A raunchy gay spring break, a showbiz musical, & more “groundbreaking” springtime fun to stream this weekend
Welcome to your weekend streaming recommendations, a.k.a. the Weekend Watch, a handy guide to the queerest film and TV content that’s just a click away!
We’ve got a spring in our step. Earlier this week was the perfect date—not too hot, not too cold, all we needed was a light jacket—and as winter melts away it’s got us in the mood to watch movies celebrating the season.
Your streaming suggestions this week are reminiscent of or take place during spring, from a quotable Meryl Streep classic to one of cinema’s most politically incorrect musicals.
Boot up your favorite streamer and read on for the weekend’s recommendations.
The Devil Wears Prada
“Florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” You know what else is groundbreaking? The fact that this line, uttered by Meryl Streep’s fashion icon Miranda Priestly, isn’t even the most quotable scene in The Devil Wears Prada.
Longtime fans of this David Frankel-directed, Aline Brosh McKenna-scripted adaptation have endless choices when it comes to a favorite moment: Streep’s dramatic entrance into the Runway Magazine office as Stanley Tucci screams “gird your loins”? A post-makeover Anne Hathaway sauntering in wearing Chanel boots? Every word that comes out of the brilliant Emily Blunt’s mouth?
And of course, gays who can recite Miranda’s scathing monologue about the color cerulean are truly elite-level gays. If you’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada, you need no prompting to see such a compulsively streamable film in the spirit of celebrating spring. And if you haven’t seen The Devil Wears Prada, how exactly did you make your way to this particular website?
Rentable on Amazon Prime Video.
Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!
You may be a devoted enough supporter of raunchy gay cinema to have seen Another Gay Movie. But what about its raunchier, gayer sequel?
Writer-director Todd Stephens’ 2008 follow-up to his disgustingly funny and genuinely boundary-pushing cult classic takes our quartet of queers to spring break in sunny Fort Lauderdale. A “Miss Gay Gone Wild” contest works them into an even more sex-crazed lather, as the gay who can get laid the most will be crowned winner.
Jonah Blechman returns as the fabulous Nico, alongside a slew of cameos that offer a snapshot of 2008 queer celebrity. Call us Stefon, because this sequel has everything: porn star Brent Corrigan as a merman, Perez Hilton circa his blogging days, and RuPaul as Tyrell Tyrelle (“It’s French”), our first glimpse of him as a TV host just a year prior to Drag Race. And Lady Bunny, eternal queen of ribaldry and filth, fits right in. Another Gay Sequel is, after all, Stephens’ colorful fantasy world, where everyone is out, proud, campy, and crawling with crabs.
Now streaming on Dekkoo and rentable on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
Alex Strangelove
Need your Heartstopper itch scratched? Good thing Netflix has practically cornered the market on sensitive, adorable, gay teen romance. Alex Strangelove, a 2018 rom-com from Skeleton Twins filmmaker Craig Johnson, makes for a perfect movie night choice in that vein.
Daniel Doheny stars as Alex Truelove, the perfectly coiffed senior class president with perfect grades and a perfect girlfriend. But when an openly gay classmate turns on the charm, Alex’s ensuing identity crisis about his orientation proves that adolescence is never perfect.
Like 10 Things I Hate About You and Never Been Kissed before it, Alex Strangelove extends the cinematic subgenre that centers its romance and comedy around that all-important high school tradition: prom.
Especially for kids on the cusp of adulthood, in the throes of what some call “senior spring,” the climactic school dance has built-in dramatic stakes. As high school ends and the real world beckons, what kind of adult will you be? And since few preceding films in this canon have included gay and bisexual representation, teens who identify as such—or are, like Alex, figuring it out!—can understand that fraught springtime feeling intimately.
Streaming exclusively on Netflix.
The Producers
Maybe it’s just because we loved seeing Nathan Lane in Beau Is Afraid (and interviewing him!), but we can’t help but revisit the film that should have won this legendary actor an Oscar—and not just a Tony.
The 2005 Mel Brooks movie-turned-musical-turned-movie The Producers features Lane as a showbiz scammer orchestrating a flop, and it’s just as hilarious a performance as the other film he should have an Oscar for, The Birdcage.
It’s also, when you remember the outrageous musical numbers “Keep it Gay” and “Springtime for Hitler,” a perfect addition to a list of queer and springy movie recommendations.
Matthew Broderick joins Lane in reprising his role from the stage adaptation, alongside Uma Thurman as a ravenous actor-secretary, Will Ferrell as the writer of a Nazi musical, and Gary Beach as the show’s director—who later plays Hitler onstage in one of those delightfully scandalous moments that could only come from Brooks’ brain.
In fact, rewatching The Producers now begs the same question we’ve been asking since Brooks became king of irreverent, slapstick cinema: are audiences ready for this level of political incorrectness? As Lane himself told us, “These days, people can’t wait to be offended.” Watch a belting Hitler backed by Nazis doing high kicks and decide for yourself.
Rentable on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
The Kicker…
The perfect capper to our springy suggestions is a quintessential classic about spring break… but also a notorious stinker. So we’re sparing you actually watching the whole film!
From Justin To Kelly was a contractually obligated showcase for American Idol season 1 champs Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini that dominated 2003’s Golden Raspberry Awards. It’s bad enough that even the charmingly diplomatic Clarkson has distanced herself from it. Sorry, girl—“Timeless” is a, well, timeless reminder of cheesy, earnest, early 2000s pop culture.
