Beast 

When you think of the horror genre, the LGBTQ+ community is probably one of the last things you think of. However, horror is much more queer-coded than you may think.

The Last Duel is about rape. Although the film delves into rape culture in medieval Europe, there are many striking similarities to modern rape culture.

All in all, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a film I would recommend. It promotes the bond of sisterhood, which in this case is clearly thicker than blood, as well as courage. No one truly knows how strong they are until they go through something unimaginable and come out changed for the better.

The new biopic 'Elvis' highlights the beginning and end of the career of this rock and roll legend. The audience is taken on this journey knowing the tragic ending but not so much about what led him there. A large topic of discussion is the influences on Elvis that made him who he was as a singer, musician, and performer, which were blues, gospel, and country. Many of the songs that rose him to fame were songs by Black artists he heard growing up in primarily Black settings.

My Beautiful Laundrette is often referenced as a positive LGBTQIA+ film because our two main characters are in a homosexual relationship with no shame, fear of violence or criticism. The struggle is not their sexuality. It is the treatment of the Pakistani citizens in England.

What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.