The Best Gay Coming-of-Age Films
by kjtenorman | created - 05 Feb 2016 | updated - 08 Dec 2019 | PublicA chronological list of the best coming-of-age films centered around young gay male characters.
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1. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
R | 104 min | Drama
Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert
Votes: 61,685 | Gross: $6.40M
2. Totally F***ed Up (1993)
TV-MA | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Six queer teenagers struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of varying obstacles.
Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: James Duval, Roko Belic, Susan Behshid, Jenee Gill
Votes: 3,929 | Gross: $0.10M
3. The Doom Generation (1995)
R | 83 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embark on a sex-and-violence-filled journey through an America of psychos and quickie marts.
Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: James Duval, Rose McGowan, Johnathon Schaech, Cress Williams
Votes: 17,859 | Gross: $0.26M
4. Total Eclipse (1995)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, Romane Bohringer, Dominique Blanc
Votes: 16,768 | Gross: $0.34M
5. Beautiful Thing (1996)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Jamie is a shy teenager, often bullied at school. His neighbour Ste has a rough time at home, being beaten by his father and brother. This issues bring them together and they find that what they feel for each other is more than friendship.
Director: Hettie Macdonald | Stars: Glen Berry, Linda Henry, Scott Neal, Tameka Empson
Votes: 25,733 | Gross: $1.50M
6. Nowhere (1997)
R | 82 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Follows a day in the lives of a group of Los Angeles high school students and the strange lives they lead.
Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Chiara Mastroianni
Votes: 10,229 | Gross: $0.03M
7. Mandragora (1997)
Unrated | 126 min | Drama
Two gay teenage runaways thrown out of their repressive homes try to survive on the streets of Prague. Hunger and desperation forces them into a life of prostitution, drugs, and teen-porn.
Director: Wiktor Grodecki | Stars: Miroslav Caslavka, David Svec, Pavel Skrípal, Kostas Zerdolaglu
Votes: 1,274
8. Edge of Seventeen (1998)
TV-MA | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A teenager copes with his sexuality on the last day of school in 1984. It shows him coping with being gay and being with friends.
Director: David Moreton | Stars: Chris Stafford, Tina Holmes, Andersen Gabrych, Stephanie McVay
Votes: 7,105 | Gross: $0.87M
9. Get Real (1998)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.
Director: Simon Shore | Stars: Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain, Stacy Hart
Votes: 14,674 | Gross: $1.20M
10. Trick (1999)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
The misadventures of two young gay men, trying to find a place to be alone, one night in Manhattan.
Director: Jim Fall | Stars: Christian Campbell, John Paul Pitoc, Tori Spelling, Brad Beyer
Votes: 9,205 | Gross: $2.05M
11. Nico and Dani (2000)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Spanish coming of age story focusing on the antics of two 17 year olds, who have a posh beach house almost all to themselves one summer. This is also a summer of sexual awakenings.
Director: Cesc Gay | Stars: Fernando Ramallo, Jordi Vilches, Marieta Orozco, Esther Nubiola
Votes: 6,319 | Gross: $0.35M
12. Come Undone (2000)
R | 100 min | Drama, Romance
Mathieu, 18, spends the summer at his mother's summer house, in Brittany. On the beach, he meets Cédric, a boy his age. A love-story begins between the two boys.
Director: Sébastien Lifshitz | Stars: Jérémie Elkaïm, Stéphane Rideau, Marie Matheron, Dominique Reymond
Votes: 5,343 | Gross: $0.01M
13. L.I.E. (2001)
R | 97 min | Crime, Drama
A 15-year-old Long Island boy loses everything and everyone he knows, soon becoming involved in a relationship with a much older man.
Director: Michael Cuesta | Stars: Brian Cox, Paul Dano, Bruce Altman, Billy Kay
Votes: 10,443 | Gross: $1.14M
14. The Rules of Attraction (2002)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.
Director: Roger Avary | Stars: James Van Der Beek, Ian Somerhalder, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel
Votes: 53,304 | Gross: $6.53M
15.
Carnets d'ado (2001–2003)
Episode:
You'll Get Over It
(2002)
Unrated | 86 min
When Vincent finds himself a victim of outing in his high school, he must accept to live with the drastic changes it provokes, and redefine his relationships with his friends and family.
Director: Fabrice Cazeneuve | Stars: Julien Baumgartner, Julia Maraval, Jérémie Elkaïm, François Comar
Votes: 2,117 | Gross: $0.04M
16. Latter Days (2003)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A promiscuous gay party animal falls for a young Mormon missionary, leading to crisis, cliché, and catastrophe.
Director: C. Jay Cox | Stars: Wes Ramsey, Steve Sandvoss, Mary Kay Place, Amber Benson
Votes: 18,566 | Gross: $0.82M
17. The Mudge Boy (2003)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The film follows the story of Duncan, a fourteen-year-old misfit farm boy trying to fill the void and alleviate the numbness left by his mother's passing. Unable to let her go quite yet, ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Burke | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Richard Jenkins, Tom Guiry, Pablo Schreiber
Votes: 4,682
18. Mysterious Skin (2004)
Unrated | 105 min | Drama
Two pre-adolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.
Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Chase Ellison
Votes: 76,229 | Gross: $0.70M
19. Dorian Blues (2004)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
High school senior Dorian begins a gay man's odyssey when he determines that he's gay and decides to come out. Chief among concerns is the reaction of his father, who has never liked him.
Director: Tennyson Bardwell | Stars: Michael McMillian, Lea Coco, Steve Fletcher, Mo Quigley
Votes: 2,480 | Gross: $0.07M
20. A Home at the End of the World (2004)
R | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A boy who has experienced many losses in his life grows to manhood and enters into a love triangle with a woman and his boyhood friend.
Director: Michael Mayer | Stars: Colin Farrell, Dallas Roberts, Robin Wright, Sissy Spacek
Votes: 13,994 | Gross: $1.03M
21. Summer Storm (2004)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A close friendship between two crew teammates is tested when one slowly discovers he's gay and attracted to the other.
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner | Stars: Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Miriam Morgenstern, Jürgen Tonkel
Votes: 14,494 | Gross: $0.10M
22. C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
Not Rated | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Émile Vallée
Votes: 34,111
23. Ang pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (2005)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
A young boy falls in love with a handsome policeman who is investigating his family's criminal activities.
Director: Auraeus Solito | Stars: Nathan Lopez, Soliman Cruz, JR Valentin, Neil Ryan Sese
Votes: 1,630
24. Another Gay Movie (2006)
Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
Four gay high school friends make a pact to lose their virginity before they go to college.
Director: Todd Stephens | Stars: Michael Carbonaro, Jonathan Chase, Jonah Blechman, Mitch Morris
Votes: 9,456 | Gross: $0.65M
25. Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama
A lyrical telling of the coming of age of a 13-year-old boy who learns to cope with his newfound sexuality and his unrequited love for the cool kid in school.
Director: Cam Archer | Stars: Malcolm Stumpf, Patrick White, Max Paradise, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 2,287 | Gross: $0.01M
26. The Curiosity of Chance (2006)
98 min | Comedy
A confident, out-of-the-closet gay teenager has the support of an eclectic range of friends while dealing with a homophobic bully during his first year at an international high school.
Director: Russell P. Marleau | Stars: Tad Hilgenbrink, Brett Chukerman, Aldevina Da Silva, Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyze
Votes: 3,161
27. Shelter (II) (2007)
R | 97 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend's brother.
Director: Jonah Markowitz | Stars: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes, Jackson Wurth
Votes: 24,015 | Gross: $0.14M
28. Were the World Mine (2008)
Not Rated | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
A bullied and demoralized gay student at an all-boys school uses a magical flower derived from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream' to turn many in his community gay, including a comely rugby player for himself.
Director: Tom Gustafson | Stars: Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Judy McLane, Zelda Williams
Votes: 5,892 | Gross: $0.12M
29. Dream Boy (2008)
R | 88 min | Drama, Romance
Based on the novel "Dream Boy" by Jim Grimsley, this film chronicles the relationship between two gay teenagers in the rural south in the late 70's.
Director: James Bolton | Stars: Stephan Bender, Thomas Jay Ryan, Diana Scarwid, Tom Gilroy
Votes: 4,367 | Gross: $0.01M
30. Kaboom (2010)
Not Rated | 86 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
A sexually "undeclared" college freshman's clairvoyant/prophetic dreams are the first sign that something very strange is going on involving his classmates -- with him at the center.
Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Chris Zylka, Roxane Mesquida
Votes: 13,794 | Gross: $0.12M
31. Private Romeo (2011)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A modern take on Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. Set at an isolated all-boys military academy, it follows the forbidden relationship between two cadets.
Director: Alan Brown | Stars: Hale Appleman, Charlie Barnett, Adam Barrie, Chris Bresky
Votes: 2,406
32. Suicide Room (2011)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, Thriller
After suffering extreme humiliation at school, Dominik holes himself up in his room and begins spending all his time in a virtual reality chat room.
Director: Jan Komasa | Stars: Jakub Gierszal, Roma Gasiorowska, Agata Kulesza, Christoph Pieczynski
Votes: 11,551
33. North Sea Texas (2011)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Romance
A teenage boy's search for love finds him fixated on a boy who lives nearby.
Director: Bavo Defurne | Stars: Ben Van den Heuvel, Eva van der Gucht, Thomas Coumans, Katelijne Damen
Votes: 9,992 | Gross: $0.03M
34. Romeos (2011)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A drama centered on the relationship between a two young men, as one of them navigates the difficulties of life as a transgender man.
Director: Sabine Bernardi | Stars: Rick Okon, Max Befort, Liv Lisa Fries, Felix Brocke
Votes: 3,494 | Gross: $0.00M
35. Weekend (II) (2011)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.
Director: Andrew Haigh | Stars: Tom Cullen, Chris New, Jonathan Race, Laura Freeman
Votes: 32,813 | Gross: $0.46M
36. Struck by Lightning (2012)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
A high schooler recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine.
Director: Brian Dannelly | Stars: Chris Colfer, Rebel Wilson, Christina Hendricks, Dermot Mulroney
Votes: 15,137 | Gross: $0.02M
37. Geography Club (2013)
PG-13 | 84 min | Comedy, Drama
At Goodkind High School, a group of students with varying sexual orientations form an after-school club as a discreet way to share their feelings and experiences.
Director: Gary Entin | Stars: Cameron Deane Stewart, Justin Deeley, Meaghan Martin, Wesley Eure
Votes: 6,254
38. G.B.F. (2013)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
What happens after Tanner is outed by his classmates and becomes the title "gay best friend" for three high school queen bees?
Director: Darren Stein | Stars: Michael J. Willett, Paul Iacono, Sasha Pieterse, Andrea Bowen
Votes: 11,426
39. Monster Pies (2013)
TV-MA | 85 min | Drama, Romance
Mike has felt alienated and alone for as long as he can remember, until a new boy arrives at his school - awakening feelings and a world of possibilities he'd never before dared to dream of.
Director: Lee Galea | Stars: Tristan Barr, Lucas Linehan, Rohana Hayes, Katrina Maree
Votes: 3,158
40. Kill Your Darlings (2013)
R | 104 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs.
Director: John Krokidas | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall, Ben Foster
Votes: 41,212 | Gross: $1.03M
41. Boys (2014 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 78 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A sexually awakening gay teen athlete finds himself in a budding relationship with his mutually attracted relay race teammate.
Director: Mischa Kamp | Stars: Gijs Blom, Ko Zandvliet, Jonas Smulders, Ton Kas
Votes: 16,136
42. The Way He Looks (2014)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance
Leonardo is a blind teenager searching for independence. His everyday life, the relationship with his best friend Giovana, and the way he sees the world change completely with the arrival of Gabriel.
Director: Daniel Ribeiro | Stars: Ghilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi, Tess Amorim, Lúcia Romano
Votes: 27,648 | Gross: $0.10M
43. Pride (I) (2014)
R | 119 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.
Director: Matthew Warchus | Stars: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine
Votes: 61,561
44. Closet Monster (2015)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.
Director: Stephen Dunn | Stars: Aaron Abrams, Jack Fulton, Joanne Kelly, Isabella Rossellini
Votes: 9,221 | Gross: $0.04M
45. Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015)
Unrated | 87 min | Drama
Preacher's kid Henry Gamble is turning 17 today. Bring your swimsuit.
Director: Stephen Cone | Stars: Cole Doman, Joe Keery, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Pat Healy
Votes: 3,370
46. Slash (I) (2016)
Not Rated | 100 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Freshman Neil's Vanguard stories are all he cares about...until he meets the older Julia, who pushes him to put his own fan fic online. When the website's moderator takes a special interest in Neil's work, it opens up a whole new universe.
Director: Clay Liford | Stars: Tishuan Scott, Lucas Neff, Courtney Bandeko, Michael Johnston
Votes: 1,207
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