Every December, I review the depiction of lesbian and bisexual women in the movies for the preceding year. And every December, it's the same story, different year: bisexual women dating men and women at the same time. Lesbians who sleep with men. Lesbians who have no love life and/or have unrequited crushes on straight women.

If we're lucky, we'll get one or maybe two movies with three-dimensional, non-stereotypical lesbian or bisexual characters.

But this December, I'm here to report that 2004...was exactly the same. Bisexual women dating men and women at the same time (When Will I Be Loved, Dodgeball, Head in the Clouds). Lesbians who sleep with men (She Hate Me). Lesbians who have no love life and/or have unrequited crushes on straight women (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason).

Yep, it was another banner year at the box office for lesbian and bi women!

Lest you wonder if quantity makes up for poor quality, only eight of the 500+ theatrical releases in 2004 included lesbian characters (that's around 1%). Which means that lesbian and bisexual women were non-existent on the big screen--and when they were present, they were mostly cliched, stereotypical, or thinly-drawn characters designed to prop up the heterosexual ones.

As in previous years, there were exceptions, like a touching, two-minute scene in Kinsey in which Lynn Redgrave's older lesbian character talks about how the title character's work freed her from guilt over her lesbian relationship. The critically panned (and little seen) comedy My Baby's Daddy featured a mixed-race lesbian couple in a subplot, although they existed primarily to frustrate the straight male characters. Eulogy's funny and engaging plot about a dysfunctional family, in which four of the women eventually engage in lesbian activity before the film is through, wins this year's award for most three-dimensional lesbian characters by a country mile. Too bad the movie was only in theaters for half a second.

There were several good indie films that never made it to the theater, of course, and I look forward to catching those on DVD. But there's something about being able to see characters you can relate to (and that heterosexual viewers can be introduced to) at your neighborhood theater that makes the ongoing invisibility of lesbian and bi characters in theatrical releases disheartening.

The films in 2004 with lesbian/bi characters aren't all bad movies--some of them are quite good, in fact (or at least amusing). Dodgeball had its funny moments, and The Bridget Jones sequel was entertaining, if a little weaker than the first one. Head in the Clouds and When Will I Be Loved both tried to tackle unconventional relationships, with mixed success, and She Hate Me...okay, there's very little to recommend that film, even when you ignore its portrayal of lesbians.

But Eulogy was good. Did I mention Eulogy?

Heading into 2005, there a few bright spots on the cinematic horizon: D.E.B.S. will be released in theaters in March, and the Asian American lesbian romantic comedy Saving Face that debuts at Sundance next month may end up in theaters later in the year. And who knows, if we're really lucky, maybe some enterprising writer and director will surprise us with a supporting lesbian and bisexual character who doesn't make network TV lesbians look cutting-edge.

If not...well, at least I have 12 months to figure out how to say the same thing next year in a different way.

Read about movies in 2003 and 2002