Three Queer Films About Endings, Goodbyes, and Moving On

When something ends, a film begins

Some queer films are about falling in love. These three are about what comes after. A farewell that lingers. A loss you cannot name. A door closing slowly. The films in this round-up come from France, the United States, and Taiwan. They were made across three different decades. What connects them is the quiet weight of an ending — and what a person does with it. If you liked our earlier piece on Three Queer Films About Parenthood, Home, and Making a Life, this round-up takes a darker, more introspective turn.

All of Us Strangers (2023) — Andrew Haigh

Director Andrew Haigh made this film in the UK. The lead is played by Andrew Scott. Paul Mescal plays the man he meets in his near-empty apartment building. The film begins quietly. A man lives alone in London. He has not dealt with his past. Then something strange happens — and the film takes a turn into territory that is hard to describe without spoiling it.

Haigh is a precise filmmaker. His earlier work, Weekend (2011), was also about connection and time running out. Here he goes further. The visual language is soft and blue-tinted. Moments feel like memory even while they are happening. Scott gives one of the best screen performances of recent years. He carries grief in his body without ever stating it directly.

This is not an easy film. It asks a lot from its audience. But it earns every difficult moment. For viewers who want something emotionally demanding and beautifully made, this is essential viewing.

Where to watch: Disney+ in most regions. Also available to rent or buy digitally.

Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux sauvages, 1994) — André Téchiné

This French film is over thirty years old. It does not feel dated. Téchiné set it in southwest France in 1962. Four young people navigate desire, politics, and growing up. Two of them are boys. One wants what he cannot have. The other does not know what he wants yet.

The film moves slowly and honestly. No one in it is entirely right or wrong. A relationship ends, another barely begins. Characters leave for the city, for war, for somewhere else. The ending is open. Life continues without resolution.

Téchiné has always been interested in how people miss each other — not just romantically, but temporally. People in his films are always slightly out of sync. Wild Reeds is widely considered his best work. It won four César Awards, including Best Film. For viewers new to French arthouse cinema, this is an ideal starting point. It is intimate and accessible without being soft.

Where to watch: Available on MUBI in several regions. Also available on DVD and as a digital rental.

The Wayward Cloud (Tian bian yi duo yun, 2005) — Tsai Ming-liang

This Taiwanese film is the most challenging of the three. Tsai Ming-liang is a director who works with silence and duration. His films move at a pace that demands patience. The Wayward Cloud is a follow-up to What Time Is It There? (2001). The same two characters reappear: a young woman, played by Chen Shiang-chyi, and a young man, played by Lee Kang-sheng.

They live in the same apartment building in Taipei during a water shortage. He works in pornography. She does not know this. They circle each other without speaking much. And then, at intervals, the film breaks into strange musical numbers — surreal, erotic, deeply uncomfortable. These sequences are not metaphors. They are confrontations.

The film does not have a queer storyline in the conventional sense. But the queerness is structural. Bodies are used, misread, and performed. Nothing is straightforward. The ending is one of the most abrupt and disturbing in world cinema. Consider this a mild warning — not a spoiler, but a note that the final scene is intense.

This is not a film for every viewer. But for those willing to meet it on its own terms, it stays with you for a long time. Tsai's work has influenced a generation of filmmakers, including those who made some of the films in our piece on Three Queer Films About Domesticity, Belonging, and Home.

Where to watch: Available on MUBI. Also available as a digital rental in some regions.

Three films, three kinds of ending

What these three films share is restraint. None of them rush toward resolution. Haigh uses grief as a formal principle. Téchiné trusts his young actors to carry ambiguity. Tsai strips away almost everything and leaves the audience with sensation rather than story. Together they make a case for slow cinema — not as a style choice, but as the only honest way to portray what it feels like when something is over. These are not easy watches. They are rewarding ones.