11 Feel

By Chris Murphy

Finding an uplifting piece of media about a queer couple—one that doesn’t have a depressing ending—can be easier said than done. From Carol and Call Me by Your Name to Brokeback Mountain and Moonlight, an overwhelming number of queer romances end in tears, if not outright tragedy.

Thankfully, not every story that puts queer love at the forefront will leave your heart aching. Inspired by the return of Heartstopper and the upcoming premiere of Red, White & Royal Blue, we’ve compiled 11 movies and television shows that center queer romance without sacrificing queer joy. Put away the tissue box, and get ready to smile.

There’s nothing like young requited love. This British coming-of-age series, based on the graphic novel by Alice Oseman, is relentlessly sweet. Charlie (Joe Locke), a gay, music-loving year 10 student at Truham Grammar School for Boys, can’t help but fall for his maths partner, Nick (Kit Connor), a popular year 11 on the rugby team who takes an instant liking to Charlie. While the show’s fervent fandom may have taken their obsession with Charlie and Nick’s love story too far, Heartstopper is still a delight, capturing Nick and Charlie’s budding romance—and all the teenage angst that comes with it—without ever getting maudlin. Plus, Charlie and Nick aren’t the only queer romance to follow in Heartstopper; the series also makes space for love stories across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. If you start streaming right this second, you’ll be all caught up before season two of Heartstopper, which hits Netflix August 3.

By Eve Batey

By Savannah Walsh

By Eve Batey

Royal romances are the best kind. Directed and cowritten by Tony-winning scribe Matthew López, Red, White & Royal Blue adapts Casey McQuiston’s immensely popular New York Times best-selling novel in fabulous fashion. Red, White & Royal Blue follows two men with incredible family pedigrees—British prince Henry (Cinderella’s Nicholas Galitzine) and American first son Alex Claremont-Diaz (The Kissing Booth’s Taylor Zakhar Perez)—who must engage in a crisis-PR truce even though they get on each other’s nerves. But the more they talk, the more Henry and Alex discover that the line between love and hate is quite thin. “There are a lot of projects that have come and gone in my career that I have had the ability to let go of,” López told VF, “but if I wasn’t able to make this movie, it would’ve cost me something.” He got his wish as the helmer of this feel-good, fizzy romance, which also features none other than Uma Thurman as the president of the United States. You can paint yourself Red, White & Royal Blue when the film hits Amazon Prime August 11.

Some feel-good queer romances also double as camp classics. Look no further than But I’m a Cheerleader, the ’90s satirical rom-com which stars a young Natasha Lyonne as Megan Bloomfield, a lesbian cheerleader who gets sent to conversion therapy camp. Yes, that may not sound like the grounds for a feel-good queer love story—but in the hands of Lyonne, director Jamie Babbit, and screenwriter Brian Wayne Peterson, But I’m a Cheerleader becomes a romp about the queer experience, with Lyonne’s sexually confused cheerleader falling pom-poms-over-heels for Clea DuVall’s Graham, a cool, confident college student also at the camp. Along with DuVall and Lyonne, the cast includes once and future stars like Melanie Lynskey, Michelle Williams, and RuPaul, who does his darndest to butch it up as counselor Mike. RuPaul as an ex-gay? That’s even funnier than the hilarious Ross Mathews.

By Eve Batey

By Savannah Walsh

By Eve Batey

A very gay rom-com about a straight romance, Mike Nichols’s The Birdcage is an American remake of the 1978 Franco-Italian film La Cage aux Folles, later adapted into a beloved musical. The late Robin Williams and Nathan Lane star as Armand and Starina, a South Beach–based gay couple whose son, Val (Dan Futterman), falls in love with Barbara (Calista Flockhart), the daughter of Republican senator Kevin Keeley, played by Gene Hackman. When the senator and his wife (Dianne Wiest) pay Armand and Starina a visit, hijinks ensue as both attempt to play straight for the sake of their son’s budding relationship. With indelible comedic performances from both Lane and Williams in particular, The Birdcage will leave you guffawing and kvelling at Armand and Starina’s unconventional yet deeply loving relationship.

It’s easy to forget that Love, Simon broke ground five years ago as the first movie from a major Hollywood studio to follow a gay teenage romance. Directed by Greg Berlanti, Love, Simon told the tale of closeted gay teenager Simon (Nick Robinson) and his journey toward self-acceptance, as well as his burgeoning online relationship with a secret suitor. Mixing a classic coming-out narrative with a fresh online-dating mystery element, Love, Simon became a hit at the box office and helped usher in a new era for teen movies. It also featured one of Jennifer Garner’s career-best performances as Simon’s loving mother.

By Eve Batey

By Savannah Walsh

By Eve Batey

And without Love, Simon, we wouldn’t have the Hulu series Love, Victor. Set in the same cinematic universe as its predecessor, Love, Victor follows Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino), a new student at Simon’s high school who is both struggling with his sexual orientation and adjusting to his new school after moving from Texas to Atlanta. Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson called the series “very cute” and “very sincere” in his review when it premiered on Hulu in 2020, but lamented the fact that the show was moved from Disney+ to Hulu reportedly because of themes including teen drinking, marital discord, and the sexual exploration of its lead character. (It’s now available on Disney+.) While it may have been originally intended for a younger audience, Love, Victor still found success among the adults watching Hulu, lasting three seasons on the streaming platform and earning a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Joel Kim Booster’s Emmy-nominated Hulu movie Fire Island has an equal measure of raunch and romance. Based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Fire Island takes the manners and classism of 18th-century England and applies them to the present-day queer paradise. Wouldn’t you know that they map on quite well, as Booster’s Noah falls for rich and, at first, rude lawyer Will (Conrad Ricamora), in a fashion wonderfully echoing Austen’s Eilzabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Through a series of miscommunications and sex mishaps, Noah and Will have a whirlwind romance worthy of Austen and Fire Island. So does Noah’s BFF, played by Booster’s real BFF, Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang.

By Eve Batey

By Savannah Walsh

By Eve Batey

In the real world, Emily Dickinson’s life may have been considered tragic due to the fact that she didn’t live to see her work become world-renowned. But on Alena Smith’s Apple TV+ series, which fictionalizes the life of the poet as a young woman, Dickinson is anything but tragic. The spirited series, which lasted three seasons, starred Hailee Steinfeld as a brash and inspired Emily Dickinson. She’s fixated with death, played by Wiz Khalifa, but vivaciously alive and in love with her best friend (and her brother’s wife), Sue (Ella Hunt). While it’s not your classic queer romance narrative, Emily and Sue’s deep, unending love is at the heart of Dickinson, even if it’s forced to take new shape as the series goes on.

This Hulu rom-com provides another classic teen love story with a queer twist. Crush stars Rowan Blanchard as Paige Evans, an art-loving student who joins her high school track team in order to get closer to her crush, Gabriela (Isabella Ferreira). Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned: Paige winds up getting closer with Gaby’s twin sister and co-captain of the track team, AJ, played by Auli’i Cravalho. Crush, written by Kirsten King and Casey Rackham, gets right to the love triangles we find in so many teen rom-coms, eschewing a coming-out narrative for the messy romance that follows.

By Eve Batey

By Savannah Walsh

By Eve Batey

Another romantic comedy about finding yourself, Alex Strangelove stars Daniel Doheny as Alex Truelove, who gets caught between his girlfriend, Claire (Madeline Weinstein), and his burgeoning feelings for Elliot (Antonio Marziale), an out college boy he meets at a party. An indie film, Alex Strangelove, directed by The Skeleton Twins helmer Craig Johnson, takes a more adult and frank look at coming out than Love, Simon, complete with an awkward sex scene as Alex tries to figure out who it is he really loves.

Sometimes you have to fight for the things you want. From Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman, Bottoms stars Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott as Josie and PJ, two gay girls at the bottom of the social ladder who wind up starting an after-school fight club in order to impress their popular cheerleader crushes, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber). Seligman has described the film, which she cowrote with Sennott, as “a campy queer high school comedy.” That may be true, but Bottoms definitely has some romantic comedy elements as well, as Josie and PJ get closer to their crushes by way of school-sanctioned physical violence. Bottoms hits theaters on August 25.

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