6 Lesbian Love Stories To Stream This Pride Month
In honor of Pride Month, we’ve put together a list of the very best WLW films we could literally watch over and over again, and no, Blue Is The Warmest Colour did not make the cut.
Check out our ranking below!
6. Disobedience
If Rachel Weiss’ hieroglyphic reading librarian from The Mummy wasn’t a part of your sexual awakening, where even were you in 1999? So getting her in a lesbian drama, alongside the queen of romance, and our other favorite Rachel, McAdams, no less, was everything we could have hoped for and more. The story of these two women navigating their relationship with an Orthodox Jewish community, based on the novel of the same name by Naomi Alderman, will surprise you with it’s unconventional ending.
5. First Girl I Loved
Dylan Gelula perfected the angsty teen role as Xanthippe Voorhees on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but she really delivers the full-spectrum of adolescent emotion alongside Deadpool‘s Brianna Hildebrand in this film that won the ‘Best of NEXT’ award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. While tackling heavier topics like rape, sexual assault, and homophobia, it also captures the lighter moments of falling in love for the first time, and touts a killer soundtrack that will definitely improve your latest playlist.
4. The Handmaiden
An amazing reimagining of Sarah Water’s 2002 novel Fingersmith set in Japanese-occupied Korea instead of Victorian England, directed, co-written and co-produced by Oldboy‘s Park Chan-Wook, this film is a haunting masterpiece you will definitely end up rewatching multiple times. Telling the story of Korean pickpocket Sook-hee who is hired by con man, Count Fujiwara, to help him seduce Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko, who lives with her Uncle Kouzuki, in an estate with a dark secret, The Handmaiden‘s twists and turns and gorgeous visuals will keep you on the edge of your seat until the credits role.
3. Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
The winner of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm award, written and directed by Céline Sciamma, made us all wish we had paid better attention in French class. The stunning locations and costumes, and brilliant performances by leads Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel transported us to 18th century coastal France and gave us a heartbreaking love story we would never forget. Telling the story of painter Marianne who is hired to create a portrait of aristocratic Héloïse for her Milanese future husband, it reinforces the idea that the intensity of a relationship is not equivalent to it’s duration.
2. Imagine Me & You
The quintessential lesbian rom-com starring Coyote Ugly’s Piper Perabo and Game of Thrones‘ Lena Headey is the cute British, early 2000’s film you can literally watch at any time without worrying about the emotional devastation queer films can tend to deliver. Part comedy of errors, part brilliantly written love story with bisexual representation to boot, it captures the excitement and surprise that can come with discovering your sexuality later in life, and the magnetic, lightning in a bottle energy that instant chemistry with a stranger can bring into our lives.
1. Carol
A film that literally needs no introduction, and received both the Queer Palm and Best Actress award for Rooney Mara at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, this adaptation of Patricia Smith’s The Price of Salt inspired King Princess’ debut hit single “1950”. The time period of the film becomes a character in and of itself, permeating the costumes, sets, props, and politics of this heartbreakingly hopeful love story between a divorcée and a shop girl, two unlikely lovers who overcome daunting obstacles to pursue a relationship together. An homage to queer ancestors past who found a way to live their love and their truth in harsh circumstances, and just a fabulous excuse to drool over Cate Blanchett, we doubt any film will knock this one out of the number one slot any time soon.
