A & E

Queer Film Reviews: Femmes4Films

Summer Gardner and Ella Gibney • January 23, 2026

One of the most classically queer movies ever made. This movie takes heavy subject matter and somehow turns it into a positive, feel-good comedy with highly likable characters and a rather innocent love story. A must-watch cult classic.

Welcome back to Femmes4Films, Femmes4Films a queer media review column written by two sapphics! This month, we review a cult classic, a 2000s spy movie, and a moving dramedy.

But I’m a Cheerleader

When directing But I’m a Cheerleader, Jamie Babbit successfully transformed her creativity and passion into a satirical masterpiece. Brought to life by talented actors such as Natasha Leonne and Melanie Lynskey, this romcom covers the heavy topics of internalized homophobia and conversion therapy in an impressively light-hearted way. When a deeply closeted cheerleader, Megan, is suspected of being a lesbian by her friends and family, she is sent to an exaggerated caricature of a conversion therapy camp. Although one would expect the remainder of this movie to be quite depressing, the aesthetically pleasing cinematography, the humorously ridiculous portrayal of conversion therapy, and the innocent love story between two women take the edge off the movie’s more serious issues.

You can expect this cult classic to take you on a beautifully executed journey of identity, acceptance, and love. It will make you laugh out loud and possibly tear up at times, before it wraps up with a happy ending that could warm anyone’s heart.

Charlie’s Angels, but make it queer. This 2000s flick is perfect for a fun Friday night with a girl power theme, and aged surprisingly well for the genre.

D.E.B.S

This 2000s chick flick follows the story of three college girls recruited into a top-secret government agency to spy on the most powerful of criminals. As the description suggests, the film is exactly what you would expect from a 2004 action comedy—it’s campy, cliché, and has a slightly questionable romantic sideplot. Although the plot follows a very trope-ified storyline, what isn’t quite as traditional is that the featured romance is explicitly sapphic. As the D.E.B.S. spies stalk one of their most threatening enemies, Lucy Diamond, one spy finds that Lucy is the exact opposite of what she had anticipated. Upon meeting the criminal in person, the spy’s newfound feelings for Lucy lead her to question her loyalty to D.E.B.S. and everything the organization stands for.

By combining typical 2000s spy movie clichés (think: movies like Charlie’s Angels and Miss Congeniality) with an unapologetically queer sideplot, Angela Robinson directs a movie that is unserious and lighthearted, but ultimately light-years ahead of its time. D.E.B.S. is the perfect movie for anyone looking for an entertaining, somewhat kitsch film with an iconic soundtrack, cheesy one-liners, and strong lesbian representation.

This beautiful, colorful indie film is both a complex exploration of cultural identity and a moving story about love, loss, and acceptance. While light-hearted, the movie’s powerful message reminds viewers that individuals contain multitudes and to always stay true to oneself.

The Queen of my Dreams

Stepping out of the spotlight and into a more modern, personal portrayal of queerness is the 2023 indie film The Queen of My Dreams. This award-winning film is the directorial debut of filmmaker Fawzia Mirza, whose identity as a Pakistani-Canadian lesbian greatly influenced both the story and cinematography of the movie. The Queen of My Dreams follows two timelines, documenting Azra’s life in 1999 as a Pakistani lesbian struggling with her relationship with her culture and conventional mother, and the life of her mother thirty years earlier, at Azra’s age. The two storylines are brought together by a great tragedy, portraying surprising similarities between Azra and her seemingly traditional mom.

The movie is a beautiful exploration of queerness that any queer person could find relatable, empowering, or inspiring. It portrays grief, love, and healing beautifully as both Azra and Mariam learn to define what love and culture mean to them. One of our favorite parts of the movie is that rather than following the trope of a woman coming to terms with her sexuality, Azra is unwaveringly confident and secure in her queerness throughout the film. Actress Amrit Kaur instead portrays a complex and realistic struggle between loving aspects of her culture – the color, beauty, and vibrancy of life in Pakistan and Bollywood films – and feeling marginalized by the strict gender roles and familial expectations of Pakistani society. The filmmaking emphasizes this, portraying the beautiful and stifling aspects of Muslim traditions and religion in the style of retro Bollywood films, with colorful and vibrant scenes and wardrobes. It is at once heartwarming, devastating, and funny, and is not quite a romance but a generational movie about falling in love – with a person, a culture, or your identity – on your own terms.

About the Contributors

Summer Gardner, Writer

Summer Gardner is a second-year staff writer for The Owl and a senior at Boulder High. She enjoys writing about social issues and sharing her opinions on whatever else is on her mind at the moment. When Summer is not in school, she enjoys reading, spending time outside, and pestering her sister whenever possible. Over the summer, she works as a farmer at Growing Gardens, where she mainly harvests produce and sneaks the occasional snap pea when no one is looking. One of her favorite activities is enjoying a good picnic with her friends, where she hopefully eats as many grapes as possible. These would, of course, be of the purple sort. Although purple grapes are a slightly bigger risk than green grapes (the rate of mushiness is higher), the reward is much greater, and the act of eating a solid purple grape is said to be one of the most enlightening human experiences known to man.

Ella Gibney, Editor-in-chief

Ella Gibney is entering her third year with The Owl fueled by overpriced coffee, the crystals in her pockets, and Love Island USA. Current BHS senior and co-editor-in-chief, Ella is excited to continue covering the events affecting the student body by openly writing about mental health, getting the behind-the-scenes of the school’s inner workings, and voicing her opinions on everything from pop culture to diet culture. Ella is passionate about volunteering and gives weekly presentations about depression and suicide to middle and high school classrooms. Outside of the school setting, she can usually be found thrifting jewelry, falsely believing she can read palms, or working at her part-time job to finance her full-time concert-goer identity. The only thing Ella fears more than math homework and highways is purple grapes, due to their horrifying likeness to the taste of cough syrup.