(Above image from Rotten Tomatoes website.)
In celebration of Pride Month, Rotten Tomatoes has released a list with the highest-rated LGBTQ movies and TV shows from the 2010’s. Rotten Tomatoes’ “Tomatometer” determined the top 10 for each category. The list curated showcases the best TV shows and films that tell the stories of the LGBTQ community.
For those unfamiliar, the Tomatometer score is based on “the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics,” according to the Rotten Tomatoes website. For each movie or show individually, a minimum of five reviews need to be done before an official Tomatometer score can be determined. A rating can be considered “Fresh” or “Certified Fresh.” “Fresh” means that at least 60 percent of reviews are positive, and “Certified Fresh” means the movie or TV show needs a steady score of at least 75 percent. However, to be “Certified Fresh” a film with wide release needs a minimum of 80 reviews, films with limited release need a minimum of 40 reviews and individual seasons of a TV show need to have a minimum of 20 reviews.
Simple right? Based on those metrics we present the top ten LGBTQ shows, in descending order, of the 2010’s based on Tomatometer:
10. “A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica),” 2018 – Certified Fresh at 94 percent
Directed by Sebastián Lelio
Written by Sebastián Lelio and Gonzalo Maza
Marina and Orlando are in love and planning for the future. Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. Orlando is 20 years older than her, and owns a printing company. After celebrating Marina’s birthday one evening, Orlando falls seriously ill. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando’s family don’t trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando’s ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. And to make matters worse, Orlando’s son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando’s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion. So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now – a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman.
Image from IMBd.com
9. “Pariah,” 2011 – Certified Fresh at 94 percent
Directed by Dee Rees
Written by Dee Rees
Adepero Oduye portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura (Pernell Walker), Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents’ marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike’s development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague’s daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with. Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity – sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.
Image from IMBd.com
8. “Carol,” 2015 – Certified Fresh at 95 percent
Directed by Todd Haynes
Written by Phyllis Nagy
In this adaptation of the novel “The Price of Salt” by Patricia Highsmith, Therese (Rooney Mara), a young department-store clerk in 1950s Manhattan, meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), a beautiful older woman stuck in a depressing marriage of convenience. As their bond deepens and they become romantically involved, Carol finds the strength to leave her husband (Kyle Chandler). Unfortunately, her spouse starts to raise questions about her fitness as a mother when he realizes that Carol’s relationships with her best friend Abby (Sarah Paulson) and Therese are more than just friendships.
Image from IMBd.com
7. “Behind the Candelabra,” 2013 – Certified Fresh at 95 percent
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Written by Richard LaGravenese
Before Elvis, before Elton John, Madonna and Lady Gaga, there was Liberace: virtuoso pianist, outrageous entertainer and flamboyant star of stage and television. A name synonymous with showmanship, extravagance and candelabras, he was a world-renowned performer with a flair that endeared him to his audiences and created a loyal fan base spanning his 40-year career. Liberace lived lavishly and embraced a lifestyle of excess both on and off stage. In summer 1977, handsome young stranger Scott Thorson walked into his dressing room and, despite their age difference and seemingly different worlds, the two embarked on a secretive five-year love affair. “Behind the Candelabra” takes a behind-the-scenes look at their tempestuous relationship – from their first meeting backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton to their bitter and public break-up.
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6. “Call Me By Your Name,” 2016 – Certified Fresh at 95 percent
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Written by James Ivory
“Call Me By Your Name,” the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
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5. “Tomboy,” 2011 – Certified Fresh at 97 perecent
Directed by Céline Sciamma
Written by Céline Sciamma
A French family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure and 6-year-old Jeanne, moves to a new neighborhood during the summer holidays. With her Jean Seberg haircut and tomboy ways, Laure is immediately mistaken for a boy by the local kids and passes herself off as Michael. Filmmaker Céline Sciamma brings a light and charming touch to this drama of childhood gender confusion. Zoe Heran as Laure/Michael and Malonn Levanna as Jeanne are nothing less than brilliant. This is a relationship movie: relationships between children, and the even more complicated one between one’s heart and body.
Image from IMBd.com
4. “Tangerine,” 2015 – Certified Fresh at 97 percent
Directed by Sean Baker
Written by Chris Bergoch and Sean Baker
A working girl tears through Tinseltown on Christmas Eve searching for the pimp who broke her heart.
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3. “BPM,” 2017 – Certified Fresh at 98 percent
Directed by Robin Campillo
Written by Philippe Mangeot and Robin Campillo
In Paris in the early 1990s, a group of activists goes to battle for those stricken with HIV/AIDS, taking on sluggish government agencies and major pharmaceutical companies in bold, invasive actions. The organization is ACT UP, and its members, many of them gay and HIV-positive, embrace their mission with a literal life-or-death urgency. Amid rallies, protests, fierce debates and ecstatic dance parties, the newcomer Nathan falls in love with Sean, the group’s radical firebrand, and their passion sparks against the shadow of mortality as the activists fight for a breakthrough.
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2. “Moonlight,” 2016 – Certified Fresh at 98 percent
Directed by Barry Jenkins
Written by Barry Jenkins
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
Image from IMBd.com
1. “God’s Own Country,” 2017 – Certified Fresh at 99 percent
Directed by Francis Lee
Written by Francis Lee
Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor) works long hours in brutal isolation on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge-drinking at the local pub and casual sex. When a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself having to deal with emotions he has never felt before. An intense relationship forms between the two which could change Johnny’s life forever.
Image from GodsOwnCountry.film
To see Rotten Tomatoes Top 10 LGBTQ TV shows click here.
All film and show information provided by RottenTomatoes.com.
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