Recently in Film Category

I loved the commentary following Rose Afriyie's post, "The Wire's Gender Problem" http://www.feministing.com/archives/018754.html.

Everyone brought up great points, and since my SO and I are big fans of the show, we had a great discussion at home about it.

He brought up a question: What would be a feminist show/movie? What would it entail, who would it focus on, what would be a good plot?, etc. 

As far as The Wire goes, I am of the belief that it was showing patriarchal systems that don't always include women (unfortunately) so it stuck to its' "authenticity" in that way. Yes, it didn't have the women's experiences that I would have liked, but again, it was mostly framed from male-dominated fields.

I explained that there may very well be feminist-friendly movie scripts out there that aren't being made into movies (see: patriarchal system). And he asked again what would define a feminist movie?

Fellow Feministers, help me out? Surely we'll all have our own opinions according to taste, but what would define a feminist movie/show?

by Reshma Gopaldas, Manager, PPFA Board of Advocates 

Planned Parenthood talked with Precious director Lee Daniels about hope, feminism, and social change. 

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE, is a gripping film about Precious, a 16-year-old African-American girl who is pregnant for the second time by her father, and who is abused emotionally and physically by her mother. Though she can neither read nor write, she has good grades. Precious accepts an offer to attend an alternative school and begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain, and powerlessness to light, love, and self-determination.  (www.weareallprecious.com)

I cannont wait to see this awesome documentary about Gay/Lesbian relations in the church. Finally the other side of the Christian coin is being represented! As I start my journey to becoming a minister I am truly excited that there will be another example of what a Christian can be in the world. We are not all hateful.

I also love that this film challenges the accepting Christian who feels it would be easier to just wait it out than try to battle a fellow "believer". Such great stuff! It made my day. You can see the trailer here.

Every once in a while, there comes along an example of creativity that makes you wish you’d never praised one other thing, since so many of the words you might choose in exaltation have been made less by being applied elsewhere. This is such a moment. An Education is such a film.

There is nothing new here. A naïve high school girl dreams of a sophisticated life outside of the stifling realities that have been her world. She’s sixteen, smart enough to dream of Oxford and pretty enough to catch the eye of a grifter. She believes that smoke and mirrors are sophistication and reality.

There’s a montage of Paris with dancing and wine and romantic music— even the obligatory nuns in habits to underline the seduction of the Russian roulette that lovers have been playing since the Bible became a best seller: sex at the possible price of your soul. Talk of nuns though is enough to remind us that God is in the details.

I want to say nothing more about this movie than if you have ever reacted to a painting because it was so perfectly composed as to make you feel the artist knew precisely why we were given eyes, you will understand why you must see this.

Continue reading at Women's Voices For Change.

You've probably heard about the widely popular teenage vampire series called Twilight. The books have been flying off the shelves and fans are anxiously awaiting the second film to open next month. But what is the Twilight series really about, anyway, besides unconsummated desire between two abstinent teenagers? What is the appeal of the vampire who would rather kiss you than kill you and why are we seeing a trend of chivalrous, animal-bloodsuckers who want to kiss and cuddle instead of suck every last ounce of blood out of your body?

The earliest legends of vampires depicted them as disgusting abominations of human flesh. They were believed to be malevolent spirits who possessed corpses and tried to infect those around them. The fear of vampires created such mass hysteria that public executions were held for people believed to be vampires.

Hey Feministing Community -- I posted this on my personal blog, and since it's pretty new, and mostly visited by parents, I haven't gotten to have a real conversation about this movie...and I'm dying to. So...here goes with my first Community post:

The true horror of Jennifer’s Body is not Jennifer’s boy-eating rampage; it’s the dark, painful underbelly of female friendship the film exposes.

It’s no accident that every feature film about girls’ aggression has been a comedy. To make a real drama about the heartbreak of female intimacy is too dangerous for a culture that trains girls to see relationships with boys as their most important rite of passage.

Which is why Jennifer’s Body is so refreshing. Because it’s not trying to be a comedy, it actually takes female friendship more seriously than any film has in a long time. “Hell,” our narrator tells us in the film’s very first line, “is a teenage girl.”

Chris Rock's new piece on black hair is set to come out next month.  I admit to at first being very guarded and assuming that Chris Rock's depiction of the issues surrounding black hair would be callous.  And it's safe to say that the focus of the film isn't hard-hitting social critique, but perhaps this medium is more appropriate.  Most Americans prefer humor over diatribes so a film that tackles America's vision of black hair and the chemical use of relaxers without being heavy-handed might draw a larger audience.  (I keep thinking of how no one saw No End in Sight but quite a few did see Fahrenheit 9/11, which was considerably more entertaining (though perhaps less legit) than dour interviews.)

So there are some obvious criticisms we could throw out, one being that (so much as I can surmise from the interview) much of the criticism is framed in the context of sex and the use of women's bodies during sex.  At the same time, that seemed to integrate men into the conversation in a way that they perhaps wouldn't have been otherwise.  

What do you all think?  While I realize that there are shortcomings with this as mentioned above, I wondering if things unattended to are an acceptable sacrifice for its mainstream appeal.  And I know we can't really assess a film that we haven't seen entirely, so just give me what you've got so far.

I have noticed recurring theme in children's films I haven't really thought about until recently. I've always noticed, as I'm sure you have, that you'd be hard-pressed to find a children's movie with a female lead that doesn't involve a wedding. Or one with a female lead that doesn't need saving from a man. Or one with a female lead who isn't being abused or dominated at the start of the story. But some films star a little girl who's too young to get married! She's usually pretty bored with her ordinary life, and finds herself embarking on an exciting journey. One that usually leads young girls to the same conclusion. An underlying theme with the old moral : There's no place like home.

In Coraline , the title's character finds a new world through a tiny door in her boring new house. Everything is better there. The food, the parents, the garden... it's all very exciting. Until things happen, and she has to fight to get home. And ultimately comes to the conclusion that she never realized how much she loved her boring house, inattentive parents and generally un-exciting life.

In Alice in Wonderland , Alice takes a tumble into a strange new place. Finds herself in a world of trouble, and just like Coraline, struggles to get back to simplicity.

The same goes for Wendy in Peter Pan. In the midst of her taking on the Mother role, she also is convinced that everyone needs to go home and grow up. And, of course Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz , the mother of all children's films. She tells us from the beginning that she's not happy with her life, and wants nothing more than to move on to bigger and better things. That is, until she learns her lesson.

All of these little women aren't satisfied with their life as it is, and want more for themselves. Each one of them gets smacked-down in their efforts to improve life, and through their plight show bravery and intelligence. But, for some reason, they all wind up right back where they started, and are thankful for it.

by Dr. Cecelia Ford
Interviewed on NPR last week, the director Nora Ephron, said her eagerly awaited new film is about marriage as much as it is about food. Julie and Julia presents the parallel true stories of both Julia Child’s emergence— as a chef and a cookbook writer — and that of a contemporary young Queens woman named Julie Powell. Powell executed all 500 or so recipes in Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days —while writing and blogging about it, holding down a full-time office job, and attempting to maintain a relationship with her husband.

Inherent in this description is one glaring discrepancy in the two stories and the times they represent: the pace of life and how much it influences women’s lives in particular. Julia Child, whose experience occupies the whole of the 1950’s as depicted here, was able to cheerfully experiment with her developing interest in cooking at her own pace, and share it with her husband, clearly contributing to their passionate partnership. Julie, her twenty-first-century counterpart, is a picture of frenzied, tormented activity throughout the film; at the end she says that the experience has been wonderfully fulfilling, and she has managed to hang on to her marriage, but that it has been repeatedly stretched to the breaking point.

Continue reading at Women's Voices For Change.

Watch the girls from Gotta Dance! The movie, according to the filmmakers, "chronicles the debut of the New Jersey Nets' first-ever senior hip-hop dance team, 12 women and 1 man - all dance team newbies, from auditions through to center court stardom. As smooth dance moves are perfected and performed in front of thousands, aging myths and misperceptions are pulverized.

Read more, and see film clips at Women's Voices For Change.

I am a female animation student and I received in my email today this "call for entry" to submit work to the International Erotic Animation Festival with the following video.  Please help me verbalize how disgusting and insulting and hideous this is.  It made me want to puke and cry and scream, especially as a female animator trying to enter an industry that is highly male dominated, and traditionally very sexist both on screen and off.  I feel like I can't shrug this thing off as "Well, the festival is calling for erotic content."  This is the last thing in the world I would ever call "erotic".  Please help me, tell me what I could possible do to express how demeaning and hurtful this is.

HOT FLASH, a new documentary about Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women, is now available on DVD!

Introduce yourself to Saffire - three dynamic women who quit their day jobs in their mid-40s to form a blues band. They are now in their mid-60s and still going strong. The Saffire women are mature, empowered, and not afraid to be raunchy (one of their most popular songs is "I Gotta Silver Beaver"). These ladies serve as a terrific counter to our youth and image obsessed media. But even more importantly, they are fantastic musicians.

Check out Saffire's website at www.uppityblueswomen.com. The film is available there as well as on Amazon and iTunes.

This is my feminist love letter to Hayao Miyazaki. I love you Hayao Miyazaki, for being brilliant, making me think, and getting me to care about characters if they are done by someone else I would hate them. I write this in a feminist community blog because A) Miyazaki has been described as a feminist ( I am unsure if this definition is self imposed) B) His work touches on issues of feminism. Most commonly that female strength comes in many varying shapes and sizes, showing women to be three demensional leading characters ( not 3-D animation lol Maiyazaki still draws by hand which I respect).

Paradigm Shift: NYC’s Feminist Community Proudly Presents:

The Sari Soldiers Documentary Screening
and Discussion with Julie Bridgham, Filmmaker
a portion of proceeds donated to
The Sari Soldiers’ Outreach Fund at Women Make Movies.

When: Wed, July 22nd
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: In the heart of the Feminist District
People Lounge, 163 Allen Street, NYC
(Between Stanton and Rivington, F or V Train to 2nd Ave)

“Captures ordinary women’s extraordinary lives and reveals them as
important pieces of history. Anyone concerned with social justice,
gender justice and human rights should see it.”
- Rama Lohani-Chase, Women’s and Gender Studies Dept., The College of New Jersey

“It gives new meaning to the words courage and resilience.”
- Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Cost: $10 at door (discounted summer rate!)
BONUS: RAFFLE of Paradigm Shift Free Pass granting recipient free
admission for one year!!

Hello all,

I was pounding the pavement, trying to get votes for our film which is a finalist in the Netflix Find Your Voice competition when I met a young woman who suggested I come here and ask for your help. Our film is a sort of "coming of age" film for a woman in her 40's. The character is well written and fully developed instead of the 2 dimensional women we often see in films and TV. Her journey is one that many women have gone through at different times in their lives and we would love to send the message that it doesn't matter how old you are, you can still go through a personal liberation and find your own voice.

All you have to do to vote is go to this link by midnight PST on Tues, July 7th

http://www.netflixfindyourvoice.com/?id=5

Make sure that you are watching "Natural Selection" and then give it 5 stars.

If you would like to vote again, you can do so through facebook, just go to this link and do the same process

http://apps.facebook.com/netflix-vote/


Thank you so much for your support!

Vanessa

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit up front that I enjoyed The Proposal. It was funny, had a really cute puppy, a naked Ryan Reynolds, and a feisty Betty White. It was a comedy first and foremost; the romance was an after thought. Which was refreshing in a way. The "romance" in romantic comedies is often so stifling, unbelievable, slap dash, and cliché, it was a relief to feel like the actors felt the same way, and put more effort into delivering punchy lines than making doe eyes. However, all the quips delivered by the adorable Ryan Reynolds could not distract me from the big sparkly elephant in the room. Race.

In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock plays Margret, a Canadian who works for a publishing company in New York, who blackmails her personal assistant Andrew, (played by Reynolds) into marrying her so she can stay in US and keep her job. There is nothing particularly new about the quickie Green Card marriage plot, but the immigrants in question are usually a little more....immigranty. They at least have an accent. Gérard Depardieu in Green Card at least sounded foreign. In other movies that deal with the same plot, the laugh are often constructed around the otherness of the troubled deportee. Not so in The Proposal. Margret is "just like us", and the comedy is framed around Margret's inability to connect with people (or dogs). Because Margret can "pass", The Proposal becomes a complicated drinking game about how we read race, and how it interacts with gender and class

I just saw the film "The Stoning of Soraya M." today. The film is an adaptation of Franco-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam's novel, which is based on the real story. Brief synonpsis of the film: a woman in a small village in Iran talks to a reporter about the stoning of her niece the previous day, on charges of adultery.There's more to the story, but I won't spoil any of it.

I did not know much about stoning before I saw the movie, besides the fact that it happens in various places around the globe. I was in for quite a shock as I watched the scene where Soraya is stoned. I won't go into any detail, but it was a very difficult scene to watch and I looked away quite a few times. At the end of the film, there are a few comments about the story and stoning practices. A great film, and I highly recommend it, but it is pretty intense.

Here's a link to the film's website, if anyone is interested.

I encourage feministing readers to go to the site and look around, and click the get involved link off of the main page. There are some links there, one to a website for Americans for UNFPA.

Last weekend, I found myself walking out of Blockbuster with a copy of "He's just not that into you".  A combination of boredom, interest, crappy selection and my sheer LOVE of Jennifer Aniston compelled me to rent this seemingly horrific movie.  While I was expecting a shitty romantic comedy, I was suprised!  Notice, I did not say pleasantly surprised.  The entire movie was about women in failing relationships, and basically explained that their own fatal flaws are what got them there.  He didn't call?  You probably didn't show enough boob.  He doesnt wanna stay the night?  You probably were too naggy.  Oh, and next time your husband cheats on you...make sure you realize its YOUR fault for not sleeping with him enough.  As soon as he admits to sleeping with another woman, buy scandalous lingerie in an attempt to win him back (after all, it was your fault anyway).  This movie portrays women as desperate shrews.  It also feeds into this idea that we as women are doing something wrong if our relationships don't turn out the way we expected.  Perhaps, a better title would have been, "It's ok - he's actually a dickhead".  Or, " You don't have to sacrifice your morals to get a date".  Ah, no, the genius that wrote the book in the first place, greg womanhatersomethingorother, has decided to point the finger at women.  Don't even get me started on Ginnifer Goodwin's character, the movie is centered around her crazy antics in getting a man (any man at all) to give her the time of day.  Oh, and after her best friend tells her what a loser she is - they get together! YAY!  Nothing like a man to put you down, knock you around, then sweep you off your fight.  Kudos, Hollywood.  Another misogynist gem!

There is some discussion lately about whether a scene in the movie Observe and Report is rape or not. It is. Watch the trailer:

The question being discussed should be "is it funny?" But it's not the question being discussed, and that reveals a problem in society's treatment of women. 

Some people think the scene is funny because the viewer sees a rape occurring, and then the character Brandi, passed out on a vomit-streaked pillow mumbles "Did I tell you to stop, motherfucker?" Surprise! It isn't rape after all! We can laugh. This is Seth Rogen's view. He plays Ronnie, the rapist. 

If a person finds the scene funny for this reason, they misunderstand what rape is. Brandi saying "Did I tell you to stop?", does not change anything. There is still a rape in progress. She has no capacity to consent.

Sorry if this has been previously written on.

So, I am not a fan of Twilight, nor am I a fan of the media "hype" surrounding it. I did read the first book and was grossed out by the sexualized violence/unhealthy relationships it depicted that have been commented on frequently on this site. But today, a friend pointed out this video to me and I had to comment:

In a nutshell, for those who can't watch to hear the full ridiculousness, around the 1 minute mark, Pattison discusses his interaction with a 7 year old fan who "passionately" requests him to bite her

After seeing the astonishingly good reviews for Sam Raimi's new horror film Drag Me to Hell, I decided to check it out this weekend because I do love me a good scary movie and nothing worth seeing in the genre has come out in such a long time. It has been hailed as "hilarious" and a "roller coaster thrill ride" and I was anxious to see what all the fuss was about. What I got instead was to witness an hour and a half of the brutal punishment - and ultimate damnation - of a woman for the crime of trying to advance her career.

The main character, Christine Brown, is a loan officer at a local bank branch who has a lot of reasons to want to get ahead. She comes from a rural background and seems to have a lot of insecurities about being a "farm girl." She also used to be fat, and she is portrayed as being having a deep and constant disgust for all things from her past. She is even shown trying to remove all traces of her country dialect from her speech. Furthermore, she is dating a man who is a new professor, and she feels pressure to impress his family by being an accomplished business woman. The assistant manager's position at her bank is vacant, and she seems desperate to get the promotion over a male co-worker who is also in the running. So, when her boss tells her that she is not the front-runner because she often chooses to be generous and giving rather than making the "tough decisions" that will benefit the bank, she takes it very much to heart. Especially after her boss and her competition for the job send her to fetch their sandwiches for them at lunch time.

Wonder Woman first appeared in comic books in Dec 1941. She was the brainchild of William Moulton Marston (though many attribute much of Wonder Woman's origins to his wife Elizabeth and his female assistant who's name I have forgotten) a Harvard Professor and inventor of the lie detector (the origin of the lasso of truth?). Marston created Wonder Woman to break the archetype of female characters in comic books and to attract female readers to the DC Universe by giving them a strong female hero (even though a good number of female comic book readers today shy away from "the spandex characters" as they are referred to).

Wonder Woman (also known as Diana) is meant to be seen as equal to men and this equality is established from the early part of her origins. She is created by the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta from the earth, and given life from the Greek Gods. This is much like Adam being formed and given life by God in the book of Genesis in the Bible. This equality message also carried over into real world politics with Wonder Woman's original look closely resembled the image of "Rosie the Riveter" during WWII, thus trying to draw on the social and political power of the time. From this earliest inception, the character of Wonder Woman broke boundaries that lead her to be adopted by the Second Wave Feminist movement, culminating in Gloria Steinem putting the character on the cover of MS. Magazine. But since then, in current continuity, the character of Wonder Woman has fallen into the same gender inequality traps that a lot of women today are facing, and this film [Wonder Woman (2009)] does very little to break the Gender stereotypes; to the point where the films overall message can be seen as ANTI-feminist, something that goes against the original vision of Wonder Woman (even though the original version had Wonder Woman wear a costume that any ACTUAL warrior wouldn't be caught dead in).

ATTENTION: movie spoiler alert (although, not a very good one).

I once heard an activist writer say that if you can count the number of exceptions to the rule, then the rule still applies. It doesn't matter how you explain the importance of women owning their sexuality in film, I’m still reticent to say that a woman’s sexual agency is an important part of her cinematic identity. Because, no matter what cultural lens you filter information, or process experiences, through, you are always introduced to femininity (and by extension, female leads) as a third party bystander to the development of a meaningful storyline. What does this mean? It means that femininity is always secondary. Whether or not this is accidental or the byproduct of male voice dominating film is irrelevant. My personal experience suggests that each time I watch a film, no matter how avant-garde or progressive the work, I’m constantly let down by the portrayal of women as the sex object, sexual foil, or sexual “arbiter”* (see note below). The new Stark Trek movie was no exception.

The Battle for Terra rocks for many reasons. First, it's a small-budget film (an interview with the director reveals that the "mermaid-like" appearance of the Terrans was a budget issue!). Second, the main character is a female. She is not overly sexy, nor is she a love interest. Third, the hostile aliens invading peaceful Terra are- well- us.

Hmm. Looking at the imdb page I linked to, I noticed that the MAIN CHARACTER, Mala, who is voiced by Evan Rachel Wood, is at the very end of the cast list!

That's not the first slighting of the main lead I've seen. The blurb I read advertising the film says that it is about "Senn (Justin Long) and Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), two rebellious alien teens."

Actually, it's about the inquisitive Mala, who has a gift for engineering and a great deal of curiousity, and her controversial saving of a human invader's life.

Yes, it's CGI, but I loved it. My love was further compounded when I read three seperate reviews (all written by men, naturally), which bashed the movie for being "wishy-washy" and all about peace and harmony, etc etc.

Go see it! Or if you did, tell me what you think!

Yesterday I went to see Let the Right One In. I thought it was going to be a film about vampires but actually, the whole super-natural thing was kind of incidental. What the story was really about was the relationship between a 12-year-old boy who gets bullied to shit in school, and a lonely girl who just happens to be a vampire.

The story is incredibly moving. The little girl doesn’t want to be a vampire. A devoted grandfather figure takes care of her in a poverty-stricken flat and makes the killings for her. In one scene where she is forced to kill her own victim, she ends up crying over the body in the snow, blood dripping from her mouth and tears falling from her eyes. The murdering vampire-ess is, in fact, the biggest victim in the film.

Apologies if this has already been posted and discussed, but check it out if you haven't already.

Shit gets real at 1:10.

Here it is, another bout of movie depression. 

And I liked Seth Rogen.  His characters (and from what I've seen from interviews, he's not exactly stretching the acting muscle for his roles) are usually affable, goofy guys.  Not, perhaps, Rhodes material, but good for a laugh.  Not being exactly adverse to the 420 myself from time to time, I've found his roles in movies to usually be just the antidote to the current climate of economic freak-out.

But this latest movie.  Oh, herewegoagain.  Dammit.

DISCLAIMER:  No.  I have not rushed out to see this movie.  Yes, I know, I usually hate that attitude too.  However, my feministic hackles were raised by the previews, and since the following pretty much succintly lays it out, I'm pretty comfortable with saying I'm not going to ever fork out hard earned money for this movie.

(Now, Anna Faris is a whole 'nother rant, and I just don't have the emotional strength.)

  And please note: the emphasis on that last bit (oh, yeah, my personal favorite bit!) is mine.

What. The. Fuck? 

Hey, shout out to Dan Kois (who wrote this piece):  Fuck You.  Check back when you are raped, or someone close to you is raped, and let's see how "explosively funny" you think it is then, mkay?

SPOILER ALERT!!!
IF YOU WERE PLANNING ON SEEING THIS MOVIE I AM WARNING THAT I MUST WRITE ABOUT THE DETAILS BECAUSE IT IS JUST TO AMAZING TO KEEP TO MYSELF...IF YOU HAD NOT PLANNED ON SEEING THIS MOVIE-YOU SHOULD...AND YOU SHOULD TAKE EVERY YOUNG GIRL YOU KNOW!

OK-so I am not quite sure what just happened but I think I just saw a feminist film made by Dreamworks. I did not expect that to happen. It was a simple Monday during Spring Break and I decided to take my 9 year old son to the movies...Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D was the best option.

I just assumed all would be status quo as the movie started with our heroine getting married to a "newscaster" who tells her on the wedding day that instead of going to Paris for their honeymoon, they were going to Fresno where he would interview for a new job-she would have to suck it up and be a part of their new "team" so that SHE could make HIS dreams come true..blah..blah..blah..

Then a meteor struck...her...she grew ginormous and was taken away by our government and given the name Ginormica! (Really) So I knew the film had taken a turn when we close in on a random and stereotypical couple at make out point (the impending aliens were preparing to attack). But in the car was a cute boy, shyly singing and avoiding a very assertive young women who moved in for some lovin'. The boy freaked and pushed her away...she was pissed. Then the aliens landed...the boy screamed and jumped into the girls' arms and she carried him up over the hill to view the alien! SHE wanted the lovin'...SHE was pissed....She CARRIED him!! Now this was a new story!

This meteor had given Susan superhuman strength. She grew huge and was immediately put to the test and asked by our government to battle the aliens. She agreed...with the stipulation that she would be "released" and allowed to go back to her normal life. Well, she then proceeded to kick some alien-ass! She fought the alien on her own...when she asked her other monster friends for help she yelled "I am doing it all!" They helped her but she was large and in charge!!

So as the story progressed...Susan or Ginormica...was excited by her new power. She realized that she would never let anyone take it away from her. When it was taken by the evil alien leader she went after him and TOOK HER POWER BACK-literally. She owned it! She used it to save the world from the aliens. Everyone embraced her. Her mom, in the end, even told her that she knew some day her daughter would save the world.

'Twilight' was introduced to me by a friend who returned from America a few months back bearing a case filled with books and proclaiming that we in the UK were missing out on the narrative of our lives, the film followed over the Christmas break to immense success. The second widest cinematic independent release of all time (following only Scary Movie 4), every girl I know flocked to see it. The film has grossed nearly $400,000,000 to date, the first book the best seller of 2008. Even the woman at the Odeon counter said she had seen it and loved it, much to her own embarrassment. Even I loved it, much to mine.

For those who aren’t aware of the phenomenon, the story line is as such: girl (Bella) moves to a new town, falls in love with brooding boy (Edward), who turns out to be a vampire. Chaos ensues. Edward Cullen is the Byronic hero of the vampire world, along the same lines as Buffy’s Angel. He is brooding, mysterious, unfathomably attractive both in book and film. Pretty much every girl I know wants to jump into bed with him. But this is where the trouble lies; the book is written by a fanatical Mormon, Stephenie Meyer, a woman who longs to make restraint the new 'promiscuity' (in a world where promiscuity refers to premarital sex) through her writing, described as the ‘erotics of abstinence’.

I saw "He's Just Not That Into You" tonight, and it was so very disappointing for me as a feminist. I am usually a pretty strong believer that you can love something (or at least enjoy something) and still be critical of it. However, this movie may have been the exception to that rule.

Sure, I laughed at the funny bits and tried my best to enjoy it, but I couldn't ignore that little voice inside telling me that this movie and its one-dimensional portrayals of female characters is just so very wrong. It is chock-full of ridiculous, neurotic, borderline-psycho women whose sole concern seems to be getting and keeping a man. The big "prize" in the end is, of course, getting a date, or a kiss, or an apartment together, or a ring. And to top it off, everyone with more than a line or two is white, stick-thin and hetero. Nope, I just couldn't do it this time.

I really miss the days when movies about and for women were at least more substantial and provided something for us to sink our teeth into. Mainstream films marketed to women these days are for the most part extraordinarily dull, generic and play into all of the same inane stereotypes.

Though this film and what it represents truly made me sad, perhaps the saddest part of my evening was listening to the theater full of women around me cooing, giggling and sniffling their way through the 2-hour running time. Because that's the worst part. We LOVE this shit. We are trained to love it, and we do. Even I couldn't help getting a little thrill when one of the male characters offered a surprise engagement ring to his partner at the end. What does this say about women today? I don't know, but I hope we find a better script very very soon.

The trailer for Chocolate

This is the second trailer I've seen in the past few weeks about a young girl...well, kicking ass.  The other is High Kick Girl, out of Japan.  Chocolate is from the makers of Ong Bak and seems to be in the same style, claiming to use no wires and no stunt doubles.  There's also Angel of Death featuring Zoë Bell, who is not a young Asian female but is nevertheless a woman kicking ass in a kind of grundgy, low-budget filmmaking style.  If this is a new trend, I'm all for it.

I must admit, I'm kind of psyched about this.  I love action movies and I love seeing women in action movies who aren't relegated to being bedded by James Bond or being killed by the bad guy. 

From what I can tell on IMDB, the lady's name is JeeJa Yanin, and if this film is really in the Ong Bak style, there's going to be some minimal setup and then nonstop action for about 70 minutes.  Which I'm totally fine with.

*WARNING SPOILER ALERT*
This post contains the ending to "An Officer and a Gentleman", so if you haven't seen the movie and wish to, do not watch the video or read any further.

Of all the endings of movies out there, I believe this one to be the epitome of the whole Cinderella fantasy; where the girl is rescued by her knight in shining armor.

This movie should really piss me off, but there's something about it that grabs me, maybe it's the little girl in me that gets stirred when I watch it;
the little girl who read fairy tales when she was little, and wore dresses in an attempt to look like the princesses in Disney films.

Damn you Hollywood for forcing me to swoon, and telling me that I need a knight in shining armor to rescue me from my hell because I can't do it on my own. (gets all teary eyed)

To be fair the movie is a classic.

Hey everyone.

This is my first post here, but I have been following the site for a long time. I really love and support everything you stand for.

Anyway, so I was browsing my Google Reader this afternoon and saw the headline of one of the stories in the new movies section.

'Lesbian Vampire Killers'

I clicked on it, and it just go worse. The picture below is the poster for the movie which depicts a naked "lesbian" and two thumbs up.

I have seen a lot of fucked up things but i was still shocked by this.

I couldn't believe how low they would sink to advertise a movie.

Playing on the fact that pretty much every fucking male seems to get off on seeing two girls together (but god forbid two guys. No that would be GAY!). Not only that, but combining it with vampires. It's just lame.

This kind of thing is degrading to women, degrading to lesbians and even vampires...I hope they loose 3 times as much as they spend making it.

Anyway. That's pretty much all i wanted to say. Just wanted to get it out there. =)

- Ben

Perhaps I've been grading too many papers this week and my ability to communicate has sustained serious damage, because all I can say about this is puke. Double puke.

I saw the latest installment of the 007 franchise this weekend, "Quantum of Solace." Everyone else? Loved it. Me? Eh... I suppose I'm a "humorless feminist."

Here's my issue. Why can't there be an awesome female role in these sorts of movies? The latest Daniel Craig version has been touted as "new" and "progressive." Is it? Maybe. There is a "green message," and less emphasis on the fancy gadgets, but aside from that, it seemed to forget that women watch movies too.

I've never been the biggest Bond Fan.... But I always see the movies. The hard part for me is to take them seriously when the only roles for women are those of the motherly "M," or the power-hungry women who have beat the odds to become Bond's bedmate.

Forget Sarah Palin (oh how I wish I could), Hollywood has given us angry women a new, easy-on-the-eyes 'feminist' role model.

Meet Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Played by Keira Knightly in the cleverly-named "The Duchess," this woman is truly the old-time "new face of feminism." I mean, she's played by Keira Knightly! And she makes witty comments! What more could you ask for?

Quite a lot, it turns out. See, take "The Duchess," translate it forward by 300 years or so, and it's no longer a sexy period piece, it's a case study:

Having seen the preview for this film, and not knowing anything else about it, I agreed to go with my fiance and another male friend to the theater tonight to see it.  It started out pretty well, (if a bit generically) as another movie detailing fast spreading illness, quarantine, the breakdown of society in times of crisis, etc. 

However, about an hour into the film, after the villain of the film says that everyone will have to pay for food (the scene they show in the preview), AND after everyone has already paid with what material valuables they have, you guessed it.  They mandate that every room will have to pay with women in order to eat. 

"The Women" staring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett Smith was sloppy, and witless. Beyond that they made an accomplishment - they had a token lesbian and black person with attitude! They brilliant thought to combine into one character.

The women treat their men like dogs, or let themselves be treated like dogs. Sylvia Fowler (Annette Bening) at the end talks about the new love interest, it was like "seeing her puppy in the pound like a kennel" or something to those lines. Jada Pinkett Smith dates her "supermodel" girlfriend as an accessory. Tanya (Debi Mazar) had every right to be angry - she is a person, not a pony to trot out for show.

I am the vice president of the Pro Choice group on my campus, and we are trying to plan a film screening and discussion panel. We're having some trouble coming up with a film to show. We want something contemporary enough that people will come to it, but also topical. Dirty Dancing is our fallback, but it's kind of overused. I do not want to show Knocked Up or Juno, which are two suggestions I've gotten so far, I'd really like something that is a little more topical so that there is more to talk about in the discussion. Any ideas?

I came across a very interesting article about women and Hollywood, specifically about how female characters are written and portrayed in Hollywood movies.  It'll be no surprise that film teachers discourage writing female characters that don't support the lead male character.  She puts forth a "test" that she describes.  It has three steps:

To pass it your movie must have the following:

1) there are at least two named female characters, who

2) talk to each other about

3) something other than a man.

Seems pretty simple, right?  Not really.  I started thinking about my favorite movies and had trouble thinking of ones that fit this bill.  You really should go to her article and read more in-depth about her experience as a female screen writer and how sexism pervades the whole system.

On June 28th 2008, I took my first steps onto the campus of the College of New Jersey for a cost-free, nine-day intensive study program for high school juniors at New Jersey's Governor's School of the Arts. The application process, which began in November 2007, had been long and rather stressful, but I was still nearly jumping with excitement at the prospect of working with other creative artists, particularly in my division - video and film.

Up until that point, I had never really encountered sexism or misogyny in regards to my future career in filmmaking. My parents have always encouraged me to pursue my dreams, however challenging they might be. Although my mother is slightly uncomfortable with "the f-word" of feminism, she respects my ambitions and has told me multiple times to "go out there and kick some butt, honey." I also consider myself lucky to have a mentor at our local television station who worked for a major network for forty years and has selflessly taken me under his wing. In a matter of a few months, I was directing entire episodes of our community television show - and loving the experience.

While catching up on the latest installment of "Project Runway" last week, I saw a preview for a pathetic-looking new film coming to a theater near me: "The House Bunny." Normally I'd Tivo-skip right through this crap, but something about this preview caught my attention. It's about a Playboy bunny who, after surpassing the 27-year age limit at the mansion, is tossed out on the street. Ahh...isn't ridiculous ageism simply hilarious? But wait! There's more. With nowhere to go and zero skills (she's a pretty blonde, so inevitably she's an idiot), she heads to where else? The local university. Here's the plot description I got from IMDB:

The Dark Knight. It's everywhere and it's practically unavoidable-- when I go to check my email, both an advertisement for the trailer of the film and a news story about how wealthy it's making Warner Brothers blare at eye-level on the screen. As a fan of good filmmaking, I suggested to my boyfriend that we spend the afternoon watching Heath Ledger in his final role. After two and a half hours of trail mix and captivation, I needed to go home and watch I Shot Andy Warhol. 

Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect The Dark Knight to be a feminist masterpiece. I just expected some female characters that were more than pawns in Gotham's hero-making hierarchal struggle. Heath Ledger is phenomenal in his role as the Joker; in fact, I would argue that besides some poorly placed over-the-top moments, all of the acting was excellent besides Maggie Gyllenhaal's Rachel Dawes. Yes, Rachel is a lawyer in a powerful position, and yes, she physically strikes the Joker. However, arguably, her most important role through the film is as the prize for Gotham's true hero, whether that hero is ultimately Batman or Harvey Dent. The audience does not get to see Rachel's complexity, which she is bound to have if she were to exist beyond the page or screen. Still, even before she dies, she is both more reliable than Detective Martinez and much more three-dimensional than Lt. James Gordon's wife. 

I wanted to share this interview I read in the Globe and Mail with Jonathan Levine, writer-director of "The Wackness".

Here's a quote from Jonathan:

"It stems from trying to figure out what's going to make me happy as I get older, and what it means to mature as a human being. I don't think that existential dilemma is ever going to go away: How do you go through life and be the person you want to be, in the face of all the things that are going to continually batter you? What do you turn to? Do you hide from your emotions, do you smoke pot and take pills, or do you open yourself up to them and own your own heartache?"

I really appreciated this article, because, frankly, I tend to forget that men also struggle with sexist gender expectations and are only "allowed" a limited range of emotional expression.  And basically, we're going through a lot of the same things.

The O Tapes, a documentary combining the history of the female orgasm with accounts from women aged 25-60, psychologists, and doctors, could be considered a companion to Eve Ensler's legendary Vagina Monolologues. Driven by personal accounts as well as a history lesson  -- Ida Craddock and Margaret Sanger's contributions are included -- The O Tapes is a funny, lively, sensual and at times heartbreaking look at the quest for clarity, a Penn & Teller's Bullshit for truth in female sexuality.

At one time, the producers were invested in turning The O Tapes into a series, but unfortunately an agreement with Showtime could not be reached.

For more information, visit http://www.theotapes.com/

I'm in love with my DirecTV box -- let's just put that out here right now -- though I agree that much of what's on sucks, or is at least worth questioning.This is precicely the reason I feel hundreds of channels are better than a few: you get a plethora of view points, ideas and electronic images from across the past 100 or so years.

A little disclosure: I'm a screenwriter, and while I prefer outright originality to remakes of any kind, I know it's the hot thing to do right now for the dominant paradigm, and I'd like to make a few suggestions.

While perusing my DTV for some cool movies with women at the helm, I ran across a few old, practically forgotten gems, the kind of movies I feel would make worthier updates than the current crop, which seem to serve mostly to remind the majority of film-goers why they loved the original so much more than the remake. I'd just as soon as see a remake of something decent that could use a little work, personally, than see a remake of a film that was damn near perfect to begin with.

Here are a couple of my picks, in no particular order: