Lesbian Film Spotlight: The 1990s
On Grunge, Bookstores, and Hot UPS Drivers
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If you’ve read the about page for this newsletter, you may know that I have a particular fascination with lesbian culture from the 1990s, a decade into which I was born but have no actual memory of. In addition to owning the complete works of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For and unironically listening to the Indigo Girls, I also watch 90s lesbian movies at any chance I get. There is something about this decade (or at least media made in this decade) that feels simultaneously ancient and yet also relatable in a way that is almost nostalgic.
This type of nostalgia – one in which the viewer or listener longs for an era they have never actually experienced – has become particularly popular as of late, most notably in pop music. This trend came to a head in 2018 with the release of Charli XCX & Troye Sivan’s “1999” and Anne-Marie’s “2002.” The singers of these songs are barely old enough to remember the era that they are referencing, but the imagery they evoke is familiar nonetheless.
Within lesbian culture, this type of nostalgia is steeped in something slightly deeper than purely aesthetics (though the aesthetics are also noteworthy). What we see when we watch these movies or read about those music festivals or lesbian bars is something many long for – a sense of visible, or at least physical, community. There is something wonderful about watching these movies and seeing how these women carved out space for themselves in a world that largely relegated them to the margins. And then there’s the fact that so many of these foundational spaces – lesbian bars, feminist bookstores, women’s music festivals – no longer exist. There’s something about a 90s movie that feels like a time capsule in a way movies from previous decades don’t in the same way. (The affected drama of the 80s or the self-conscious cool of the 70s often feel more like costumes, looking back). Much of this increased verisimilitude is likely the result of the independent film boom of the 1990s, but I also think there is something about the aesthetic of the decade – the grunge, the overall increase in more casual fashion – that conducts this realism more readily.
What follows are several films that I think drum up this frozen sense of nostalgia particularly well. I’ve not included the seminal Bound (1996) on this list partially because it has already reached icon status and thus doesn’t need my canonization, but also because while is a 90s film, it is also timeless in a way any good noir is. (But seriously, if you haven’t watched Bound yet, go watch Bound). I have also not included the excellent (and newly cut and restored) But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) because it has already reached similar canonization, and also because its particular camp stylization is less closely steeped in the aesthetics of the 1990s.
The first film I want to highlight is Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman, which apart from being a charming movie, is also a pioneering piece of filmmaking. Upon its release in 1996, The Watermelon Woman was the first feature film directed by a black lesbian and was an important part of the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s. The film stars Dunye as an aspiring filmmaker who is working at a video store while making a film about black actresses from the 1930s. The Watermelon Woman is not only a lovely time capsule of 1990s life – the actual existence of video stores, lesbians in overalls – but a compelling look at how historical archives often exclude black people, and in particular black lesbians. (To create the fictional documentary within the film, Dunye conducted extensive archival research of her own, encountering many of the same difficulties her character faces regarding the availability of this material). The film also features 90s lesbian film mainstay Guinevere Turner, who also starred in Go Fish (discussed below) and co-wrote the incredible American Psycho with Mary Harron.
The next film I want to consider is Chutney Popcorn, which is an underrated gem within the lesbian cinematic universe. Directed by and starring Nisha Ganatra – who more recently directed Late Night (2019) and The High Note (2020) – the story revolves around a young Indian-American lesbian (played by Ganatra) and her struggle to balance her relationship with her family with that of her girlfriend. Wanting to win the love of her mother (played by the legendary chef and actress Madhur Jaffrey), she volunteers to be a surrogate mother for her sister and brother-in-law. What follows is a series of complicated and hilarious hijinks that playfully question outdated definitions of the nuclear family.
Chutney Popcorn is laugh-out-loud funny and unexpectedly heartwarming, and, as a cherry on top, features Cara Buono playing a dangerously attractive lesbian UPS driver. What I love about this film, and about all the films on this list, is the naive but charming “us against the world” mentality that these characters have, a mentality that they have clearly developed as a result of the close-knit, insular community that they are a part of. The blundering confidence these characters have is an endearing, if not enviable, quality. Just look at the amount of swagger lesbian UPS driver Cara Buono (pictured above) has in this movie – it’s irresistible!
The next film I want to talk about is another one I wish was considered more of a classic. I will admit that the reason I originally watched this film was because I read that it was the first lesbian film Céline Sciamma ever saw, and as a card-carrying member of Portrait Nation, I felt I had to check it out. What I found, however, is that Go Fish is a thoroughly enjoyable and clever film worthy of our recognition apart from any connection it might have to our French lesbian overlord. Released in 1994 and filmed entirely in black-and-white, the film carves out its own unique 90s indie style. Go Fish focuses on a group of young lesbians living in Chicago, led by Max (Guinevere Turner, who also co-wrote the film and stars in The Watermelon Woman) and Kia (T Wendy McMillan). Replete with close-ups of Doc Martens, lesbians cutting their nails on the first date, and timeless slang ("What is she, regular, crunchy, or extra crunchy?"), the film is both charmingly of-the-time while also being eternally relatable. While it was described as “fresh” and “hip” at the time of its release, it now serves as a compelling archive of a time and a place with its own unique sensibility.
Lastly, I want to give a shout out to All Over Me, which was released in 1997 and is directed by Alex Sichel. There are several things in particular that endear me to this film. First, it stars Leisha Hailey (unequivocally the funniest actor on The L Word), second, Leisha Hailey has pink hair, and third, it is about the riot grrrl scene in New York City. As a Pacific Northwest native and an Alice Pieszecki apologist, this is very appealing to me specifically. The film focuses on Claude, a fifteen-year-old living in Hell’s Kitchen, and follows her complicated relationship with her best friend and her own sexual awakening. Claude meets Lucy (Leisha Hailey) at a bar where she is playing in the house band. In my favorite scene of the movie, Claude is in Lucy’s room listening to a Patti Smith CD when they have their first kiss, which ends in an overwhelmed Claude running out of the room in tears. Apart from some probably unnecessary subplots about Claude’s best friend and her mom, the film holds up as an endearing, low-budget slice of teen lesbian life in the 1990s.
This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of independent lesbian films from the 1990s. Honorable mentions go to Better Than Chocolate (1999), which is set in Vancouver and features a memorable naked painting scene, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) which stars another The L Word alumn, Laurel Holloman, and High Art (1998), directed by The Kids Are Alright’s Lisa Cholodenko and starring Ally Sheedy. As a whole, these films serve as a useful archive for a particularly iconic era of lesbian culture, one which the youngest among us have little tangible connection to. Of course, documentary filmmaking provides a more obvious archival resource (for this I would recommend Last Call At Maud’s, which celebrates San Francisco’s oldest lesbian bar on the eve of its closure), but there is also something interesting in seeing a fictional and perhaps idealized version of how these lesbian directors saw their own communities at the time. But regardless of their actual relationship to reality, the resonances these films produce continue to reverberate today.
Streaming guide for this article:
Bound (1996) is available to rent on YouTube, Amazon, and iTunes.
But I’m A Cheerleader (1999) is streaming to free on YouTube, Pluto TV, Tubi, and Amazon. The Director’s Cut is available to rent on Amazon and YouTube.
The Watermelon Woman (1996)is available to stream on Showtime.
Chutney Popcorn (1999) is available to rent on Amazon, YouTube, and iTunes.
Go Fish (1994) is streaming for free on Tubi and Pluto TV.
All Over Me (1997) is streaming on YouTube (the quality is not great).
Better than Chocolate (1999) is streaming on Tubi and Amazon.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) is streaming on YouTube (also fairly low quality).
High Art (1998) is available to rent on Amazon, YouTube, and iTunes.
Last Call at Maud’s (1993) is streaming on Amazon.
Welcome to this week’s dispatch from the lesbian internet.
We’ve recently learned, according to her interview with Jimmy Fallon, that JoJo Siwa has a girlfriend. In said interview, Siwa explained that while talking to her girlfriend after coming out she realized “If I lost everything that I’ve created because of being myself and because of loving who I want to love, I don’t want it.” In addition to the exciting confirmation that she is in a happy relationship, Siwa has also given us another brave and hopeful testimony about the future of coming out. When I started this newsletter I did not think I’d be giving weekly updates on JoJo Siwa, but here we are. I welcome our new lesbian overlord.
Noted bisexual and iconic action hero Angelina Jolie was on the cover of this month’s British Vogue. In the article, she discusses motherhood, her projects as a director, and her continued humanitarian work. And perhaps most importantly, she gave us these photos (below). At a time when sapphics everywhere are thirsting over middle-aged actresses (more crudely put – MILFS), it troubles me that Angelina is not more consistently at the top of our lists. That is all!
The Golden Globe nominations were announced this week. Apart from some absurd (see: racist) snubs, this year’s nominations are sure to provide some drama within the white dramatic actress sect of lesbian Twitter. In what will surely be an exciting race, sapphic faves Olivia Colman, Jodie Comer, and Sarah Paulson were all nominated in the same category (Also of note, The Crown’s Emma Corrin, who is rumored to be dating Christine and The Queens, is nominated in this category as well). I’m more interested in seeing how this one turns out than I am in who wins the Superbowl.
Somehow, there is yet another lesbian period piece coming out this year. The Affair, which is set to be released on demand in March, centers on two married women in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. The only other thing I can parse out from the trailer is that there is an illicit affair, Nazis, and some ominous undertones (hence the Nazis). I have no idea if this will be any good, but obviously I will be watching it.
That’s all for this week, folks! Stay tuned for next week’s installment. I will leave you with this week’s blessed sapphic image.
