The Gay Heart of "The Family Stone"

Members of Team Experience have been asked to share their favorite holiday film. Here's Spencer Coile with his...

I vividly remember the trailer for The Family Stone when it first came out in 2005. I was thirteen, a recent film and Oscar snob, and still incredibly naïve. I was swept into the two-and-a-half-minute long saga of uptight Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) visiting her boyfriend Everett’s (Dermot Mulroney) family for their first Christmas together and the family’s cliquey antics. Add on a stellar cast and the Maxine Nightingale classic, “Right Back Where We Started From,” and I was hooked. I couldn’t possibly wait until December to see it. 

And I didn’t. I waited even longer, months after it was released...

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Celebrating 10 Years of "Sex and the City: The Movie"

By Spencer Coile 

I remember being 15-years-old, sitting in an empty theater on the opening night of Sex and the City -- precisely 10 years ago. I had just finished watching the series for the first time, and was ready to continue on with the stories of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte. The tagline for the film was “Get Carried Away,” and I absolutely did. It was so easy to slip back into this dream-like, romanticized version of Manhattan – where money is endless, where relationships come and go, but friendship (and shoes) are forever. 

Was the movie adaptation perfect? Absolutely not. Was the sequel unnecessary and borderline insensitive? Completely. Still, that first film left me beaming from ear-to-ear. It’d be easy to pick out all the problems with the plot, the length, the way it treats Jennifer Hudson’s character (there’s no way her email password was seriously “love”). But even watching it today, I go back to when I was 15; feeling hopeful, giddy, and gay. Those are the movies that stick with you.  

Happy Birthday, Sex and the City! But most importantly: do you identify as a Carrie, a Miranda, a Samantha, or a Charlotte? 

Link Trip

• Boy Culture took on a massive and fascinating project: A "brief" (haha) history of LGBTQ moments on television starting from TV's beginnings! (I Love Lucy might contain the first actual gay joke on TV... but things really pick up in the 1970s). It's a must-read if you care about these things
• The Grio Get Out takes four prizes at the AAFCAS while Girls Trip and Detroit both take home two
• Deadline reports on the Sci-Tech award where there was a an impassioned speech and a transgender winner
• IndieWire MoviePass is driving its subscriber base to Oscar-nominated movies

Lots more after the jump including Oscar news, Sarah Jessica Parker making headlines, Quentin Tarantino's response to Uma Thurman's story, and three memorable actors passing away...

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Would you rather...?

Time for our intermittent stupid game in which we fantasize about hanging with celebrities. You can see all past roundups here if you want to be confronted with yet more impossible choices as to your celeb-fueled fantasy life options. Ready? Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

Would you rather

...eat burgers with directors Gregg Araki & Andrew Ahn?
... do your makeup with Janet Jackson?
... tour Russia with Sarah Jessica Parker?
... celebrate Jeremy Jordan's birthday with a slice of Star Wars cake?
... cosplay Wonder Woman with Manila Luzon?
...work out with Cynthia Erivo?
... try Madonna's new skin care line with one of her BFFs Debi Mazar?
... visit an art gallery devoted to cinema with Emmanuelle Devos?
... get Christmas sweater-festive with Juliette Lewis?
... be inspired by the superhero Nightwing in your fitness goals with Vincent Rodriguez?
...help Naomi Watts celebrate her mom's new book launch?

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Hidden Streaming Gem: "Miami Rhapsody"

Hello! Robert here. The other night as I was enjoying my long Fourth of July weekend I was in the mood for a movie; something I hadn't seen, something light and funny, something for a summer night on the couch with a bottle of rosé. After clicking around on HBONow for a few minutes boy did I ever find what I was looking for: a gem of a '90s pseudo-intellectual rom-com called Miami Rhapsody. Won't you take a journey back in time with me and explore this strange little film?

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