The Best Gay Coming-of-Age Films
A chronological list of the best coming-of-age films centered around young gay male characters.
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- DirectorGus Van SantStarsRiver PhoenixKeanu ReevesJames RussoTwo 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.
- DirectorGregg ArakiStarsJames DuvalRoko BelicSusan BehshidSix queer teenagers struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of varying obstacles.
- DirectorGregg ArakiStarsJames DuvalRose McGowanJohnathon SchaechJordan 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.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsLeonardo DiCaprioDavid ThewlisRomane BohringerYoung, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
- DirectorHettie MacdonaldStarsGlen BerryLinda HenryScott NealJamie 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.
- DirectorGregg ArakiStarsJames DuvalRachel TrueNathan BextonFollows a day in the lives of a group of Los Angeles high school students and the strange lives they lead.
- DirectorWiktor GrodeckiStarsMiroslav CaslavkaDavid SvecPavel SkrípalTwo 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.
- DirectorDavid MoretonStarsChris StaffordTina HolmesAndersen GabrychA teenager copes with his sexuality on the last day of school in 1984. It shows him coping with being gay and being with friends.
- DirectorSimon ShoreStarsBen SilverstoneBrad GortonCharlotte BrittainA tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.
- DirectorJim FallStarsChristian CampbellJohn Paul PitocTori SpellingThe misadventures of two young gay men, trying to find a place to be alone, one night in Manhattan.
- DirectorCesc GayStarsFernando RamalloJordi VilchesMarieta OrozcoA 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.
- DirectorSébastien LifshitzStarsJérémie ElkaïmStéphane RideauMarie MatheronMathieu, 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.
- DirectorMichael CuestaStarsBrian CoxPaul DanoBruce AltmanA 15-year-old Long Island boy loses everything and everyone he knows, soon becoming involved in a relationship with a much older man.
- DirectorRoger AvaryStarsJames Van Der BeekIan SomerhalderShannyn SossamonThe 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.
- 2001–20031h 26mUnrated6.9 (2.1K)TV Episode52MetascoreDirectorFabrice CazeneuveStarsJulien BaumgartnerJulia MaravalJérémie ElkaïmWhen 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.
- DirectorC. Jay CoxStarsWes RamseySteve SandvossMary Kay PlaceA promiscuous gay party animal falls for a young Mormon missionary, leading to crisis, cliché, and catastrophe.
- DirectorMichael BurkeStarsEmile HirschRichard JenkinsTom GuiryThe 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, Duncan mimics his dead mother. He talks in her voice at the dinner table and wears her fur coat to bed. Edgar, Duncan's distant sixty-year-old father, doesn't understand the strange manifestations of his son's mourning. Why can't Duncan grieve like a normal person? Macho mate Perry Foley, who has it physically even harder on his dad's farm, usually comforts Duncan and defends his 'wimpiness' to their cocky ruffian mates Travis, Scotty and Brent. But although clearly attracted to gentle Duncan himself, the socially unacceptable suggestion of 'sissy' homosexuality makes Perry over-react and turn on his friend.
- DirectorGregg ArakiStarsBrady CorbetJoseph Gordon-LevittElisabeth ShueTwo 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.
- DirectorTennyson BardwellStarsMichael McMillianLea CocoSteve FletcherHigh 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.
- DirectorMichael MayerStarsColin FarrellDallas RobertsRobin WrightA 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.
- DirectorMarco KreuzpaintnerStarsRobert StadloberKostja UllmannMiriam MorgensternA close friendship between two crew teammates is tested when one slowly discovers he's gay and attracted to the other.
- DirectorJean-Marc ValléeStarsMichel CôtéMarc-André GrondinDanielle ProulxA 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.
- DirectorAuraeus SolitoStarsNathan LopezSoliman CruzJR ValentinA young boy falls in love with a handsome policeman who is investigating his family's criminal activities.
- DirectorTodd StephensStarsMichael CarbonaroJonathan ChaseJonah BlechmanFour gay high school friends make a pact to lose their virginity before they go to college.
- DirectorCam ArcherStarsMalcolm StumpfPatrick WhiteMax ParadiseA 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.