Film

The Boys in the Band

Name: The Boys in the Band
Genre: Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Michael Benjamin Washington

Other titles called The Boys in the Band: the 1970 film.

Drama

A 1968 New York birthday party becomes a pressure cooker as seven gay friends play a brutal honesty game that strips away pretense and forces reckoning with desire, shame, and survival. Stagey, furious, intimate—it's all performance until it suddenly isn't. For anyone who's loved people they couldn't fully know.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love a claustrophobic ensemble piece where the talk is sharp, the cruelty is personal, and every line of dialogue carries a history you slowly start to read.

Skip it if you want the story to open out or move quickly, since it stays in one apartment for almost its whole two hours and leans hard on wordy confrontation.

What it asks of you: Two hours in one room with seven people talking over each other, so you need patience for long stretches of escalating conversation before the mood really shifts.

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

If you liked this

Torch Song Trilogy1988

An epic of gay love and family across decades, written by and starring Harvey Fierstein with genuine warmth beneath the camp. Moves from comedy to devastating tenderness without breaking character.

But Nearly three hours of 1980s theatrical energy; if broad, arch humor feels dated to you, this will test your patience.

Philadelphia1993

A courtroom drama about a gay lawyer dying of AIDS that refuses sentimentality while demanding you feel everything. Hanks at his most human, and the legal argument carries real moral weight.

But Mainstream earnestness and a straight director's perspective; some find it safe for its time, though that misses what it risked.

Brokeback Mountain2005

Two men across decades, a lifetime of stolen moments and the quiet devastation of choosing the world over love. Restrained and immense—a film about absence as much as presence.

But Slow, mournful, and the ending is cruel. Not cathartic; it aches in ways some viewers find unbearable.

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.

The Queen2006

Both use performance—theatrical in one, political in the other—as the primary language for exploring identity, shame, and the gap between public and private self. Both are about people forced to reckon with what they've kept hidden.

A film entirely about performance, duty, and what you show versus what you feel—centered on the royal family's response to Diana's death. Like *Boys in the Band*, it's fascinated by the mask and the moment it cracks.

But Utterly British and reserved; Helen Mirren barely moves her face, and the stakes feel formal rather than emotional to some viewers.

Pose2018

The ball culture of 1980s New York, seen through trans women and gay Black men—luminous, furious, funny, and grounded in real history. Each character is fully alive, and the ensemble work is masterful.

But Serialized over three seasons; you'll want to binge it, and the later seasons lose some momentum as the show shifts focus.

Angels in America2003

Miniseries adaptation of Kushner's play about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s: sprawling, theological, obscene, hilarious, and devastating. It contains multitudes and never looks away.

But Six hours, deliberately stagey, wildly ambitious about form. If you want realism, this will frustrate you constantly.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a Black queer man's life, filmed like poetry—each section a different visual grammar. Tenderness, shame, power, touch. A film about what gets said and what stays silent.

But Deliberately paced, sparse on plot; it's all mood and implication. Some find the quietness alienating rather than intimate.

The Normal Heart2014

Dramatizes the early AIDS crisis and the battle to make America see it, starring Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer. Rage and urgency driving every scene; it refuses to let you look away.

But Heavy-handed at moments, and the didactic speeches can feel like being lectured rather than moved, even when you agree.

The Boys Next Door1986

Two working-class men, one gay and one straight, and the violence that explodes from homophobia and desperation. Brutal and smart, a cousin to *Boys in the Band* in its unflinching view of cruelty.

But Genuinely ugly at moments; if you want catharsis, you won't find it here. The tone is deliberately unsparing.

Pride2014

A Welsh mining town and London's Gay Pride march in 1984, brought together by solidarity in the Thatcher era. It's funny, angry, and about the politics of love and community when you have almost nothing else.

But British indie tone and period detail that some find cloying; the tonal shifts between humor and anger can feel uneven.

Midnight Cowboy1969

Both capture gay New York in the same era, but *Midnight Cowboy* shows the precarity beneath the party—survival, sex work, and desperation as the flip side of the apartment gathering.

A hustler and a con artist in late-60s New York, filmed like a fever dream. It's the underbelly the *Boys* know exists but don't fully enter—frank, sad, and weirdly tender about survival.

But Shot in real locations with documentary harshness; it's seedy and bleak. If you want style or beauty, you're looking for the wrong film.

Secrets & Lies1996

Both use the ensemble gathering as a pressure cooker where games, drinks, and proximity force honesty that characters never wanted to speak. The machinery of revelation is nearly identical.

Mike Leigh's masterpiece: a family meeting where buried history explodes. Like the birthday game in *Boys in the Band*, a single scene becomes a crucible where everyone's defenses fail and truth becomes a weapon.

But Improvised feel, lengthy takes, working-class British characters—slower than mainstream drama and patient in ways that read as draggy to some.