If you like this popular queer film, try this lesser known one

For queer people, the silver screen can be a source of power, comfort and representation of who we are and what we could be. The following films examine the queer experience in all its beauty and messiness — from its highs to its lows, from happily-ever-after to heartbreak. Because for every “Call Me by Your Name” and “Carol,” there’s another queer story hiding in plain sight, waiting to be discovered.

If you like: “Love, Simon” (2018)

Try: “The Way He Looks” (2014)

While “Love, Simon” made headlines in 2018 for being the first mainstream teen movie to center a gay romance, its surface-level exploration of adolescent queerness and trite dialogue left many queer audiences wanting more.

Adapted from a 2010 short film, Brazilian gem “The Way He Looks” follows a blind teen who befriends and falls for a new classmate. It’s an equally heartwarming tale of gay coming-of-age as “Love, Simon,” but where the latter leans on coming-out tropes and teen-movie clichés, “The Way He Looks” offers a more earnest and joyful look at gay teenage crushes and first romances.

If you like: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019)

Try: “Water Lilies” (2007)

Céline Sciamma’s visually and thematically stunning “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” was her grand opus, a culmination of her many years spent meticulously picking apart queer desire and romance under oppressive circumstances on-screen.

Her lesser known 2007 debut directorial feature, “Water Lilies” — also starring “Portrait”’s Adèle Haenel — beautifully captures the physical and emotional frenzy of coming into your sexuality in an explicitly lesbian context. Following three 15 year-old girls as they play a game of cat-and-mouse over the course of one summer in French suburbia, the film was a subtly triumphant showcase of Sciamma’s budding talents as a naturalistic filmmaker, one unafraid to let her queer characters’ burgeoning emotions speak for themselves.

If you like: “Moonlight” (2016)

Try: “Mysterious Skin” (2004)

The revered “Moonlight” garnered widespread praise and accolades — including an Oscars Best Picture win — for its heartbreaking depiction of coming-of-age, trauma, vulnerability and sexuality through the lens of Blackness.

The film’s emotional core, chapter structure and juxtaposition of tenderness and brutality are mirrored in Gregg Araki’s haunting 2004 film “Mysterious Skin,” which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet as two boys who experience a disturbing event as young children and follow incredibly disparate paths as they grow up. Like “Moonlight,” the culmination of coming-of-age and queer elements is both emotionally devastating and incredibly affecting.

If you like: “Booksmart” (2019)

Try: “But I’m a Cheerleader” (1999)

In 2019, Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart” charmed audiences with its comedic tale of two teenage overachievers embarking on a night of partying to make up for four years of rule-following. The film also received praise for its inclusion of a lesbian protagonist, Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), who wrestles with a high school crush and ends up finding love in an unexpected place.

“But I’m a Cheerleader,” directed by Jamie Babbit, is a similarly over-the-top adventure centered around goody-two-shoes Megan, a closeted cheerleader sent to conversion therapy by concerned family and friends. Between “gender-affirming” activities that see women patients vacuuming pink rooms and RuPaul’s performance as an “ex-gay” conversion therapy leader, the film offers a satirical and campy tale of self-discovery and queer romance with the same knowing grin donned by “Booksmart” 20 years later.

If you like: “Call Me by Your Name” (2017)

Try: “Weekend” (2011) and “Sorry Angel” (2018)

Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name” is a breathtaking portrait of love and longing set in the gorgeous Italian town of Crema. Helmed by a career-defining performance from then-newcomer Timothée Chalamet, the film earned widespread acclaim as well as nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor at the 2018 Academy Awards.

The intimate “Weekend,” directed by Andrew Haigh, follows two men over the course of one weekend who watch a casual encounter turn into something more. Set in Paris, Cristophe Honoré’s bittersweet French romance “Sorry Angel” follows the course of a doomed relationship between a middle-aged writer and an optimistic college student. Although grounded more in reality than “Call Me by Your Name”’s peach-sweet summer daydream, both films unearth similar sentiments of yearning and loving against a ticking clock.

If you like: “Tangerine” (2015)

Try: “Nowhere” (1997)

Sean Baker’s exquisitely chaotic “Tangerine,” shot entirely on three iPhones, offered a slice of Los Angeles like no other movie could. Described by Baker as a movie specifically about the corner of Santa Monica and Highland, its humanistic portrait of the transgender women on that street corner proved how essential setting can be to modern-day storytelling.

1997 cinematic fever dream “Nowhere,” the second film on this list by director Gregg Araki, follows a group of oddball queer college students in the same city as they navigate relationships, existentialism and alien attacks. Although “Nowhere” takes on a far more wacky and satirical tone than “Tangerine,” both films shine as celebratory depictions of Los Angeles queer subcultures.

The extensive catalogue of queer cinema is rich with emotion and power, rebellious and raw, yet too often overlooked. So your next time you cozy up for movie night, consider making room for the queer stories that don’t make it to the award shows or onto the front page of Netflix.