Judd Apatow has been having his Hollywood moment for the past few years with films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Funny People. All films that deal with male friendship. Now, I like most of those films and found them very funny, but most of them also feature shrew-like female characters who exist to either emasculate or comedically seduce these schlubby guys, who then grapple with the seemingly unknowable beast that is the female psyche. It kind of freaks me out that he likes to cast his wife, actress Leslie Mann as an incredibly mean and selfish woman, who by virtue of being “hot” is allowed to act as if not being obeyed is a cardinal sin.
That her characters tame or dismiss her partners in these films is not really a bravo moment for me as a feminist viewer. I think the scene in Knocked Up when her character breaks down after finding out her husband has been sneaking out to play fantasy baseball (and sometimes see a movie by himself) is the most telling. She gets mad at him because he has his own hobby that has nothing to do with her. It doesn’t turn into an argument about how she doesn’t really get to have any solo personal time (which would make her seem less like a shrew and more like a real woman and mother), it becomes about how his personal time should be hers. You know, because they are married. Which is how I would I would probably portray that argument if I was a man who was more interested in writing relatable, real, male characters than real female characters. I would love to see what Amy Poehler would have done to punch up that script.
This is the thing about the male gaze. Male gaze is the term feminist filmmakers and theorists have used to describe the assumed perspective of the movie audience. The default perspective, the ideal/assumed viewer is supposed to be a heterosexual man. And if you aren’t a heterosexual man, you have two choices: feel really left out and very confused during the movie watching experience, or learn how men think so you can go to the movies, like ever. It basically assumes the hetero (and,I forgot to mention, white) male perspective is the “normal” perspective, and everything else is not just different, but secondary. Thus women begin to train themselves to see things as men see them, and eventually look at themselves and criticize themselves based on the desires and needs of men. It reduces women to objects, people to be looked at, not people doing the looking.
These films about guy friendships are also about men transforming themselves into people who can be loving partners, good dads, better people, but they are never about how they need makeovers to feel sexy or attractive. And yet, there aren’t a lot of films about female transformation that don’t include physical transformation as a key element in the success of the central character. There are also not a lot of female buddy films based in crude, relentless, feminist-tinged comedy in the vein of films like Grandma's Boy or Superbad. I think there may be only one. It’s called Spring Breakdown, ladies, and not surprisingly, it went straight to video. Once the stars realized that the film would not get a wide release, it did get shown at Sundance, so if you are trying to sell the idea of renting this one, you might want to use that as your validation.
Spring Breakdown
First of all, the lead actresses are Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and Parker Posey. Enough said, right?
They play ladies who have been friends since college. Their college flashbacks indicate they were big ol’ geeks who got laughed out of the talent competition (what college is this?) because they chose to perform a silly version of Wilson Phillips’ “Hold On” (which I could sing by heart, btw). The winners? A scantily clad dance troupe gyrating to Marky Mark’s “Good Vibrations.” Cut to the present day and these three ladies are now...well, still geeks! Like, severe geeks. They are introduced as having kind of tragic lives. One’s primary relationship is with her cat, another is oblivious to the fact that she’s engaged to a gay man, and the third is a seeing-eye dog instructor who can’t even get a date with a blind guy. They go on a yearly vacation in the spring, and hope this year’s will get them out of their respective ruts, but their plans get hijacked.
Parker Posey’s character works for a powerful Republican Senator, played by Jane Lynch, who makes her go to South Padre Island to keep her college-aged daughter in line during spring break. She hopes to avoid a PR scandal that might result from the shenanigans a college gal might get into because she remembers her own crazy spring break days. However, her daughter, unbeknownst to her, is not a popular girl. She’s more “renaissance faire” than “party girl.” Her boyfriend has just left her for the campus hottie, and she’s only going to South Padre (with her friends in tow) to try to win him back. Meanwhile, the older ladies have a chance to revisit college and do what they never did, get wild on spring break.
These, you may have guessed, are stock teen comedy characters. But the movie goes to interesting places and follows these ladies as they learn about themselves. They don’t go through a makeover process, they don’t win back any hearts, they ultimately have just as many cool points as they had before, which is to say none. The film is ultimately about not fitting in being just another way to be, rather than bad or good. And not in a “fuck you I don’t want to fit in” kind of way. It’s not snotty or full of vengeance. It’s mostly about figuring out how to not let people make you feel small. It’s a little fluffy comedy written by women for women. And it stars women over 30 who are playing women over 30. And it doesn’t apologize for their love of pizza parties and womens music festivals. Say what you will, I heart this movie. Thanks to Rachel Dratch for writing it.
Fun bits?
-Amy Poehler’s adoption by the popular girls takes her and her wardrobe to amazing places.
-The things that would normally objectify women in a spring break comedy, like lady wrestling on the beach, looked really really gross.
-The extras at the hotel and beach scenes were a variety of sizes and shapes.
-Plenty of gross out gags and dirty one liners from a female perspective. My favorite (and one that gets repeated a bunch around my house by both of us: “I wanna see some BALLS!”)
-Rachel Dratch’s “affair” on South Padre Island.
-The fact that Poehler related to Bust magazine that she threw in a line about the male gaze but it was rejected because people though she was saying "male gays."
Not so fun bits?
-The gay fiance.
-The fact that almost every review of this movie written by men is negative.
-Also the fact that said reviewers mention the best thing about this “horrible” “unfunny” movie is the gay fiance character and the sexy foam party where Australian pop star Sophie Monk tries to use a southern accent.
If you love those shitty teen movies about guys trying to get laid/see the rock band/get alcohol/be accepted by cool people, and you are an adult woman (and I know, this is a very select group here), this movie will be fun to watch.
TomatoMeter Rating at Rotten Tomatoes?
56%
Whip It
For those of you who are just not into crude humor or sillyness, Whip It , based on the novel Derby Girl by Shauna Cross and directed by Drew Barrymore of all people, is a great film about female friendship. It’s a great film about underdog sports as well, and about how athleticism and the friendships that team sports engender are life-changing. It’s a film that cares about its characters. What I mean by that is, each character plays an important role in moving the story forward, but all of them are complex enough to be portrayed as more than obstacles or allies of the protagonist. It goes against the idea that peripheral characters need to be simple so that the story can progress. It’s about roller derby, and yet it never goes into the “male gaze” territory of ogling the participants.
Seventeen year-old Bliss Cavendar (played by Ellen Paige, of Juno fame) is a gal living in a small town in Texas who is struggling with the fact that her mother likes beauty pageants and she, well, seems to have grown out of them. She sneaks out to Austin to join a roller derby team, and though she’s a tiny slip of a girl, she’s super fast and feisty when tested. Her goal to become less timid and more ruthless in the rink is the impetus for her nickname, Babe Ruthless.
Surrounding her are her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat), who wants to get the hell out of their small town as soon as possible, the roller derby teammates, played by Drew Barrymore “Smashley Simpson”, Eve “Rosa Sparks”, and Kristin Wigg “Maggy Mayhem.” And then there is Juliette Lewis, who plays a pretty damn badass opposing derby girl, Iron Maven.
It isn’t a teen movie about having to blow off your parents and do your own thing. It’s respectful of representing a real, and quite tough mother-daughter relationship. One that isn’t easily returned to equilibrium by the end of the movie, but nonetheless allows us to see the good and bad aspects of both characters. There is a boy love interest for Bliss, which goes in an unexpected direction as well. And the friendship between Bliss and Pash is really just beautiful. I’m glad to know the actresses are friends in real life.
A cursory glance at the reviews of this movie are cringeworthy:
“Takes girl power to the extreme”
“Kansas City Bomber crossed with Gidget”
“They own their own odd sexiness” (wtf? In what universe is Eve in short shorts an odd sexiness?)
Most dudes weren’t really into it, I guess. They gave it more favorable reviews than Spring Breakdown, don’t get me wrong, but I think they were put off by a young female character whose primary goal was to be “most awesome roller derby player” and not “get a boyfriend.” One reviewer called Page’s character “not believable.” The only scene where she makes a declaration of love is during a fight with her parents about roller derby. She says “I’m in love with this thing.” And that felt totally believable to me. It was a rare moment in movie watching for me, the ever vigilant analyst, where I was watching what I thought was a person, not a character. It explained the love of sports for me too, which I didn't really get before.
Reviewers seemed to dig the “sports scenes” or derby bouts. Those got rave reviews across the board. Even Peter effing Travers, who I usually find insightful, gave a rather short, negative review in which he used the word “cuteness” and reduced the film to the equivalent of a chick flick about roller skates.
Interestingly, Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer called it “heaven on wheels.”
TomatoMeter Rating at Rotten Tomatoes?
83%!
You should just see it, OK?
No comments:
Post a Comment