Gay Best Friend: Hedy & Graham in "Single White Female" (1992)
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 11:30AM a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope
You wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out? It’s kinda long, but it’s full of suspense.Gay Best Friends aren’t often paired with gay panic. Especially in movies made more than 10 years ago, we either were taught to laugh at queer characters, cry for them or fear them. Single White Female asked us to do two of the three. The 1992 thriller didn’t just settle for giving our jilted protagonist, Allie Jones (Bridget Fonda), a supportive gay best friend (Graham, played by Peter Friedman). They also paired her with a roommate nursing a lesbian crush on Allie and refining her murderous skills (Hedra Carlson, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Broad doesn’t begin to describe the movie. While it swings for the fences with its queer characterizations, a large degree of camp shines through. This makes for a pleasurable “turn-your-brain-off” wild thrill ride...