Best movies like Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation? Offer your knowledge to steer others to films and tv shows you've previously watched that may also fascinate them. Help widen the community of people alluding videos to one another. We welcome your input!
Plot Summary:
Each of the three short films in this collection presents a young gay man at the threshold of adulthood. In "Pool Days," Justin is a 17-year old Bethesda lad, hired as the evening life guard at a fitness center. In the course of the summer, he realizes and embraces that he's gay. In "A Friend of Dorothy," Winston arrives from upstate for his freshman year at NYU. He has to figure out, with some help from Anne, a hometown friend, how to build a social life as a young gay man in the city. In "The Disco Years," Tom looks back on 1978, the year in high school that he came out of the closet after one joyful and several painful encounters.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 531
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: anthology, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexy, feel good, sweet
Best tv shows and movies like Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation (1994):
Similar in 77%
B-Boy Blues (2021)
Plot Summary:
Follows the relationship of 27-year-old journalist Mitchell Crawford and 21-year-old bicycle messenger Raheim Rivers, who meet at a gay bar in Greenwich Village during the summer of 1993.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Open Bodies (1998)
Plot Summary:
Born to a North African father and a French mother, 18-year-old Parisian high school senior Rémi works part-time in an Arab grocery store while studying management and commerce. He responds to a school ad seeking subjects for a film, and Marc, who placed the ad, auditions Rémi by filming an interview with him. Rémi and Marc wind up in bed, and Rémi soon has other sexual experiences – with a guy in a men's room and with a young woman who grabs him while she's dancing in the street.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 47 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 81%
How to Be a Slut in America (2017)
Plot Summary:
A three-part feature by Brian Jordan Alvarez An honest portrayal of a young man figuring out how he wants to live out his romantic and sexual life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 14
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: romantic, sexy, touching, feel good, unusual plot structure, humorous, entertaining, gay cinema
Similar in 88%
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2022)
Plot Summary:
Based on the coming-of-age young adult novel by American author Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Set in El Paso, Texas in 1987, the film follows two Mexican-American teenagers, Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza and Dante Quintana, their friendship, and their struggles with racial and ethnic identity, sexuality, and family relationships.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 841
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Like You Mean It (2015)
Plot Summary:
When Mark commits to falling back in love with Jonah, he is forced to look at himself with unprecedented courage and honesty.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 732
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, psychological, tense, sentimental, unusual plot structure, contemplative, lgbt cinema, cute, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Boys Life 6 (2007)
Plot Summary:
Anthonlogy of four gay-themed stories centered around the idea of first-time crushes.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 177
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: anthology, realistic, sentimental, psychological, romantic, captivating, touching, humorous, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 76%
Night Flight (2014)
Plot Summary:
Three teenage boys who were once close friends grow apart when they reach high school: Yong-ju lives hiding his true gender identity, Gi-woong becomes the leader of the school gang, and Gi-taek an obsessive manga fan. Tired of the constant malicious bullying by Gi-woong’s gang, Gi-taek betrays them by disclosing that Yong-ju has loved Gi-woong for years. Surrounded by an insecure boundary of the school and wounded by betrayals, the boys are driven into catastrophe.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, lgbt cinema, tense, bleak, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Boys Life 3 (2000)
Plot Summary:
Jason Gould satirizes coming out in Hollywood in Inside Out, starring Alexis Arquette and papa Elliot Gould. Lane Janger's Just One Time was a festival favorite recently expanded into a feature film that turns the tables on a groom-to-be and his fantasies of sex with two women. Bradley Rust Gray's Hitch follows two attractive young guys on a dizzying road trip that leads them toward sexual self-discovery. David Fournier's Majorettes in Space is a witty French spoof of post-modern sex, romance, relationships, the Pope and baton-twirling majorettes. And, Gregory Cooke's $30 is the bittersweet story of a closeted teen presented with a young prostitute on his 16th birthday.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, romantic, captivating, anthology, realistic, independent film, gay cinema
Similar in 75%
Sebastian (1995)
Plot Summary:
In this thoughtful Scandinavian drama, a teenage boy wrestles with his sexuality and learns that most of his deepest fears were unfounded. Sebastian is almost 17 when he figures out that he is a homosexual. Though he lives with wonderful, stable parents and has a good-hearted sister, he finds himself wracked with turmoil and suddenly withdraws from them all. The more they try to understand why, the more distant Sebastian becomes. Things get worse when he falls in love with the handsome Ulf, who comes from an unstable, tempestuous home. Sebastian realizes he is lucky, but still can't help but become irritated when he brings Ulf home for dinner. His parents are too nice and this quietly infuriates their son. Eventually they leave the two boys alone in the house. Sebastian have great fun doing teenage guy stuff, but then they take a bath together and it is then that Sebastian tries to kiss Ulf.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Sweden
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
Boys Life 4: Four Play (2003)
Plot Summary:
The latest installment in this series of gay short films.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 239
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, anthology, independent film, mockumentary, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
Don't Tell Anyone (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on the alleged autobiography of gay peruvian talk show host Jaime Bailey. Joaquin, a young man from the high class of Lima, deals with problems concerning his sexual identity as a child, then as a teenager pressured by his macho snobbish father, then as an independent lazy pot-smoking college student, and later as a cocaine addict in Lima and Miami.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Peru, Spain
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, clever, queer cinema
Similar in 83%
What We Have (2014)
Plot Summary:
What We Have is is the tale of Maurice, a prisoner of his past who is unable to connect with the people in his new Northern Canadian small town, a community that is only too ready to welcome this European misfit into their arms.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
People You May Know (2016)
Plot Summary:
'People You May Know' tells the story of four friends in their 40s in Los Angeles. All them will have to confront a new reality when Delia gets pregnant from Joe, her best friend who happens to be gay.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 982
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, humorous, melancholic, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Label Me (2019)
Plot Summary:
Sex is power, and Waseem, a Syrian gay-for-pay hustler seeking asylum in Cologne, wields it like a shield. Keeping his johns at an emotional arm’s length while satisfying their most carnal desires in order to eke out a living, he meets his match in Lars: a kind, affluent professional with a growing personal interest in Waseem. This gripping tale of transactional identity explores the tactical exchange of trust and intimacy in a partnership, and the divisions between immigrants and their host countries in contemporary Europe.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, contemplative, gay cinema
Similar in 83%
Boys On Film 17: Love Is the Drug (2017)
Plot Summary:
Explore hidden desires on a sleepover, fall in love with the handyman and be seduced by a stranger on the beach as you discover why Love Is the Drug. Boys On Film 17 includes nine complete films: Nicholas Colia's "Alex And The Handyman" starring Keaton Nigel Cooke, Aaron Profumo, and Hogan Gorman; Dawid Ullgren's "Mr. Sugar Daddy" starring Bengt C.W. Carlsson and Aleksandar Gajic; Brendon McDonall's "Spoilers" starring James Peake and Tom Mumford; André D. Chambers's "Tellin' Dad" starring Carl Loughlin, Ricky Tomlinson, and Michael Byron; Eyal Resh's "Boys" starring Wyatt Griswold and Pearce Joza; Martin Edralin's "Hole" starring Ken Harrower and Sebastian Deery; Lorelei Pepi's animated "Happy & Gay"; André Santos and Marco Leão's "Pedro" starring Filipe Abreu and Rita Durão; and Anthony Schatteman's "Kiss Me Softly" starring Ezra Fieremans, Marijke Pinoy, and Marc Van Eeghem.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, unusual plot structure, melancholic, contemplative, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
Boys Life 2 (1997)
Plot Summary:
Compilation of four short films about homoerotic situations involving young men. In "Trevor", by Peggy Rajski, a teenager faces homophobia and falls in love for the first time. Tom DeCerchio directed "Nunzio's Second Cousin", telling the story of a gay cop who forces a gay-basher to come to his house and have dinner with his family. In "Alkali, Iowa", by Mark Christopher, a young gay man finds out some of his father's past secrets. And "Must Be the Music", by Nickolas Perry, follows four teenagers looking for love in nightclubs.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 487
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: independent film, anthology, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sketch comedy, sexy, unusual plot structure, sweet
Similar in 83%
A Very Serious Person (2006)
Plot Summary:
Jan, an itinerant male nurse from Denmark, takes a new job with Mrs. A, a terminally ill Manhattan woman raising her parentless thirteen-year-old grandson, Gil. Spending the summer by the shore, the emotionally reserved Jan finds himself oddly cast as a mentor to Gil in having to prepare the sensitive boy for life with his cousins in Florida after his grandmother's death.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 80%
Boys Briefs 2 (2002)
Plot Summary:
The long-awaited sequel to Boys Briefs, the successful compilation of six outstanding short films about gay first love. Hosted by DANNY ROBERTS, star of MTV's THE REAL WORLD NEW ORLEANS. Films included are: Doors Cut Down (2000); Chicken (2001); Back Room (2000); Breakfast? (Frühstück?) (2002); Touch (2001); and Take-Out (2001).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, sexy, funny, sexual, gay cinema
Similar in 88%
Driving Not Knowing (2015)
Plot Summary:
An estranged poet attempts to rekindle a complex relationship with a strung-out musician during a weekend in rural nowhere; their toxic past, however, won't be so easily forgotten.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, romantic, sexy, unusual plot structure, melancholic, independent film, gay cinema
Similar in 88%
Blackbird (2014)
Plot Summary:
Seventeen-year-old Randy tries very hard to be a good person. Since his father left, Randy takes care of his emotionally disturbed mother, and he's the kind of friend all of his classmates can depend on. As strong as he seems on the outside, Randy is hiding a secret inner struggle and denial of his true self. It's not until he opens himself up to love that he discovers that becoming a man means accepting who you really are.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 75%
Happy Endings Sleepover (2019)
Plot Summary:
American CIA Field Operative, Johnnie Allen, is assigned to Denmark for his first mission. An American spy highly placed in the Kremlin is to be spirited out of Russia, and it is Johnnie's job to get him safely to Antwerp where the agent will board a freighter. Johnnie, who is a young gay man, meets and falls in love with a Danish lad named Sander, who is apparently straight. Wanting to keep his friend close to him, he makes the mistake of bringing him on the mission. What will become of their friendship if Johnnie confesses his love to Sander? And is the Russian agent all he seems to be? Set against a backdrop of European espionage, Happy Endings Sleepover is a celebration of gay youth in a world where love should never be Top-Secret.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 424
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Tattoo (2013)
Plot Summary:
Brazil, 1978. The military dictatorship that resulted from a coup in 1964 begins to stumble. In a cabaret-like theater located on the periphery between two cities in the northeast of Brazil, a group of artists challenges power and conventional morality with theater plays and public interferences. Led by Clécio Wanderley, the troupe Chão de Estrelas, strongly supported by its homosexual audience, along with intellectuals and other artists, practices political resistance through anarchy and mockery.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, disturbing, captivating, realistic, period piece, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 76%
Cal (2013)
Plot Summary:
Twenty-year-old Cal returns from France to Britain after receiving news that his mother is ill. His finds his home city of Bristol facing hard economic times brought on by the global economic crisis, with poverty and crime on the rise and rioting and looting almost a nightly occurrence. It is not a warm homecoming as his sick mother remains stubbornly homophobic and wants nothing to do with the now openingly gay Cal while his battered Auntie Jane, now living in a run down council house, dulls her stagnation with welfare funded booze and disturbing attempts to sexually seduce her nephew. Navigating his way across this new landscape he meets a young student who needs his help. However his act of kindness brings him into contact with a lawless drug dealing pimp and a race against time to make peace with his mother and get out of town as quickly as possible. An intense tale of a family mired in poverty, angry and lost but still searching for love, respect and acceptance.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 474
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, erotic, tense, gloomy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 80%
Salvation Army (2013)
Plot Summary:
Abdellah is a young gay man navigating the sexual, racial and political climate of Morocco. Growing up in a large family in a working-class neighborhood, Abdellah is caught between a distant father, an authoritarian mother, an older brother whom he adores and a handful of predatory older men, in a society that denies his homosexuality.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 667
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Morocco, Switzerland
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, social, bleak, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Brother to Brother (2004)
Plot Summary:
A drama that looks back on the Harlem Renaissance from the perspective of an elderly, black writer who meets a gay teenager in a New York homeless shelter.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, thought provoking, touching, realistic, captivating, social, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Boys On Film X (2013)
Plot Summary:
Boys On Film presents the tenth volume in the world's most successful short film series. All boundaries will be broken as Boys On Film X promises to take it further than ever before, showcasing eight of the most sexy, unique and brilliant new short films, including: Jacob Brown's "Blinders" starring Nathaniel Brown, Byrdie Bell, and Luke Worrall; Fabio Youniss's "A Stable For Disabled Horses" starring Daniel Swan and Daniel Simonsen; Antony Hickling and Amaury Grisel's "Little Gay Boy, ChrisT Is Dead" starring Gaëtan Vettier; Till Kleinert's "Boys Village" starring Benjamin Thorne and Andrew McQueen; Lukas Dhont's "Headlong" starring Jelle Florizoone and Thomas Coumans; Evan Roberts's "Yeah Kowalski!" starring Cameron Wofford and Conor Donnelly; William Feroldi's "Inflatable Swamp" starring Francis Beraud and Paul Huntley-Thomas; and Dominic Haxton's "Teens Like Phil" starring Adam Donovan and Jake Robbins.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 87
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sentimental, romantic, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
The Last Year (2002)
Plot Summary:
Paul's homosexual affair at Bible College with a new student named Alex sets tongues wagging, mostly with un-Christian reactions. The dean, himself a closet case, threatens to expel Paul, and the football jocks have their eye on Alex. The church confessional is sure to be busy as spirituality and sexuality clash in this movie based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, independent film, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Dorian Blues (2004)
Plot Summary:
Dorian realizes he is gay in his final year of high school. He meets another gay youth locally, but remains confused. He starts therapy, then resorts to confession in the Church, and finally comes out to his brother. Dorian then decides to come out to his father; he gets kicked out of the house.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, semi serious, feel good, humorous, realistic, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Monster Pies (2013)
Plot Summary:
Mike has felt alienated and alone for as long as he can remember, until a new boy arrives at his school - awakening feelings and a world of possibilities he'd never before dared to dream of.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Australia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, lgbt cinema, cute, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Swimming (2000)
Plot Summary:
Two girl friends in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina find their relationship changing as they encounter new arrivals to the town.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 943
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film