Movies like Pretty Gay Bash
The best movies like Pretty Gay Bash are Cruising (1980), The Detective (1968) and Plainclothes (2025). If Pretty Gay Bash hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Pretty Gay Bash
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hate U Give (2018)8.1/10 from 2,266 votes
- NewestPlainclothes (2025)Released 2025
Cruising (1980)
When New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who preys on patrons of the city's underground bars, rookie cop Steve Burns infiltrates the gay S&M subculture to try and lure him out of the shadows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Detective (1968)
New York City Police detective Joe Leland investigates the grisly murder of Teddy Leikman, the gay son of a politically influential department store owner. While investigating, he discovers links to official corruption in NYC in this drama that delves into a world of sex and drugs, homophobia, homosexuality and bisexuality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPlainclothes (2025)
In 1990s New York, an undercover police officer receives an assignment to lure and arrest gay men. However, he's surprised to discover a scintillating connection with one of his targets. As their secret connection deepens and internal pressure to deliver arrests intensifies, he finds himself torn between duty and desire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEllie and Abbie (and Ellie's Dead Aunt) (2020)
School captain Ellie is seriously crushing on her rebellious classmate Abbie. Determined to ask her first love to the year 12 formal, Ellie devises a plan to go public with the invitation but before she can go through with it, her dead aunt Tara reappears from beyond the grave. Believing she's been brought back from the dead to be Ellie's fairy godmother, Tara dishes out unwanted dating advice based on her life as an out lesbian in the '80s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreak Show (2018)
The story of teenager Billy Bloom who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (2021)
Based on the true story of the events that led to the death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., an elderly African American veteran with bipolar disorder, who was killed during a conflict with police officers who were dispatched to check on him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFitting In (2024)
A teenage girl gets diagnosed with a reproductive condition that upends her plans to have sex and propels her into exploring unusual methods to have a sex life, challenging her relationships with everyone in her life, but most importantly, herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPariah (2011)
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hate U Give (2018)
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisIn the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
In 1988, Philadelphia police officer Thomas "Locke" Lockhart, hungry to become a detective, begins tracking a serial killer whose crimes defy scientific explanation. When the killer mysteriously resurfaces nine years later, Locke's obsession with finding the truth threatens to destroy his career, his family, and possibly his sanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Opposite of Sex (1998)
A 16-year-old girl visits her gay half-brother and ends up seducing his boyfriend, thus wreaking havoc on all of their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoy Erased (2018)
Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigher Learning (1995)
African-American student Malik is on a track scholarship; academics are not his strong suit, and he goes in thinking that his athletic abilities will earn him a free ride through college. Fudge, a "professional student" who has been at Columbus for six years so far, becomes friendly with Malik and challenges his views about race and politics in America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Over Me (1997)
Claude and Ellen are best friends who live in a not-so-nice area of New York. They're involved in the subculture of 90s youth, complete with drugs, live music, and homophobia. All is changed one night when a violent and meaningless death rocks their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Watermelon Woman (1997)
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReality (2023)
Augusta, Georgia, United States, June 3, 2017. After running some errands, Reality Winner returns home, where she is approached by two men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSo Undercover (2012)
When the FBI hires her to go undercover at a college sorority, Molly Morris must transform herself from a tough, streetwise private investigator to a refined, sophisticated university girl to help protect the daughter of a one-time Mobster. With several suspects on her list, Molly unexpectedly discovers that not everyone is who they appear to be, including herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMulholland Drive (2001)
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Truth About Jane (2000)
High schooler Jane struggles with the self-discovery that she is a lesbian after developing an intense friendship with another girl. However, this is only the start of Jane's troubles when her unaccepting mother Janice also contends with the surprising revelation brought forth by her only daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this15 Minutes (2001)
When Eastern European criminals Oleg and Emil come to New York City to pick up their share of a heist score, Oleg steals a video camera and starts filming their activities, both legal and illegal. When they learn how the American media circus can make a remorseless killer look like the victim and make them rich, they target media-savvy NYPD Homicide Detective Eddie Flemming and media-naive FDNY Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw, the cops investigating their murder and torching of their former criminal partner, filming everything to sell to the local tabloid TV show "Top Story."
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Mousetrap (2016)
Baptiste is a gay man who can't stop dreaming about a woman who works at a local pub. His desire for her makes him go on a journey that he could had never imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
I Am Curious Gay (1970)
On his 21st birthday, Davy wanders into a gay bar and meets the man of his dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Walk a Crooked Path (1969)
Set in an exclusive boy's school, about a man who plans to kill off his wealthy teacher wife by encouraging her to drink and pushing her into suicide. To assist him he recruits a young student who will claim that he was sexually assaulted by her. (from: http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/390627)
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Richard Fontaine's Days of Greek Gods (1988)
Richard Fontaine and Bob Mizer started the current exploration of the male nude in film and photography. The two shared ideas props and models and reinvented some of the sexual icons that we all still recognise today. The gladiator the sailor, the cowboy… Starting with posing-straps and graduating to nudes their "art studies" enlisted the talents of up-and-coming actors and bodybuilders. This film recalls that era.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
In the Days of Greek Gods (1958)
One of the earliest posing-pouch films to feature sound.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Muscles from Outer Space (1962)
AMG auteur Richard Fontaine started making short, silent posing-pouch snapshot films in the mid-1950s and moved on to sound titles like In the Days of Greek Gods (1958) and Muscles from Outer Space (1962), which featured narratives as well as nudity. Fontaine's films are among the first gay-campaigning documents in American cinema--he often managed to include references to the lowly status of the homosexual. His first feature-length erotic film, In Love Again (1969), is more like propaganda than porn. (from: http://www.glbtq.com/arts/film,3.html)
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Montgomery Clift (1983)
A documentary incorporating footage of Montgomery Clift’s most memorable films; interviews with family and friends, and rare archival material stretching back to his childhood. What develops is the story of an intense young boy who yearned for stardom, achieved notable success in such classic films as From Here to Eternity and I Confess, only to be ruined by alcohol addiction and his inability to face his own fears and homosexual desires. Montgomery Clift, as this film portrays him, may not have been a happy man but he never compromised his acting talents for Hollywood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Kirepapa. (2008)
Chisato is a beautiful 35-year-old writer, who looks like 18, and the father of Riju, a cute 15-year-old boy. Chisato's hobby is to drive away all of Riju's friends because he thinks they want to corrupt his precious child, so he shows his good side to these boys while he poisons the cake he brings them with a smile; however, there is one guy, Shunsuke, who doesn't fall for the tricks. But is Shunsuke really aiming for Riju? Who is that mysterious writer Chisato loves so much? And why is Chisato convinced that Riju's friends want to take advantage of him?
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Pretty Gay Bash?
The closest matches to Pretty Gay Bash are Cruising (1980), The Detective (1968) and Plainclothes (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Pretty Gay Bash?
Start with Cruising (1980), the closest match to Pretty Gay Bash.
What is the highest-rated movie like Pretty Gay Bash?
The Hate U Give (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,266 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Pretty Gay Bash?
Plainclothes (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Pretty Gay Bash?
Yes: Cruising (1980), The Detective (1968) and Plainclothes (2025).
How are movies similar to Pretty Gay Bash chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Pretty Gay Bash, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.