Review #29: Another Earth

Release Date: January 24th, 2011
Writer: Mike Cahill, Brit Marling
Director: Mike Cahill

Logline: On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident. (Source: IMDb) Drama, Sci-fi. 92min.
Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests

Review:
Here's a quick round up of what this movie is all about. Rhoda, a young student celebrates her acceptance to MIT as an aspiring astronomer. The night of her celebration a planet nearly identical to Earth is discovered close by. So close that an intoxicated Rhoda is staring at the sky instead of paying attention to the road. Rhoda crashes into the car of a young family. The movie deals with her yearning to visit and learn about Earth 2, and her ongoing battle to repent for the tragedy she caused. It's a fascinating examination of choices, repercussions, and what someone does when confronted with themselves.

This is difficult movie to sell to someone. It's vaguely sci-fi. It's quite depressing for a long stretch. It's a thinker about philosophy and morality. I won't say the cliche phrase "It's not for everyone" because that implies that because a movie is smart then a huge chunk of people won't be interested. I hope a lot of people are interested in this movie.

Ok, before we go overboard with the applause, it's not the best movie. The first half of the film drags. I'm not a fan of the heavy handed cinematography and overly melodramatic moments that come with many independent movies. There are long chunks were no one even speaks. On occasion it feels low budget, but it's mostly gritty and realistic.

I do really love this movie though. It far more character drama then sci-fi story. In fact the only time I tend to like sci-fi is when used in this context, as a story supporting allegory. Even though the movie is quite melancholy and single-minded, it illustrates a good evolution of character and changes are often shown, not spoken. For me, it works.

Brit Marling is fantastic and part of the reason why this movie works is because she's able to carry it. The image of Rhoda standing ocean side with the second Earth looming overhead as the ever present possibility of a different life beautifully represents the thematic intention of the movie.


Portrayal of Women: If this concept was placed in the hands of million dollar leading man, with broader thematic appeal then you might have Tom Cruise or Will Smith starring in the next summer blockbuster. Somehow I think having a female lead this movie gives it a quiet subtlety that might otherwise not have existed.

What's almost more important is Rhoda isn't a cliched character. She's not a character that exists in other movies. Even at the opening of the film, she's a regular high school girl. Getting into college, partying with her friends, smart, passionate, flirtatious. Those are not traits given to women in media without having them be exaggerated to the point of being the singular defining characteristic. She's a woman that isn't usually in movies because she's a regular woman.

Sisterhood Moment: I love the way news about the second Earth was presented. Rhoda isn't a special scientist or military expert, she watches the news with her parents. In one news broadcast the US governments attempts to contact the second Earth. It's a haunting scene with genuine guttural reactions from the characters. And a woman was the chosen representative. Go Earth!

Rating: 4 planets out of the solar system

IMDb - Another Earth (7.0)
Wikipedia - Another Earth
Rotten Tomatoes - Another Earth (63%)

What to see this weekend

Do you want to see:

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

-The Fault in Our Stars

-Obvious Child (Limited)

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

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

Review #28: Bachelorette

Release Date: May 28, 2013
Writer: Leslye Headland
Director: Leslye Headland

Logline: Three friends are asked to be bridesmaids at a wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school. (Source: IMDb)
Bechdel Test: Passed all 3 tests

Review

This movie has a special place in my heart because I credit it as one of the movies that revolutionized the way I think about women in film.  All three of the main characters in this film are unlikeable, deeply flawed and unbelievably selfish. The result is a dark and edgy but hilarious look at female friendships that exist solely due to shared history.

This movie came out when everyone was still riding the girl power high of Bridesmaids (a movie that I also love). Unfortunately, Bachelorette was repeatedly compared to Bridesmaids even though its tone and message are wildly different.  This unfair comparison is part of the reason the film is often overlooked.

Bachelorette’s vulgarity is rooted in honesty and every shocking line is justified through its speaker’s character development throughout the film.  We get a very multilayered look at what these girls are like and that insight makes the dialogue authentic and powerful.

The performances are all great, it's as if the parts were written for each actor.  Lizzy Caplan is sarcastic and ultra negative, Isla Fisher is ditzy beyond and Kirsten Dunst is terrifyingly controlling. Rebel Wilson's role is smaller but she is also wonderful as the bride whose wedding is what brings them together.

The girls' reunion is disrupted when the bride's dress gets ripped the night before the ceremony. What follows is a drug-infused all nighter of trying to fix the dress as well as the past mistakes that continue to haunt them.

Although the plot moves along quickly, the story remains grounded even as the girls’ night spins more and more out of control.  This is a film that aims to get to know each character – as their situation become increasingly unstable, their true identities become apparent.  The chaos is simply a vehicle to get to an understanding of what makes each girl tick.

The characters are despicable, the plot is chaotic and the dialogue is raw but these aspects combined produce an entertaining film with a refreshing ring of honesty.

Portrayal of Women: As previously mentioned, the three main women are not likeable. They are incredibly selfish, rude and downright mean. This is borderline revolutionary because roles like this are generally reserved for men.

It's a lot harder for audiences to accept a mean woman that it is a mean man - but in real life, women are sometimes mean. We aren't meant to like these characters, we're meant to find them interesting and try to understand where that selfishness comes from - the same way we try to empathize with Don Draper or Walter White.

Headland does a fantastic job in giving each character a backstory that explains their present behaviour. As we begin to understand them, we also begin to empathize them. We may not like them any more but we root for them anyways.  It's nice to see women get these complex roles that allow them to have much more depth than the average female character gets.

A lot of the humour stems from the bad behaviour. From Regan exploiting her experience working with sick kids so she has a good story to Gena and Katie completely ruining the rehearsal dinner, each mess up results in a perfect moment of hilarity. We love that the girls get to be the anti-heroes and they get to bring in the laughs too.

Sisterhood Moment: The scene where the girls reunite before the wedding is so full of energy and pure joy.  There's nothing as good as hugging your bestie after being apart for a long time.

Rating: 4 wedding dresses you've dreamt of since you were a little girl

IMDb - Bachelorette (5.3)
Wikipedia - Bachelorette
Rotten Tomatoes - Bachelorette (56%)

What to see this weekend

Do you want to see:

 A female lead?

-The Fault in Our Stars

-Obvious Child (Limited)
-Maleficent

Directed by a woman?
-Obvious Child (Limited)

Written or co-written by a woman?
-Obvious Child (Limited)
-Maleficent

BBC panel shows, no longer a boys club

Many TV watchers might be familiar with panel shows like QI and Have I Got News For You hailing from the BBC. They are monstrously popular shows that appeal to the casual viewer with smart improvised comedy. Hailing from the Great White North, us Canadians get a variety of influences in our media. Hollywood has a powerful influence in representing North America, but we are still under the Queens thumb.

BBC show QI

During one episode of QI the panel was asked "Why aren't there more women on QI?" The answers ranged from the assumption that men are inherently funnier, or the perception that there simply aren't as many female comedians. The answer provided was based on a study that said women laugh more than men, but laugh less at other women.

As Sandy Toksvig noted in that segment, it's rare for a women on a panel show to be sat next to another women. In fact, statically women rarely if ever turn up. One Buzzfeed article that attempted to suss out how many women were in fact represent on panel shows, and the results were quite shocking. Ranging from the least diverse Mock the Week coming in with 87% male panelists, and ranging all the way up to the best show for female representation, 8 Out Of Ten Cats where 66% of the guest panelists were male. At best you could hope to see two men for every woman.

Comedian Jo Brand

But does that mean that setting a requirement for these television programs is the best course of action? For Danny Cohen, the Director of Television at the BBC, he thinks it is. An interview with The Guardian quoted him as saying "We're not going to have panel shows on any more with no women on them. You can't do that. It's not acceptable." a sentiment that stirred a surprising amount of controversy. Television media shapes a great deal of the public's perception on many social issues, and accepting the responsibility of acknowledging gender inequality and taking steps to rectify that is a surprising and encouraging move for the public broadcaster.

The question now is, was that in the best interest for women. Sandy Toksvig suggested that this sort of public outing is not going to help with the marginalization of women's representation on television. She herself is a frequent panelist on many shows including QI as shown earlier. Toksvig argued that there are still issues with the representation of women even if they appear, citing the example that older women are almost never shown on television unlike their male counterparts. Others argue that ensuring women are on panels shows would have been better received more naturally had this new rule from the BBC not been publicly announced.

2013's Whose Line is it Anyway?

Although this news came down back in February, the issue has been discussed for many years. Back in 2009 comedian and frequent panel show guest Jo Brand wrote a scathing column about panel shows and how harsh of a culture it is for women to work in. One common element of all panel shows on BBC is that they feature a comedian host, and in many cases a permanent panel guest. In every case, they are men. Perhaps the place to start featuring more females on panel shows isn't bringing in guests for individual episodes but including women in the cast. Perhaps a female cast member would be an encouraging sign to other women who would otherwise be intimidated by the current male dominated editing.

@Midnight Panelists

This is all British television, so how does this stack up to American television. In the Season 9 revival of Whose Line is it Anyways on The CW, 3 out of the 4 permanent panelists were men, and 2 women appeared as guests 2 times each. Along with the new host Aisha Tyler that brings the representation of women to a round 25%. Comedy Central panel show @Midnight hosted by Chris Hardwick features low occurrences of women. In the 7 seasons of Last Comic Standing there has been 1 female winner, and it happened to be the year the show adopted co-host Fearne Cotton who was the show's only female host in 8 seasons, and the only time the series featured a co-host. Season 8 is currently in it's semi-finals round, and men outnumber women 2-1. That may not be a panel show, but it is a national representation of comedians.

BBC Confirms Plans to Ban All Male Panel Show Line-Ups

BBC Chief: No More Comedy Shows With All Male Panels

Review #27: We Bought A Zoo

Release Date: December 23, 2011
Writer: Aline Brosh McKenna, Cameron Crowe (Novel by Benjamin Mee)
Director: Cameron Crowe

Logline: Set in Southern California, a father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo. (Source: IMDb)
Bechdel Test: Passed all 3 tests

Review

There's a moment in the beginning of this film that my blogess sister Alyssa will agree with me is basically the start of a horror film. The young girl, Rosie, falls in love with the peacocks at the zoo they are visiting (and as the title later spoils, they buy) and begins feeding them. Daddy Damon runs up thinking his kid is lost, and sees her feeding the birds. I cringed so much. Those peacocks might peck out her eyes! Ahh!!!

This is a family movie, so that obviously did not happen. I think we have a healthy appreciation for wild animals and respect their power and privacy.

There's something that actually works about this movie, and that's acknowledging the awkward moments that happen. Unfortunately I think that's what also stops it from being a memorable film as there's no unique twist to undercut those moments. When Benjamin proudly proclaims "We are adventurers!" he gets strange looks and then immediately moves on. Taking away the cheese of making that an authentic statement gives this film a modern feel, but not going the extra mile to give a memorable response is where the film fails.

As the moody, dramatic posters will tell you, this is a more romantic view of working with animals compared to the typical madcap wacky family movie this could easily be. I can't think of another family movie that includes a monkey who doesn't throw poop or intentionally trick the main character into falling on their face. There are consequences to letting snakes out of their box, and that consequence is going around to pick up snakes, not finding one in your bed with a snake like it's a hilarious joke.

Perhaps that's the benefit and downfall of an autobiography. The past is romanticized. The protagonist is without flaw. The motivations of other people are lost. Because that's what people do. When someone is a real person, not a character, and they make an action that you don't understand, there is no going back to strengthen their characterization, that's just life. Sometimes it's nice to see that set in a movie. At other points it becomes tedious.

And now, I would like to have a one on one with Cameron Crowe. Thank you for casting Patrick Fugit again and putting a monkey on his shoulder for the entirety of the film. That boy is just adorable. It would have been nice for him to have some lines, but nbd. One other thing, if your movie is titled We Bought a Zoo don't make the audience wait 20 minutes before you buy a zoo. It's not like those 20 minutes were used to build surprise or intrigue, because we knew it was coming. Thanks buddy!  

Portrayal of Women: I like that Scarlett Johansson's character Kelly is the lead zookeeper. It's nice to see a capable intelligent woman portrayed in a movie, particularly a field that requires a healthy scientific knowledge, and a lot of manual labor. It's nice that she has a purpose in the movie beyond just being the love interest and reward. On the other hand, Kelly's younger cousin Lily has no role in the film other than to be Dylan's love interest. She shows up and makes him good again through movie magic. Besides the young child Rosie, the only other woman in the movie is Carla, who is arbitrarily vindictive and evil trying to turn people against Benjamin for literally no reason whatsoever. What an eyeroll. You win some, you lose some.

Sisterhood Moment: On opening day Kelly gives little Rosie a french braid to go with her new adorable zoo keeper uniform. What a role model.

Rating: 3 tigers and a peacock out of all the Jason Bourne movies.

IMDb - We Bought A Zoo (7.1)
Wikipedia - We Bought A Zoo
Rotten Tomatoes - We Bought A Zoo (66%)