Movies like 1981
If 1981's mix of sauna, gay theme and short film stayed with you, start here. Each film below was picked from what 1981's fans love most, with the reason it belongs on this list.
- 1
Aftersun
2022 · Directed by Charlotte Wells · 101 min7.7
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with…
- 2
The Normal Heart
2014 · Directed by Ryan Murphy · 133 min7.7
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme · From the same decade (2010s)
The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose…
- 3
Moonlight
2016 · Directed by Barry Jenkins · 112 min7.4
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme · From the same decade (2010s)
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…
- 4
Kiss of the Spider Woman
1985 · Directed by Héctor Babenco · 120 min7.0
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs.
- 5
The Boys in the Band
2020 · Directed by Joe Mantello · 122 min6.8
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
- 6
The Human Voice
2020 · Directed by Pedro Almodóvar · 30 min6.7
Why you'll like itShares: short film
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
- 7
Howl
2010 · Directed by Rob Epstein · 84 min6.5
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme · From the same decade (2010s)
It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his…
- 8
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
1997 · Directed by Clint Eastwood · 155 min6.4
Why you'll like itShares: gay theme
A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.