The Birdcage

The Birdcage (1996) is Mike Nichols' comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Armand and Albert are a couple running a flamboyant drag cabaret in Miami, and life suits them just fine.

That calm shatters when Armand's son announces he's marrying the daughter of Senator Keeley, an ultra-conservative crusader for family values. Worse, the senator and his wife are already on their way over for a meet-the-parents dinner. To protect his son's shot at happiness, Armand agrees to pose as a buttoned-up straight family man, while drag star Albert has to be hastily reinvented as a demure "mother." From there everything goes sideways exactly as it should, one lie dragging a dozen more behind it. Robin Williams and Nathan Lane play the couple, with Gene Hackman as the senator caught in the middle of the charade.

Nichols transplanted the French farce La Cage aux Folles onto American soil, and the remake turned out warmer and funnier than most originals. Lane steals every scene he walks into. A perfect pick when you want a kind-hearted, genuinely funny comedy with no mean streak in it. Stream The Birdcage (1996) online on iFILM.