Gay Best Friend: Duncan in "Set It Up"

A series by Christopher James investigating the 'Gay Best Friend' trope in movies.

At 13 minutes into the movie, we meet Duncan (Pete Davidson). Very quickly after, we wish we hadn't met him.

I can admit this. Many of my choices for Gay Best Friend have been examples that I’ve loved. In the 90s and 00s, this was often one of the few ways we would see positive gay representation on the screen. Still, this trope can be negative when it leans on broad characterizations, the gay best friend as an empty accessory.

Netflix’s Set It Up (2018) was a breath of fresh air in some ways. Theatrical releases were reserved for either superhero movies or more “cinematic” prestige fare. The romantic comedy genre was being edged out, only to find its home on Netflix. Set It Up had all the makings of a Pillow Talk old-fashioned romantic comedy with the modern sheen of a How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Harper (Zoey Deutsch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are overworked assistants who set their respective bosses up with each other (Taye Diggs and Lucy Lui) so they can have more work-life balance. Sparks fly between the bosses and assistants. 

Unfortunately, it features a “gay best friend” character that embodies everything that’s wrong with the stereotype and threatens to derail a perfectly fun movie...

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Showbiz History: Founding of the Academy and two Golden Globe nights

7 random things that happened on this day, January 11th, in showbiz history

Hattie McDaniel in her younger years. Not sure what year in this photo, though.

1911  Hattie McDaniel, then just 17 years-old, marries her first husband. She was already a performer, and worked in carnivals, minstrel shows, and radio before hitting the movies in the early 1930s. She famously became the first African-American to be nominated for or to win an Oscar. There is, finally, a biopic happening and it will star Raven Goodwin (The Station Agent, Being Mary Jane). 

1927 The creation of AMPAS came (arguably) on this day at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles...

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How Had I Never Seen... "Monsoon Wedding"?

by Cláudio Alves

Last year, Chloé Zhao won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Nomadland. Unlike Cannes, which only awarded one woman (Jane Campion for The Piano) with the Palme d'Or in its history, Venice has named five female directors as the grand victors of its main competition. One of them, Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding, I hadn't seen.  Since the Criterion Channel has just added Mira Nair's 2001 Venice-winner, it seems like a good time to correct this lacuna. Without further ado, let's delve into the rainy festivities of this Monsoon Wedding…

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Cate is camp and crazy-good in "The Man Who Cried"

by Nathaniel R

I'm pleased to share that I have returned for a second appearance on Murtada's fun podcast "Sundays with Cate" in which he's surveying Cate Blanchett's whole career (not chronologically) with various guests. This week's topic is the strange Sally Potter misfire The Man Who Cried (2001), a pre World War II drama about dancing Russians, singing Jews, and operatic Italians in Paris. I requested this one because I remembered being absolutely bewitched by one closeup in particular when the film was in theaters. But the film had become so entirely forgotten (even by me) that I could barely remember anything of the context. The film stars Johnny Depp and Cristina Ricci (both having just co-starred in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow) placing it forever in a very specific place in Hollywood time. Give us a listen! 

Showbiz History: Silent superstars, "Just Married", and Sal Mineo in Oil

7 random things that happened on this day, January 10th, in showbiz history

1927 Fritz Lang's sci-fi classic Metropolis has its world premiere in Berlin. It will become legendary and for good reason... though, truth be told, we tired of it for many years due to overexposure (there are so many great silent films but it seems like Metropolis and Birth of a Nation are the only ones the world knows). Our favourite, of infinite progeny and homages, is still Madonna's "Express Yourself" video from 1989.

1936 Silent film superstars Mary Pickford (44) and Douglas Fairbanks (53), who invented the "Hollywood Power Couple" finalize their divorce after 15 years of marriage (though they'd be separated for three years already)...

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