Canary (2018)

In recent years, there’s been a surge of military movies reflecting members of the LGBTQ+ community. These releases include Yossi and Jagger (2002), Soldier’s Girl (2004), Walk on Water (2004), The Strange History of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (2011), The Letter Men (2022), Love in Country (2023), and Eismayer (2023). Of course, we’d be remiss not to list the avian-titled Firebird (2022), Sparrow (2016) and Canary (2018). Per the direction of Christiaan Olwagen (who co-wrote the screenplay with Charl-Johan Lingenfelder), the latter pic is a musical of all things! Set in South Africa, the story centers around a young man who has, so far, stifled his homosexual desires. But when the small town boy joins the military’s traveling choir during the Apartheid, he begins to win the battle over sexual repression. No doubt, you’ll be singing like a canary when Wolfgang (Hannes Otto) and Johan Niemand (Schalk Bezuidenhout) follow the military manoeuvre to go “about face” and suck face with each other. If that’s not arousing enough, fast forward to the film’s 25-minute mark. That’s when Corporal Crunchie (Beer Adriaanse), Corporal du Toit (Emile Tredoux), and the aptly-named Corporal de Wet (Geon Nel) flash their collective pecs, buns and junk while taking a group shower. The scene is so hot, it’ll steam up your screen! Also known as Kanarie, this skinternational flick features dialogue in Afrikaans. Yet whenever the actors appear in the buff, there’s no need for translations. In other words, as this musical delivers LGBTQ+ T&A, you’ll be beating off!