Stream Queens: Explore the best of queer cinema with MUBI

We’re living in a golden age of queer cinema. In 2024, the stories of the LGBTQ+ lives we see on screen are rich, multidimensional and varied, and one of the best places to access these diverse stories is on MUBI. For Pride month, the streaming service has assembled an eclectic collection of queer films of all shapes and sizes on its platform, from groundbreaking works of LGBTQ+ cinema to mint-fresh gems.

A perfect example of the latter is the invigorating Monica from Andrea Pallaoro. It stars trans actress Trace Lysette as the titular Monica, who’s been living in LA for over a decade after being thrown out of her Midwestern home by her transphobic mother, Eugenia. When Monica hears news that Eugenia is dying from a brain tumour, she makes a reluctant return home to say goodbye, only to find that her mother doesn’t recognise her, assuming instead that she’s her new caregiver. The result is a stunning film concerned with queer alienation, familial reconciliation and acceptance.

We like Monica so much, in fact, we’ll be screening it at CCA Glasgow on 18 June and Summerhall in Edinburgh on 19 June as part of the CineSkinny Film Club. Come along and join us! In the meantime, below we’ve suggested some other LGBTQ+ films to check out on the MUBI platform this Pride.

Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Films

A good place to start is with some of those queer cinema touchstones. For example, Cheryl Dunye’s breezy 1996 mockumentary The Watermelon Woman. Dunye plays a version of herself, an aspiring filmmaker who’s juggling a new romance with a filmmaking project about a mysterious black actress (the eponymous ‘Watermelon Woman’) who was uncredited in early Hollywood films. As well as being a compelling search for identity and community, Dunye’s effortlessly cool debut feature also offers a touching examination of interracial queer relationships and a biting critique of the film industry.

Sexual repression is the furnace that fuels Merchant and Ivory’s 1987 film Maurice. It centres on Cambridge student Maurice ( James Wilby) as he comes to terms with his sexuality after a clandestine affair with a fellow student (a young and beautiful Hugh Grant) goes sour. Merchant and Ivory are rarely discussed as part of the New Queer Cinema that emerged in the 1980s and 90s, but this tender, graceful love story should be filed among the best films from that movement.

Modern Queer Classics

Plenty of more recent films on the MUBI platform have achieved queer classic status, not least Robin Campillo’s electric ensemble drama 120 BPM. With much style and wit, it depicts the direct action tactics of ACT UP Paris at the height of the AIDS pandemic. A film full of impassioned speeches, hot sex and pulsating music, it follows the various political debates and romantic imbroglios that emerge between the members, some of whom won’t live long enough to see how galvanising their protests would be in changing perceptions around this devastating virus.

There’s a similar propulsive energy to Tangerine, Sean Baker’s hilarious and surprisingly touching film following a day in the life of two LA trans sex workers. That day is, in fact, Christmas Eve, and this exuberant drama, famously shot on an iPhone, is a wonderful ode to queer friendships and found families forged on the edge of society. Other modern queer classics streaming on MUBI include the love triangle drama Passages, the bisexual crisis comedy Appropriate Behaviour and the dangerously seductive Stranger by the Lake to name just a handful.

Gems to Discover

Perhaps the biggest joy of MUBI though is that as well as curating some of the most acclaimed arthouse films from around the world, it’s home to smaller titles that made less of a splash on their release but are crying out to be unearthed by curious film fans. One queer gem that’s flown under the radar recently is the utterly charming lesbian comedy Girlfriends and Girlfriends from Zaida Carmona. It concerns the romantic entanglements of six women in their 20s living their best lives in Barcelona. An arthouse cinema that’s screening an Éric Rohmer retrospective becomes a meeting place for two of the lovers, and there’s an obvious nod to Rohmer in the geometrical precision of the shifting relationships between the young women, not to mention Carmona’s film’s title itself (a riff on Rohmer’s 1987 comedy Boyfriends and Girlfriends).

We also urge you to catch the underseen Winter Boy from MUBI favourite Christophe Honoré (his moving romantic drama Sorry Angel is also among MUBI’s queer crop). Released by MUBI last year, Winter Boy is an achingly honest film concerned with the grief of a 17-year-old boy following his father’s sudden death. The lad breaks away from his mother in the suburbs to live with his older brother in Paris, where he works through his emotional distress by exploring art, sex and himself.

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To see Monica for free at The CineSkinny Film Club, head to theskinny.co.uk/tickets
Get access to MUBI for free for 30 days, head to mubi.com/theskinny