I am having a really hard time deciding if 2010 was a great year for queer characters in movies or if it was a typically dismal year.  On one hand, I cannot remember the last time queer characters seemed so prolific; of the near-eighty movies I spent money to see, almost a quarter of them contained at least one distinctly non-hetero character.  On the other hand, most of these characters were white gay men.

Lesbians had their share of representation in the year’s most commercially popular LGBT-themed movie (The Kids are All Right), but many people rejected and problematized its characters.  Some documentaries (Stonewall Uprising) tried to bring important historical milestones to the limelight, but failed to bring anything new to the table.

And let’s not even talk about the prominently released movies featuring any bisexual or trans-identified characters or queer people of color, mostly because there were none.

However, if you looked hard enough in 2010 – and I mean really hard – you could find movies trying to represent other facets of the queer community.  They were out there, but they were hardly accessible.  Now that it is 2011 and many of last year’s movies are now easily available on Netflix, perhaps you can tell me whether or not it 2010 was a year worth remembering for queer folks.

I have compiled a list of some of 2010’s more noteworthy titles – good and bad – and have assessed exactly how “queer” they are, based both on how prominently queer characters are featured and on the sophistication of the filmmakers’ tackling of gender and sexual politics. Then, I awarded each movie with a ranking on my patented “Queer-O-Meter,” which ranks a film on a scale of 1 (Michele Bachmann) to 10 (Todd Haynes).

So, without further ado, let’s talk about some of 2010’s movies:

Black Swan (Dir. Darren Aronofsky)
What’s the Deal: The journey of an infantilized ballet dancer’s descent into madness as she allows her sanity to be consumed by the lead role she takes in Swan Lake.
Is it any Good? Directed with the sort of raw, uninhibited brushstrokes you might see in a Jackson Pollock, Aronofsky’s latest is a ludicrous mixture of the horrifying and the downright silly.  Yet the approach – coupled with Natalie Portman’s incredible performance – adds an element of lunacy that is glorious, visceral and tragic.  It is the best film of the year.
Queer-o-Meter: 4. I fretted over the much-ballyhooed sex scene between Portman and her co-star Mila Kunis, as it very well could have encapsulated the male-fantasy cliché that overshadows most “lesbian” sex scenes in movies.  But their entanglement, while undoubtedly erotic, is really more about the transposition of Portman’s basest physical sensations to the lead role that ultimately dooms her.  The scene works, but not for the reasons you might believe.

Burlesque (Dir. Steve Antin)
What’s the Deal: An aspiring singer (Christina Aguliera) moves to L.A. and finds herself the lead performer at a neo-burlesque club, which happens to be run by a woman who looks an awful lot like Cher.
Is it any Good? Disappointingly middling, it’s certainly not the campy train-wreck I was hoping for.  I wanted the movie to be “Showgirls” bad, but it is far too earnest to be taken either seriously or with irony. Rewatch Cabaret to see this material done with some real passion.
Queer-o-Meter: 5. There are some sassy gay characters in this movie, and they are mostly left on the sidelines to say and do sassy gay things.  But Cher’s first screen appearance in years (she sings too!) is bound to make Burlesque worthwhile for some.

Chloë (Dir. Atom Egoyan)
What’s the Deal: Catherine (Julianne Moore), convinced her husband is cheating on her, hires a prostitute named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to seduce him and subsequently recount their sexual escapades.  Catherine is surprised to find herself both repelled to hear these stories as well as aroused.
Is it any Good? I’m no film historian, but something tells me that when you make an erotic thriller, it’s probably best to ensure your movie actually contains erotic elements. The story is plagued with red herrings and Seyfried posed a more threatening screen presence in Mama Mia! than she does here.
Queer-o-Meter: 6. Moore’s increased sexual awakening in light of her husband’s infidelity results in her sharing with Seyfried the movie’s steamiest sex scene.  It’s a shame we are almost asleep by the time the movie reaches that point

Easy A (Dir. Will Gluck)
What’s the Deal: A high-school student takes payment from her male classmates, agreeing to say she had sex with them.  Unsurprisingly, her reputation at the school quickly turns sour, branding her as a social pariah.
Is it any Good? You can’t fault a movie like this for its ambition; it touches on teenage sexuality, the hypocrisy of those extolling “moral values,” and the importance of family and community when talking about sex.  If the movie handles all this material a bit clumsily at times, I can forgive it thanks to Emma Stone’s terrific lead performance.
Queer-o-Meter: 8. Based loosely – with considerable self-awareness – on The Scarlet Letter, there are not too many PG-13 movies out there dealing with sexuality so frankly and honestly.  Some gay characters are featured, but Easy A more broadly touches on how easily our bodies, when perceived as instruments of sexuality, are policed by forces who would rather restrict our erotic expression.  Mainstream movies with this kind of truth are true rarities.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Dir. Niels Arden Oplev)
What’s the Deal: Based on the Stieg Larsson über-hit, the movie follows a soon-to-be incarcerated journalist spending his remaining days of freedom to investigate the years-old disappearance of a wealthy Swedish entrepreneur’s niece.  He gets help from a mysterious computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander.
Is it any Good? Much of the pleasure to be had from this movie is its pulpy, sinewy approach to the police procedural.  Pulpy and unapologetically brutal at times, this Swedish film is as much fun as any other Hollywood flick you were likely to see last year.  The sequels are not as great, but they have a terrific character at the center.
Queer-o-Meter: 9. Lisbeth Salander, as played by Noomi Rapace, is quite simply one of the most fascinating movie characters in recent memory.  So much of her identity manages to transcend the labels we use in life to compartmentalize others.  Lisbeth is also an ideological force of nature, taking her own feminist brand of revenge on the villains and misogynists who see her as less than nothing.

I Killed My Mother (Dir. Xavier Dolan)
What’s the Deal: A semi-autobiographical tale of a gay teenage boy as he deals with the chaotic relationship he has with his mother.
Is it any Good? Think of it as some kind of cross between The 400 Blows and Mommie Dearest.  I swear I mean that as a compliment.  The tumult between mother and son in this movie can be a touch overblown at times, but the 20-year-old Dolan’s eye is impeccable.  Practically every frame of this festival hit is breathtaking.
Queer-o-Meter: 9. The imagery of Almodòvar clearly inspires Dolan in this movie.  I also love the thin veil the son uses to mask his sexuality from his mother.  When he is finally outed, the truth shocks his mother.  But we truly wonder whether her ignorance is a result of being shut out, or if she never really bothered to reach out to her son at all.

I Love You Phillip Morris (Dir. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa )
What’s the Deal: Based on the true story of Steven Russell (Jim Carrey), a man who comes out to his family as gay, follows the life of a con-man in order to maintain both his affluent lifestyle and his relationship with the love of his life, the titular Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor).
Is it any Good? Dark, but never mean-spirited, there is an undeniable sweetness at the core of this movie.  As often as Steven’s criminal acts appalled me, his romance with Phillip is quite moving.  This movie works because this central love feels so right.
Queer-o-Meter: 7. When rationalizing his life as a con-man, Steven asserts that “being gay is expensive!”  Such a generalization might have irritated me, but such stereotypes are oddly fitting in the pitch-black comedy of Phillip Morris.  The movie’s final con, rather brilliantly staged, counts on the internalized homophobia of an entire criminal punishment system in order to work.  Commentary on heterosexism in film is rarely pulled off so subversively.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Dir. Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg)
What’s the Deal: A year in the life of the 75-year-old comic legend as she moves from job to job in order to maintain her lifestyle and her relevance in popular culture.
Is it any Good? If you have money, Joan Rivers will whore out her talents for you.  She does not think that is a bad thing, and I ‘m not sure I do either.  Her journey in this documentary is terrifically compelling, and she earns through her work ethic an entirely new level of respect from me.
Queer-o-Meter: 4. Joan has been a gay icon for years and years, and she loves her gays right back.

The Kids are All Right (Dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
What’s the Deal: Two children track down the man who provided sperm for their two lesbian parents twenty years ago.  The biological father (Mark Ruffalo) begins a relationship with the kids, much to the moms’ chagrin.
Is it any Good? You might expect to find a plot like this in a second-rate sitcom, but Cholodenko and her cast do wonders with the magnificent people they create.  The characters, at once loving and flawed, are written and performed with enormous complexity.  There are no villains to be seen here, and no character comes out of the movie emotionally unscathed.
Queer-o-Meter: 3. This is a really tough call, because the central lesbian relationship here is about as white-bread heteronormative as you can get.  That’s caused a lot of progressive critics to laud the film’s “gays are just like us” sexual politics, but it’s also caught a great deal of flack from queer groups for celebrating what they see as the movie portraying same-sex couples as almost offensively inoffensive.  That argument is valid, but I think for it to hold water the case would need to be made that the movie celebrates its own whiteness and ostensible non-queerness.  I would counter, given the painful journey these characters ultimately take, that the movie is a deceptively nuanced critique of those same values Cholodenko’s critics blast her for apparently promoting.

La Mission (Dir. Peter Bratt)
What’s the Deal: Set in San Fransisco’s Mission District, a traditional, latino widower reacts angrily upon learning his son is gay.
Is it any Good? The film sheds light on a community rarely given any attention in the movies, and the world Bratt creates feels truly lived-in.  Unfortunately, he handles the coming-out story with less elegance; the dialog in those scenes feels as if it was pulled directly from a “Coming Out to Your Family” pamphlet.
Queer-o-Meter: 7. Maybe a viable market for movies like La Mission has not yet been defined, or maybe I simply did not peruse the theater listings rigorously enough.  Regardless, I am dismayed that this is the only film on my list featuring queer people of color. Perhaps that is what makes the perspective taken in La Mission more refreshing than it should be.  I appreciated seeing the issue of coming out tackled in a non-white setting, and the deconstruction of the father’s masculinity and homophobia feels genuine.

Patrik, Age 1.5 (Dir. Ella Lemhagen)
What’s the Deal: A happy gay couple eagerly awaits the arrival of their new adopted son, but a clerical error results in their unwitting agreement to adopt a homophobic fifteen year old boy.
Is it any Good? Like The Kids are All Right, the plot behind Patrik feels lifted from the most hackneyed sitcom.  Unlike Kids, Patrik never transcends its plot contrivances to establish characters worth our investment.  Every emotion, every lesson and every tear feels like a cog in a machine meant solely to get the characters to the happy ending the writers always intended.
Queer-o-Meter: 3. The movie’s message, above all else, affirms the notion that gay couples are capable of doing everything straight couples can do.  Nothing about Patrik’s sexual politics feels radical, but the movie does score some points for exploring the underlying conflict between the two dads honestly.  How the movie actually chooses to resolve those conflicts is a completely different discussion.

Prodigal Sons (Dir. Kimberly Reed)

What’s the Deal: An autobiographical documentary from transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed, who returns to her hometown with her new identity.  Reed also follows her mentally unstable adopted brother, who learns his grandparents are Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.
Is it any Good? Quite.  The film may be an autobiography, but it is hardly a vanity project.  Reed trudges deeply into her family’s painful history and she comes out no less transformed by the experience than any of her other family members.  It’s a tough sit, but it’s a redeeming one.
Queer-o-Meter: 8. Working with her brother, who still loves her as much as he challenges her, Reed ultimately realizes that while she spent her entire adult life reclaiming her identity, her past remains a part of her that cannot be forgotten.  You will not find a more personal story of a queer protagonist this year.

The Runaways (Dir. Floria Sigismondi)
What’s the Deal: A biopic of the all-girl teenage rock group the Runaways, centered principally around Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) and Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart).
Is it any Good? If you have seen one musical biopic, you really have seen them all.  But you aren’t likely to have seen one shot quite like The Runaways.  Sigismondi’s music-video style of filmmaking actually lifts this somewhat dry material, giving it a distinctive look all its own.  Stewart and Fanning are also particularly well-cast in the lead roles.
Queer-o-Meter: 9. There is a lot of girl-on-girl action to be had from the two leads, whose relationship defies any sort of easy explanation.  I appreciated the near-ancillary approach to their sexual bond, as it feels consistent with the cultural revolution the Runaways were hoping to incite as a group.

Sex and the City 2 (Dir. Michael Patrick King)
What’s the Deal: Do you really need me to tell you?
Is it any Good? A third-grader’s diorama would be more successful in recapturing the spirit of the TV show than this movie is.  This franchise is almost unrecognizable at this point; a shallow, insufferable love-letter to consumerism and ethnocentrism.
Queer-o-Meter: 2. SatC2 opens with a gay wedding, and we get to see some of the show’s peripheral gay characters.  It’s a nice gesture, but it cannot obscure the fact that Michael Patrick King actually gave a very uncomfortable-looking Liza Minelli a cameo, forcing her to bellow out not a showtune, but Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.”  Hasn’t Liza been through enough?!

Scott Pilgrim Versus the World (Dir. Edgar Wright)
What’s the Deal: Scott Pilgrim falls in love with the enchanting Ramona, but in order to win her heart, he must defeat her seven evil exes.  Note I did not say “seven evil ex-boyfriends.”
Is it any Good? Very good.  Wright, who directed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is a true master of genre deconstruction, and his talents are beautifully suited to this material.  The film feels like a video game in the best possible way, and its ode to geek culture is as affectionate as it is accurate.  If a better screenwriter was around to flesh out the romantic leads, this movie might have been great.
Queer-o-Meter: 8. One of Ramona’s seven evil exes also happens to be her evil ex-girlfriend.  She comes and goes just like every other boss battle in this movie, but the movie’s strongest supporting performance comes from Kieran Culkin as Wallace, Scott’s gay roommate.  Unafraid to express himself sexually, Wallace changes boyfriends more frequently than he changes socks.  His character is a far cry from the cartoonishly effeminate sexual eunuchs passing for gay best friends in most Hollywood flicks.

Stonewall Uprising (Dir. Kate Davis and David Heilbroner)
What’s the Deal: A painstaking recount of the raid that inspired the legendary Stonewall Riots, as told by those who were actually there: drag queens, barflies, bystanders and even some police officers who participated in the raid.
Is it any Good? Years from now, when schools will finally allow the likes of Harvey Milk and the LGBT rights movement to be considered a part of American history, Stonewall Uprising will make for a terrific historical chronicle.  For those of us who already know the story, however, the movie offers nothing new.
Queer-o-Meter: 5. This watershed moment in queer liberation is portrayed in an entirely positive light, but there is nothing in the filmmaking here that brings any interesting context to the queer liberation movement we are a part of today.