It’s been winning awards and acclaim everywhere — and it’s now playing in theaters across the country. Is Daniel Ribeiro’s new Brazilian gay teen drama The Way He Looks the best gay teen romance ever? Here’s a select A-Z list of top contenders — running the gamut from this year’s other hot new gay teen release, the Dutch track team romance Boys to the 1978 Danish classic, You Are Not Alone. Enjoy the trailers and chime in with your votes and write-in candidates in the comments below (and click thru on the links to visit the GoWatchIt.com pages where you can find out where to watch them all).
This is just a quick top ten — if we missed your favorite gay teen romance don’t hesitate to kvetch about it (I mean, let us know) in the comments field below.
deltabadhand
“The Fruit Machine” (released in the U.S. as “Wonderland”) was more a thriller but the leads were 2 gay teenagers who ran away from home together. Loved how straightforwardly and matter of factly their being gay was presented (this move is about 30 years old.) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/mobile/m/the-fruit-machine-wonderland/
Trippy
I’ve always been a big fan of Beautiful Thing. Any movie that can work a black woman with a Mama Cass obsession into the main narrative gets my vote every time.
loafersguy
All good movies, but “Beautiful Thing” is pretty much the gold standard in this category.
rozz01
Yeah… me too. I can watch Beautiful Thing and Shelter over and over again
NateOcean
I don’t know how it happened, but I missed “Beautiful Thing” when it came out years ago. The trailer above doesn’t do it justice; comes off as wacky. It’s really a goof film and well worth seeking out.
There’s a delightful fan short on YouTube that will give you the proper taste and feel for the film:
“Beautiful Thing – Jamie & Ste – Make Your Own Kind Of Music”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1K8DY8pLTQ
Atlas Deen
I’m sure “The Way He Looks” will def be my favorite, ‘cus I’ve seen the short film its based off of literally 20 times, but as of now, my favorite gay teen flick is “A Beautiful Thing” purely for it being so wonderful. And I hope that “Something Like Summer” based off the book of the same name by Jay Bell will also become one of my faves. I also love “Boys” “Come Undone” and “Get Real”!!
I hated “Geography Club”, it was just sooooooo boring and “Edge of Seventeen” just did not click for me.
And may I suggest “Dream Boy” “Private Romeo” “G.B.F” “Romeos” “Jitters” and “Suicide Room” as other good gay teen flicks…? 🙂 They are really, really good! And most of them have happy endings which is quite a rarity for queer films, as we all know.
MarionPaige
The short “Doors Cut Down” (En Malas Companias ?) is a great movie about a teenage boy in Argentina. In additional to it being a well done production with attractive, talented actors, the movie is unapologeticaly GAY. The movie was clearly designed for a gay audience. There is none of this gay angst shit in the movie. The guy is gay, his parents accept him being gay, he goes after a jock in his high school without hesitation, he cruises the mens room of the local mall (hence the title) and … he doesn’t die at the end.
martinbakman
I saw The Way He Looks at Outfest. Afterwards there was sustained applause. The movie is so well done, well acted and such a nice story.
I love North Sea Texas, also a great movie.
I saw The Way He Looks again recently when it was released in theaters and was sad not to see more seats filled. Go see it if you have a chance. Brazil submitted this one as their entrant for the next Oscars, best foreign language film.
dhmonarch89
haven’t seen it, but it has to be incredible to top Beautiful Thing- not only best gay teen movie, best GAY movie!
stranded
Unfortunately i think Beautiful Thing is probably getting a bit dated, but i woulds still rank it over The Way He looks. The Way He Looks is fantastic, i’ve been praising it to whoever will listen. Get Real is also really good, it was the first gay-themed movie i saw. I think it has a strong message about self acceptance in the end. I thought North Sea Texas was a little boring. Geography Club was awful, Were the World Mine wasn’t that good. Edge of 17 is good, but even more dated than Beautiful Thing. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Come Undone. I think it’s a good drama, but for 17 year old me, it was the best wanking material I had before i found internet porn. Haven’t seen Summer Storm, You Are Not Alone or Boys. I think Monster Pies could have been a good contender but they RUINED it with the ending. Death by suicide in gay teen romances is passe.
jwtraveler
Some of the whitest Brazilians I’ve ever seen. And a bunch more films with perfect, beautiful white boys fresh out of the clone factory. Not that some of them aren’t good films (I loved “Beautiful Thing” too), but it would be nice to see a little variety. I don’t know about you, but there aren’t a lot of boys who look like this where I live, in NYC.
loafersguy
“Monster Pies” (2013) is another one. Very much worth seeing, although I didn’t care for the ending:
http://youtu.be/NwfThsvcQ3Q
Raphael
@jwtraveler: What do you mean by “Some of the whitest Brazilians I’ve ever seen.” We’re all like that here in Brazil. I don’t know why all you people think that here in South America we’re all like Mexicans.
Cam
The problem with Beautiful Thing is, that for some reason you can’t get it on Streaming services. To see it apparently you have to watch it in DVD. So it’s a shame that it’s been really difficult to see for the last decade or so.
NateOcean
@Cam: I was surprised, but the entire film is on YouTube.
Cam
@NateOcean: Nice!
Blackceo
Awwww….I can’t wait to see this movie. Looks so cute. I love foreign language gay films. They seem to be among the best, although Shelter and Latter Days are among my favorites. But, Beautiful Thing, Get Real, Angels of Sex, Out In The Dark, Free Fall….all foreign gay films I love. They just seem to know how to do it better.
kayakriver
North Sea Texas is probably the best gay themed movie that I’ve ever seen, so beautiful and poignant.
Blackceo
@kayakriver:
Yes….I loved North Sea Texas. I was just watching that on Netflix this past weekend. It was beautiful and reminded me of my own infatuation with an older childhood friend who I had some sexual moments with. It was a really good coming of age gay film and other people I talked to who viewed it also related to it in some way.
Joseph1969
Seriously, somebody actually said that a movie being available on DVD (and thus easy to rent or purchase) is “really difficult to see”??? Wow. Just. Wow.
tdx3fan
I’ve seen most of the list, and they were all good. I have not seen the movie mentioned in the post, so I cannot comment on best, but I would definitely add White Frog to the list, and I would say that out of all of them White Frog is easily the most filled with teen angst drama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF1WeKUKrgk
tdx3fan
@Raphael: Because the majority of the gay community only knows about Brazil from “Brazilian” gay porn.
tdx3fan
@Joseph1969: Not sure where you live, but where I live we almost all have internet access… the result is that there are no dvd rental services within 12+ miles of my home. Most of the ones that do exist exist in either areas where people obviously cannot afford computers + internet or where there is no decent internet access. That means, its next to impossible to rent something on DVD, so it would have to be purchased from Amazon. Not that purchasing it is a bad thing… except that my only DVD player is my old PS3.
brionc29
@MarionPaige: I believe the short film “Doors Cut Down” is from Spain. Also it is available on a collection of short films entitled “Boys Briefs 2” available on DVD.
Joseph1969
@tdx3fan: I live in Texas and the nearest DVD rental store is 19 miles away; but “Beautiful Thing” is still available to rent from Netflix as a DVD, as well as to purchase at Amazon or TLA Video, so to say that it is “really difficult to see” is patently false. (But, then, I’m old school and still only rent DVDs from Netflix since the vast majority of films I want to see are NOT available for streaming.)
Blackceo
@tdx3fan:
Yeah…I liked that one too. Booboo Stewart was phenomenal playing the younger brother with Aspergers.
sfcarlos65
I’ve just seen, “The Way He Looks”, I thought it was well made and in the league as “Beautiful Thing” and “Edge of Seventeen”.
martinbakman
@tdx3fan: White Frog is great and much better if folks don’t spoil the story. Another nice movie is Harvest. Very sweet and subtle, another European flick like North Sea Texas that I love, although some are board with subtitles and lack of action, and find these movies so worthy. http://youtu.be/8PHcCEEaoxU
MarionPaige
@brionc29:
Thanks, that gay mtv guy “Danny Roberts” is the narrator who introduces the shorts. At the time I saw the DVD, I could not find much info on the actor Israel Rodriguez who plays the 16 year old boy. Rodriguez is now in his 30’s and he’s done a lot of tv work.
Guillem Morales’ “Back Room” is also on this dvd
Saint Law
I wonder if teenage gay boys are quite as fixated on flix about middle aged gay love.
Hmm.
chris
SHANK – [vimeo 61371843 w=500 h=281] SHANK Trailer from xian1969 on Vimeo.
http://www.bonne-idee-cinema.com
chris
Or should that be this link
http://vimeo.com/61371843
martinbakman
@jwtraveler: There are more and more diverse LGBT films around the world, including films from Mexico, Cuba, and South America. There were several Latino LGBT films shown at OutFest. As far as Daniel Ribeiro’s Brazilian gay teen drama The Way He Looks, this was partly based on his own experience growing up in Brazil. He chose to portray what he knew about. A non-white experience from Brazil would be an interesting subject for a movie as well. If you have a chance, see Children of God, which portrays a gay Bahamian named Romeo, a very beautiful black guy.
jwtraveler
@Saint Law: Where do I find flix about middle-aged gay love? After 35 years being “out” I’m getting really bored and frustrated with all the coming out stories about teens and [email protected]martinbakman: I am aware that there are gay films about non-white men from various countries. I was commenting on the fact that all the films discussed in this article were about very white boys. One film I highly recommend is a South Korean film called “No Regret”. It’s unfortunate that not many people have seen it as it is outstanding and quite sophisticated in its theme, though the main characters are gay, the film is really more about class differences.
jwtraveler
@Raphael: I think your irony and sarcasm might be lost on most of the readers here who are not that familiar with Brazil.
Cam
@Joseph1969: said… “Seriously, somebody actually said that a movie being available on DVD (and thus easy to rent or purchase) is “really difficult to see”??? Wow. Just. Wow.”
_________________________
Most video stores have closed, and yes, while Netflix still does send out DVD’s most people I know have not bothered to get new or even keep their old DVD players. Between Apple TV, Roku, and the new smart TV’s you can get pretty much everything streaming. Beautiful Thing seems to be one of the very few that you cannot.
If you still have a DVD player, good for you, but huge numbers of younger people don’t and it’s a shame that they may have never seen such a great movie.