Film

In & Out

Name: In & Out
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1997
Cast: Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds

Comedy

Kevin Kline plays a beloved Midwestern English teacher whose orderly life detonates when a former student thanks him, by name, for being gay during his Oscar acceptance speech — three days before his wedding. It's a big, silly, warmly old-fashioned farce that uses its premise to gently interrogate small-town denial, and it's carried by a cast clearly having a wonderful time.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy gentle, warm-hearted comedies of small-town manners where the jokes come from decent people fumbling with honesty, and you don't mind the satire being soft.

Skip it if you want sharp, edgy satire or a fast pace; this is cozy, pauses often on its feelings, and its farce plays it safe.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes, mostly light and easy, with a mood that stays affectionate rather than biting; it asks for little beyond letting the small-town gags land.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Birdcage1996

The closest cousin in tone and era — a mainstream American farce that turns gay panic into slapstick gold, with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams at full, glorious tilt.

But Broader and louder than In & Out; if you found this one gentle, that one might feel like being shouted at.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert1994

Drag queens crash headlong into small-town Australia in sequined buses and sharp one-liners — the same collision of flamboyance and provincial suspicion, played louder and prouder.

But More explicit, more confrontational, and less interested in reassuring anybody than In & Out ever was.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert poster

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar1995

Three drag queens stranded in a tiny American town, teaching the locals a thing or two — pure feel-good 90s comedy with a genuinely warm heart underneath the wigs.

But Broader and softer than it needs to be; some of the jokes have aged into gentle cringe.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from In & Out

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Celluloid Closet1996

In & Out is a comedy built entirely on Hollywood's discomfort with gayness; this is the documentary that shows you exactly where that discomfort came from, decade by decade.

A documentary tracing a century of Hollywood's coded, cowardly, occasionally brave depictions of gay characters — the exact machine In & Out is quietly mocking, shown from the inside.

But Talking-heads and archival clips, not jokes — a history lesson, however sharp, rather than an evening's entertainment.

The Wedding Banquet1993

Ang Lee's early comedy about a closeted man staging a fake marriage to please his parents mines the same vein of secrets, weddings, and small lies spiraling out of control.

But Quieter and more melancholy under the farce; it's interested in family duty as much as laughs.

Philadelphia1993

The mainstream drama that came before the mainstream comedy — Tom Hanks being outed and punished for it, a reminder of the stakes In & Out is gently satirizing.

But Genuinely sad and dated in places; don't expect any of In & Out's lightness.

The Object of My Affection1998

Jennifer Aniston falls for her gay best friend in a warm, funny rom-com that treats a coming-out story as a love story about the wrong kind of love, tenderly done.

But Very much a product of its decade's comfortable liberalism; it can feel a little safe now.

Kinsey2004

Liam Neeson as the researcher who forced America to talk about sex at all — a serious, mainstream drama about the scientific unmasking of the very taboos In & Out jokes around.

But A biopic, not a comedy — talky, procedural, and far more interested in ideas than punchlines.

Love, Simon2018

The modern teen version of the outing plot — sweeter, gentler, and made for an audience that In & Out's small-town America eventually became.

But Aimed squarely at teenagers; the stakes and humor are lower-key than a grown man's midlife reckoning.

Beautiful Thing1996

A British council-estate coming-of-age romance that trades In & Out's farce for tenderness — proof the same decade could tell this story completely straight-faced.

But Small, slow, and unglamorous by design; there's no Hollywood gloss or big comic set-pieces here.

Victor/Victoria1982

Same engine as In & Out — a person's public identity is seized and reshaped by other people's assumptions — but built fifteen years earlier around gender rather than sexuality, and sung rather than said.

Julie Andrews plays a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman in Blake Edwards' dazzling, decades-earlier farce about identity, performance, and who gets to define you.

But A musical, and a slower, more theatrical kind of comedy than modern audiences may expect going in.

But I'm a Cheerleader2000

Same target, wildly different register: In & Out pokes fun at denial with warmth, this one skewers it with lurid, deadpan camp, showing how far the same joke can be pushed.

A candy-colored satire of gay conversion camp, starring Natasha Lyonne, that's far campier and stranger than In & Out but aimed at the exact same target: small-minded panic dressed up as concern.

But Deliberately garish and cartoonish — a taste some will find inspired and others will find grating.