Where the gays are: a quick look at the queerest movies the season has to offer. (Summer Movie Special).

After turning over every rock possible, we bring you our assessment of this summer's movies of lesbian and gay interest, rated both for their level of gay content (1 to 5 cheerleaders) and for our level of breathless anticipation (1 to 5 starbursts). To keep company with the usual gay-friendly art-house suspects, we've also dug up some queer supporting characters and subplots for studio films--but then we gay folks have always excelled at looking for needles in haystacks when it comes to Hollywood fare. So instead of renting In & Out or Claire of the Moon for the 100th time, take a look-see at what the big screen has to offer.

Gay appeal = a

Anticipation = *

May

Fleeing by Night (Strand)

An engaged man and woman fall for the same male opera singer in this acclaimed new film from China.

aaaa

**

The Importance of Being Earnest (Miramax)

The combination of Rupert Everett and Oscar Wilde sounded irresistible--until we saw 1999's lackluster An Ideal Husband, also directed by Earnest's Oliver Parker.

aaa

*

The Cockettes (Strand)

If you ever wondered what it was like to be a gay drug-worshipping hippie in flower-power San Francisco, check out this incredible documentary about the titular troupe of fleetingly famous drag performers.

aaaaa

*****

June

Cherish (Fine Line)

In this engaging low-key film about the romantic food chain, a woman unfairly sentenced to house attest is befriended by her gay disabled little-person neighbor. Then her stalker shows up.

aa

**

Dahmer (Peninsula Films)

Advance buzz has been surprisingly good for this portrait of notorious killer Jeffrey Dahmer, starring Jeremy Renner and Bruce Davison.

aaa

**

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (ThinkFilm)

Jodie Foster in a nun's habit should put this adolescent coming-of-age tale on the must-see list.

a

****

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Warner Bros.)

Well, it's a chick flick. And the fabulous Cherry Jones is in it. And for a summer like this, that's enough to make the cut.

a

***

Hell House (Seventh Art)

This riveting, darkly hilarious documentary about a church's vivid and homophobic haunted house features the requisite AIDS patient with a one-way ticket to the Hot Place.

aa

***

Juwanna Mann (Warner Bros.)

A bad-boy pro basketball player dons drag to play in the WNBA. We'll be thrilled if there's no gay-baiting humor, but we're not holding our breath.

a

*

Mr. Deeds (Columbia)

In this remake of Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Adam Sandler's inheritance includes John Turturro as a butler with a fetish for men's feet.

aa

*

July

Notorious C.H.O. (Wellspring Media)

Trash-talking omnisexual comic Margaret Cho returns with a second concert film, addressing menstruation, the G spot, and other conversational gambits for dinner at Grandma's.

aaa

*****

Lan Yu (Strand)

A beautiful youth has an on-again, off-again affair with an older, closeted man against the backdrop of two decades of recent Chinese history, all in 86 emotion-packed minutes.

aaaaa

****

Never Again (USA Films)

Jeffrey Tambor stars as a man who visits a gay bar daring a sexual identity crisis, only to meet and fall in love with Jill Clayburgh. Here's hoping Never Again is a step up for navel-gazing director Eric Schaeffer (If Lucy Fell).

a

*

The Powerpuff Girls Movie (Warner Bros.)

Admit it--you love to see girls kicking ass in Day-Glo pastel coordinates. The Cartoon Network starlets will no doubt give evil monkey genius Mojo Jojo a good thrashing in their debut big-screen outing.

a

****

Stuart Little 2 (Columbia)

Nathan Lane returns as Snowbell, the hoity-toitiest of felines. Protests from lovers of the E.B. White novel will probably continue to be drowned out by the stampedes at the box office.

aa

**

August

The Good Girl (Fox Searchlight)

Writer Mike White and director Miguel Arteta--the mad geniuses behind 2000's gay stalker comedy Chuck & Buck--return with this new drama, featuring Jennifer Aniston as a small-town store clerk whose humdrum life is rejuvenated by an affair with fellow employee Jake Gyllenhaal.

a

***

Hush! (Strand)

A Japanese gay couple come to terms with their idea of family when they have to contend with sibling squabbles over inheritance matters and the prospect of becoming parents in this much-buzzed-about new import.

aaaaa

***

Possession (USA Films)

Based on A.S. Byatt's 1990 best-seller, this lush romance sets two standoffish academics (Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart) on the trail of a secret love affair between two Victorian poets: one supposedly a faithful husband (Jeremy Northam), the other a lesbian (Jennifer Ehle). Directed by the formerly misanthropic Nell LaBute.

aa

***

Signs (Touchstone)

Another film graced by the lovely and talented Cherry Jones--and she's enough to make us want to endure Mel Gibson in the lead of this new thriller from M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable).

a

**

Spy Kids 2 (Dimension)

Even if Alan Cumming has just a cameo this time around, the first Spy Kids was fun enough to make us eager for another chapter.

a

****