Straight Actors Playing Queer Characters Is Exhausting
It’s 2021 and what few LGBTQ+ films that are produced by major film studios continue to star cisgender heterosexual actors, rather than actual LGBTQ+ people.

Alvin Ailey played a key role in the growth of modern dance in USA and his company, founded in 1958, is one of the USA’s oldest dance troupes as well as one of the most youthful and vital on the dance scene. In this two-part program, members of Ailey's dance company celebrate his memory by performing three works choreographed by Ailey himself, as well as a special ballet tribute choreographed by Ulysses Dove. Each piece is introduced by Judith Jamison, the dancer and choreographer whose career was nurtured to stardom by Ailey, and who was, at the time of this production, Artistic Director of the company. The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is uniquely eclectic in range, repertory, and style. As a choreographer, Ailey explored the black experience and went beyond, finding universal human truths in all his work.
It’s 2021 and what few LGBTQ+ films that are produced by major film studios continue to star cisgender heterosexual actors, rather than actual LGBTQ+ people.
While the director didn't set out to make a feminist film, "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" reads as a reclamation of female power in a patriarchal society.
Eloquent and informative, Hajera Sheikh’s documentary Kathak: Dancing With Taboos tells a story of love for one’s culture and perseverance through adversity.
'Free Guy' combines classic Disney (a white heteronormative love story), exploration of popular video games and the culture around them, and Ryan Reynolds adult humor in the best way to make a super fun family flick.
The relationship between the characters is what makes this film stand out, and it’s just all-around fun.
Netflix’s new comedy drama, Don’t Say Good Luck, is a heartwarming tearjerker as well as a love letter to the transformative power of being a theater kid. Directed by Julia Hart, Don’t Say Good Luck follows Sophie (Sunny Sandler), a theater kid who finally gets the lead role in her school’s production of Waitress - just as she finds out her mom Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey) is dying of cancer. While the singing is by no means spectacular and Sandler’s acting is stiff, the film is grounded in the moving performance of Lynskey as a mother who wants nothing more than for her daughter to achieve her dreams, even if she can’t be there to see them.