Why Every Lesbian Needs to Watch Reaching for the Moon (2013)

If you’re a queer woman who loves crying over beautiful, tragic, impossible love stories, then girl… Reaching for the Moon (2013) is going to wreck you in the best way possible. This Brazilian gem (original title: Flores Raras) is one of those rare lesbian films that doesn’t feel like it was made to “check a box” – it’s raw, sensual, intellectual, and heartbreaking all at once.

The movie tells the true story of American poet Elizabeth Bishop (played by Miranda Otto) and her long, turbulent relationship with Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Gloria Pires). It’s set mostly in 1950s–60s Brazil, and honestly? The scenery alone is worth the watch – lush jungles, modernist houses, Rio sunsets… it’s pure lesbian Pinterest board energy.

Elizabeth arrives in Brazil in 1951 to visit an old college friend, but ends up falling madly in love with Lota – a fiery, powerful, openly bisexual woman who basically built half of modern Rio (yes, the woman who designed Flamengo Park IRL). What starts as a holiday fling turns into a 15-year relationship that’s equal parts passion and pain.

Here’s why this movie hits different for lesbian viewers:

It doesn’t sugarcoat anything

Hollywood loves to give us perfect, sanitized sapphic stories. Reaching for the Moon? It gives us the real mess: jealousy, alcoholism, mental health struggles, class differences, infidelity, the works. Lota adopts a child with another woman while Elizabeth is away – drama! Elizabeth drinks herself into oblivion – more drama! But somehow it never feels exploitative. It feels… lived-in.

The chemistry is insane

Miranda Otto and Gloria Pires have the kind of on-screen tension that makes you forget you’re watching actors. There’s a scene where Lota kisses Elizabeth for the first time in the rain – I still think about it when it rains. The way Lota looks at Elizabeth like she’s the only person in the universe? Yeah, we’ve all been there.

It’s one of the few lesbian films that actually shows long-term commitment

Most queer movies end right when the couple gets together. This one shows what happens after 5, 10, 15 years. The fights. The making up. The slow erosion. The way love can be both the best and worst thing that ever happened to you.

The aesthetic is peak mid-century lesbian fantasy

Flowing dresses, cigarettes, typewriters, marble floors, tropical plants everywhere… If you’ve ever wanted to live inside a 1960s architectural digest spread with your girlfriend, this is it.

It doesn’t erase the tragedy, but it honors the love

Without spoiling too much (though it’s a true story, so Google exists), this isn’t a happily-ever-after film. But the final scene – oh my God. I’m not ashamed to say I sobbed like a baby. It’s the kind of ending that makes you text your ex at 2am (don’t do it).

Honestly, Reaching for the Moon deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Carol, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and The Handmaiden. It’s criminal that more queer women haven’t seen it – probably because it’s Brazilian and flew under the radar in many countries.

If you’re looking for a lesbian movie that treats its characters like complex human beings instead of symbols, that shows desire and devotion and devastation without ever feeling cheap… watch this. Just have tissues ready. And maybe a bottle of wine. And your girlfriend’s hand to hold.

Because some love stories reach for the moon… and even when they fall short, they still light up the entire night sky.

(Now streaming on some platforms, or hunt it down – trust me, it’s worth it.)

What’s your favorite underrated lesbian film? Drop it in the comments – I need more things to cry over.