Best lesbian movies

The first person who knew I was a lesbian was the local Blockbuster clerk.  During my time of soul-searching and self-discovery, I rented lesbian-themed movies like I had never seen a girl-on-girl flick before.  Ok, so I hadn’t.  I rented two or three at a time, staying up ’til all hours of the night eating Raisinets and doing “research.”

That’s why I’m qualified to present this list of the 10 Best Lesbian Movies Ever.

1. When Night is Falling — A small Canadian film about a professor at a Christian college and soon-to-be wife of a minister who falls for a free-spirited circus acrobat.  So hot and sexy that I spent the $15 and bought a copy for my home library.

2. Kissing Jessica Stein — Funny, smart, well-written movie about a young woman who gets so frustrated with her straight dating life that she answers a personal ad placed by another woman and tries her luck at lesbian love.  The ending is a point of contention for many lesbians.  My go-to movie when I need something to make me smile.  I saw this at a theater after realizing that I liked woman, so it holds a special place in my heart.  Sort of like a secret that only me and the characters were in on.

3. Bound — Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly play a pair of lesbian lovers stuck in the middle of a dangerous mob plot.  Will they escape with the cash and each other or not.  Hot and steamy.  Gina Gershon is an androgynous favorite of mine.  I have a labrys tattoo fashioned after the one that her character Corky sports in the movie.  Can you say impressionable?  The only bummer is that Gershon’s character is named Corky instead of something a little butchier and sexier like Max or Syd.

Jennifer Tilly and a tattooed Gina Gerson in Bound

4. The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love — Ah, young love.  Laurel Holloman (The L Word’s Tina) plays a tough baby dyke who falls in love with her opposite, a straight girl  who’s a straight-A student.  Cute and romantic, I remember watching this twice in two days.

5. Better Than Chocolate — What’s better than chocolate?  Perhaps a lesbian dipped in chocolate.  A light, sexy romp about a closeted lesbian whose cover is about to be blown when her mother decides to pay a visit.

6. But I’m a Cheerleader — A satiric comedy about a camp to right kids on the wrong path to homosexual lifestyles.  Lesbian fav Clea DuVall convinces perky, straight-arrow Natasha Lyonne that she can be a lesbian, even though she’s a cheerleader.  Light and funny.  One of those movies I can never pass up when I find it playing on Logo.

Clea DuVall and Natasha Lyonne

7. Go Fish — A black-and-white classic about an arranged blind date that goes wrong.  Or does it?  Many think this movie is a more accurate portrayal of real life lesbians than most.  After watching the movie, I copied down the voice-over from the ending that talks about leaving yourself open to find the girl of your dreams.  So deep and powerful at the time.

8. High Art — Ally Sheedy plays a strung-out photographer who falls in love with a magazine intern while the pair are working on a project.  Directed by The L Word’s Lisa Cholodenko.  Steamy and sexy and Ally Sheedy makes a great dyke.

9. If These Walls Could Talk 2 — The film features three lesbian couples at pivotal points in their lives.  I’m a huge fan of the second short that focuses on a feminist college student (Michelle Williams) and her encounter with a young butch townie (Chloe Sevigny).  Sevigny is sexy as hell as a butch.  I didn’t want her.  I wanted to be her.  Still do.

10. The Runaways — Not your traditional lesbian film, but Joan Jett is the greatest lesbian rocker of all time, and this movie details her early days in the all-female band The Runaways.  Kristen Stewart rocks as Jett, and Dakota Fanning is stellar as band mate and part-time lover Cherie Currie.  The Runaways also boasted Lita Ford, who is bad-ass in her own right.

Honorable Mention — The Sex Monster — When Marty decides to spice up his sex life by talking his wife (Muriel Hemingway) into having a threesome with another woman, things get out of hand as Laura starts seducing every woman in sight.  Funny and sexy.  A fantasy that I can admit to having while married.