Recently in Movies Category

Last night I was watching the third Mummy film with my parents. I found it really empowering that the young love interest in the movie is a girl who's an un-killable, two-thousand fucking NINJA who guards the Mummy's tomb and has done so successfully for a couple of millenia... and yet she still got captured and had to be heroically rescued by, of course, a man.

Isn't it lovely and refreshing to be told that no matter how kickass we are, we'll still always need a man to save us.

I'm not really sure what to think.

Thoughts?

I was procrastinating/looking at some movie trailers, when I came across this gem, a trailer for the movie "The Ugly Truth" The poster itself is very classy, featuring the bathroom icons for female and male, with little hearts in them.  The heart for the female is in her head, and guess where the heart for the male is? Yup in his crotch, echoing the old myth that women love emotionally, whereas men love with their groin.  The movie itself looks like a heap of misogynistic doodie, the basic plot featuring a woman who is way too picky (tsk, doesn't she know she just needs to suck it up and settle down) and thus left "hopelessly single" (oh no she might become an old maid! AIIEEE!) Fate has it that she is a tv producer, and a new show she must manage stars a slobby looking sexist guy telling the ladies how to get a man (with shining examples of class such as "get on the treadmill!") Obviously by the end she'll probably realize he was the one for her all along. Now excuse me while I go barf up a storm. 

(Yes I know one can't judge a book by its cover, but seeing as trailers are extensively detailed these days, I think I get the jist of the movie.) 

My sister is going to a themed costume party after Christmas, and the theme is "Superheroes." My sister is not an avid reader of graphic novels or watcher of superhero films, and so she was asking me who she could go as.

"Wonder Woman?" No, her friend was going as Wonder Woman. "Batgirl or Catwoman?" Hmm, she wasn't really a Batman fan, besides which, she wanted to be a villain if possible. "Silk Spectre out of Watchmen?" What's Watchmen? No one will know who she is! "Then, er ..."

Two degrees between us and we came up with four choices. And they were all from the DC universe. It was mother who solved the problem in the end; by suggesting my sister go as Claire from the TV series Heroes, the reason for the famous tag line "Save the cheerleader, save the world." My sister is happy with that, but as someone who loves superhero movies and is just discovering the joys of the graphic novel I found it depressing. When I was thinking about it later, I realised that virtually every famous superhero is a man - we've all heard of Batman, Superman, Spider-man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man... why the endless suffix of "man"? The X-Men contain a number of female characters, but who is it that everyone knows best? Wolverine, I bet.

In comparison to the three Spider-Man movies, two Batman movies (plus four made in the 90's) the Iron Man and Incredible Hulk franchises, female superheroes (at least when they're not part of a superhero team) are mostly represented by "Elektra" and "Catwoman," which - let's be honest here - sucked. Female superheroes are no less cool and heroic than their male counterparts, but it seems that they're far less famous and far less bankable as a result. Women in superhero franchises seem to exist in order to be the hero's girlfriend (don't even get me started on the upcoming "Spirit" movie) which I find very sad.

Why is this? Why aren't female superheroes as well known as their male counterparts? I accept that graphic novels and comics up until recently (and still are) a male-dominated industry, but characters like Wonder Woman and Batgirl have been around just as long as other stalwarts like Spider-man, so why aren't they having movies made about them? (Actually Joss Whedon was going to direct Wonder Woman - bliss - but that didn't work out and it's stuck in development hell for the time being). But it seems even women with superpowers need to fight for gender equality.

So I guess for now my sister will have to dress up as a cheerleader. At least said cheeleader made sure a would-be rapist got what was coming to him ...

 There are 3 types of movies that make me want to scream because of how they portray women:

#1 (the mildest kind): the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (term coined by Onion's AV club and analyzed on Jezebel)  --think of Natalie Portman in Garden State, or my least favorite, Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Stranger than Fiction," whose character, after somehow "scraping" into Yale Law School (because she can't just be smart) dropped out and became a baker because she liked bringing cupcakes to study sessions so much.  Then, of course, she spends the whole movie supporting Will Farrell's character development, because she's so nurturing.  But enough has been said about this type already.

#2 : the evil bitch-woman. Movies like the new version of "Stepford Wives" and "Michael Clayton" both feature heinous women who are supposed to be particularly despicable as evil characters because they are women. (Don't get me started about "Stepford Wives," where it's considered funny that Nicole Kidman's character is shot at in the first scene by a crazy antifeminist man who's angry at her feminist TV shows (and nobody even asks if she's okay!)   Tilda Swinton's character in "Michael Clayton" disturbed me because, even though the movie was about a whole evil corporation, only Swinton, the PR rep, ended up symbolizing that evil, and the movie gave only her character a deep, humiliating comeuppance because of her evilness.  Only Swinton's character is shown sweating, uncomfortable, in unflattering underwear.  We're supposed to hate her because she is human enough to sweat. And, mind you,  she is the only woman of any importance in the movie.  Another movie: "Live Free or Die Hard," the wonderful movie where Bruce Willis refers repeatedly to having killed the bad guy's "dead Asian hooker bitch girlfriend," Maggie Q, who is once again, the only woman (except Bruce Willis' lame daughter character) in the movie, who is pure evil with no motivation except having an evil boyfriend, Her extended fight-to-the-death scene seems to take extreme pleasure in violence against her.

I'm having a sleepover/retreat for my feminist group. We're going to paint potter, eat food and watch my favorite movie, Iron Jawed Angels . Also we're going to do some bonding activities, since that's kind of the idea of having the sleepover. Does anyone have any suggestions for good feminist bonding activities, or just good general ones?

My friend said The Duchess was boring, but I found it rather moving. Despite the plot being quite predictable, it did make me cry for several times. Why would a story set in the 18th century compel? Because it still applies. Not saying that this movie is the special case that tells a message by presenting what might happen in the past. There are numerous examples, be it creative, academic or whichever type on whatever topic, that try to speak today's problems by depicting yesterday's. This happens because, no matter how many times we are reminded, there are always fragments of human nature that are prone to unacceptable deeds (that are often accepted ).

Last night I went to the theatres and saw "Quarantine" with a group of my girlfriends. Here's the trailer, if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I had a hard time being terrified of anything in this movie except for the behaviour of the female main character. While she's screaming, panicking, screaming "Oh my god!" over and over and hyperventilating, the male characters are all calm. They're quarantined in the building and, er, scary things are happening (I won't give any spoilers in case someone wants to see it) and we're expected to believe that all the men are calm and relaxed. Their voices aren't even the least bit shaky. 

After the movie we talked about what we thought about it. I brought up that I didn't like the way they'd portrayed the woman, as being the only one who was "weak" and terrified. My friend said "Well that's just how women are." I said to her, "Shouldn't we expect the men to be terrified in that situation too?" Apparently not!

I've been thinking about the last few disaster movies I've watched. I think I am turning into one of those people who can't 'turn off' their hot-button issues, even when engaging in totally mindless entertainment. One of my favorite professors from undergrad used to talk about this in the context of 24. She LOVED the show, but was infamous among her group of friends for yelling at the tv whenever something really sexist or rape-friendly happened (she works with a lot of sexual assault stuff on campus). I think she was half proud half exasperated by her own rape-o-meter.

Spoiler Alert

Watch this movie. This film was incredibly awkward, funny at times, and heart-warming to the point of tears. I watched it last night with three of my girlfriends, two of which cried when the real doll died. The story of Lars is simplistic yet fantastical. He lives in the garage next to his brother and his wife who live in the house. Lars has a delusional disorder and throughout the process of the movie, he becomes closer to a whole human and slowly allows other people to touch him, something he describes as burning. Although Lars has a condition that hinders his development, he is like many men across the world today. Many men are going online to buy these anatomically correct Real Dolls that function as girlfriends and sex toys. In the movie, the doll, Bianca, is religious and stays in the house with his brother rather than with Lars, so that aspect of the doll is removed for the most part. Lars created Bianca on the internet and then proceeded to give her a history, personality, and friends. The small town came together to help Lars through this apparent transitional period and accepted Bianca as a new member of the town and the church. Their efforts paid off as well as the incredible patience and persistence of one of Lars' coworkers.

The film was absolutely amazing and I would recommend it to anyone. I would also recommend But I'm A Cheerleader! as well. I saw that one on Friday with a room full of ex- Queer Theory students. So funny!