things and restrain them to a certain visibility and exposure.’ ‘Not that, arrogantly, you are taking for granted that the gay community and the queer community will see the film, but you sort of are, and you’re wishing that the movie will break out of those labels,’ he told HuffPost Live. One year on, it remains a troublesome concept, as epitomized this year by director Xavier Dolan, known for films featuring strong queer characters such as Laurence Anyways and Tom At the Farm, as well as Adele’s recent Hello video.
When we counted down the best gay films of 2014, we questioned what constitutes a ‘gay’ film.
