This week’s topic screamed for a theme within a theme and I’m here to deliver. Since I posted the review of my favourite film of last year, Call Me By Your Name yesterday, I thought this week’s Thursday Movie Picks screamed for M+M romance! So here are three (+ a bonus) movies I think are heart breaking, and which feature gay themes.

1. Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIEN (2001)

So, no, this isn’t exactly a gay movie but it’s more like a movie of friendship, and the very confusing boundaries of two young men in this friendship. Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal star in this Mexican movie and it’s pretty darn good. Plus, this is the movie where my Luna-crush began, and I don’t think it has ever really gone away.

2. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005)

We all knew this was going to be mentioned, and it’s a heart breaking mention for many reasons. Not just because of the plot of the film, which is just soul crushing, but the fact that real life worked out exactly the other way around – we lost Ledger just three years after Brokeback Mountain was released. Still haven’t had the courage to rewatch that movie but when I do, it’s going to be as beautiful, sad and breathtaking as it was during the first time around.

3. WEEKEND (2011)

I wanted to talk about Weekend last because it’s a really brilliant film that I think is actually better than Moonlight, yet it almost isn’t talked about at all. It’s about a one-night stand, but of course things get a bit more complicated along the way, feelings grow and with that, hope. I still remember the last scene of the film, I still feel its pain. Why do gay films have to be so god damn sad, people!? Why!?

BONUS PICK: THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION (1998)

This is a film many have probably seen, but most likely forgotten, am I right? It’s not that it’s a bad film, but it falls into that 90’s pile of pretty decent movies and you can’t really seem to recall it on the top of your head. What’s that movie where Paul Rudd is gay and Jennifer Aniston falls for him? But it’s still a sweet movie, again, more friendship oriented, funny, and really about the love between two people without the actual romance. And I just thought it was fitting for this week, that’s all.

 THIS SERIES IS CREATED BY WANDERING THROUGH THE SHELVES

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  • Good choices and I always love a theme within a theme! I wasn’t sure about your first pick when I initially saw it but I was distracted (never a good idea with foreign films) so I gave it another chance and really liked it that time. Brokeback is just a wrenching experience with beautiful work by all including Ang Lee in the director’s chair. Glad to see the mention of Weekend which I agree is better than Moonlight (but then I hated Moonlight). It’s a small, quiet film so it’s nice to see some light shone on it. I thought Object of My Affection was a mushy misfire though.

    I don’t have a specific theme this week other than the romance in all three of mine follows a rocky path. My last was inspired by the Blindspot series poster!

    Blue is the Warmest Color has been on my watchlist for a long time but I’ve just haven’t gotten to it yet. Maybe with it being the appropriate time of the year I’ll finally correct that.

    The other two though, so sad but terrific films. I haven’t watched either in a while but I have seen both multiple times. Brokeback has such beautiful performances, even Anne Hathaway who I usually find rather risible. Atonement has all those amazing performances as well, even Vanessa Redgrave’s tiny cameo at the end is a knockout, plus that incredible imagery.

    I went with films where love’s course does not run smoothly either but all three are among my favorite films.

    Waterloo Bridge (1940)-A distinguished officer walks slowly across London’s Waterloo Bridge one evening during WWII pulling a talisman out of his pocket he falls into a reverie of his great lost love. On that same bridge in WWI then young soldier Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor) meets ballerina Myra Lester (Vivien Leigh-fresh off GWTW) when they are forced into a shelter during a bombing raid. Falling almost immediately in love they plan to marry but Roy is called to duty before they can and Myra pledges to wait for him. Having stayed out with him beyond curfew she is dismissed from the ballet and when Roy is reported killed in action full of hopelessness she falls into a life of degradation. On the stroll a year later in Waterloo Station Myra meets Roy, recently released as a prisoner of war and he whisks her off to his family estate in Scotland but is it too late for the pair? Beautifully directed by George Cukor, tragic and heart wrenching romance was the personal favorite of both Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor of their respective filmographies.

    The President’s Lady (1953)-In 1789 newly appointed Tennessee Attorney General Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) seeking living quarters at the farm of the Widow Donelson (Fay Bainter) meets her daughter Rachel Robards (Susan Hayward) recently separated from her abusive husband Lewis. They strike up a friendship and after an abortive attempt by Rachel to repair her marriage fall in love. Word soon arrives that Lewis has divorced her and the pair marry. Two years hence they discover that Lewis never finalized the papers and their union is bigamist, he is now suing on the grounds of adultery however. Truly free they remarry but scandal plagues them for the rest of their days as Andrew rises higher and higher in politics towards the presidency but their love remains strong. Tender romance with a very strong central performance by Susan Hayward looks at the mores of an earlier time and shows that mudslinging and the damage it causes are nothing new.

    Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)-Young naïve Angie Rossini (Natalie Wood) finds herself in quite a predicament after letting her guard down once and having a one night stand with feckless musician Rocky Papasano (Steve McQueen)….she’s pregnant. Seeking Rocky out she finds he at first doesn’t remember her but he steps up to help with the situation and despite interference from her very Italian family, his former showgirl squeeze and Rocky’s fears an attraction slowly blooms but there are bumps ahead before romance triumphs. Two movie stars at their peaks make this both gritty and swoony at the same time.

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    • Thank you! Glad to hear there are fellow Weekend appreciators out there. I was very eager to pick like three very different romance aspects. Like, I find the idea of friendship being romantic very interesting. And I think Y Tu Mama.. sort of captures that confusion between friendship and love so interestingly.

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  • I’ve only seen Y Tu Mama Tambien and Brokeback Mountain and I loved them both. I’ve never heard of the other two but they sound good.

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    • Hah, well, I had to recommend something that had another very weird romance element to it but I did put it in as a bonus, which sort of doesn’t count, so let’s leave it at 3 great movies! 😀

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    • Haaa.. that is a very small minority I think because I only know people who love it. Including me. But glad you like Y Tu Mama Tambien, that’s the one I find more rarely talked about.

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