Colossal and abuse

[Content note: discussion of abuse]

*Tap, tap* Is this thing on? LOL! I'm so original in acknowledging how long it's been since I blogged last.

AAAAAAaaaaaanyway, as I've mentioned before, I'm only writing when I feel inspired and HEY I got inspired by seeing Colossal yesterday.

In case you're not familiar, the premise of the movie, or at least what you can ascertain from the trailer, is that Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a mess of a woman who has been dumped and moves back to her home town. She reconnects with an old friend, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), and then realizes that she is somehow cosmically connected to a giant kaiju-esque creature that appears in Seoul, South Korea, when she steps foot onto a playground by her former elementary school.

Seeing the trailer (like a million times, thanks, Alamo Drafthouse) piqued my interest and I couldn't imagine what in the world had made a random woman able to control (or embody?) a huge monster in Seoul. I wanted to see it because I wanted to learn the mythology of the story.

It turns out the film was about so much more and I had NO IDEA it was going to head in that direction. So, let's put this out there immediately: THIS IS SPOILERY. If you want to see this film, don't read further until you get a chance to see it.

Ghostbusters: Sheroes

This piece is relatively spoiler free...mild spoilers in point B below, which you can skip if you want.

Unless you've been under a rock, you're quite aware that a new Ghostbusters reboot has debuted and it stars an all female cast..

Unless you've been under a rock for a REALLY long time, you're also aware that since it's first announcement, this movie has been picked to death by what I will refer to throughout this piece as "salty fanboys." Here's the kind of person I mean by saying that:

1. Cis men, typically white, who can't imagine anyone other than someone just like them being the lead in an action movie. 
2. Said men who cry about their "childhoods being ruined" by a reboot with an all female cast. 
3. Said men who are the kind of people who probably harass ("troll") women online and use the term "friendzone" and "nice guy" unironically.
4. Said men who would down vote the YouTube trailer and claim that the movie is total garbage months before ever seeing it. 

So anyway, because salty fanboys got their salty fanboy panties in a bunch, this movie, starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon, got way more attention than it would have otherwise. And because salty fanboys indulged in so much fucking misogyny with their salty fanboy tears, I really, really needed this movie to be actually good. 

GUESS WHAT?! IT IS!!!

I saw it last night and, while it's far from perfect, it was highly enjoyable. I was laughing the whole time, particularly at Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon who were my faves by far, and I now super ship their characters. 

It was a damn delight. 

But beyond that the move did something super amazing and super important--it wove in its own strong response to these salty fanboys in the best fucking possible ways. 

A) JOKES: It had a few jokes that called out the salty fanboys specifically. More than once the characters post their videos of ghost busting online and they react indignantly to misogynistic comments they receive...serving as an all too familiar reminder to those of us in the "real world" that the movie itself received it share of similar comments; comments which seem absurd but are quite based in reality.

B) STORY: The main villain is basically a salty fanboy!!!! Reminder, this is where it gets mildly spoilery. We learn that the guy releasing all the ghosts in NY is someone who has felt really bullied and marginalized. He's clearly a "nerd" guy who was picked on and resents the world. At one point he's in a self indulgent cry baby rant about how the Ghostbusters must have always been treated as humans if they don't understand why he would be trying to get revenge. And Melissa McCarthy's character is like (paraphrasing) "Are you kidding me? People are always shitting on us." YES!!!! It's such a great call out of "geek boys" who have felt really excluded and harassed their whole lives but then turn to perpetuating the hate against women. 

I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. 

I had no idea that the creators would be so skillfully weaving in real time response to the shit they took for making this film. It was delicious. 

As delicious as salty fanboy tears when I think about how all of my friends have liked the movie so far and it has a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes as the point of me writing this. 

Delicious indeed. 

Please see the commenting policy before replying to this post.

That gross feeling when...

[Content note: rape culture]

I've written about rape culture ad nauseam, but every now and then one of its artifacts pops up and takes me by surprise.

Well, maybe not "surprise," but "disgust," at least.

Last week I had free tickets to Sicario, Emily Blunt's latest starring role. It's a rather grim film about the government's work against drug cartels on the boarder. It's also one of the more violent things I've watched recently...but that's not why I'm writing.  All I knew about Sicario going into it is that there had been some rumblings about how Blunt's character was almost rewritten to be a man. So my interest was mildly piqued. I kept looking for some interesting gender dynamic, but nothing really emerged that was of much interest to me anyway.

But then came the moment that stuck with me. It was something so "small" but is truly my take away, and it has very little to do with the actual film and a whole lot to do with the audience and our society. In one scene, Blunt's (male) partner, played by Daniel Kaluuya, was being subdued by a Navy Seal and the Seal says something along the lines of, "Just lie back and take it baby."

Then half the audience laughed.

It sent a gross chill down my spine and Ronald immediately looked at me and temporarily broke his "never, ever speak in the Alamo Drafthouse" rule to say, "That's not fucking funny..." with a concerned/confused look.

And the thing is, it wasn't funny. Not only because it's a disgusting reference to rape, but also because, as mentioned, this movie is GRIM. It's not one of those serious flicks with a periodic laugh to break the tension. I mean, I think there was maaaaybe one other light, slightly humorous moment where Kaluuya pokes fun at Blunt's character for her bra, but that's it.

My point is that even against the current emotional place this film puts you in, many people still chuckled at an allusion to rape. That's how strong rape culture is. That's how lightly we take it.

(And it's not lost on me that Kaluuya is the film's only prominent black character, too.)

Just to be clear--I don't even know if I'm calling out this film itself for that line, necessarily. In the context of the moment and the characters present, it's not unrealistic that one of those digesting men would have said something disturbing. Blunt and Kaluuya are outsiders in the world they're dropped in, and they're frequently unnerved by what the other characters are doing. It's not like these are "nice" people. They're actively abusing their power throughout the time. So maybe this moment was not written as a punch line.

But the audience thought it was chuckle worthy, regardless.

It still makes me kinda sick thinking about it. And like I said, this is a "small" thing. A throw away moment. Probably didn't stand out to or strike many other people. But to me, it's just another of the thousands of sad, daily examples our rape culture.


Please see the commenting policy before replying to this post.

A few thoughts on Spy and being a fat lady

[Image text: Melissa McCarthy as a spy with a gun, but dressed as an older woman in a pink track suit and cat shirt]

I had a chance to see Melissa McCarthy's new flick, Spy, Wednesday night at a free advanced screening. (This will stay relatively spoiler free.)

It's not the best or funniest movie I've ever seen, but it definitely did crack me up. (I'm a sucker for McCarthy.) And in my usual fashion, I started to think about the messages in it. I got a little flummoxed. On one hand, McCarthy's character, Susan Cooper, is the butt of a lot of fat jokes and shaming...but on the other, it's kinda because everyone has underestimated her. She pulls through to prove herself an incredibly competent spy in the field--who takes things into her own hands (literally) and is successful in her mission, partly because she's able to leverage the stereotypes believed about her.

So that was kind of cool, but still something didn't sit right with me. Then I read Meredith Borders' piece at Birth. Movies. Death. and it all made sense. Borders posits that Spy is actually commentary on McCarthy's career. She writes:

Throughout the span of McCarthy's career, she's often played three types of characters: sweet, clumsy, adorable (Gilmore Girls, Mike and Molly, Samantha Who), dowdy and bumbling (Bridesmaids, Tammy) or raunchy yet surprisingly competent (The Heat). She plays each convincingly and with a certain amount of compelling charm, even when her character is meant to be profoundly uncharming. What she's rarely allowed to be - or has chosen not to be...is glamorous and composed, which just so happens to be the persona McCarthy projects with ease on the red carpet and in interviews.

Mad Max, Feminism, and Being A Man

This post was contributed by Ronald Short, a connoisseur of the cinema living and working in Austin, TX. He eats, sleeps, and breathes film and filmmaking. He also happens to be my partner. When I read his post on Tumblr about Mad Max, and his words for his fellow men, I was excited to share it here. I loved the film myself and  was really excited to talk about it a ton with him. 

You can follow Ronald on Twitter or check out his production company, Short Pictures Independent on Facebook.

Mad Max: Fury Road is an action masterpiece. The practical stunts, effects, and story (the whole movie is a chase, an army of bad guys…er, War Boys relentlessly pursuing a small group of women, including their leader Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and our titular hero Max (Tom Hardy). Our protagonists are trying to escape the grasp of the nefarious Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) who will stop at nothing to get his “property” back) will often leave you gazing at the screen with your mouth agape in disbelief. Like I said on my social media after seeing it a second time, this movie is a masterclass in editing and structure. It’s one I will be watching a lot over the next however many years I have left on this rock to not only relive that enjoyment, but to study George Miller’s brushstrokes as a filmmaker and artist. It’s that damn good.

If this movie was purely its special effects and action sequences, it would still be pretty great, one that would stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the best action films out there. However, as I’m sure many of you probably know by now even if you haven’t seen the flick, it isn’t your run of the mill action film. This is a FEMINIST action film. And it’s time for the world to fuckin’ accept it and ENJOY it.

***IT’S A FREE FOR ALL IN TERMS OF SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON***

Best/Worst of Golden Globes 2015

[Content note: rape]

So Golden Globes have come and gone. Since I've had something to say about it the past few years,  I figured I'd throw in my two cents again. I know pretty much everyone who writes about pop culture and/or celebrities and/or feminism will also do so...so I'm not going to get in depth or anything. I just want to note a few things.

Worst moments:

• Jeremy Renner making a disgusting joke about J. Lo's "globes" aka her breasts aka stfu Renner.
• The whole Margaret Cho/North Korea bit. And it being pretty much the only Asian representation last night.
• Fey and Poehler's Bill Cosby rape jokes. Disliked for the reasons listed at the link.
• Ricky Gervais saying  Quvenzhané Wallis' name wrong. I keep thinking about how she's a KID at these things and people do crap like that and ugh. No.
• Selma getting snubbed for all the major awards. Y'all...that film...is...seriously amazing. Ava DuVernay deserves everything in my mind.
• Billy Bob Thornton saying, "You get in trouble for saying anything these days" in his old white man southern draw. This went under the radar, I feel like. But all I could think was, "So you're definitely a bigot then?" But at least he stuck to his word and didn't say anything else and just took his ass off stage after a simple, "Thank you." Weird moment.

Best moments:

• Gina Rodriguez's acceptance speech for Latinas.  
• Common and John Legend's acceptance speech for black lives.  
• Joanne Froggatt's acceptance speech for rape survivors. 
• Matt Bomer's acceptance speech for those lost to AIDS. 
• Jill Soloway's acceptance speech for Leelah Alcorn and the trans community. 
• The joke about how damn accomplished Amal Clooney is. 
• The Huffington Post has a few more moments that were cool (not all of them.) But I did like Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda's joke about men not being funny and the comments from Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, and Patricia Arquette. 

Overall a very mixed bag. 

Please see the commenting policy before replying to this post.

Obvious Child: The Pro-Choice Movie You've Been Waiting For

[Content note: Mild spoilers for the film Obvious Child, discussions of shaming abortion]

[Jenny Slate in the promo pic for Obvious Child]

So I saw Obvious Child. Written and Directed by Gillian Robespierre, it has been heralded as "the summer's most important movie" from some feminists. I'm not sure if I'd go that far (because I can't remember what all is coming out this summer) but from a pro-choice vantage point...it did not disappoint.

Austinites: Join me for Obvious Child, this Thursday!

Hey everyone, I have a fun treat for locals. The company distributing Obvious Child reached out to me about helping to distribute passes for a free advanced screening in Austin of the film this Thursday.

Click here to claim your pass. You must have a pass to attend.

OBVIOUS CHILD

Date: Thursday June 05, 2014

Time: 7:30 PM

Location:

Galaxy Highland 10

6700 Middle Fiskville Road

Austin, TX 78752

If you're in or near Austin, I hope you'll come out and check out the film with me. It's getting a lot of buzz for portraying an "abortion story" in a non-stigmatizing manner. Here's the trailer:




And here's a quick piece about it. I'm looking forward to checking it out and writing up a piece myself soon. Hope you can make it!

Please see the commenting policy before replying to this post.

Inside Inside Llewyn Davis

[Content note: Mild spoilers for Inside Llewyn Davis]

I like the Coen Brothers. They are, in fact, the only filmmakers I ever took a college level class about, and in my explorations of their material, I enjoyed quite a few of the female characters they brought to life, like Margie in Fargo or Ed in Raising Arizona. They're not prefect and their material is generally pretty dude-centric, but I enjoy their stuff.

And from a strictly good filmmaking perspective, they're near damn perfection.

So when I started seeing trailers for Inside Llewyn Davis, I was excited to see it. Overall, the film is a sad, important, and simple portrait of the titular character, and his struggles being a homeless folk singer in Greenwich Village in the early 60's.

But something was bothering me about the women in it and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Revisiting Crazy, Stupid, Love

[Content note: Ableist terms in title of movie, brief mention of pedophilia]

Last night I was flipping through the channels and noticed that FXX was playing Crazy, Stupid, Love. I saw the movie in theaters in 2011 and enjoyed it.  I haven't seen it since and (except for Ryan Gosling's abs) the general content slipped from my brain. But remembering that I liked it, I was happy to stop on it last night.

As I re-watched about an hour of it, I couldn't remember what, exactly, I had found so charming about it in the first place. I'm sure there was something...? Maybe I just had clouded judgement from a Gosling high? I don't know. It's certainly possible.

The Disappointing Fat Shame of "Enough Said"

[Content note: fat shaming, spoilers for the film Enough Said]

This weekend, I saw Enough Said. If you're not familiar, it's a romantic comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Eva) and the late James Gandolfini (Albert). The premise is pretty simple...as stated at the Wikipedia page for the film:

The plot centers on a woman who befriends a woman and starts dating a man at the same time, only to find out that her two new acquaintances are former spouses. This leaves her in a dilemma about whether she should risk her new friendship and romantic partner if she reveals what she has learned about them from one another. 

All that is harmless (and kind of boring) enough, but what stood out to me was the relentless fat shaming.

Two Things About Disney's Frozen

[Image text: Frozen's main characters, sisters Ana & Elsa]

[Content note: Major plot spoiler for Disney's new animated feature, Frozen.]

So on Wednesday, I saw Disney's latest animated feature, Frozen. I don't think I'll get into a detailed analysis or full run down of the film, but I did want to share two quick things about it.

Looking Forward to Wadjda

Have you heard of Wadjda? It's the first movie made entirely in Saudi Arabia, and what's more, it was written and directed by a Saudi woman, Haifaa Al Mansour. I caught a bit of an interview that Michele Martin did with her on Tell Me More yesterday, and I was so intrigued.

As is well known, it's not easy to be a female film director, but the challenges are certainly multiplied when you are making your film in Saudi Arabia, a country that places many restrictions on women. For example, women are not able to drive there and they've only recently been allowed to bicycle in public. Here's what Al Mansour said about directing in Saudi Arabia:

...the country is very conservative, and sometimes when we go outside, we film all the outdoors activities because the country is segregated and woman and woman are not supposed to mix together. I had to film from a van, and I had a walkie-talkie and a monitor and I was always confined in that space.

As I've mentioned, my partner is a filmmaker and I've been on many of his sets. I can only imagine how frustrating it was to not be able to get as close to the action as you might like, but I'm glad that Al Monsour worked around that challenge. She also went on to share with Martin how she created the Wadjda character:

When I was writing "Wadjda," I based her a lot on one of my nieces who has a great sense of humor, who was a hustler. And she's always scheming to earn money somewhere. But my brother became conservative and she changed. And a lot of the girls I went to school with, and I went to public school, are like that. Like they - when they were kids, they had so much to offer to the world, but because the world is very - their families and the small society around them is very limiting. They gave up so much. And I wanted to make a film that tells them that they shouldn't. That they should be true to themselves and continue and embrace their potential. And they - those girls can change the world if they are given the chance and if they believe in themselves. 

That's certainly a film I want to see. I'll be keeping an eye out for it at my local art house cinema.

Please see the commenting policy before replying to this post.

Burn Riddick in a Fire

[Content note: rape]

When I ended my summer movie series, I commented, "I will, of course, continue to blog here and there about any films I see with particularly interesting gender messages." I guess what I meant by "particularly interesting gender messages" is "shit that makes my blood boil and I must comment on." Because I saw Riddick this weekend and there was nothing interesting about it...it was just a steaming pile of fail.

Finishing Up the Summer Blockbuster Series

This post is the last in my summer blockbuster series. I tagged the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters.

Y'all. I see a lot of movies. A LOT of movies. Call it research for my film making husband or call it a natural love of the cinema. Both are true. But the fact remains that despite writing about tons of movies this summer, there were are even a few more that I skipped over (and several independent flicks that don't necessarily meet "blockbuster" criteria.) Here's a quick run through of the films that I didn't write about because there wasn't much for me to say.

Kick Ass 2 (EWW)

This post is a part of my summer blockbuster series. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters.

[Content note: rape, victim blaming]

I had heard that Kick Ass 2 kinda sucked, but I still gave it a shot. And by "gave it a shot" I mean that Ronald wanted to see it, so I went because we see a bazillion movies. That reminds me. I've seen 3 movies I never wrote about that contained nothing remarkable...so I'm going to just write a paragraph about them each and conclude this series soon. Summer IS almost over.

Anyhoo, back to Kick Ass 2. Thing is, I really liked the original. I know it wasn't perfect and there were problematic elements, but Hit Girl was just so damn endearing to me. A foul mouthed 12 year old girl beating up evil grown men? Yes please!

Unfortunately Kick Ass 2 has too much awfulness to ignore.

The Ladies of the Wolverine

This post is a part of my summer blockbuster series. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters.

Somehow the new X-Men movie, The Wolverine, totally slipped under the radar for me. I didn't even know it was coming out this summer until Ronald got passes to a free screening last Tuesday (and we were turned away because it was too popular.) So we waited for it to come out this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised, especially after crapfest that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine. As Ronald wrote on his Facebook, "The Wolverine is the kind of movie the character deserves. Apology accepted, 20th Century Fox."

Aside from being a generally enjoyable X-Men film, the movie actually contained interesting, important women! Who interacted with each other! And had a friendship not related to any of the men involved!

Of course, the main story line and plot center around Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). That isn't surprising; it's his movie. But the interesting fact is that he is surrounded by women who fight along side him, threaten him as a villain, or plague his mind. Let's take a closer look at each of them. As always, this may get a little spoiler-y. I'm only going to focus on the female characters but some of the plot may be revealed in doing that.

[Image text: the four women of The Wolverine: Yukio, Viper, Mariko, and Jean Gray]

The Conjuring and Motherhood

This post is a part of my summer blockbuster series. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters.

Hmm...

Ya know, I wasn't sure what to make of The Conjuring at first. I mean--it's was horrifying to me, which means as a horror movie, it accomplished its goal. But from a gender perspective, I didn't initially know what to make of it or think I'd have much of anything to analyze. At first blush, you could write this film off as just portraying stereotypical gender roles (mom runs the home, dad works) and leave it at that. But the more I contemplated it, the more I realized there was actually interesting stuff going on. Spoilers after the cut.

Going Beyond the Bechdel Test

If you've read just a few of my film analyses, you might have noticed that I rarely discuss the Bechdel Test, and when I do, it's just a passing statement or two. It's not that I've forgotten; it's because I think that the Bechdel Test isn't that interesting when it comes to the overall gender portrayal in films. But I frequently receive emails and messages asking if the films I've written about pass it or mentioning that a movie did or didn't pass. Since it seems to be so important so so many people, I'd like to explain why I feel we need to move past Bechdel.




Let me back, up. I think that the Bechdel Test is an important concept to consider. It points out how sadly rare it is for movies to have two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. But I take two main issues with this criteria being used as short hand for a "feminist film."

1) There overall gender elements of a text that are more important than Brechdel.
When Bechdel is used as the bare minimum for a movie to be viewed as not totally sexist, fine. But I don't think it makes sense to place undue emphasis on Bechdel. For example, in my recent Pacific Rim analysis, as I mentioned, there was a very strong female character who played a critical role in the action of the story. But it doesn't pass Bechdel. So should a movie that passes Bechdel but relegates the women to minor side characters be seen as "more feminist" than Pacific Rim? I'd argue not. As with everything, it is so much more important to view the overall messages, themes, and the full picture than to tick off boxes to pass Bechdel. Otherwise, you're just treading into tokenism and pandering. Which leads me directly to my next point...

2) Bechdel can be abused as an easy out for filmmakers to think they've done something progressive when they actually haven't.
Because my partner is a filmmaker, I know a lot of men who make independent films. As such, I have literally heard and read situations where a few of them have said things like, "Oh let's make sure we give that character a name so that this movie passes the Bechdel Test." I'm not kidding. Because Bechdel is pretty well known at this point, it is effecting male screenwriters. But the net result is not positive when Brechdel is simply pandered to. Like I said above, it is so much more important for films to contain strong and authentic female characters who directly contribute to the action of the film, than it is for Brechdel to be met. I want men to examine how their privilege and their experiences have colored their work and really think about what they create.

So, sorry...you don't get a cookie because you wrote in a 2 second scene where two women speak.

Now, I'm hardly the first person to point these things out and note flaws in Bechdel. But I think it's important that I lay out why I often overlook this issue in my analyses. It's not a mistake...it's often a decision I make. I want to de-emphasize this test.

I don't like things that feel like simplistic reductions of big concepts and the way that The Bechdel Test is applied often falls into this category. I want to encourage actual analysis and thoughtful discussion. Again, I'm not saying we should abandon Bechdel because it does start very important dissections of the media texts before us. But we cannot and should not stop at Bechdel nor give it too much weight.

There is no easy short cut to making more feminist films.


Please see the commenting policy before replying to this post.

Pacific WIN

This post is a part of my summer blockbuster series. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters.

Ahhh! I really liked Pacific Rim! I just thought it was fun, and action packed, and original! I'm kind of on a fangirl high! I could go on and on about how much fun I had on this cinematic adventure, but instead, I'll focus on gender side of things, which I was actually really pleased with.

As a warning, I don't really think I can cover all of this without getting spoilery, so there's that. In fact, I know I'll get spoilery.