Gay Best Friend: Todd Cleary (Keir O'Donnell) in "Wedding Crashers" (2005)

A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Was Todd (Keir O'Donnell) the earliest inspiration for Gru from "Despicable Me?"I don’t love to complain (okay, sometimes I do). Most of the times I write this column to understand how gay representation in mainstream film has changed and evolved over the decades. Each shortcoming could be seen as another toe that LGBTQ+ characters stuck through the door of mainstream society. However, not all representations are good. Especially in the late 90s and early/mid 2000s, male focused comedies used gay characters as particularly malicious punchlines. As cartoonish as these characterizations are, they did paint a horrifying portrait of gay life to straight people. To gay people, these characters also served as a vision of what straight America hated about them.

My dark confession is that I love Adam Sandler comedies. They remind me of being an immature teenager and immediately bring back the sense memory of my hometown and a specific period in my life. Yet, these films were often the main source of these mockeries of gay life. (Though Sandler could be an equal opportunity offender, making himself the butt of the joke, too). Other mainstream comedies followed this formula to diminishing (and more demeaning) returns. The biggest R-rated comedy of this time was Wedding Crashers. The film grossed $205 million domestically (only to relinquish this title later to The Hangover 1 and 2) and was a word of mouth hit.

Today, the film’s success feels completely wild...

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Review: The Beach Bum

by Murtada Elfadl

If your favorite Matthew Mcconaughey mood is of the naked bongo drumming variety, then Harmony Korine has made just the movie for you. In The Beach Bum Mcconaughey is Moondog, a rebellious rogue living outside society in Florida doing exactly what he wants, whenever he wants it, and all the while high as a kite. He’s nice, benevolent, kind, mostly peaceful, accepting of all and of their foibles. He believes in true love and practices it (straight of course but not adverse to a bit of cross dressing). Even when he finds out his wife (Isla Fisher) is also sleeping with other people, it takes him literally only a minute to go from surprise to complete acceptance.

The plot -if we can call it that - is to follow Moondog along his travels in Key West and Miami...

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SXSW: Matthew McConaughey in "The Beach Bum"

Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from the SXSW Festival...

You know that any movie which has its publicists passing out “scratch and sniff” cards to help audiences smell weed during select scenes is going to be a wild ride. Matthew McConaughey playing the title character in a movie called The Beach Bum should be enough of an indication, and, if still more reassurance was needed, the fact that it comes from writer-director Harmony Korine should put any doubts to rest: this is going to be one out-of-control film. 

Korine’s last film was Spring Breakers, a mostly-praised portrait of college students-turned-criminals featuring a highly memorable and indescribable performance from James Franco...

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Would you rather?

Time for our ever silly celebrity watching Instagram game. We do so enjoy your comments on these posts, so revealing of priority and fixation. Haha. So answer it!

Would you rather...

... dress up for a xmas party with Mindy Kaling?
... take a swim with Naomie Harris in Anguilla?
... go boating in Thailand with Lewis Tan?
... dance with Kate Beckinsale?
... have a sunday roast with Martha Plimpton?
... pull a prank on Ryan Reynolds?
... book club-it on the beach with Emma Roberts?
... visit Santa and the Mrs. with Isla Fisher?
... see the Fushimi Inari Shrine with Ryan Phillipe?
... or choose an outfit with Diane Keaton?

As ever the photos are after the jump to help you decide...

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Miami, Miami, You're Got Style

by Jason Adams

Hard to believe that it's been six whole years since Harmony Korine's last film, the pink and orange hued romp called Spring Breakers, came out - harder still to believe that he hasn't made another movie since. And maybe hardest to buy - this here first trailer for The Beach Bum, Korine's return to movies starring Matthew McConaughey, makes it seem an awful lot like Korine is copying himself? At the very least it looks like it's set in the exact same world that James Franco's Alien lived in - Southern Florida Neon Skeeze.

Still like Spring Breakers it looks fun and maybe even dangerous in equal measure. And McConaughey seems to be having a blast (all the thongs are giving me visions of Magic Mike) plus it looks like Korine's providing some outside-the-box roles for folks like Zac Efron and Jonah Hill. And bless anybody that gives Isla Fisher something to do. So we'll be there when it opens on March 22nd 2019. What do y'all think?