Christmas cheer? More like Christmas queer am I right? Holidays can be a time of great joy or great stress depending largely on one’s relationship with their family. And being queer can present its own set of problems as well as the possibility for joy. Here are eight movies about being WLW a during various holidays.
1. Carol
Obligatory pun involving the phrase Christmas Carol. Todd Haynes’ 2015 film Carol is a masterpiece. If you needed another excuse to watch it, the film takes place over the Christmas season making to a very queer holiday movie. Rooney Mara’s Therese initially meets Carol (Cate Blanchett) while Carol is buying a Christmas gift for her daughter. From here, their relationship develops and they spend the holidays together, consummating their relationship on New Year’s. Given the fact that Carol is one of the best WLW movies ever made, it’s easily the best holiday-themed WLW film. Read my full review here.
Carol is available to rent or buy on Amazon and Itunes.
2. Lez Bomb
Lez Bomb is one of several on this list that deal with being closeted or coming out during the holidays. Lauren (Jenna Laurenzo) is in a long-term relationship with Hailey (Caitlin Mehner). As such, she decides it’s time to come out to her family and chooses to do this as her nearest and dearest gather for Thanksgiving. Obviously, tensions run high because that’s what American Thanksgiving is like. Lauren’s attempts to come out are thwarted by her male roommate and her own nerves about coming out to her family.
Lez Bomb is available to stream on Netflix or to rent or buy on Amazon.
3. Vivere
Taking place on Christmas Eve, the German film Vivere follows Francesca, a taxi driver travels to Rotterdam in order to track down her younger sister. Here, she meets Geraldine, a heartbroken lesbian. Told from three different points of view, Vivere is a very European sort of film.
Vivere can be found to rent or buy on Amazon.
4. Treading Water
Treading Water is another film that paints the holidays not as a magical time but as a stressful and often painful time for queer people and really, anyone who doesn’t live up to their parents’ expectations. Protagonist Casey (Angie Redman) has shunned her rich upbringing and instead makes her living fixing boats and living happily with her girlfriend, Alex (Nina Landey). However, her happy bubble bursts when her disapproving parents invite her, but not Alex over for a very chilly and not very merry Christmas.
You can rent or buy Treading Water on Amazon.
5. Anita’s Last Cha-Cha
Anita’s Last Cha-Cha is set around the Fiesta of Santa Clara. I’m not Filipino or Catholic enough to really know what that festival is about, but from my 30 seconds of research, it seems to be a big enough event for me to qualify it as a holiday and thus earn it a place on this list. The film follows the young Anita and her crush on a woman named Pilar during the Fiesta of Santa Clara.
Depending on what country you are in, Anita’s Last Cha-Cha is available on Viu. It has also been uploaded in entirety to Youtube with English subtitles
6. Season of Love
If you need a happier queer holiday movie, give Season of Love a try. Season of Love follows three different WLW relationships through the Christmas season and into the new year. This romantic comedy seems to be made to ensure that not all queer holiday movies are such a bleak affair and instead injects itself with the lightness and general good cheer that so many heterosexual holiday movies feature.
Season of Love is available to buy or rent through Tello Films.
7. Pearblossom
New year, new beginnings as the old saying goes. In Pearblossom, a lesbian couple dies on New Year’s only to be reawakened on New Year’s 40 years later as vampires. Pearblossom may take place mostly on New Year’s but is also the only film on this list that would be appropriate to watch on Halloween too.
You can rent or buy Pearblossom on Amazon.
8. Happiest Season
Happiest Season hasn’t been released yet but already more people know and care about it than most of the other movies on this list. Directed by lesbian icon Clea Duvall and starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, Happiest Season is setting up to be a WLW movie people besides me might actually see. The film follows a woman who plans to propose to her girlfriend during said girlfriend’s parents’ holiday party. However, a wrench is thrown in this plan when it turns out that her girlfriend has not yet come out to her conservative parents yet.
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