The Advocate Goes to the Movies

In conjunction with their 40th anniversary poll to find the top 40 "Gay Heroes", The Advocate is also giving readers a chance to name their ten favorite queer movies from the last 40 years.

Of the 40 films nominated, such usual suspects as Brokeback Mountain, Boys Don't Cry and Personal Best are present. Sprinkled in among the foreign fare (Before Night Falls, Law of Desire) and indie faves (Go Fish, Poison) are such Hollywood pap as In & Out, The Birdcage and Philadelphia, not to mention the just plain awful Mulholland Drive. Missing in action? Latter Days, Edge of Seventeen, Victor/Victoria, Trick, Cabaret ...

My personal top ten from this list is as follows (and illustrated above):

• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Aussie drag beats American drag (The Birdcage) every time.
• Beautiful Thing: I like my young love to end happily (My Own Private Idaho, I'm talking to you).
• Bound: I admit, I need to see more lesbian movies, but this one made me want to be a lesbian.
• Brokeback Mountain: Goes without saying.
• The Crying Game: The second most well known gay movie for straight audiences, after Brokeback.
• Longtime Companion: Narrowly ahead of Parting Glances and miles ahead of Philadelphia.
• Making Love: The first Hollywood film to get it (mostly) right.
• Maurice: As British films go, more romantic then Sunday Bloody Sunday.
• My Beautiful Laundrette: See above, add Daniel Day Lewis and champagne.
• Transamerica: Regarding transsexual themes, this one was a close call with Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Click here to vote for your own ten movies, plus your TV favorites and, for the guys, the hottest hunks of the past four decades. As for the ladies, there are no ladies to vote for (as of now). Note to Advocate editors: it is wise not to anger the lesbians.

Results will appear in The Advocate's 40th Anniversary issue and I will cover it here as well.

UPDATE: If anyone has the results of The Advocate's 40th Anniversary polls, please email them to me at my Hotmail address, located in the sidebar below my profile. It would be greatly appreciated!

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