Gay Best Friend: Bernstein (Antonio Fargas) in "Next Stop Greenwich Village" (1976)

 A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Look past the early "Chris" Walken appearance, Bernstein (Antonio Fargas - center) is the subject of this week's Gay Best Friend column.

Flying the nest can be simultaneously liberating and horrifying. On one hand, you have all this freedom to do what you want, when you want. Unfortunately, you have to learn how to take care of yourself and be self-sufficient. For those with tight knit families or over-involved parents, the horrifying can outweigh the liberating.

Next Stop, Greenwich Village laser focuses on the growing pains in this transition. The year is 1953. Larry Lapinski (Lenny Baker) leaves his parents’ home in Brooklyn to chase his dreams of stardom. His Mother, Fay (Shelley Winters), is utterly distraught and inconsolable. The umbilical cord is only hurt, not severed though. Larry's mother bursts in to his new life at the most inopportune times.  This column isn’t about Shelley Winters though, as much as it should be. Larry makes a variety of friends in Greenwich Village, one of which is Bernstein, played by Antonio Fargas, our gay best friend of the week...

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Category Analysis: Was It Kathryn Hahn All Along in Limited Supporting Actress?

Team Experience takes a look at the episode submissions for Emmy categories. 

Who will win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie?

By: Christopher James

It was Agatha All Along! Or was it?

There are several high profile performances nominated this year in the Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie category. Pairs of Hamilton and Mare of Easttown women fill up a majority of the lineup. Additionally, character actress extraordinaire Kathryn Hahn finally got a major chance to shine in Disney+’s hit WandaVision. Rounding it out is a surprise nominee - Moses Ingram - from last fall’s water cooler hit The Queen’s Gambit. It’ll be a real race for the win. Let’s take a look at the nominees...

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Jean Harlow on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

During the past years, the Criterion Channel has highlighted the careers of many Old Hollywood stars. After Carole Lombard, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, and many more, it's time to celebrate Jean Harlow. In this case, the selection of titles entices because of how encompassing it is. The Criterion Channel presents 14 films, every feature the starlet did while on contract with MGM, from 1932 to her untimely death in 1937. By watching these works, one can get a good sense of Harlow's meteoric rise, how her persona evolved, how it changed to accommodate personal and physical transformations, a transfiguration of industry ideals and popular tastes. Furthermore, the movies showcase other great stars and the work of such vital 1930s screenwriters as Anita Loos and Dorothy Parker. It's a perfect treasure trove of Old Hollywood moviemaking, history, and scandal…

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Emmy Analysis: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for major Emmy categories.

 

By Nathaniel R

Confession as lede: I chose this specific actor race when the Team divvied up the categories because I genuinely had no idea who I'd vote for when I heard the nominees. That's partially because of Emmy's silly voting rules which end up burying their acting fields with one show but partially because even within Ted Lasso, where I assume my vote will go, I love everyone. So come with me on this real-time (while I'm writing it that is) journey to find out where my imaginary vote lands and who Emmy might choose and why. I've reskimmed each episode or watched again in its entirety, to think this over.

(NOTE: If there is an asterisk by the Emmy nomination it means they have additional Emmy nods in non-acting categories. Only the acting nomination statistics are listed below)

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Is 2021 the year of Adam Driver?

by Cláudio Alves

Leos Carax's Annette hits streaming today. You can watch this year's Cannes Best Director prize-winning feature on Amazon Prime Video and bask in all its insanity. The picture has proven pretty divisive, which is no surprise. Many of the director's anti-naturalistic choices and the Sparks' off-kilter music have been at the center of praise and pans. But, along with them, the most contested element of Annette seems to be its leading man, Adam Driver, whose performance goes to extremes of operatic grandeur intersected by American realism, aggressive anti-comedy, a guttural plunge into the depths of self-hatred. It's a big performance, maybe the biggest in the actor's career, so vast in risks and pitfalls, one can't help but admire the ambition. Annette also represents the first of three major projects the actor has coming out in 2021, marking this year as one of the potential high points in Driver's ever-growing career…

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