Why Every Lesbian Needs to Watch Signature Move (2017) ASAP

If you’re a lesbian who’s tired of seeing the same old coming-out tragedies or side-character sapphic crumbs, let me put you on to a hidden gem that came out in 2017 and still hits different in 2025: Signature Move.

This little indie darling is basically everything we beg the universe for: a funny, sweet, super brown, super queer, Chicago-set romantic comedy about two women falling in love… and one of them is a wrestling Pakistani-Muslim lawyer who secretly fights in ladies’ Lucha-style matches wearing a mask. Yeah, you read that right.

The film follows Zaynab (played by the ridiculously charming Fawzia Mirza, who also co-wrote it), a thirtysomething immigration lawyer living with her very traditional Pakistani mom who is constantly trying to marry her off to random aunties’ sons. By day, Zaynab is translating her mom’s Pakistani soap operas and dodging marriage proposals. By night, she’s throwing women across the ring going by the name “Zara the Defiant.” Oh, and she’s very much into women… but hasn’t exactly told Ammi that part yet.

Enter Alma (Sari Sanchez – yes, Mexican and proud), a confident, openly lesbian bookstore owner who walks into Zaynab’s life like she owns the place (because in many ways, she does). The chemistry? Immediate. The first kiss? Chef’s kiss. The awkward “wait, I’ve never brought a girl home to my mom who thinks I’m straight” energy? Painfully relatable for so many of us brown lesbians.

What makes Signature Move feel like a warm hug from the lesbian gods is that it never makes the queer part the tragedy. Nobody dies, nobody gets kicked out, nobody has a dramatic crying-in-the-rain scene because they’re gay. The tension comes from culture, family expectations, and the universal mess of falling for someone when your life is already complicated – you know, normal rom-com problems, but make it lesbian and Desi.

And let’s talk about the representation for a second. When this movie dropped in 2017, how many mainstream(ish) films centered a Muslim lesbian lead? Literally almost zero. Fawzia Mirza said she wrote the script because she was sick of seeing queer Muslims only portrayed as victims or terrorists. Instead, we get Zaynab living her best double-life: kicking ass in the ring, stealing kisses in bars, and trying to figure out how to tell her mom she’s dating the gorgeous Mexican girl who makes her heart do actual backflips.

The wrestling scenes are surprisingly fun (and hot – women in sports bras throwing each other around? We love to see it). The romance is slow-burn in the best way possible – that tension when they first lock eyes across the bar, the flirty texts, the first time Alma shows up to watch Zaynab wrestle without telling her… I was grinning like an idiot the whole time.

Also, shoutout to Shabana Azmi as Zaynab’s mom Parveen – she’s hilarious, over-the-top, and somehow still lovable even when she’s trying to set her daughter up with yet another “nice doctor boy.” The mother-daughter relationship feels so real, especially for any queer woman of color who grew up with immigrant parents breathing down their neck about marriage.

Is the movie perfect? Nah. The budget is clearly indie-small, some scenes feel a little rough around the edges, and at 80 minutes it leaves you wanting way more (give us the sequel, cowards!). But honestly? That’s part of the charm. It feels like something made by us, for us, without a bunch of straight executives in the room telling them to “tone down the gay stuff.”

Signature Move proves you don’t need a huge budget or A-list stars to make a lesbian movie that actually feels good to watch. It’s funny, it’s sexy in a real-person way, it’s culturally specific without alienating anyone, and most importantly – it lets its lesbian lead be happy. Imagine that.

So if you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor: grab your girlfriend (or your situationship, or your solo wine), fire up whatever streaming platform has it this month (it bounces around – Tubi and Peacock have had it free lately), and fall in love with Zaynab and Alma all over again.

Because sometimes the best lesbian stories aren’t the ones that make us cry… they’re the ones that make us believe we get to have this too.

Happy watching, queens.