What to see this weekend

Do you want to see:

 A female lead?
-Lucy
-Happy Christmas (Limited)
-Tammy

Written or co-written by a woman?
-Sex Tape
-Tammy

Vulture: What Even Our Best Blockbusters Are Still Getting Wrong About Women

In a recent discussion about the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie, I mentioned its low female representation - the reaction to this comment was, "no one cares about that."

Here is an excellent article about
why you should care about it.

"Hollywood needs to be better about this. If even a slim majority of the actors in Apes, or in Pacific Rim, or in that Episode VII photo had been women, it would have been near-revolutionary, and yet we live in a country where women make up 51 percent of the population. Why can’t movies come even close to reflecting that? Why won’t people speak up when they look at a call sheet where only one actress is listed — and why do so many talented people look at a sheet like that and think nothing of it?"

Review #32: The Parent Trap

Release Date: July 29th, 1998
Writer: Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer
Director: Nancy Meyers

Logline: Identical twins, seperated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents, discover each other for the first time at summer camp and make a plan to bring their wayward parents back together. (Source: IMDb) 127 min. Family, Comedy.
Bechdel Test: Passed all 3 tests

Review

There’s absolutely no way I can do an unbiased review of this movie. I’ve been obsessed with it for 16 years and am confident that I will continue to be obsessed with it for the rest of my life. So instead of a review, I am going to tell you how this film has impacted me.

I present: A Life Molded by Nancy Meyers’ The Parent Trap.

• I will fight anyone who denies that Lindsay Lohan is the greatest actress of our time

• I own the soundtrack to this movie and still listen to it on a regular basis

• If I have twins, their names will 100% be Hallie and Annie. Even if they're boys.

• I thought the Beatles’ Abbey Road picture was a rip off from this movie for an embarrassingly long time

• I try to say “I have a brilliant beyond brilliant idea” as much as possible

• I tried oreos and peanut butter

• I know that the only way to know if it’s true love is if L-O-V-E is playing in the background

• I dream of the day I get a powder blue suit

• I learned the handshake

• I went ahead and changed my friend Jessie’s name to Chessy

• I’m still convinced I’m going to find the love of my life on a boat

• I’ve always been upset that my birthday is in August and not on October 11

• I know that you have to pause in life to make mental memories

• When I grow up, I want to be Elizabeth James

• I know that sometimes you do just have to cry hysterically
• I'm always wondering why we aren't talking about Dennis Quaid more

• I believe the greatest word in the English language is "actually"

• I only say "a lot, a lot, a lot" in a British accent

Are there a lot of plot holes in this movie? Yes.
Is it realistic? Not even a little.
Is my appreciation for it clouded by nostalgia? Probably.

Nevertheless, this movie is pure joy from start to finish. It's got practical jokes, summer camp and the greatest love story of the century. What more could you possibly want?
Watch it right now!

Portrayal of Women: The cast of this movie is made up of mostly women and each one is unique and well defined. We have Elizabeth James, the elegant entrepreneur, Meredith Blake, the glamorous villain, and Chessy, the humble housekeeper. There are no duplications of character and each one has an important purpose in terms of plot. They are in no way placeholders - they are integral to the overall story and theme.

Then we have the twins, Hallie and Annie. Hallie is a little rough around the edges while Annie is always perfectly put together. They're smart and witty and brave. What I like about them is that although they're the coolest 11 year olds around, neither of them is perfect and they both make mistakes. They're well-rounded and fairly realistic characters in a totally unrealistic story.

Overall, the film is a great example of how to increase female representation in a film as well as how to positively display friendships between girls. 

Sisterhood Moment: The movie is basically 127 minutes of sisterhood moments. If I had to pick just one, I would pick the ear piercing scene. Complete terror.

Rating: 5 pics of Leo DiCaprio plus all the yellow headbands.

IMDb - The Parent Trap (6.3)
Wikipedia - The Parent Trap
Rotten Tomatoes - The Parent Trap (86%)

Review #31: Erin Brockovich

Release Date: March 17th, 2000
Writer: Susannah Grant
Director: Steven Soderbergh

Logline: An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply. (Source: IMDb) Drama, Biography. 131 min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all 3 tests

Review
There's not a whole lot that can be said about a movie that was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and won the Best Actress Oscar that year. Sometimes a movie is just empirically good, and the biography of now famous Erin Brockovich is one of them.

For anyone who hasn't seen this film, find it and watch it. 14 years after it's release it still holds up. I know because I had never watched it until this review. What a scandal, I know. There are some movies that manage to tell timeless stories. It may take place at a certain point in time, but it doesn't trap itself within pop culture and challenges pervasive issues. That's why Erin Brockovich is great, if it was re-shot today it would be an identical movie. Except maybe with better cell phones.

There are so many reasons why Erin Brockovich succeeds. It's an underdog story, it's a justice story, but importantly it's a real people story. On paper, this could turn into a legal drama, simply about the battle between a small town and corporate pollution. Instead it's a realistic portrayal of a complex character struggling to earn respect in a social climate that frankly hasn't changed that much since the movie was made.

For me, it's the realistic part that empowers a drama like this. There's no magical moment where she becomes a better person for succeeding. She doesn't change into a legal professional by the end like they so easily could have portrayed, she's the same woman wearing leather skirts and chewing out her boss to stand for her principles.

Portrayal of Women: What Erin Brockovich does beautifully is hammer home the impact of the way society judges a woman. 

It opens with her pitted against a corporate culture of conformity where your social ranking determines your quality of character. Her role as a single mother raising three kids doesn't credit her as being smart and responsible, if anything it's evidence of the opposite. How women are judged is based on their wardrobe. Being divorced twice discredited her to a jury of her peers. Erin is unemployed and she can't get experience because no one will take a chance on her. She has to fight for and demand every ounce of respect earned by the end.

Of course, she then turns the table on her neighbor George, a biker who she doesn't want around her kids, but even George can get a job and earn the respect that Erin never will. Similarly, as soon as Erin walks into that small town to interview people she is given more respect than any professional would. She doesn't judge them as being dumb based on how they speak, or as being simple for how they live. For that, they don't judge her for how she dresses. There's something massively gratifying in seeing that on screen if you've ever felt judged in that way.

Sisterhood Moment: "Well, seeing as how I've no brains or legal expertise ... I just went up there and preformed sexual favors. 634 blowjobs in 5 days. I'm really quite tired."

Rating: 5 times out of 5 you thought Aaron Eckhart was sexy even though he totally couldn't be, he's such a grease-bag.

IMDb - Erin Brockovich (7.3)
Wikipedia - Erin Brockovich
Rotten Tomatoes - Erin Brockovich (84%)

What to see this weekend

Do you want to see:

 A female lead or co-lead?
-Tammy
-Very Good Girls (iTunes) (Review)
-They Came Together

-Obvious Child (Limited)

Directed by a woman?
-Very Good Girls (iTunes)
-Obvious Child (Limited)

Written or co-written by a woman?
-Tammy
-Very Good Girls (iTunes) (Review)
-Obvious Child (Limited)

Review #30: Very Good Girls

Release Date: June 24, 2014
Writer: Naomi Foner
Director: Naomi Foner

Logline: Two New York City girls make a pact to lose their virginity during their first summer out of high school. When they both fall for the same street artist, the friends find their connection tested for the first time. (Source: IMDb) Drama, 91 min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests

Review:

I just think Elizabeth Olsen is the greatest, but I hated her in this film. It may be unfair of me to judge an entire film based on my irritation at the handling of one character, but I don’t care – I’m doing it.

Very Good Girls follows best friends Gerry (Olsen) and Lily (Dakota Fanning) during their last summer together before Lily leaves for college. They pledge to lose their virginity in the coming months and then end up crushing on the same boy.

The boy, David (Boyd Holbrook), is pretty standard when it comes to boring dream guys – he’s good looking, reads poetry, takes pictures. He’s also sort of a creepy stalker which further confuses me as to why they both are so into him, but to each their own I guess.

The conflict arises when David pursues Lily instead of Gerry. Gerry continues to obsess over him totally unaware of the fact that Lily is hooking up with him. It’s the same old story of friends letting a boy come between their friendship; unfortunately the film doesn't freshen this concept up enough to make it overly compelling.

While this is happening, each girl is dealing with her own family drama. Lily’s parents work through infidelity while Gerry’s family deals with a death – I think these additions are supposed to add complexity to the characters and situations but they end up being clutter in the narrative.

The second hand embarrassment I felt as Gerry talked about David incessantly was almost too much to bear.  I hated how annoying and pathetic she was and it pretty much ruined the whole movie for me. 

There are some great outfits and nice performances but none are good enough to make up for a relatively boring story and a rather forgettable overall experience.

Portrayal of Women: At first glance, Gerry seems like the strong-willed confident one while Lily appears to be passive and unsure. David's presence serves as a construct to reveal Gerry's inner insecurities and Lily's assertiveness.

I love the idea of a coming-of-age film being about two girls and what it's like to transitions from high school to college. Gerry and Lily are navigating their way and it's interesting to get a woman's perspective of what friendship is like at that time in a person's life.

There is also some interesting material to be found in Lily's mother who has just found out her husband has cheated on her.

Sisterhood Moment: The girls have obviously been close for a long time. When they are upset, they turn to each other - sisters at heart.

Rating: 2 and half Sylvia Plath poems out of 5.

IMDb - Very Good Girls (6.3)
Wikipedia - Very Good Girls
Rotten Tomatoes - Very Good Girls