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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In Defense of "The Bling Ring"

by Matt St Clair

After first making her mark as a director with her one-two punch of The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation, for which she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and became the third woman in history to be a Best Director nominee, Sofia Coppola’s work has been met with rather mixed reception. Thankfully, the response to her latest feature On the Rocks, which premiered at NYFF, has leaned positive. But this post is dedicated to what is a rather misunderstood masterpiece from the auteur and that is 2013’s The Bling Ring. A fictionalized account of a series of real-life burglaries, The Bling Ring  unexpectedly served as a prelude to our recent renaissance of “eat the rich” pictures...

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The modernity of Little Women's costumes

by Cláudio Alves

Last Sunday, the great Jacqueline Durran became a two-time Academy Award winner thanks to Little Women. As the umpteenth costume designer to tackle Louisa May Alcott's classic tale, Durran had the challenge of dressing these well-known characters in a bold reinterpretation. Eschewing the strict historical accuracy with which Collen Atwood tackled the subject in 1994, Jacqueline Durran evoked the fashions of the 1860s by infusing them with character-specific idiosyncrasies and a general sense of 21st-century modernity.

Her designs are not as bound to their filmmaker's contemporary styles as the Little Women of 1933 or 1949. However, there's no denying that the current iteration of the March sisters is filtered through the sensibilities of artists living in the 2010s… 

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"No, that's mine. Mine!"

...green doesn't look good on you. You know it doesn't look good on you"

Yes No Maybe So: Greta Gerwig's "Little Women"

by Eurocheese

Greta Gerwig's follow up to the brilliant Lady Bird looks like a potential Christmas smash hit waiting to happen. Can it stick the landing with such high expectations? Well, if the trailer is any indicator, we may be in for a treat. The Yes No Maybe So™ breakdown follows after the jump...

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