Film

Parting Glances

Name: Parting Glances
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1986
Cast: Richard Ganoung, John Bolger, Steve Buscemi, Adam Nathan, Kathy Kinney

Drama

A 1986 indie comedy-drama about two gay men spending their last day together before one leaves for Africa, shot through with genuine tenderness and dark humour. It captures the texture of queer life in mid-80s Brooklyn—the friendships, the casual intimacy, the shadow of AIDS—without ever feeling like a sermon. Warm, funny, alive.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to small, talky films where a single day's conversations carry the weight, and you don't mind a ragged, low-budget look if the warmth and the wit of the dialogue come through.

Skip it if you need plot momentum, since this is mostly friends circling each other through talk in apartments and bars, and its rough, early-1980s staging can feel dated.

What it asks of you: Roughly ninety minutes of unhurried, mostly indoor talk, with a melancholy undertow you have to sit with rather than be carried along by.

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

If you liked this

My Own Private Idaho1991

Gus Van Sant's portrait of street hustlers in Portland has the same intimate, unsentimental eye for queer desire and homelessness. It's experimental but never coldly so; the film loves its characters without pardoning them.

But The narrative fractures deliberately, and Van Sant's visual style demands patience. It's also deeply sad in ways that don't resolve.

Torch Song Trilogy1988

Harvey Fierstein's semi-autobiographical film about a drag performer finding love and family in New York. It's funny, raucous, and genuinely moving—proof that queer stories could be both camp and serious.

But It's long and episodic, and the theatrical staging can feel dated. The humour is sometimes broad.

Desert Hearts1985

Donna Deitch's tender lesbian romance set in 1950s Nevada, made the same year as *Parting Glances*. It's a film about desire and self-discovery with real sensuality and quiet conviction.

But The pacing is deliberately slow, and if you're looking for plot propulsion rather than emotional texture, you'll find it frustrating.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Parting Glances

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Living End1992

Both films refuse to make queerness palatable for straight audiences. They centre queer joy and intimacy without apology or explanation, and both use humour to metabolize rage.

Gregg Araki's transgressive road movie follows two HIV-positive men on a murder spree across America. It's punk rock cinema—formally reckless, angry, funny, sexual, defiantly alive. Made in the thick of the crisis, it argues that queerness isn't tragedy, it's a way of being in the world.

But It's deliberately provocative and makes no concessions to mainstream taste. The structure is loose, the violence is shocking, and it will alienate people looking for respectability.

Longtime Companion1989

Bruce Davison and Campbell Scott anchor this ensemble piece following a group of gay men through the early AIDS crisis in New York. It's unflinching without being gratuitous, angry without losing sight of love.

But The tone shifts between comedy and tragedy, and some may find the switches jarring rather than illuminating.

The Boys in the Band1970

Mart Crowley's adaptation of his own play—nine gay men at a birthday party in Manhattan. It's the ancestor of everything that came after; funny, cruel, revealing, with a final moment that still stings.

But The psychology is Freudian and dated in places. It can feel like a relic, which is part of its power and also its limitation.

Chasing Amy1997

Kevin Smith's sharp, funny script about comic-book artists and queer identity in Jersey. It takes desire and friendship seriously without pretension, and the dialogue crackles.

But The film hinges on a plot development that has aged poorly in its politics. Smith's male gaze is sometimes clumsy.

Jeffrey1995

Paul Rudnick's dark comedy about a gay man in New York during the height of the AIDS crisis who swears off sex, then meets someone. It's irreverent, smart, and proves you can be funny about grief.

But The tone is deliberately flip, which some will find inappropriate for the subject matter. It's also deeply of its moment.

C.R.A.Z.Y.2005

Jean-Marc Vallée's Quebec drama following a young man's journey to accepting his sexuality across decades, set to a perfect soundtrack. It's visually gorgeous and emotionally direct without being sappy.

But It's a coming-of-age film, which means it hits certain beats you've seen before. The family dynamics can feel heavy-handed.

A Single Man2009

Tom Ford's directorial debut, a portrait of a gay professor's last day alive. It's formally controlled and achingly beautiful, with Colin Firth giving one of his finest performances.

But The style is so immaculate it sometimes overwhelms the emotional content. It can feel more like a tableau than a life.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch2001

Where *Parting Glances* is quietly observant, *Hedwig* is operatic. But both are about queer people refusing to disappear or apologize, finding community and desire in the margins, and turning hurt into art.

John Cameron Mitchell's musical about a transgender rock star following her estranged lover across America. It's exuberant, theatrical, and furious—a film that transforms pain into glitter and noise. The songs are unforgettable.

But It's aggressively artificial; if you want realism, this is not your film. The constant performance can exhaust rather than exhilarate.

Courage Under Fire1996

Both films locate queer desire within specific communities and times, with tenderness toward the texture of daily life. Neither is an abstract lesson; both are rooted in particular bodies, friendships, and places. They understand that queerness is not a problem to be solved—it's a way of living.

Deepa Mehta's Delhi-set film about two sisters-in-law who fall in love. It's sensual and funny and radical—queerness blooming in a context where it's explicitly forbidden. Shot with such visual warmth it feels like an act of love.

But It's set in India and shot in Hindi, which may require adjustment. The family structures and sexual politics come from a different cultural framework. The film was banned in India.