Every Lesbian Film Ranked By The Amount Of *Forbidden Longing*

This is for the Editorial Fellowship. Because every WLW movie is 90% longing gazes across the room.

Before this gets started....

This is NOT an exhaustive list of lesbian films. I know I said I was ranking every single one, but I had to adjust to include ones that: A) I've seen semi-recently and B) Aren't inherently problematic (ahem, Blue Is The Warmest Color).

The list is still extensive, and if you've seen more than two queer womxn films, you know that they all contain at least some forlorn yearning and/or pining either in a faraway cottage, at a stranger's party, or trapped in a period piece.

So pull up your U-Haul, hitch it to mine, and let's dive in. First on the list:

8. Appropriate Behavior

Appropriate Behavior

Coming in dead last, Appropriate Behavior has the appropriate (sorry) amount of longing that would make sense to a straight audience. Written, directed, and starring Desiree Akhavan, the movie follows a woman who tries to navigate her new life post-break up. Still, this great film does have an intense amount of longing, and though she grows throughout the course of narrative, she still her ex-girlfriend back at the end.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

3/10 Stolen Glances Across a Crowded Room

7. Booksmart

Annapurna

Despite it being a buddy-comedy movie about the power of female friendship, this movie is full of both yearning and pining. Amy, one of the protagonist's, has already found comfort in her own skin as a queer woman, but that doesn't stop her from going full dork around girls.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

4/10 Sapphic Karaoke Covers of Alanis Morissette

6. D.E.B.S

D.E.B.S

Oh, D.E.B.S. As campy, ridiculous, and slapstick as you are, there is an inherent coming out story at your core. The forbidden romance between spy and assassin bump it up in the longing department, and while it's no Killing Eve, it still makes the list for sheer love in the face of adversity.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

5/10 Months Spent Away From The Spy Academy Shacked Up With Your Assassin Girlfriend

5. Pariah

Jon Rou / Jon Rou/Chicken And Egg/Mbk/Nort

The most underrated WLW movie of all time, Pariah centers Alike and her journey to coming out. While there is a lot of internal longing between Alike and her crush, the movie is more about coming to terms with one's identity in the face of opposition.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

6/10 Earnest Mixtapes Made For Your Crush

4. Imagine Me & You

Pinterest

Imagine Me & You scores automatic points for falling in love with your wedding florist. Nothing says "Oh shit, I'm gay" like saying your vows and then meeting a cool lesbian florist you fall deeply in love with twenty seconds later. At its most forbidden, Imagine Me & You is running through traffic to catch the woman that you love before she gets on a plane to leave. The romance of it all.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

7/10 Renditions of "Happy Together" by The Turtles

3. But I'm a Cheerleader!

Pinterest

Natasha Lyonne's first film role. RuPaul not in drag. A cigarette-smoking, sushi-eating bad girl Megan meets at conversion camp. So. Much. Repression.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

7.5/10 Fake Babies You and Your Crush Have To Take Care Of

2. Carol

Pinterest

It all started with a forgotten glove. There is a reason Carol became the ultimate WLW movie for an extended time. 90% of the film is Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett looking at each other from across a room. For a second, you believe they did invent the forbidden romance genre.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

9/10 Forgotten Gloves

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Pinterest

The entire narrative of POALOF centers on the forbidden longing of it all. Nothing is more heartbreaking than the concept of the film itself- a portrait painter falls in love with her subject just as her painting is to be sent off to her soon-to-be husband. The masochism of it all: the period piece, the stolen glances, the brief respite from the mundanity of it all.

Forbidden Longing Scale:

11/10 Operas You See Your Lover At Many Years Later