15 LGBTQ Movies From 2018 to Stream This Thanksgiving Weekend

LGBTQ Movies From 2018 You Can Watch From Your Couch

It's true that LGBTQ representation on film has a long way to go, but compared to past years, 2018 is likely to go down as one of the best on record. While there are several excellent LGBTQ-themed films including Colette, Boy Erased, The Favourite, and Bohemian Rhapsody that won't hit streaming for a while yet, we rounded up 15 movies that can be comfortably screened from your couch when you're ready to unwind from family gatherings. A few of 2018's best films for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender viewers are available on various subscription outlets like Netflix and HBO, while many are available to rent for under $5. But never having to take off your pajamas is priceless.

Duck Butter- Netflix

What happens if you live out an entire relationship in 24 hours is the central conceit of Duck Butter, directed by Miguel Arteta (Beatriz at Dinner, The Good Girl) and with a script from Arteta and one of its stars, out actress Alia Shawkat (Search Party, Transparent). Shawkat plays Naima, a struggling actress whose inability to be truly honest helps her blow a chance to work on a Duplass brothers film. She meets the free-spirited Sergio, played by Spanish actress Laia Costa (Victoria), at a club and there is instant chemistry.

Following an initial brief encounter, the women embark on a 24-hour experiment of living out the highs and lows of a relationship in a single day that includes a pact to have sex once every hour. A thoughtful meditation on authenticity in relationships, the 24-hour experiment was shot in 25 hours where the actors and part of the crew stayed awake the entire time.

Alex Strangelove- Netflix

The nerdy guy losing his virginity trope gets a twist in this popular Netflix flick with the '80s teen angst feel when straight-A student Alex (Daniel Doheny) is more focused on Elliot (Antonio Marziale), the cute guy he met at a party, than Claire (Madeline Weinstein), the girl who's head over heels for him that he's been dating. It's a sweet coming-out story from director Craig Johnson that highlights the challenges of coming to terms with one's identity while also acknowledging the heartbreak of the Claires of the world.

Love, Simon - HBO

Love, Simon, based on the best-selling book by Becky Albertalli, follows Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) as he navigates closeted life in high school, battling blackmail and searching for love in the process. Love, Simon is groundbreaking as the first movie about a gay teen to be backed by a major studio, 20th Century Fox.

Disobedience- Amazon Prime (Free)

Sebastian Lelio, director of the Oscar-winner A Fantastic Woman, helms this sensual, thoughtful project that intersects female desire with Orthodox Judaism and grief that one of its stars, Rachel Weisz, shepherded to the big screen. Based on Naomi Alderman's 2006 novel, the film tells the story of Weisz's Ronit, who's escaped the cloistered environment of her youth to return to the north London neighborhood where she grew up upon learning of the death of her father, the rabbi. There she rekindles a romance with her first love, Esti (Rachel McAdams), a lesbian who denied her true desire for her faith and married her and Ronit's childhood friend Dovid (Allesandro Nivola).

Much ado has been made about the culminating "liberating" sex scene between Weisz and McAdams that unfolds partway through the film. And while it's quite something to behold, Disobedience is really a meditation on freedom, choice, and remaining true to one's self.

McQueen- Amazon Prime (Free)

This documentary on the gay British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who died by suicide in 2010, explores the cost of creativity and brilliance. "I was sure of myself and my sexuality and I've got nothing to hide. I went straight from my mother's womb onto the gay parade," McQueen once said, and this film is a peek under the hood into how hard the traffic was to navigate. His story is told through exclusive interviews with those closest to the designer, recovered archives, and of course, stunning fashion.

Becks- Amazon Pay ($3.99)

A Tony winner for her transformative turn as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch opposite Neil Patrick Harris (and several others in the title role) on Broadway, Lena Hall stars as the titular Becks in this indie about a folk-rock musician who follows her girlfriend (Hayley Kiyoko) from Brooklyn to Los Angeles only to be dumped in the opening scenes of the film. Heartbroken and aimless, Becks drives back east to St. Louis to crash with her mom (Christine Lahti), a former Catholic nun only tenuously OK with her daughter's sexuality. There, Becks gigs out at a dive bar where she falls for the wife of an old high school rival, played with lovely openness by Mena Suvari. For those unfamiliar with the mind-blowing range of Hall's vocal gymnastics, Becks offers up plenty of the sweeter side of her instrument with original songs from Alyssa Robbins. In this affecting film, Hall has pulled the heartstrings of an entirely new fan base. Liz Rohrbaugh and Daniel Powell directed the film, with Rebecca Drysdale joining them on the writing team.

Scotty and the Secret History - Amazon Pay ($4.99)

It's no surprise to most of us that the stars of old Hollywood were not universally heterosexual, but still there are some amazing stories in Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, Matt Tyrnauer's documentary about Scotty Bowers, who arranged liaisons for many of Tinsel Town's biggest names from the 1940s on. Bowers, now in his 90s, operated from a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. He claims to have fixed Katharine Hepburn up with 150 women, and that her supposed love affair with Spencer Tracy was a cover for the gay tendencies of both. He also talks about arranging a tryst between Cary Grant and Rock Hudson, sending tricks to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and his own sexual adventures with both men and women -- he tells of having a three-way with Ava Gardner and Lana Turner, and about assignations with other big stars (Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh) and government bigwigs (J. Edgar Hoover). "You know me. I'm up for anything ... anytime," Bowers says in the film.

Tully- Amazon Pay ($5.99)

Tully, spearheaded by screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, features a bisexual lead character, played by Oscar-winner Charlize Theron. Theron embodies Marlo, an exhausted mother who just gave birth to her third (and unplanned) child. Days before delivery she runs into the love who ruled her long-gone 20s, another woman. Tully depicts Marlo's bisexuality with subtlety and without making an issue of it, making it a rare film in which LGBTQ characters are allowed to exist outside their queer identities or, in Marlo's case, struggle to keep going.

We the Animals- Amazon Pay ($5.99)

Based on the beloved queer novel by Justin Torres, We the Animals is a moving coming-of-age film that has been called "this year's Moonlight." It centers on Jonah, who turns 10 at the film's onset, and his tumultuous journey coming to terms with his sexuality and masculinity in a mixed white and Puerto Rican household in upstate New York. It is loosely inspired by life events experienced by Torres and his family.

A Kid Like Jake- Amazon Pay ($3.99)

Claire Danes and Jim Parsons star as parents navigating the politics of the New York City private school world when a preschool director, played by Octavia Spencer, suggests that their child Jake is "gender-expansive. While Jake's parents, Alex (Danes) and Greg (Parsons), are supportive of their child, things begin to unravel as they bump up against obstacles and expectations others have thrown at them in terms of 4-year-old Jake's identity and future. Transparent's Silas Howard directs the cast of heavy hitters that includes Priyanka Chopra, Amy Landecker, and Ann Dowd.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post- Amazon Pay ($4.99)

Out director Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior) brings Emily M. Danforth's beloved 2012 YA novel to the big screen with this timely adaptation. Chloe Grace Moretz stars as Cameron, whose evangelical aunt ships her off to God's Promise, a conversion therapy camp run by Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother/guinea pig for her therapy, the allegedly reformed Rev. Rick (John Gallagher Jr.) after Cameron's caught having sex with a girl in her Bible study.

Set in 1993 but totally of the moment thanks to the anti-LGBTQ Trump-Pence administration, the film is refreshingly frank in its depiction of queer female sexual desire. Sasha Lane, Emily Skeggs, and Forrest Goodluck costar as fellow "disciples" of God's Promise.

Allure- Amazon Pay ($3.99)

Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood turns in a heartrending, terrifying performance as Laura, a young woman whose history of sexual abuse leads her to prey on a 16-year-old girl who she convinces to run away and live with her. She and the teen Eva (excellent newcomer Julia Sarah Stone) engage in a twisted version of what must look like a relationship to someone who's suffered years of abuse. Wood, who is no stranger to brutal roles, is as good as she's ever been in this difficult-to-watch but important film from first-time feature directors Carlos and Jason Sanchez about breaking the cycles of abuse. American Horror Story alumna Denis O'Hare is outstanding as Laura's father.

The Gospel According to André - Amazon Pay ($4.99)

Fashion icon Andre Leon Talley is just the kind of towering figure who deserves his own documentary. Filmmaker Kate Novack charts his life beginning with his relationships with his beloved grandmother and with the black church as a child. It goes on to highlight his career as a fashion guru at publications including Women's Wear Daily, W, and Vogue. The film features commentary from such luminaries as Anna Wintour, Tamron Hall, Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Valentino, Manolo Blahnik, Maureen Dowd, Fran Lebowitz, Eboni Marshall Turman, and Will.i.am.

Hearts Beat Loud- Amazon Pay ($4.99)

Kiersey Clemons and Sasha Lane offer up one of the sweetest, most grounded depictions of young love in this lovely indie from director Brett Haley. The relationship between Clemons's Sam and her record store-owning dad, Frank (Nick Offerman), as she preps to head to college to study medicine while he pushes her to start a band with him is the central focus of the film, but there's plenty to enjoy in the tender relationship between Sam and out actress Lane's carefree Rose. Toni Collette, Blythe Danner, and Ted Danson round out the fantastic cast.

Every Act of Life- Amazon Pay ($4.99)

Jeff Kaufman directs this documentary about the life and career of playwright Terrence McNally that is absolute catnip to theater devotees. With McNally as the central interview subject, the film charts his beginnings as a gay boy growing up in homophobic Corpus Christi, Texas, to his move to New York City and his increasing success in the theater world amid the LGBTQ civil rights movement and the AIDS epidemic. The film is peppered with archival footage of some of McNally's greatest work such as Master Class and Love, Valour, Compassion! The film features interviews with acting greats including F. Murray Abraham, Christine Baranski, Rita Moreno, Nathan Lane, Tyne Daly, Angela Lansbury, and the list goes on and on.