Who wants to spend two hours watching people falling in love, saving Christmas, facing injustice, or dying of cancer? If I'm going to commit to a fictional world, it should have something you don't often see in everyday life: spaceships, aliens, ghosts, time travel, magic swords, werewolves, zombies...anything but endless conversations.
There aren't a lot of gay characters in these movies, so most don't get reviewed here, or the review consists of "yet another heteronormative mess." I managed to find sixteen with gay characters and or strong subtexts from 2016-2026, and two that deserve inclusion as a warning: the queerbaiting was amazingly blatant.
Boys in the Trees. (2016). Boy walks his ex-boyfriend home. It's a long walk, with a downer ending, usually a turn-off for me. But in this case I'll make an exception
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018). The spineless producers came within an inch of having this spider-boy come out, but lost their nerve. At least he doesn't get a girlfriend.
Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020). The most excellent time-traveling duo, who started their career with blatant homophobia, atone for their past mistakes. Not only are they involved in a four-way romance, they have a nonbinary daughter.
Suicide Squad (2021). Supervillains are recruited to go on a "suicide" mission. No one actually says The Word, but there are two gay hints and only minimal heterosexual romance, and John Cena's Peacemaker would come out as bi on his tv spin-off.
Boys in the Trees. (2016). Boy walks his ex-boyfriend home. It's a long walk, with a downer ending, usually a turn-off for me. But in this case I'll make an exception
The Little Vampire 3D, (2017). The vampire and human boys come within an inch of an open romance. All they left out was the kiss.
Get Out (2017). A young black man meets the family of his white girlfriend, and uncovers a disturbing secret about white people. And still manages a gay subtext.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018). The spineless producers came within an inch of having this spider-boy come out, but lost their nerve. At least he doesn't get a girlfriend.
The Dead Don't Die (2019): Zombies invade a small town, with two guys who seem to be gay, but fail to actually come out due to the director's cowardice or homophobia.
Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020). The most excellent time-traveling duo, who started their career with blatant homophobia, atone for their past mistakes. Not only are they involved in a four-way romance, they have a nonbinary daughter.
Onward (2020): A 16-year old Elf boy and his older brother, a Troll, never express any heterosexual interest. Plus there's no bullying and a lesbian couple.
Suicide Squad (2021). Supervillains are recruited to go on a "suicide" mission. No one actually says The Word, but there are two gay hints and only minimal heterosexual romance, and John Cena's Peacemaker would come out as bi on his tv spin-off.
The Eternals (2021). The first open gay character in a Marvel movie, plus conversations in ancient Babylonian. But Gilgamesh is portrayed as straight. Sorry, Enkidu.
More after the break
