10. Bound is a 1996 neo-noir crime thriller film directed by the Wachowski brothers. Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano), enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon), and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of mafia money.Bound was the first film directed by the Wachowskis, and they took inspiration from Billy Wilder to tell a noir story filled with sex and violence. Financed by Dino De Laurentiis, the film was made on a tight budget with the help of frugal crew members including cinematographer Bill Pope. The directors initially struggled to cast the lesbian characters of Violet and Corky before securing Tilly and Gershon. To choreograph the sex scenes, the directors employed sex educator Susie Bright, who has a bit part in the film.
Bound received positive reviews from film critics who praised the humor and style of the directors as well as the realistic portrayal of a lesbian relationship in a mainstream film. Detractors of the film criticized the excessive violence and superficiality of the plot. The film won several festival awards.
9. High Art. Sydney (or simply 'Syd'), age 24, is a woman who has her whole life mapped out in front of her. Living with longtime boyfriend James, and working her way up at the respected high-art photography magazine Frame, Syd has desires and frustrations that seem typical and manageable. But when a crack in her ceiling springs a leak and Syd finds herself knocking on the door of her upstairs neighbor, a chance meeting suddenly takes her on a new path.Opening the door to an uncharted world for Syd is Lucy Berliner, a renowned photographer, enchanting, elusive, and curiously retired. Now 40, Lucy lives with her once glamorous, heroin-addicted German girlfriend Greta, and plays host to a collection of hard-living party kids. Before Syd's caught her breath, she's caught Lucy's fascination and is drawn into the center of Lucy's strangely alluring life upstairs.
Syd mentions Lucy to her bosses (without realising that she is famous) but they remain uninterested until they realise exactly who Lucy is. At a lunch, Lucy agrees to work for the magazine as long as Syd is her editor. Soon a working relationship develops between the two and a project is underway which promises a second chance for Lucy's career. But as Syd and Lucy's collaboration draws them closer together, their working relationship turns sexual and the lines between love and professionalism suddenly blur. As Syd slowly discovers the darker truths of Lucy's life on the edge, she is forced to confront her own hunger for recognition and the uncertain rewards of public esteem.
8. Better Than Chocolate. Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) has recently moved out on her own, and has started a relationship with another woman, Kim (Christina Cox). However, Maggie's mother Lila (Wendy Crewson) and brother, who are forced to move into her loft sublet with her, are unaware that she is a lesbian. Maggie's freedom is compromised, and she believes she must keep her blossoming affair a secret. However, the clandestine romance introduces Maggie's family to a host of new experiences, many of which are "better than chocolate."The cast also includes Ann-Marie MacDonald as
7.The Kids Are All Right. Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a married lesbian couple living in The younger child Laser (Josh Hutcherson) wants to find his sperm donor but has to be 18 to do so. He begs his 18-year-old sister Joni (Mia Wasikowska) to contact the sperm bank and determines that Paul (Mark Ruffalo) is the donor. The three meet. Joni is impressed by his bohemian lifestyle, and Paul is enthusiastic about being in their lives. Joni swears Laser to secrecy as she does not want to upset their mothers. However, Jules and Nic find out and invite Paul over to dinner. When Jules reveals she has a landscape business, Paul asks her to landscape his back garden. Jules agrees, although Nic does not like the idea.
While working for Paul, Jules likes that he appreciates her work in contrast to Nic who, Jules feels, never supported her career. Jules impulsively kisses Paul one afternoon, and they end up in bed together, beginning an affair.
Jules and the kids start spending more time with Paul. Nic believes Paul undermines her authority over the children, for example, by giving Joni a ride on his motorcycle, which Nic has forbidden, and suggesting she give Joni more freedom. After a heated argument with Jules, Nic suggests they all have dinner at Paul's house to ease the tension. Nic relaxes and makes a connection with Paul over their mutual love for Joni Mitchell. However, Nic discovers traces of Jules's hair in Paul's bathroom and bedroom. When they return home, Nic confronts Jules. At first, Jules denies it but then admits to the affair. Nic is devastated, but Jules insists she is not in love with Paul and has not turned straight; she just wanted to be appreciated. The household becomes very tense with Jules sleeping on the couch. The children are angry at Jules and Paul. Paul thinks he has fallen for Jules and suggests she leave Nic, bring the kids, and come live with him. Jules declines, disgusted with Paul's lack of understanding about their relationship.
The night before Joni leaves home to go to college, Paul turns up at the house. Nic angrily confronts him, calling him an interloper, and tells him that if he wants a family, he should make one of his own. Rejected, Paul watches the kids from outside through the window, trying to get their attention, but they, too, turn away. Later that night, Jules tearfully admits her errors to her family and begs their forgiveness. The next morning, the family takes Joni off to college. While Nic and Jules together hug Joni to say goodbye, they also affectionately touch each other. During the ride home, Laser tells his mothers that they should not break up because they are too old. Jules and Nic giggle, and the film ends with them smiling at each other and holding hands
6. Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to play both the innocent White Swan and the sensual Black Swan. One dancer, Nina (Portman), is a perfect fit for the White Swan, while Lily (Kunis) has a personality that matches the Black Swan. When the two compete for the parts, Nina finds a dark side to herself.Aronofsky conceived the premise by connecting his viewings of a production of Swan Lake with an unrealized screenplay about understudies and the notion of being haunted by a double, similar to the folklore surrounding doppelgängers. Aronofsky cites Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Double" as another inspiration for the film. The director also considered Black Swan a companion piece to his 2008 film The Wrestler, with both films involving demanding performances for different kinds of art. He and Portman first discussed the project in 2000, and after a brief attachment to Universal Studios, Black Swan was produced in
The film premiered as the opening film for the 67th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2010. It had a limited release in the
5. Monster is a 2003 crime drama film about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was executed in 2002 for killing six men (she was not tried for a seventh murder) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Wuornos was played by Charlize Theron and her lover, Selby Wall, was played by Christina Ricci. The film was written and directed by Patty Jenkins.Much of Theron's preparation for the role is credited to Nick Broomfield's 1992 documentary, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, of which Charlize reportedly watched clips between takes. Theron won seventeen awards for her portrayal, including the Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress.
4. But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy heterosexual high school cheerleader. However, her friends and family are convinced that she is a homosexual and arrange an intervention, sending her to a residential inpatient reparative therapy camp to cure her lesbianism. There Megan soon realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the therapy, gradually comes to embrace her sexual orientation. The supporting cast includes Dante Basco, Eddie Cibrian, Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, RuPaul, Richard Moll, Mink Stole, Kip Pardue, and Bud Cort.But I'm a Cheerleader was Babbit's first feature film. It was inspired by an article about conversion therapy and her childhood familiarity with rehabilitation programs. She used the story of a young woman finding her sexual identity to explore the social construction of gender roles and heteronormativity. The costume and set design of the film highlighted these themes using artificial textures in intense blues and pinks.
Many critics did not like the film, comparing it unfavorably with the films of John Waters and criticizing the colorful production design. Although the lead actors were praised for their performances, some of the characters were described as stereotypical.
3. Imagine Me & You is a 2005 British-German comedy-romance film written and directed by Ol Parker. It centres on the relationship between Rachel, played by Piper Perabo and Luce, played by Lena Headey, who meet on Rachel's wedding day. The movie takes its title from a line in the song "Happy Together". The film opens on Rachel (Piper Perabo) and Hector's (Matthew Goode) wedding day. Rachel's bossy mother Tess (Celia Imrie) and adorably dazed dad Ned (Anthony Head) are introduced. Luce, (Lena Headey) who manages a flower shop, is the wedding florist. She also makes fast friends with Rachel's younger sister, Henrietta (nicknamed "H" because, according to Henrietta, her mother exclaimed "Jesus H. Christ!" upon discovering she was pregnant). However, as Rachel is walking up the aisle, her eyes meet Luce's and a connection is made.
2. If These Walls Could Talk 2 is an Emmy Award-winning 2000 television movie in the United States, broadcast on HBO. It follows three separate storylines about lesbian couples in three different time periods. As with the original If These Walls Could Talk, all the stories are set in the same house. The film is similar to the 2000 film Common Ground.The first segment is set in 1961, and stars Vanessa Redgrave as Edith Tree. It concerns the death of Tree's lover and soulmate, Abby Hedley, played by Marian Seldes, and Tree's exclusion from subsequent "family" matters.
The second segment, featuring Chloë Sevigny and Michelle Williams is set in 1972, and involves bitter divisions in the feminist movement at the time.
The third segment is set in the "present-day", is more light-hearted, and features Sharon Stone and Ellen DeGeneres as a lesbian couple trying for a baby.
The segments were directed by Jane Anderson, Martha Coolidge, and Anne Heche respectively
1. Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë Sevigny, and is beaten, raped and murdered by his male acquaintances after they discover he is anatomically female. The picture explores the themes of freedom, courage, identity and empowerment. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures and was released theatrically in October 1999.After reading about the murder of Brandon Teena while in college, Peirce intently researched the case—as well as Teena's life—and worked on a screenplay for the film for almost five years. All She Wanted, the 1993 book about the case written by Aphrodite Jones, inspired Peirce, but she chose to focus the story on the relationship between Teena and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel. Many actors campaigned for the lead over the course of three years; the then unknown Swank was cast because her personality seemed similar to Teena's. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Jeanetta Arnette, and Matt McGrath. The majority of characters were based on real-life people, while some were composites. Shooting lasted from October until November 1998 and filming took place in various locations throughout Texas.
Boys Don't Cry premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 1999 to overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics. Praise was generally focused on the two lead performances by Swank and Sevigny. The film received a limited nationwide release on October 22, 1999, and performed moderately well at the North American box office. At the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000, Swank was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress, while Sevigny was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film has been cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999, initially being assigned an NC-17 rating, later modified to an R rating. The release of the film was concurrent with the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, which sparked additional public interest.[1] The film was named after the song of the same name by The Cure, and a cover version of the song appears in the film.
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