With greater visibility of queer stories, more and more movies covering the LGBTIQ experience are emerging on streaming services. There are many classics unavailable digitally in Australia, but critic Glenn Dunks’ list of the best on Netflix Australia should keep you busy.
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* All new movies & series on Netflix
* All new streaming movies & series
Page last updated: June 9, 2022
Alaska is a Drag (2017)
Watch on NetflixThis is not a documentary about iconic drag queen Alaska Thunderf*ck 5000 (but note to Netflix, we would watch that!). Rather, Shaz Bennett’s debut feature is a charming coming-of-age drama, the likes of which went out of fashion in the 1990s. For a low-budget indie, Alaska is a Drag looks and sounds great, and its cast have a charming naturalism that suits its setting of a small town on the brink of progressiveness.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Watch on NetflixAng Lee’s groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain has had to weather all the ‘gay cowboys eating pudding’ jokes and survive the mainstream culture’s homophobic response to the very idea of two men (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) having sex on screen (even if it was in a dark tent). Nowadays, it is rightfully seen as just a regular ol’ classic and deserved winner of four Academy Awards.
Carol (2015)
Watch on NetflixDirector Todd Haynes and writer Phyllis Nagy took a chance at adapting a definitive work of lesbian pulp literature (Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt) for the arthouse and it paid off. The film follows a wealthy 1950s repressed housewife (Cate Blanchett) and her affair with a younger paramour (Rooney Mara), herself in a loveless heterosexual relationship. It is told with exceptional attention to detail and beautiful craft. Carter Burwell’s score deserves special praise, and the film’s final shot has become rightly famous.
Circus of Books (2019)
Watch on NetflixIf you are perhaps a bit prudish about hardcore pornography, then this documentary might not be for you. But if viewers want to learn about how an old-fashioned mom and pop porno store came to be a force in the queer awakenings of a generation of Los Angeles queers, then Rachel Mason’s funny and touching semi-autobiography (her parents own the titular Circus of Books) is a must see. Bonus points for featuring the aforementioned drag queen Alaska.
Concussion (2014)
Watch on NetflixMarital malaise isn’t just for the normies anymore. A Teddy Award winner for queer film at the Berlin Film Festival, Robin Weigert stars as a lesbian housewife who decides kids and a picket fence aren’t everything that she wants, and so takes on the pseudonym Eleanor and the role of sex worker. Emotionally complex, Stacie Passon’s film struck some surprising notes at a time when marriage equality didn’t exist and heteronormativity was the aim.
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
Watch on NetflixWhen the history of the queer liberation movement is made, one name stands out for her fearless—and for far too long, unrecognised—contribution. This fascinating documentary by David France (Oscar-nominee for How to Survive a Plague, about the AIDS epidemic) is framed around the mystery of Johnson’s unsolved death, while at the same time bringing the achievements of the transgender leader to the masses. Shunned by the gay community, this movie lifts Marsha P. Johnson up to her rightful place as an icon.
Disclosure (2020)
Watch on NetflixReplicating the style of 1990s classic The Celluloid Closet, this lauded and much-needed cinematic history lesson takes viewers through the history of transgender representation on screen. Whether it’s subtextual or in-your-face, trans people have always been on screen, although not always in ways that look good in 2021. Narrated by Laverne Cox, it’s an essential way to learn about what film history books often ignore.
Duck Butter (2018)
Watch on NetflixAlia Shawkat remains one of the most compelling and unexpected stars, with the bisexual Arrested Development breakout having built a career in wicked and warped indie film and television. Duck Butter is no different, but that shouldn’t be surprising from Miguel Arteta (Beatriz at Dinner, Like a Boss). Themes of honesty and intimacy come thick and fast as Shawkat stars alongside the Duplass brothers (and the voice of Marc Maron) in a film about sexual and emotional experimentation.
Funny Boy (2020)
Watch on NetflixFilmmaker Deepa Mehta stoked controversy in her homeland of Sri Lanka due to the highly sexual and feminist nature of her movies. Funny Boy, a literary adaptation that won Mehta a Canadian Screen Award in her adopted country, sees her return to Sri Lanka with this true coming-of-age story set against the outbreak of the country’s civil war in 1983. A rare opportunity to see a relatively mainstream queer film by and about people of colour.
The Half of It (2020)
Watch on NetflixWriter-director Alice Wu hadn’t made a movie since Saving Face in 2004. What a surprise, then, to discover she was behind this unexpected, quiet stunner: a contemporary retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac about straight-A student Ellie (Leah Lewis) and ineloquent jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) who both have a crush on the same girl. Its strengths lie in how seriously it treats its teen characters’ lives and desires, and the unexpected hetero-homosexual friendship at its core (a big rarity).
Handsome Devil (2016)
Watch on NetflixAs uncommon as genuine films are about gay-straight friendships, fewer still are films about queer friendships that are not predicated on attractions, romance, and sex. John Butler’s Irish boarding school drama finds two more unlikely teenagers forming a bond of friendship, this time as they each navigate coming out from opposite ends of the social ladder.
Hating Peter Tatchell
Watch on NetflixAustralia’s answer to Larry Kramer, Peter Tatchell is a fascinating queer rights activist from Queensland who made a name for himself as a controversial intellectual on British television and in politics. Filled with great Thatcher-era archival footage and a one-on-one interview between Tatchell and Sir Ian McKellen, Christopher Amos’ Aussie-made documentary embraces his rabble-raising messiness as much as his pioneering history.
Head On (1998)
Watch on NetflixA small selection of Australian titles (including Holding the Man and Teenage Kicks) is led by this transgressive, high-octane film from director Ana Kokkinos and based on Christos Tsiolkas’ novel. Set among Melbourne’s Greek community, Alex Dimitriades awoke many an Aussie queer boy’s mind as the highly sexual Ari, confronting familial and societal expectations around masculinity and the places Australia’s multicultural society intersects within it.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
Watch on NetflixEven if the reveal of its final scene didn’t make it abundantly clear that the lead character was a member of the LGBTIQ community, there is also a wonderfully queer spirit that runs through this madcap family animation. In a sign of the times, movie buff and wannabe filmmaker Katie (voiced by openly bisexual star of Broad City, Abbi Jacobson) the drama is not around her coming out, but the generational divide of parent and child.
Margarita with a Straw (2014)
Watch on NetflixRomantic features about people with disabilities are rare enough as it is, let alone those with LGBTIQ characters. This modest film chooses optimism over suffering, and its quirks give it flavour rather than making for insufferably twee cinema.
The Matrix (1999)
Watch on NetflixMany big Hollywood titles on Netflix Australia have queer characters (Birds of Prey), camp value (Batman Returns, Charlie’s Angels) or subtext (Top Gun, The Lord of the Rings trilogy), but few have been adopted as canonically queer quite like The Matrix. While the story of Neo (Keanu Reeves) having his eyes opened to the reality of his true identity may have passed most people by in 1999 (co-opted instead by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists), it’s impossible not to see it now.
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020)
Watch on NetflixThe flamboyant television psychic Walter Mercado was a force that would’ve gone completely unnoticed in Australia. Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch’s film doesn’t seek to relish in the murky, grubby gossip around his sexuality, but instead finds the non-binary affection and empathy that Mercado had for the world. Mucho Mucho Amor is a tonic.
Operation Hyacinth
Watch on NetflixInspired by the “pink files” era of Poland in the 1980s, this Netflix exclusive drama follows a detective as he is ordered to help build a public database of homosexuals but discovers his allegiances swayed. With a compelling lead performance by Tomasz Zietek, Operation Hyacinth effectively recreates its chilly eastern bloc setting with more amazing moustaches than you could ever hope for.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Watch on NetflixJane Campion’s prestige western may be set in 1925 Montana (and shot in New Zealand) but tells the universal tale of an effeminate young man sticking up for his mother in the face of a homophobic brute. With this impeccably made feature, Jane Campion equalled her greatest works The Piano and Top of the Lake after many years away from the camera. This one will leave you talking for days afterwards.
Pray Away (2021)
Watch on NetflixWe’ve seen multiple dramatic features about the dangerous practice of so called ‘gay conversion therapy’ starring the likes of Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Chloe Grace Moretz. Kristine Stolakis’s sobering, affecting documentary tells the true story behind the barbaric act, and its roots in America’s conservative and fundamentalist movements.
Predestination (2014)
Watch on NetflixIntersex themes are rarely explored in film. This would be enough to make the Spierig brothers’ Predestination an anomaly worth celebrating. Thankfully, the movie is also a winner with its paradoxical time-travel narrative, serial killer mystery, and incredible break-out performance by Succession’s Sarah Snook. Winner of four AACTA Awards, and featuring one of Ethan Hawke’s many wonderful forays into weird genre territory, Predestination is an entirely unique take on queer film.
The Queen (1968)
Watch on NetflixNot just pre-AIDS, but pre-Stonewall, too: director Frank Simon aims his camera at the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant, where Andy Warhol was a judge. The film is most famous for the appearance of Crystal LaBeija who gives one of the all-time greatest moments in drag film as she rails against pageantry racism. It’s so good that lip-syncs are performed to its insult-laden tirade to this day.
Strong Island (2017)
Watch on NetflixGender isn’t the prime focus of this Oscar-nominated true crime documentary. But the intersections of director Yance Ford’s identification as a transgender man and the racist realities of his brother’s unsolved murder very much are. This was one of the best documentaries of the decade and a powerful directorial vision.
Tokyo Godfathers
Watch on NetflixReleased 20 years ago, Satoshi Kon’s Christmas-themed animated classic features a prominent transgender character among its trio who rescue a baby from the streets. Inspired by John Ford’s western Three Godfathers, the character of Hana has become one of the most beloved queer characters in anime.
tick, tick… BOOM! (2021)
Watch on NetflixLovers of Broadway theatre were gifted a new classic movie musical in 2021—and it wasn’t West Side Story! Andrew Garfield was Oscar-nominated for his incredible portrayal of Rent composer Jonathan Larson in this adaptation by of Larson’s autobiographical play from the early 1990s. Fantasy and grim reality merge on the streets of New York City with in an impeccably well-written soundtrack that swings from catchy cabaret to full-throated power ballads. With a bevy of Broadway cameos (and Vanessa Hudgens!), Hamilton’s Lin Manuel Miranda made a stunning debut film.
Your Name Engraved Herein (2020)
Watch on NetflixDuring the time of martial law in Taiwan in the early 1980s, two young boys fall in love. What makes Liu Kuang-Hui’s film really work (beyond its striking cinematography) is a contemporary flash-forward that revisits our romantic leads after several decades apart. This section, which has strong Before Sunset vibes and a superb performance by Leon Dai, speaks to the melancholy of all loves lost.
UPDATES
Titles are added and removed from his page to reflect changes to Netflix’s catalogue. The reviews no longer available on this page can be read here.
