Trailblazer Appreciation: Harriet Quimby

Today I came across a wikipedia article about of the the first women avaiators, who also happened to be a screenwriter, actress, spokeswomen, and the first women to fly across the English Channel.

Harriet Quimby (1875-1912) was born in Michigan and made some major accomplishments for women before her unfortunate death in a monoplane accident.

She was the first women pilot in the USA being certified by the Aero Club of America.

She was the first women to fly across the English Channel. (A fact often overlooked due to it's coincidental timing with the sinking of the Titanic.)

She wrote the screenplays or the scenarios for 7 silent movies directed by D. W. Griffith. She even acted in one, herself.

When we talk about the lack of opportunities women have had in Hollywood, and show the statistical lack of equality the knee-jerk reply is to say "well Hollywood has been making movies for 100 years... so you know..." Obviously women couldn't be writing back then, right?

Wrong. If Harriet Quimby can do it in 1911, then don't accept that you can't 100 years later.

Wikipedia - Harriet Quimby

Review #12: The Heat

The Heat

Release Date: June 28th, 2013
Writer: Katie Dippold
Director: Paul Feig

Logline: An uptight FBI Special Agent is paired with a foul-mouthed Boston cop to take down a ruthless drug lord. (Source: IMDb) Action/Comedy, 117 min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests.

Review
Thank god for a comedy. We're not even 2 months into this blog and I'm already sick of trite romance and melodrama.

The Heat is a modern buddy-cop film with a classic story but fresh jokes, and great leads, making it one of the best comedies from 2013. Even though this has two women driving the roles, old stereotypes and jokes about female cops are still present. Frankly, that's the most refreshing part of this movie. It might be unusual to see a female-driven action/comedy, but it's not done with kiddy gloves. There's not mission statement trying to prove that sexism doesn't exist, or that women are equal in the workplace. It's just a funny movie with funny ladies.

As relieved as I was to watch this film again, it's still not a perfect movie. It's about 30 minutes too long, and most of the side characters are paper thin. The clear direction for comedy this decade has been for absurd characters in absurd scenarios, and a massive amount of 'jokes per page'. Perhaps this film would rank higher if the plot became more outlandish like This Is The End, but it stays true to maintaining a potentially realistic police story-line, which is painfully predictable at times.

On the positive side of things, this is the funniest Sandy has been since Miss Congeniality, which also featured the same fish-out-of-water comedy. I think she would thrive if she had the opportunity to do the extreme awkwardness like something Kristen Wiig would do, but I'm not going to complain about her starring in movies like Gravity instead. This is by far best and funniest performance I've seen from Melissa McCarthy. She shines, riffing off the tough cop role. She doesn't spend the movie making fat jokes like on her show Mike and Molly, but rather does some fantastic characterization like crawling through her window after being forced into a compact parking space.

Brilliant comedy casting brings in some fantastic supporting characters, like the always funny Tony Hale. Kaitlin Olson was another scene stealer as the aggressive Bulgarian prostitute Tatiana. Mullins big Boston family was a comedy treasure trove, but NKOTB member Joey McIntyre was a clear standout. Despite the other more recognizable comedians in his scene, he stands out with absolutely hysterical accent and mannerisms. It's unfortunate that so many great comedians are sprinkled throughout this film but it was Marlon Wayans, Michael McDonald, and Taran Killiam that disappoint, bringing nothing to their characters. In all fairness, the Marlon Wayans's character is the exact character most women would play in this type of movie with two male leads, and perhaps this will help shed light on the importance of interesting roles for women.

This is a great movie to watch if you want to laugh out loud at some absurdities. Don't watch it for the plot, watch it for the funny women. It's a perfect summer popcorn flick.

Portrayal of Women: They are stereotypes but this whole movie is about stereotypes. I love the ownership of those cheesy characters, and making them badass and unique.

Sisterhood Moment: This whole movie is a sisterhood moment. But what women doesn't laugh at Sandy cuddling with her cat, only to realize that it's not her cat at all. She stole it from her neighbors. We've all got a little bit of 'Crazy Cat Lady' inside of us.

Rating 3/5

IMDb - The Heat (6.7)
Wikipedia - The Heat
Rotten Tomatoes - The Heat (66%)

Review #11: Adore

Adore

Release Date: April 3, 2013
Writer: Anne Fontaine
Director: Anne Fontaine

Logline: A pair of childhood friends and neighbors fall for each other's sons. (Source: IMDb) Drama, 100 min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests.

Review
If this movie was a piece of jewellery, it would be a handmade hemp bracelet you made for your camp bestie who you swore to be pen pals with for as long as you both shall live.

Everyone knows that nothing stresses me out more than lost time between friends.  It’s why I hate the last season of Will & Grace and why I refuse to even talk about The Fox and the Hound.  I was prepared to add Adore to this list but was pleasantly surprised with a story of true and unconditional life long friendship.

The premise of this film is weird - it's basically a dramatic retelling of The Lonely Island's Motherlover. Two middle-aged besties fall in love with each other’s sons.  Totally weird, I know. But the heart of the story isn't these relationships at all, it's the friendship between  Lil (Naomi Watts) and Roz (Robin Wright).

I was certain the film would play out with Lil and Roz getting angry, abandoning each other while also damaging their relationships with their respective sons. What actually happens is total acceptance and a collective resolve to figure the situation out together.

It's so common for our culture to pit women against one another, especially over a man. The fact that Lil and Roz never have any kind of cattiness or competition between them was way more shocking than the older woman/younger guy issue at hand.

Even movies that are about female friendships can portray them in a somewhat negative light - Kristen Wiig hated Rose Byrne in Bridesmaids, CC and Hillz had a huge falling out over a guy in Beaches, and Sandy B thought all those pageant girls were the dumbest people on the planet in Miss Congeniality.  In Adore, there is no condescension or passive aggressive irritation. The women just completely love each other and understand how special their bond is.  It was refreshing and really nice to see.

The Australian setting is absolutely beautiful and the lead actors are all fantastic. With this report making the rounds, Robin Wright and Naomi Watts' performances exemplify the value and importance of writing interesting roles for women even after they hit 35.

What I thought was going to be a hate-watch turned into a pleasant surprise that has kept me thinking since watching it.

Portrayal of Women
Roz is extremely stubborn and sure of herself where Lil is a little more hesitant and insecure, they complement each other perfectly.

Both Roz and Lil are selfish, harsh and even cruel at times. These faults add another dimension to the friendship - the total acceptance despite deception and hurt feelings proves that these besties are the real deal.

Sisterhood Moment
Roz' husband lightheartedly accuses her of caring way too much about Lil for their relationship to be just a friendship.

Fun fact: When our classmates discussed who in the class would most likely end up as a couple, Sarah and I won.

We do run a blog together, so I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious.

Rating: 3/5

IMDb - Adore (6.2)
Wikipedia - Adore 
Rotten Tomatoes - Adore (32%)

Will Ferrell's Gary Sanchez Productions Introduces Gloria Sanchez

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy are creating a new division in their successful production company Gary Sanchez Productions to focus on female content. Lead by executive Jessica Elbaum, the new Gloria Sanchez Productions will focus on creating female led projects for film and television, driven with female content creators.

Will Ferrell Launches Female Focused Film and TV Production Company

Adam McKay, Jessica Elbaum,
and Will Ferrell. 

Jessica Elbaum has worked at Gary Sanchez Productions since the company's beginnings, and has helped bring female comedies to life, even though they could easily put Will Ferrell in every movie and make a lot of money.

Gary Sanchez Productions helped launch Bachelorette in 2012, a personal favorite of us Fempire ladies. In 2014 they will release the Melissa McCarthy movie Tammy, as well as the Kristen Wiig film Welcome to Me.

Lets be clear, this is extraordinary not because there is a female head running the division, or because this is a production company focused on female films, which are both great. It's because women are rarely given a shot in comedy, and this is a production company with a proven track record for success. Comedy is one of those areas where women are consistently undermined. When it comes to Hollywood, the economics and statistics of what people want to see in a movie has resulted in a skewed perception that women shouldn't lead comedy films.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa
McCarthy at The Heat premiere

In 2013 I could only find one female-driven comedy in the top 100 grossing films of the year. The Heat, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, might seem like an obvious bet after the success of films like Bridesmaids, but the $40 million dollar box office opening was a surprise to many who assumed the big budget action film White House Down would dominate. Every other big budget comedy that summer had a male star in it's top billing, when The Heat proved you don't need men to make audiences laugh.

At the Fempire Movie Club, we support the decision to get more women involved in movie making, in all aspects of production, and we can't wait to see what Gloria Sanchez has in store for us.

Review #10: Country Strong

Country Strong

Release Date: January 7th, 2011
Writer: Shana Feste

Director: Shana Feste

Logline: A rising country-music songwriter works with a fallen star to work their way fame, causing romantic complications along the way. (Source: IMDb) Music/Drama. 117 minutes.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests.

Review

I should preface this by saying I'm not a fan of country music in the slightest, but I tried not to let that dissuade me from enjoying this movie. A story is a story, right?

The problem with Country Strong is not the 'country,' it's the long overblown dramatic script.

This movie is about a country music superstar Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her shaky emotional journey with fame, alcoholism, an unhappy marriage, and a miscarriage. She is thrown out of rehab by her evil husband and manager, James Canter (Tim McGraw) in order to go on a comback tour with her new boyfriend Beau (Garrett Hedlund) and a growing new star Chiles (Leighton Meester) as her opening acts.

Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong

The thing that surprised me most about Country Strong was the quality of acting. Paltrow was on point as someone in the midst of a meltdown. She's not just "crazy," she's traumatized and affected by the media storm around her. No surprise, Meester was charming in her role, adding a dimension to her character even though that character was paper thin to begin with. Adorable Garrett Hedlund was as great as he always it, but surprise of the century for me was that Tim McGraw can act! And he's the only character that doesn't sing in the movie! Honestly, this was a great cast.

The rest of the movie is not of the same quality. I get the sense that this film was written with the intention of winning awards. It's heavy handed with drama with absolutely no reprieve. The unnecessarily long piece hammers home the unhappiness of the main character to the point where there is no light at the end of the tunnel. It tries so hard to make cliches seem real, that you might start believing the cliches are a red herring, that the movie will take an unexpected turn. Unfortunately it does not, and it become the most drearily predictable film. I felt awkward continuing to watch and pretending not to know what would happen, when it was laid out so obviously. Combined with the unnecessary length, this was almost unbearable.

Garrett Hedlund Leighton Meester in Country Strong

I also was a little bit frustrated by the flat nature of the story. Kelly was still reeling from this one big event in her life, but what about before that? Country music is typically known for being birthed from pain and struggle. In this case there are three individuals in country music and none of them have a survivor back story. Even Taylor Swift was teased in school and had a unrequited love. Give the audience something, they know country music and they can smell a fake.

This movie distinctly earned a big SKIP, which really should be a surprise to no one.

Portrayal of Women: The women in this movie are as cliched as the men. They are all preoccupied with their relationships with one another, and they are all paper thin. 

One could analyze the cliches, like the jaded older alcoholic and the young, innocent, naive girl. They are not really constructive, unique characters that maybe set back the portrayal of gender 30 years, but that's a difficult argument to make when the husband is a money grubbing evil guy, and the other guy is a white knight who cares so much but just can't save the princess. They're all cartoon characters, equally as thin and equally as unoriginal. 

Sisterhood moment: This movie passes the Bechdel test with one scene, with the Superstar visiting the Up-And-Comer and giving her showbiz advice like "wear heels everywhere" and "don't wear satin on stage" despite their rocky relationship. That's sisterhood. That's also super good advice. Satin never looks good photographed. 

There's also a scene where Gwyneth's character is getting ready to go on stage and hair dresser is randomly poking at her scalp with a comb. 10 seconds later her hair is beautifully styled in big country curls. That's the real dream.

Rating: 2/5

IMDb - Country Strong (6.3)
Wikipedia - Country Strong
Rotten Tomatoes - Country Strong (22%)

Review #9: How to Deal

How to Deal

Release Date: July 18th, 2003
Writer: Sarah Dessen (novel), Neena Beber (screenplay)
Director: Clare Kilner

Logline: A teenager (Moore), disillusioned by too many examples of love gone wrong, refuses to believe that true love exists. Then this new guy (Ford) comes along... (Source: IMDb) Comedy/Drama, 101 min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests


Review

I really did not want to watch this movie. At all.

Then a miracle happened. 5 minutes in and I was completely obsessed. Mandy Moore was doing yoga in an perfect early-2000s outfit while complaining about how hard life is and I loved everything about it.

Then another 5 minutes went by and I went back to hating it.  That hatred remained right until the credits rolled.

Pretty much all you need to know about this movie is that it features that Liz Phair song that was in every movie from 2003-2005. You know that one that goes "Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you..." How you feel about that song is probably how you'll feel about this entire movie.

The plot is basically 25 episodes of Degrassi crammed into 100 minutes.  There's a teenage death, a teenage pregnancy, and a teenage car crash. There are also two weddings, a New Year's party hookup, and a dramatic hair cut. It's just too much seriousness to ever be taken seriously.

I kept track of how many times I rolled my eyes - the final tally was 32 times. I mean the love interest's name is Macon. That stupid name is worth 7 eye rolls at least. (There isn't even one "You're Macon me crazy" joke, which I feel was a huge missed opportunity.)

Then there was a weird rip off of 10 Things I Hate About you at the end. Mandy More is all like, "I hate your hair and your voice and your mannerisms," and I'm all like "get out of my life Mandy Moore and only come back when you're playing Lana in The Princess Diaries."

So all in all, I was not a fan of this film.

The other issue I had was that I was never quite sure if Mandy Moore's character was Allie or Hallie. Enunciate please.

Portrayal of Women: Hallie (Moore) is your typical cool female lead. She is confident and super smart. She's independent to a fault and looks down on anyone who isn't as independent as she is. Even though she some awesome qualities, she still manages to be one dimensional and annoying.

Her best friend Scarlett is more concerned about boyfriends and her social life.  She's a little boring but it's nice to see a female friendship that is loyal and genuine.

There is no shortage of roles for women in this movie which is a bit of a redeeming factor.

Sisterhood Moment: Checking off pregnancy symptoms followed by a scene with the two besties surrounded by a ridiculous amount of pregnancy tests.

Also, the best quote of the movie: "Even Madonna eventually got married."

Rating: 2/5

IMDb - How to Deal (5.6)
Wikipedia - How to Deal
Rotten Tomatoes - How to Deal (28%)

Review #8: Paradise

Paradise

Release Date: October 18th, 2013
Writer: Diablo Cody
Director: Diablo Cody

Logline: After surviving a plane crash a young conservative woman suffers a crisis of faith. (Source: IMDb) Comedy/Drama, 86 min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests


Review
It sucked. Don't watch this movie.

There are a lot of things I wanted to like about it. It's the story of a woman's experience without being romantic. It's about very extreme characters which can lead to funny situations. The supporting cast is actually fantastic.

Everything else in the film falls flat.

The problem with Paradise is that 10 minutes after watching it, I can't remember anything that happened. It spends so much time talking about what's going on that no one experiences it happening. The whole premise is a girl experiencing the "sins" of the Vegas strip, and they don't show any of the sins! Watching two people talk is not only visually boring, you don't gain that connection to the characters because you don't experience events with them. It's unfortunate because it's a great movie idea that's so bogged down with dialogue there is nothing for the audience to take home and remember.

Julianne Hough as Lamb

The main character Lamb is played by the flat and uninteresting Julianne Hough. Her character is both jaded and innocent, hardened and naive. She's a collection of contradictions that are never resolved and her character doesn't show the growth that she should. Julianne can sing and dance, but I'm still no sold on her as a dramatic actress.

I have a major problem with the fact that Lamb was dramatically disfigured by a plane crash leaving third degree burns on over 90% of her body, and appears fresh-faced and doe-eyed throughout the film. How is it possible that her neck was burned but her hair remains pristine? I can't ignore this because Lamb's journey comes from the isolation from being mutilated. Sure, a paint job on her arms suggest that she has unseen damage, but movies are a visual medium. It's hard to sympathize with someone who feels social stigma for their looks when they look better than the majority of the population.

The rest of the cast is great. Russell Brand might play the same "character" in every movie, but he delivers lines with such sincere exuberance that it elevates the otherwise boring dialogue. Octavia Spencer is a joy because she surprises me every time she's on screen. Lamb's parents are played by the hysterical Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman who bring so much grounded humor to their roles,
they make this film tolerable.

The reason the film is named Paradise is because most tourists who visit Las Vegas are actually staying in the town of Paradise unknowingly. (Plus, there is some religious jibber jabber that isn't ever fully realized.) Watching this movie feels appropriate for the name; we thought we were going to the great city of Las Vegas and ended up in a small town no one has heard of.

Portrayal of Women:
I really loved the character Loray. A black woman, singing in a Vegas nightclub, being told to sing Aretha Franklin and opting for Radiohead instead. How damn refreshing. In fact, there is something refreshing about the whole thing not being centered around her finding a relationship, but rather her growing as a person. It's something we desperately need more of in the movie industry.

Sisterhood Moment:
Lamb, drunk for the first time, throws up in a bathroom and a stranger holds back her hair. She calls that girl a magical prostitute. That sums up my experiences drinking, as well.

Rating: 2/5

IMDb - Paradise (4.7)
Wikipedia - Paradise
Rotten Tomatoes - Paradise (22%)