Three great gay movies to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon

Gay and gay-friendly cinema is not always known for its high-end budgets or exceptional quality, but it definitely has its place. After a big weekend, a break up, or just because it’s a miserable Sunday in winter, watch one of these three guilty pleasures that you will no doubt secretly love

Quentin Tarantino summed up Top Gun perfectly playing Sid in Sleep with Me when he said: “it is a story about a man’s struggle with his own homosexuality”. This hyper-masculine film is awash with homoerotic underlay: the fighter pilots chase each other mid-air, “Goose, check our tail” (mind the pun); and they pose almost pornographically in the locker room scene. Throw in the iconic volleyball scene and a score that includes a track titled Playing with the Boys and you start to agree with where Tarantino is coming from.

Exciting news was broken on May 23. Over thirty years after the release of this cult classic, Tom Cruise announced a sequel is in the works, with principal photography expected to start within the next 12 months!

In this ‘90s tale, we follow the perils of Gabriel (Christian Campbell) and Mark (John Paul Pitoc) as they try to find a place to hook up after cruising each other on the New York subway. While camp and fun throughout, the narrative turns very heteronormative by the time the credits role. All the same, when you need to remember that not all is bad in the world, you should check this light-hearted flick out. As an added bonus, Tori Spelling cast as Gabriel’s best friend Katherine is brilliantly terrible!

This is a coming of age piece about a young man falling for his best friend’s older brother (sounds like another type of video you may watch online, doesn’t it?). Shelter feeds the notion that the first person you meet is the person you will spend the rest of your life with, and without wanting to sound like a cynical single 30-something, it could be interpreted as a fairy-tale rather than a more realistic reflection of what life is actually like. With that said, it’s a very sweet film and will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.