Film

The Boys in the Band

Other titles called The Boys in the Band: the 2020 film.

Mart Crowley's savage comedy-drama about nine gay men gathering for a birthday party in 1970 Manhattan. It's a pressure cooker: funny, cruel, tender, and unflinching about desire, shame, and the masks people wear. Essential for understanding how gay life was depicted onscreen, and remarkable simply as a play about friendship and truth.

TMDb rating3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love talky, claustrophobic chamber pieces where the cruelty comes out through witty, barbed dialogue and every line is a small knife, the way a good stage play lands in one room.

Skip it if you want plot momentum or a story that opens outward; nearly all of it happens in one apartment over one night, and the talk can feel relentless if you came for action.

What it asks of you: It runs about two hours inside a single room, so it asks you to sit with long stretches of banter and simmering tension rather than waiting for big set pieces to arrive.

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

If you liked this

Midnight Cowboy1969

Raw, unsentimental portrait of hustling and survival in New York, with Jon Voight's performance cutting to the bone. Explores sexuality and vulnerability with the same unflinching gaze.

But It's bleak and exploitative in ways that feel genuinely uncomfortable. The only X-rated film to win Best Picture, and it earns that rating.

Midnight Cowboy poster

A Single Man2009

Tom Ford's film about a gay professor's final day is restrained and achingly beautiful. Handles loneliness and desire with grace, and proves the emotional intelligence of the form.

But Very deliberate pacing and almost balletic in tone—nothing like the raw energy here. Some find it too composed, too pretty.

A Single Man poster

The Killing of Sister George1968

Another play adaptation about a lesbian actress confronting age, power, and authenticity in a predatory world. Frank about desire and equally unsparing about manipulation.

But Feels deeply of its era in ways that can seem dated. The relationship dynamics are troubling, and the ending is bleak.

The Killing of Sister George poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Boys in the Band

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

La Cage aux Folles1978

Both refuse the earnestness of later gay cinema. Crowley's play uses cruelty and comedy to tell the truth; Zidi uses farce to do the same. Both understand that laughter and honesty go together.

A French farce about a gay couple when one's son plans to marry a conservative girl. Hilarious, irreverent, and proves that camp and humanity aren't contradictions—they're the same thing.

But It's a farce first, a message second. The stereotypes are intentional but some will find the drag performance reductive. The plot is silly by design.

La Cage aux Folles poster
More like this (7)

Torch Song Trilogy1988

Harvey Fierstein in his own play adaptation: three acts across three decades about gay life, identity, and the search for love and family. Earthy, funny, and genuinely moving.

But The episodic structure and lighter tone might feel like a step down in intensity. Some find the sentimentality of the ending manipulative.

Torch Song Trilogy poster

Street Smart1987

Christopher Reeve and Mekhi Phifer in a moral pressure cooker about complicity and the violence that surrounds us. Dark, intelligent, and genuinely dangerous-feeling.

But Less focused on identity than on survival and crime. The plotting can feel contrived, and it's relentlessly grim.

Street Smart poster

Longtime Companion1989

A group of gay men navigate the AIDS crisis across the decade. Ensemble piece that captures both the ordinary and extraordinary bonds between people facing mortality.

But The episodic structure means no single character gets the depth they deserve. Some scenes feel like check-ins rather than drama.

Longtime Companion poster

The Normal Heart2014

Ryan Murphy's film of Larry Kramer's play about the early AIDS crisis and activism. Angry, eloquent, with Mark Ruffalo's performance burning with rage and love.

But Heavy-handed at points, and the moral positions are never complicated—everyone is either right or wrong. Can feel like medicine.

The Normal Heart poster

Parting Glances1986

Bill Sherwood's tender, witty film about a day in the life of a long-term gay couple during the AIDS crisis. Captures the texture of ordinary life and extraordinary loss.

But Very low-budget and it shows. The pacing is unhurried to the point of stillness. Some scenes drag.

Parting Glances poster

The Servant1963

Both are about the masks people wear in closed spaces, and what happens when they slip. Both understand that desire and power are inseparable, and that performance is survival.

Joseph Losey's masterpiece about a master and servant whose relationship becomes increasingly perverse and inverted. Power, desire, and performance; psychological chess that never stops tightening.

But Not explicitly about homosexuality and very coded. Black and white, deliberately theatrical. The pacing is slow and the dread is abstract.

The Servant poster

The Queen2006

The only documentary here, and it's the most honest portrait of gay life in exactly this era. Where Crowley dramatized the subculture, this shows it raw. Both are time capsules of the moment before everything changed.

Documentary following drag queens preparing for a beauty pageant in 1967 New York. Real people, real stakes, real humanity captured before Stonewall. Astounding archival footage and interviews.

But Not a narrative film—it's observation and interview. The pacing is leisurely. Some subjects are difficult to empathize with. No dramatic arc.

The Queen poster

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Recommended by

Will & Grace, Parting Glances, Jeffrey, When We Rise, Savage Nights, Coming Out, Torch Song Trilogy, Trick, Prayers for Bobby, Internal Affairs, Vaudeville, Staircase, A Very Natural Thing, Nighthawks, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Third Sex