Gay Best Friend: Wallace Wells in "Scott Pilgrim vs the World"

by Christopher James

Get your hot topic graphic tees and turn on some Clash inspired rock music, we’re going back to 2010 for this week’s installment of Gay Best Friend. Inspired by comments from readers Scott C and Jesus Alonso, we returned to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for the first time since seeing it in theaters 10 years ago. It turned out to be a fascinating watch in more ways than one, so thank you for the suggestion!

It’s fitting we’re examining the role of Wallace Wells, played by Kieran Culkin, 10 years later. Culkin has graduated from “Maculely Culkin’s talented brother” to stardom thanks to his Emmy-nominated work in Succession. Additionally, in a movie stuffed with zaniness and stylization, Wallace’s role as the GBF is more as a stabilizing, grounding force. While it’s a small role, the film makes Wallace an interesting, modern portrait of a gay man that strays away from typical characterizations...

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10th Anniversary: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

by Nick Taylor

I first saw Scott Pilgrim vs The World with my mom at an advanced screening, the benefit of a summer-long stint in 2010 where my parent’s work received passes for secret audience test runs of upcoming blockbusters. The theater was decently sized and completely packed, mainly crowded with teenage boys escorted by parents, grandparents, and other miscellaneous chaperones, plus a good number of twenty- and thirtysomethings who likely read Bryan Lee O’Malley’s recently concluded graphic novel series. You can imagine any number of reasons why this movie would’ve played well to the teen boys in the audience, though it still amazes me how much everyone in the theater seemed to be having a good time with it. Ten years later and it’s still a reliable hit with my immediate family, and someone referring to it as Edgar Wright’s best film can get me on their side real quick...

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Review: Birds of Prey

by Chris Feil

Cathy Yan returns Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn to the screen after the regrettable Suicide Squad, and it’s somewhat of a rebirth in more was than one. Now single but not fully exorcized from her sublimating relationship with the Joker, Harley is looking to stand on her own two feet. Yet Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) again aligns her with a newly birthed group of crimefighters, this time in an all-female set of not-so-anti heroes.

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Review: Gemini Man

by Tony Ruggio

We live in a polarizing world, a place of right or left, love or hate. In the age of the internet, if you want to be noticed, if you want to be included, not ignored, you take a side. No one wants to wail about both the good and the bad and find themselves alone on an island. They want to see the good or see the bad and say to everyone "god is good" or "god is awful." 

I don't believe in astrology or zodiac signs but Geminis supposedly have dual personalities, an ability to harbor two different points of view simultaneously. Coincidence or not, I'm a Gemini. I find myself witnessing most debates from the middle of love and hate, from geopolitical quagmires to frivolous media circuses to the movies.

Film criticism often succumbs to group-think, and the need to deify or decry a particular movie. Following in the footsteps of Joker, Gemini Man is the latest victim of such...

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Beauty vs Beast: Liverpool Lovers

Happy Monday, Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- we'll be wishing one of TFE's favourite actors a happy 33 this week when Jamie Bell celebrates his birthday on Thursday. We love Jamie and are hoping for good things from his turn as Elton John's right-hand-man Bernie Taupin in Rocketman this spring... and yet we can't help but feel like it's another bridesmaid role. Why won't Hollywood let Jamie shine? He was the lead in the indie crime thriller Donnybrook which came out a few weeks back -- did any of you catch that?

Anyway for this week's poll we're probably dooming his chance to shine, again, by pitting him against one of our most beloved actresses (and one who's in the biggest movie of this past weekend, to boot) -- his co-star in 2017's Film Stars Don't Die in Livepool, the queen Annette Bening. This movie got lost in the Oscar shuffle last year, which remains a damn shame -- both Bening and Bell are stunningly good as the dying actress Gloria Grahame and her late-life love Peter Turner. But now you gotta pick!

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PREVIOUSLY And speaking of Captain Marvel stars, Brie Larson might've crshed the box office this weekend but she got her bum handed to her in last week's Scott Pilgrim poll -- Ramona Flowers used her crazy big sledgehammer to drum up 64% of the vote. Said Bushwick:

"Can we get these two actresses together again?! Preferably in a film that garners Larson another nomination (and Winstead her first)!"