Category: Classic

Browse The Classic Queer Cinema Collection – 9 Groundbreaking Films Now Available on Dekkoo!

Dekkoo isn’t just a source for entertainment. We also offer a deeply engaging crash course in queer cinema history!

Starting with Queens at Heart, an eye-opening short film offering a look into the lives of four trans women during the pre-Stonewall 1960s, and continuing through to director Ira Sachs electrifying 2012 relationship drama Keep the Lights On, this collection exemplifies some of the most important queer cinema of the past five decades.

Including films like the landmark 1973 docudrama A Bigger Splash and Todd Haynes’ brazenly original Poison, which took the 1991 Sundance Film Festival by storm and helped launch the New Queer Cinema movement, these pioneering selections offer up a vibrant and expansive trip through time.

You can browse The Classic Queer Cinema Collection right now on Dekkoo. All of the titles are currently streaming.

The powerful gay drama The Last Match celebrates it’s 10th anniversary this year

Originally released in 2013, The Last Match centers on an intense love affair between two seemingly straight young men.

Reiner and Yosvani are best friends and soccer mates. Handsome Reinier, in order to support his mother, his wife and their baby turns to sex work. Meanwhile, the shy Yosvani is reluctantly engaged to a girl and lives with her and her bombastic loan shark father.

After a furtive kiss at a nightclub, the two young men quickly fall hard for one another. And as their love intensifies, the challenge is not with them but with their unforgiving Havana neighborhood… a place from which they desperately want to escape.

The two leads are charismatic and unforgettable as the super-charged lovers in this powerful drama from director Antonio Hens.

Celebrating it’s 10-year anniversary this year, The Last Match is now available on Dekkoo.

Ira Sachs’ emotional gay relationship drama Keep the Lights On comes to Dekkoo

The critically-acclaimed 2012 relationship drama Keep the Lights On chronicles the emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship and addiction.

Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth) meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple.

Individually and together, they are risk takers – compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity while being true to himself.

The film’s fearlessly personal screenplay, written by director Ira Sachs (The Delta, Love is Strange, Little Men, Frankie) is anchored by Lindhardt, who embodies Erik’s isolation and vulnerability with a gentle presence. Harrowing and romantic, visceral and layered, Keep the Lights On is a film that looks at love and all of its manifestations, taking it to dark depths and bringing it back to a place of grace.

Watch the trailer for Keep the Lights On below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Beyond Gravity, a gay ’80s classic from New Zealand, has been newly restored!

Richard (Robert Pollock) is an astronomy-obsessed worrier who spends the majority of his time fantasizing about outer space and the cosmos – an activity which antagonizes his friends and family.

One day, Richard meets Johnny (Iain Rea), a handsome Italian man with an enormous appetite for life, who finally offers Richard the love he’s been missing – as well as a much-needed escape from the monotony of work.

A joyous celebration of the love between two eccentrics who both have their sights aimed firmly amongst the stars, Beyond Gravity is a true underground ’80s gay classic.

Originally filmed in Auckland, New Zealand in 1988, this lost 50-minute film has been digitally remastered for a new 2K restoration thanks to the cult indie distribution label Altered Innocence. Now Beyond Gravity is available once again to make audiences think and swoon.

Beyond Gravity is now available on Dekkoo. You can watch an excerpt from the film below.

Short Film Spotlight: The Kiss on the Cliff

The early 1980s were a difficult time to be LGBTQ+. AIDS was considered a death sentence, gay people were frequently shunned by their families and bisexual men and women often let their same-sex attractions go unexplored.

Made in 1993, The Kiss on the Cliff is a deeply moving 21-minute short from accomplished director Reid Waterer. The film begins in 1983, in the small town of Rock Springs, Wyoming, with an attempted kiss between best friends Mark and Steve, played by Stephen Wolfe Smith and Tom Tarantini.

Their deep feeling for one another has sent ripples of tension through every aspect of their lives and forced both of them to question whether their desire is worth the risk.

Flashing forward ten years later, the two are reunited. Though they find that their lives have followed very different courses, their relationship still demands some kind of resolution.

Recently restored, The Kiss on the Cliff offers up a unique look at a different era in both gay life and gay indie cinema.

Watch a super short trailer for The Kiss on the Cliff below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Three teens enter a complicated love triangle in the queer high school classic Dare

Originally released in 2009, Dare is a romantic teen drama from director Adam Salky, based on his own acclaimed 2005 short film of the same name. Featuring an all-star cast, the film tells a captivating story about a group of high school seniors at the crossroads of their adult lives.

When a pompous young actor tells so-called “good girl” Alexa (Emmy Rossum) that she hasn’t really lived, she embarks on a bold journey that takes her into the arms of a mysterious bad boy Johnny (Zach Gilford). Envious, her shy best friend Ben (Ashley Springer) also dares to pursue Johnny, complicating Alexa’s romance and pushing the sexual and romantic boundaries among the three friends.

In addition to Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford and Ashley Springer as the three leads, the cast of Dare also includes Ana Gasteyer, Sandra Bernhard, Alan Cumming and a young, pre-stardom Rooney Mara just before her A-list breakthrough in films like The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

A critical hit at the time of its release, Newsday called Dare “one of the smartest and most honest teen movies in years.” The New York Times said the film is “at once more provocative and more contemplative than most of its big-screen counterparts.”

Watch the trailer for Dare below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: In the Family

In the town of Martin, Tennessee, Chip Hines (Sebastian Banes), a precocious six year old, has only known life with his two dads, Cody (Trevor St. John) and Joey (writer-director Patrick Wang). And a good life it is.

When Cody dies suddenly in a car accident, Joey and Chip struggle to find their footing again. Just as they begin to, Cody’s will reveals that he named his sister as Chip’s guardian. The years of Joey’s acceptance into the family soon unravel as Chip is taken away from him.

In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are. Armed with their comfort and inspired by memories of Cody, Joey finds a path to peace with the family and closer to his son.

With an ambitious 169-minute running time, In the Family is an intimate drama with an epic scope. Wang, who has gone on to make films such as The Grief of Others and the two-part community theater celebration A Bread Factory, created In the Family independently and earned great acclaimed for his effort.

Roger Ebert, writing at the time of the film’s release in 2011, awarded the film four out of four stars and said “I was completely absorbed from beginning to end. What a courageous first feature this is, a film that sidesteps shopworn stereotypes and tells a quiet, firm, deeply humanist story about doing the right thing.”

Watch the trailer for In the Family below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 4/22/22

1950s Hollywood heartthrob Guy Stone is a wildly popular leading man. The public loves to gossip about Guy’s love life, but the young actor has a secret: none of his various flings involve women. Guy’s agent, convinces him to marry the unassuming Sally to maintain his reputation. However, soon after the wedding, Guy develops feelings for a writer named Rick. ‘Straight Jacket’ is available to watch now on Dekkoo!

A gay single father and his offbeat eight-year-old daughter struggle to come to terms with his fabulous past life, which he’s kept hidden from her for years. ‘Pretty Things’ is a thoughtful and heartfelt short film drama from director Pedro Suarez.

Robert Brock lives above his own magical marionette theatre with his mother, Mary Lou. He puts on shows for families, as well as wild drag shows for adults where he performs as famous Hollywood divas of the past. The intimate new documentary follows along as Robert and Mary Lou struggle to keep the theatre open while preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary. ‘Marionette Land’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: What began as a friendship turns into a fierce romance in this heart-wrenching drama.

Now Available: Monster Pies

Does anyone ever forget the time they felt the incredible force of first love?

When Mike (Tristan Barr) learns that his English teacher is pairing him up for a class assignment on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ William (Lucas Linehan), the super-cute new kids on school, Mike can’t believe his luck!

As the two young men spend more and more time working together on a monster movie version of the Bard’s classic tale, they soon realize that their feelings for one another may be more powerful than either of them is truly ready for.

From Australian writer-director Lee Galea, who based his screenplay on a short story he has written when he was 15 years old and deep into the themes of the movie on a personal level, Monster Pies is a touching and original take on the all encompassing power of teen love – one that is sure to move even the hardest of hearts.

The film was originally released back in 2013 (almost ten years ago!) when it earned awards – and a whole lot of tears – at film festivals all around the globe.

Watch the trailer for Monster Pies below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.