Diablo Cody makes her Directorial Debut

Need some mid week inspiration?

Here's an article from last October interviewing Academy Award winning screenwriter Diablo Cody about her experience diving into Directing with her most recent picture Paradise.

She really taps into something important for women in the media when she talks about not wanting to wait around in developmental hell. For many people working in film, it's a case of waiting for the jobs to come along, especially for actresses waiting for those great on screen roles. Instead of waiting, Cody did something about it and picked up the directorial reigns herself.

What a great inspiration. Instead of waiting for those great roles, go write them. Instead of waiting for a director, go direct it. Don't let other people get in the way of making things happen for you. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Diablo Cody talks Screenwriting with the Fempire and Paradise

"Women in Hollywood realize it's sort of essential we support each other. We're the underdogs in a lot of ways." 

Review #7: Nobody Walks

Nobody Walks

Release Date: September 6, 2012

Writer: Lena Dunham, Ry Russo-Young

Director: Ry Russo-Young

Logline: A Silver Lake family's relaxed dynamic is tested after they take in a young artist so she can complete her art f
ilm. (Source: IMDb) Drama, 83min

Bechdel Test: Passed all three tests.

Review

If we're being honest, the only reason I wanted to watch this movie is because John Krasinski is in it. If you love him and hot dads, then watch this movie. If you don't care about him and don't tend to crush on guys who are nice to kids, probably don't watch this movie.

The cast was pretty good and the story was okay but there wasn't anything special about this film. The stakes never felt high and the characters weren't interesting enough to compensate for that.

Martine (Olivia Thirlby) is staying with Peter (JKras) and Julie (DeWitt) while Peter helps her complete her film.  Peter and Julie's family is the best part of the movie, they interact in the kind of way that makes you want their life.  Martine comes in and messes with their dynamic by hooking up with Peter as well as Peter's assistant. No one seems to really regret their actions, no one seems overly devastated. Sure, Julie is pissed and they kick Martine out, but we are left with the feeling that things will just go back to normal. Pretty anti-climatic.

There were some nice moments and a couple laughs but 10 minutes after shutting down Netflix, I can't remember any of them.

Portrayal of Women: There were some really interesting female characters here. First of all, Martine is written as a bit of a tease. Right of the bat we see that she knowingly uses her attractiveness to her advantage whenever she can.  When she tells Peter that she slept with him because "she was doing what she had to do to get her movie finished" we get great insight into her thought process surrounding sex and how she strategically uses it to her benefit.

Julie is a loving wife except she engages with emotional infidelity with both her ex-husband and a client.  What struck me most about Julie is her request for Peter "to not embarrass her" when it comes to his obvious crush on Martine. She didn't even tell him to stay away, she just didn't want him to cause her any embarrassment.

The best character is Julie's daughter Kolt. At sixteen, Kolt is still figuring things out. Her conflicting

confidence and insecurity is a realistic portrayal of the complexity that all women possess.

Sisterhood moment:  Kolt and Julie chat in their jammies.

Kolt: But how do you know if you pick the right guy?

Julie: You don't. You're just ready and then you pick one.

Rating: 2.5/5

IMDb - Nobody Walks (5.3)

Wikipedia - Nobody Walks

Rotten Tomatoes - Nobody Walks (38%)

Hollywood's Casting Beauty Standards

We're all pretty familiar with the limited roles that women are offered in Hollywood. Often women make up only 30% of a film's cast. This misrepresentation is damaging in and of itself, but what about the disproportionate 'Hot Girl' factor?

In this article, Salon reveals many of the choices made during the casting process. Specifically, it compares how male and female characters are described. Here is an example of a couple in the same script:

Jason Biggs and Taylor Schilling of
Orange is the New Black

Male: 30. 30 going on 21. He’s married to [female]. He’s a fun, hip guy, but at his core, he’s become a family man.

Female: 29 – 30 years old. She’s both beautiful and cool and just a few notches this side of New-Agey.

The male character is described through personality, while the female character's looks are described before any personality descriptors. This is just one example of a long standing pattern in the entertainment world.

Lets not kid ourselves, there has been an established standard of "average" looking TV males coupled with beautiful model-type TV females. For women, attractiveness is not just the first hurdle, it's often the only one. 

Hollywood's Hidden Sexism: How Casting Notices Keep Beauty Standards Alive

"Can producers stop vetoing casting options based on fuckability? And can a physical character description be an afterthought, only included if it furthers the plot? From my perspective, as an actress but also as an audience member, I think it would be nice to see a complex female character physically, emotionally and mentally realized on-screen not by the hottest woman, but by the very real actress best suited to play her."

Hollywood needs to get the memo. Hotness isn't a character trait.

Review #6: Dirty Dancing

And I've... Had... The Time of My Life...

Dirty Dancing 

Release Date: August 21st, 1987
Writer: Eleanor Bergstein 

Director: Emile Ardolino


Logline: "Spending the summer in a holiday camp with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor Johnny Castle" (Source: IMDb) Music/Romance, 100min.
Bechdel Test: Passes all three tests.



Review

Ok, lets be honest, there isn't a lot of point in reviewing a movie that has survived as a must-see for generations.

It's a classic. If you haven't seen it, go see it. If you have seen it, go watch it again.

Here's why: It holds up. Most 80's movies become very dated when you watch them now, because of fashion, trends, stars, whatever, but Dirty Dancing just happened to have a lot of things going for it. First, it is set in the 1960's. That really removes the film from the 80's trendiness. The music does the same. Some classics from the era they are trying to portray and some songs that went on to become mega hit's in 1988. When those kind of pop culture references are stripped away its easy to stay in love with this movie.

Plus... "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." This is a quotable, feel good, never disappointing movie. It might be total fluff, but everyone seems to love this fluff.

Instead of a real review I wanted to share some Dirty Dancing trivia:

Everything about this movie screamed destined to flop. They studio considered releasing it straight to home video. It was a low budget disaster. There were no major stars, and the screenings didn't go well. The film cost $5 million to produce and went on to earn more than $64 million in domestic box office sales, surprising everyone.

It was the first feature film to break 1 million home video sales. Much of that could be attributed to the film's soundtrack, which itself sold over 32 million copies and spent over 4 months in the number one Billboard slot. The soundtrack even had it had it's own sequel.

The real flop

Eleanor Bergstein wrote a very biographical movie. She basically did everything Baby does in the movie, including calling herself Baby. She went on to go to dancing school, and then later wrote dancing movies. So maybe that's what Havana Nights should have been about.

It seems to be greatly overlooked that a big part of the plot is how Penny needs an abortion. At the time it would be illegal, but all the dance kids rally around Penny, with Baby trying to find the money for the procedure and offering to stand in for Penny on the day of. Robbie gives Baby the book "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand to justify abandoning Penny, because "objectivism" means you can be a jerk to people.

Some famous scenes from the practicing-their-dancing-montage were not scripted. It was just Jennifer and Patrick being cute together. Everyone say "Aww..."

Both Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey appeared in the film Red Dawn a few years prior. Both Dirty Dancing and Red Dawn have had reboots in the last decade that were both atrocious.

Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey weren't the only stars. Choreographer Kenny Ortega has become a serious money maker for dance-movies. His moves can be seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Michael Jackson's This Is It. 

Conan O'Brien lead a successful letter writing campaign to demand the re-release of Dirty Dancing in 1997, a followup to the successful re-release of Star Wars. The studio said they received over 80,000 phone calls demanding to put the pic in theaters. Conan had said on his show if they were not successful, he would fire his trombonist La Bamba. We are all glad he's still around today. Jerry Orbach went on Conan's show to promote the re-release, and they reenacted a scene

Portrayal of Women: There's a little bit of old fashioned romanticism in here, but lets be honest. That's why we love this movie. Baby is a pretty bad-ass chick. She's trying to save the day, and she steps up to learn from other people. The other side of it is that the kids around her don't underestimate her, she isn't cast aside for being a girl. She is cast aside for being a rich kid, but that's another blog. 

Sisterhood Moment: The fact that 24 years later (2011), the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love came out, and had an iconic scene with Emma Stone asking Ryan Gosling what his "move" was (to seduce women) and his answer was working Dirty Dancing into the conversation. Who doesn't love that?

Rating: 5/5 (Because you write a movie that people will still watch and talk about for the next 30 

IMDb - Dirty Dancing (6.8)
Wikipedia - Dirty Dancing
Rotten Tomatoes - Dirty Dancing (72%)