Tribeca 2021: "The Justice of Bunny King" review

by Jason Adams

I know from untold years of movie-watching experience that it's nowhere near as simple as "just turn the camera on and point it at an incredibly gifted actor (or two)" to end up with a great film worth watching. There have been too many painful yet well-cast examples to the contrary to count. But it's hard to feel that argument in all of my heart in the wake of watching Essie Davis and Thomasin McKenzie in The Justice of Bunny King, first-time filmmaker Gaysorn Thavat's powerhouse drama that's just premiered at Tribeca. These two actors, especially Davis, really seem at this point unstoppable. They just have faces you want to stare at, surroundings be damned.

That's not to say that Bunny King lets them down... Thavat's proves to be an instinctively gifted storyteller, foremost knowing the value in those faces and performances...

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Almost There: Joanne Woodward in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds"

by Cláudio Alves

In anticipation of the upcoming 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the next few weeks of the Almost There series will be dedicated to performances that won big at the Croisette and went on to some Oscar buzz. That being said, the first entry in this quasi-miniseries didn't convert Cannes plaudits into industry awards attention. The opposite happened. After opening commercially in the USA at the end of 1972, Paul Newman's third directorial effort, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, got slotted into the main competition of the following year's Cannes Film Festival. By the time Joanne Woodward won the festivities' Best Actress prize, her new Oscar dreams were already busted…

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Gay Best Friend: Patrick (Ezra Miller) in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012)

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

Ezra Miller had one of their biggest critical successes playing Patrick in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."With the recent release of Love Victor season two on Hulu, it has been remarkable to see how the depiction of gay teenagers has grown over decades. The sweet natured, loving depictions of coming out in Love Simon and (to a certain extent) Love Victor stand out compared to the harder times that queer kids like Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz) from My So Called Life had to go through over twenty-five years earlier. This is a great sign of progress in our world’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people, but we know queer kids still face plenty of bullying, violence and, in the case of trans kids, legislative battle.

One of my favorite depictions of a gay teenager has been Ezra Miller’s performance as Patrick in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This gay best friend got the chance to be a fully rounded character. He experienced joy and love, rather than being defined by the trauma heaped upon him by others. In his friendships, he could be the center of attention, and have both power and support. Patrick doesn’t go through a journey of figuring out his sexuality. Instead, he goes on a journey of loving all parts of himself - his sexuality, his strength, his weaknesses - everything...

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Best Supporting Actress 1946: Getting to know the nominees

by Cláudio Alves

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1946 is fast approaching, and with it comes one of the most head-scratching lineups in the category's history. To call this bunch of films, performances, and legacies problematic is to undersell just how much racial insensitivity plays into this particular Oscar race. Still, what complicates matters further is that the nominated actresses are all artists with considerable talent, superlative careers – most of whom started on stage – and undeniable historical importance. Unpacking all this mess is too great a task, but I'll try to introduce you, dear readers, to this impressive quintet of Old Hollywood thespians...

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Tribeca: "Italian Studies" review

by Jason Adams

About a year after I first moved to New York a friend pulled me aside at a party to tell me two secrets about a mutual acquaintance of ours. The first secret was that this mutual was secretly fabulously wealthy, which one never would have guessed from the way she presented herself -- after twenty years of living in NYC I've come across this type often enough that it doesn't seem novel anymore, but it surprised me then. But it was the second secret that has really stuck with me all these years -- this friend would occasionally take a week off from her life, check into a high-scale hotel uptown, and pretend to be a different person. She told stories of romances and adventures in disguise -- a dalliance outside of one's daily existence; a vacation from one's literal self.

The second secret obviously couldn't exist without the first one -- only a rich person would be able to do such a thing -- but it struck me then and now as the most genuine benefit of wealth I'd ever heard. Rolexes are pretty, but the ability to actually escape, to slough off your worries and cares and just live somebody else's life for a collection of minute sounds priceless. I thought of those secrets watching Adam Leon's meditative new film Italian Studies at Tribeca this week, which stars the ever-riveting Vanessa Kirby...

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