By Noma Faingold

Frameline, the annual San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, with a festival running from June 17-27. The milestone is a big deal for the largest and longest-running queer film festival in the world. Several San Francisco and East Bay venues, including the newly restored Castro Theatre, will host 140 films from 35 countries with LGBTQ+ themes by mostly queer filmmakers. Programming for the 11-day event also includes parties, networking events and industry panels.

Here are a few capsule reviews of films which deserve attention from theater goers:

“I Want Your Sex” (2026) June 19, 6:15 p.m., Castro Theatre

The latest film from New Queer Cinema pioneer, Gregg Araki (“White Bird in a Blizzard” from 2014, 2004’s “Mysterious Skin” and 1992’s “The Living End”), had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where the director described “I Want Your Sex” as “a sex positive love letter for Gen Z, encouraging young people to just go out and have fun.”

Something unexpected happens in every minute of the provocative comedy/thriller, which is being released in theaters at the end of July. 

What do we make of this slubby doormat of a protagonist named Elliot, who attracts the attention of his sadistic boss, Los Angeles artist and gallery owner, Erika Tracy, played with irascible glee by Olivia Wilde? 

It’s not fair to compare lead actor Cooper Hoffman, 25, to his father, the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman. But Cooper (“Licorice Pizza,” “Poetic License”) is the real deal. He is believable as Elliot, a confused, underemployed, malleable young man, willing to be a sex slave to his dom, Erika. Wilde deliciously chews up scenery in “I Want Your Sex,” which satirizes the L.A. modern art scene, how social media can wreck lives and the power of sexual role playing. 

Tony winner from “Hamilton” Daveed Diggs, Chase Sui Wonders (“The Studio”), pop star Charli XCX, stand-up comedian/actress Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville round out the cast.

Araki, who has mostly been directing TV/streaming series in the last decade, is not a subtle auteur. Exaggerated set design and extreme personalities are signatures and largely the appeal of his films. “I Want Your Sex” lands on the more mainstream end of his indie filmography. 

“Maddie’s Secret” (2025) June 25, 3 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. Expected guest: John Early

Writer, director and star, John Early (best known for the TBS comedy “Search Party”) is a talented, versatile comedian and actor with a unique body of work worth checking out. He’s an original, not unlike Amy Sedaris, Cole Escola and “Maddie’s Secret” co-star and longtime collaborator Kate Berlant, who plays Maggie’s best friend, Deena, in the comedy/melodrama. 

The internal saga, which feels like a cross between a Cinderella story and a throwback Afterschool TV movie, is centered around an inventive, self-taught chef toiling away as a production assistant on an online cooking show. Almost by accident, she becomes a relatable viral sensation after one social media cooking post. 

Leave your skepticism at the theater door and be willing to buy into Early’s performance as a feminine, yet not exactly delicate woman, Maddie Ralph, the passionate vegetarian chef. Maddie’s secret, which she keeps from her co-workers, her loving husband, Jake (Eric Rahill) and Deena, is that she has an eating disorder, which seems under control at the beginning of the film, until the aspiring food influencer is triggered.

The insecure Maddie, whose narcissistic mother (played by Kristen Johnston) belittles her daughter’s every accomplishment, returns to bulimia with a vengeance to cope with the pressure of being a public personality and role model, while trying hard to keep her body weight manageable by overexercise.  

Eating disorders are treated seriously in “Maddie’s Secret,” such as when Maddie enters a treatment facility after suffering a cardiac episode. There are also grim anecdotes recounted by other patients during group therapy sessions. 

However, in scenes away from rehab, the bouts of ravenous binges, followed by graphic purges, are filmed with a comedic, almost campy tone. It’s enough to give an audience ED whiplash. 

Johnston plays Maddie’s mother with unapologetic malevolence, which is funny with the out-sized flare of a John Waters movie. Mom refuses to take any responsibility for having a hand in her daughter’s ED. A flashback reveals that Maddie learned how to binge/purge (specifically excessive portions of meat – no wonder Maddie is a vegetarian) from her mother at age 12. She showed her daughter that tying her hair back before the act is essential.

“Maddie’s Secret” will be opening for a theatrical run on June 26 at the Alamo Draft House New Mission. Find tickets and showtimes at drafthouse.com/sf/theater/new-mission.

“Montreal, My Beautiful” (2025) June 25, 5:30 p.m., at the Vogue Theatre

Joan Chen, last seen in “Dìdi,” plays Feng Xia, a meek woman in the throes of menopause. The wife and mother was born in China and has been living in Montreal for more than a decade. The film is an immigrant story of a giving woman, who suppresses her own dreams and desires. 

Things are not working out too well for her traditional husband, who is in a constant state of frustration and disappointment as a 50-something professional being cast out in his industry. Feng Xia is an obedient wife and attentive mother to a college-age daughter and teenage son, living an unfulfilled life while working in the couple’s convenience store. Her husband barely notices her, unless he wants to have robotic sex with her or she does something he doesn’t approve of. 

Then she meets Lisa (played by Charlotte Aubin), a free-spirited Québécoise woman in her late 20s or early 30s, living a somewhat aimless life. Gradually, they are drawn to each other and Lisa becomes Feng Xia’s first female lover, giving Feng Xia her first orgasm. The intimate love scenes are meaningful for both women. 

In flashbacks, Feng Xia recalls as a teenager having such feelings for her best friend. Those glimpses help to understand the adult compromises she has made.

The Canadian production, with French and Mandarin subtitles, as well as some dialogue in English, is a quiet, tender film, directed by Xiaodan He and beautifully shot by cinematographer Marie Davigon. 

“Montreal, My Beautiful,” explores how Feng Xia has spent her life existing for everybody else. Maybe she won’t be forever.

“Test” (2026) West Coast Premiere, June 25, 2:30 p.m. at the Roxie Theater

Set in the regional minor leagues of competitive bodybuilding of blue-collar Ohio, Eddie (Brock Yurich, who also wrote the screenplay), is a driven man, in his late 20s, desperately trying to find out what he’s made of in the gym, on the competitive stage and within himself. Yurich absolutely looks the part, by the way.

“Test” works because it feels so real, so much so that it makes you want to turn away when Eddie injects himself with steroids and risky doses of insulin to gain more muscle mass and more definition. The film offers an inside look at a cutthroat sport that involves much more sacrifice than being a gym rat. It’s apparent that all of the contestants, even at this level, are doping to achieve the required aesthetic.

Eddie, who lives with his church-going, alcoholic mother and manager, Joanne, is played with a powerful combination of pathos, fatigue and self-pity by Tammy Blanchard. It’s immediately obvious that mother and son have an unhealthy co-dependency during a scene when she is meticulously applying a dark tanning product with a mitt, not missing a single crevice of Eddie’s hairless body. 

Eddie lives in the shadow of his father, a former champion body builder, who abandoned the home long ago. To make ends meet, he works a menial job by day and as a cam model by night, which he keeps secret from his mother and supportive girlfriend, Abby (Paloma Garcia-Lee). 

Pivotal characters come in and out of Eddie’s life, often leaving painful scars, including a mentor figure, Mike (Mike Edward), who becomes his coach, performance-enhancing drug (PED) supplier and lover. 

“Test” is sort of an underdog “Rocky” story, in that it is easy to invest in how Eddie responds to getting knocked down more than a few times. Will he discover his resilience, accept who he is and make peace with those in his inner circle?

The Frameline50 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival runs June 17-27, at several San Francisco and East Bay venues. For more information at frameline.org/festival.