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Taking copyrighted characters for a joyride, Vera Drew’s inventive take on the superhero film bounces between different visual styles, including dynamic animation and puppetry. Basking in the thrill of pastiche, this daring debut keenly expresses the trans experience through the lens of pop culture.

In 2020, comic actor Rachel Sennott starred in two films that muddle religion and sex into the poignant mess of coming-of-age: Shiva Baby and Olivia Peace’s inventive, insightful debut. Tapped into irrepressible desire, Tahara is a darkly funny, sensitive take on the eternal dramas of adolescence.

Premiering at Sundance, this indie is a sensitive look at the lifecycle of an imperfect match. Director Ira Sachs based the script on his own personal relationship, but transcends the personal aspects of his experience to form a universal and resonant look at the bonds formed through a partnership.

Eulogizing the vivacious drag icon and John Waters muse, I Am Divine is a fun portrait of an actor whose subversively vulgar work appalled and entertained in equal measure. Through glorious archival footage, Divine is among the interviewees in this documentary showing the art that goes into trash.

Tending to still-open wounds left by the Vietnam War, Minh Quý Trương’s transfixing and redolent film excavates spectral histories, once buried under the sands of time. Lighting up the darkest pits of the earth, coruscating touches between furtive lovers burn with the fieriness of queer passions.

From showgirls to nuns: the latest sensation from the king of erotic thrillers immerses us in the religious visions and illicit desires of a 17th-century mystic abbess. Sensual, elegant and scandalous, Benedetta offers up a perversely provocative critique of religious hypocrisy.

Edgy and raw with emotion, Gregg Araki’s fragmented portrait of queer teens in 1990s California captures their ennui with the lo-fi fuzz of color video. Numbing pangs of existential angst and loneliness with alternative music, hot sex, and sharp wit, these disenchanted kids rebel with good cause.

Set at the height of the AIDS crisis, Yên Tân’s soulful drama gently tugs at the paradox of home, a place where love and sorrow entwine. Heartbreaking as a young man whose clock is running out, Cory Michael Smith delivers a revelatory performance, rich in minute gestures and unspoken feelings.