Gal Pals Watch

Episode 65: Set It Off   Hi queeros! This month we're taking it back to 1996, to a movie that is not very gay but it does feature Queen Latifah in a queer role which is why we wanted to watch it! Tune in to hear Alicia and Sarah's thoughts about why this movie sad heist rather than fun heist, and how gay the character of Cleo is/is not?! In all seriousness, this film is not exactly fun to watch bu...

Episode 64: Dating Amber   Hello beautiful queers! This month we’ve got a treat for all you 90s gays and everyone else too. We watched the cute little beard movie Dating Amber, which is set in Ireland in 1995. Tune in to listen to Alicia and Sarah talk about complicated romantic-ish relationships, cute gay kids, peer bullying, gay bars, the military, and that adorable lesbian sunset montage. It’s...

Episode 63: The World to Come   Hello lovely queers of the world! Happy pride month and all that. This month, Alicia and Sarah are talking about the Late 2020 Lesbian Period Drama (vol. 783 in the Lesbian Period Drama canon), The World to Come. It is winter in here, it's bleak! Get in but also stay away if you don't like Sadness! There are some redeeming qualities to this film for sure, but tune i...

Episode 62: The Half of It   Hello lovelies! It is us, your forever gay aunts! This month we are talking about the movie that got us all through that early lil bit of the pan pizza in May 2020, The Half of It! In case for some unfathomable reason you don't know about this adorable movie, it is the long-awaited sophomore venture from ultimate fave Alice Wu (check out our episode on her first film,...

Episode 61: Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt)   Howdy, beautiful listeners! We are back from a winter spent in survival mode, hbu? Shooting for the stars that we will be on a monthly recording schedule from here on out :) Today we start out with a lil update, including a discussion of our tagline and why we decided to change it. Then we get into the ~*cute*~ Australian film, Ellie & Abbie (& Ell...

Episode 60: Happiest Season   Hello gays! We are back with a brand-new episode of the highly anticipated (and now highly debated) movie, Happiest Season, directed by Clea DuVall (of But I'm a Cheerleader fame). There are things we loved and things we did not love about this movie--we talk about those things around Sarah stanning KStew. We're so happy to be back! Stay safe!

Episode 59: Wild Nights With Emily   Hey all you beautifuls! We hope you are weathering this really wild and not great time. We're here this week with a movie that's the good kind of wild, Wild Nights With Emily. If you're stuck at home, which at this point I'm pretty sure we all are, and you can stream stuff, watch this!! It's so good! And then listen to us gush about how the oddball workings of...

Episode 58: Tell it to The Bees   Hi, 1950s lesbians! This movie is real bad but we watched it for you anyway! Taking place in postwar Britain and involving a lot of Lesbian Staring, a precocious skinny white kid, rape, racism, senseless magical realism, and weird CGI bees, this movie is not our favorite. But you can listen us get mad/laugh at it, and talk about how boring straights are!    Furthe...

Episode 57: Princess Cyd   Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about wandering around the lush north side of Chicago in summer while your writerly aunt hosts literary soirées and a cute andro barista dances with you on a rooftop? Well then this movie is for you. We're talking about cute queer summer flings and annoying teens on this episode, enjoy!   Further reading: Princess Cyd Wikipedia pa...

Episode 56: Sighted Eyes, Feeling Heart   Helloooo literary lez's and otherwise identified queers! Have you read the book Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry? Because you should. But you can also watch this pretty good, very PBS style doc about Lorraine Hansberry, aka one of the baddest/best humans ever to be too good for America. If you don't know, Hansberry wrote the 1959 play A Raisin in the Su...

Episode 55: Rafiki   This week, we're headed to Nairobi, where two of the most lovable lesbian characters ever fall in love in a movie whose title translates to 'friend,' aka gal pal, obvs. We loved this movie, even though it has some serious homophobic violence, because it also has serious homophilic love. Enjoy, queeros!   Further reading: Rafiki Wikipedia page

Episode 54: The Girl King   We're going even farther back in time this week, queers! Last time, we went to the 1920s with Vita and Virginia. Now, we're going to the 1630s!! This movie made by a Finnish director, taking place in Sweden, and spoken in English for some reason, is about Christina, Queen of Sweden and First Names (that last part is not real). Queen Christina was A Gay but somehow got b...

Episode 53: Vita and Virginia   Hello and happy new year, cute queers! For our first episode of 2020, we're going back to the other 20's -- the 1920's! We watched the 2018 adaptation of one of the most epic literary love affairs to ever be super well-documented, namely that of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. And, well, it could've been better. Listen to us talk about what we liked and didn...

Episode 52: Season of Love   Happy Holigays, y'all! This week, we're talking about the brand new shiny holiday romcom Season of Love, which was produced by (and is now streaming on) Tello Films! It's Love Actually but queer, so not like Love Actually at all. It's really cute and even though there is one very large plot hole that annoyed Sarah, the level of adorable Gay Cheese in this movie is exac...

Episode 51: Colette   Welcome to France, y'all! This week, we're talking about the 2018 Keira Knightly biopic of early-20th-century writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette aka Colette aka Queer Writer Who Hates Patriarchy. Even though she was married to, abused, and exploited by her trash husband for many years, she eventually found her way to her best queer life. This life included writing a ton of nove...

Episode 50: Interview with Danielle Earle!   Hey queeros! This week we have a very special episode, our second interview ever (check out our Pride month interview with Mandahla Rose in the archive!). This week, we're talking with filmmaker, writer, director, and producer Danielle Earle. Danielle has approximately 3,000 projects because she is extremely passionate about grassroots filmmaking and re...

Episode 49: Anatomy of a Love Seen   This week, we're talking about a meta movie that was honestly a little too meta. This 2014 movie about trying to film a lesbian love scene is high on Gay Melodrama and low on pretty much everything else. It's not the worst thing? But it's not the best. Join us as we talk about sex scenes, adolescent behavior that honestly is disappointing, being bored, fun pane...

Episode 48: Heavenly Creatures   Happy Halloween, ya gays! This week, we've got a spooky little episode because it involves MURDER. But it's also true crime which makes it even scarier! We're talking about the 1994 Peter Jackson (yeah, that guy) film Heavenly Creatures, which was the first movie ever for both Melanie Lynsky and Kate Winslet! And boy howdy, it was a doozie. There's some psychologic...

Episode 47: The Favourite   Hey Gays! This week we're talking about the 2018 PERIOD DRAMA (get it?), The Favourite. It's about how gay Queen Anne and her handmaidens were. It's very 1700s. We think you'll like it. Get on your gay wigs and gather your gay racing ducks, and get ready for some dirty ole fun!   Further reading: The Favourite Wikipedia page Autostraddle review by Heather Advocate revie...

Episode 46- Go Fish   Dear Queers, it is time. Time to discuss Kevin Smith's friend Guinevere Turner (sorry that was mean, she is not his friend, he is her friend, see Episode 43: Chasing Amy) and her ex-partner (they broke up during filming, a true Lesbian Drama!) Rose Troche's very 1994 film Go Fish! It's like that alien movie kind of (see Episode 29: Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same),...

Episode 45- The Journey (Sancharram)   This week, we're heading to a mansion in a beautiful Indian jungle, where a couple of young lesbians fall in love with each other amid scenes of rushing water and gorgeous verdant forest. It sounds like I'm being facetious in describing this but actually the scenery is stunningly beautiful, and this movie is really good! Except for, like, the homophobia and s...

Episode 44- My Days of Mercy   Hello dear Gays, this week we're talking about that Ellen Page/Kate Mara movie you saw the trailer for and got really excited to see those two kiss, and then forgot about because it had basically no theatrical release. Which tbh is fine, because this movie isn't the best, and is very very sad, and does a solid low-medium job of discussing the death penalty in America...

Episode 43- Chasing Amy   Well y'all, we had to do it sometime. This week, Sarah and Alicia discuss the 1997 bro movie with a lesbian character, Chasing Amy. Tune in to hear some complaints! But also some actual discussion! The main thing is that no one likes Ben Affleck, can we all agree? And even though this movie is Lesbianism for Bros 101, the character of Alyssa actually has some agency, whic...

Episode 42- High Art Hi dear queers, this one's another downer, but please don't go away! Alicia and Sarah still have positive things to say about this lesbian classic from 1998 in which Sad Artists are Addicted to Substances. It is very somber but also has some great acting! (except for Patricia Clarkson; what are you doing Patricia??) And Sarah recommends a book about recovery that is way more n...

Episode 41: Desi's Looking for a New Girl   Do you have serious 90s nostalgia and wish you could watch a movie that's a lot like Better Than Chocolate and The Watermelon Woman in its aesthetic but with no sex, no plot, and an almost entirely Latinx cast? Then this movie is for you! Alicia and Sarah discuss this kind of flat, but also in many ways kind of great, film that centers a lot of Dyke Dram...