2011
Directed by Paul Feig
Since anything female driven generates an enormous amount of hate (i.e. the new Ghostbusters, Gamergate, women's general existence), I thought I would pop over here and celebrate one of my favorite comedies of all time.
Annie Walker's life is a huge mess. After the failure of her bakery, she is forced to take a job as a sales clerk in a jewelry store and move in with the eccentric Gil and his sister Brynn. She is sleeping with Ted, a narcissist who is terrible in bed (but he's Jon Hamm so who could blame her?). Basically, she is drowning and has lot all motivation to swim. When her best friend Lillian becomes engaged, she is asked to be the maid of honor. As every woman knows, being the maid of honor is incredibly expensive, time consuming, and overall horrific. Annie is introduced to the rest of the wedding party, including the beautiful and intimidating Helen.
I hope I don't sound like a male hater with this next statement (particularly since most of my readers are men; hey fellas!), but I really appreciated the subtlety that the women brought to the table. I know, I know, Melissa McCarthy could hardly be called subtle. But there were several moments that I thought were perfect. For example, when Helen approaches Annie for the first time. Annie says, "You are so pretty!" and Helen replies "You're so cute! Oh, you're so sweet!" Every woman who watches this scene knows what a dig that was, but I am not sure men would pick up on it. Even if they did, I don't think they would have ever put it in a script.
Of course, the male director literally had to shit all over this understated brilliance by making them include a diarrhea scene, presumably for the men in the audience. I always fast forward that scene. The rest of the movie is hilarious, heartwarming, and inspirational. Also has a kick ass soundtrack.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
Highest grossing R-rated female comedy of all time.
Maya Rudolph was pregnant with her third child during filming.
I loved this movie! I have watched it over and over---but I too, FF the food poisoning/shitting scene. Not funny--just gross. The rest of the movie is hilarious and it's hard to pick my favorite parts--Kristen Wiig is so funny on the airplane and in the scene where she tries to get her cop-friend's attention. All of the women were outstanding in this movie!! Love it!
ReplyDeleteGood morning Amanda, and wishing you all the best and thoughts for your continuing pain.. Which is me being as nice as I can in cold hard print, as i'm afraid I'm heading to disagree with something ..and I very much don't want to fall out on this, so, gulp, as politely and respectfully as possible, .
ReplyDeleteHang on a moment .. ..Sorry, but .... "Since anything female driven generates an enormous amount of hate .." That's a bit of a sweeping statement ...
'Anything'? Really?
I'm struggling to remember "an enormous amount of hate" against , say, 'Thelma and Louise' ...
As for the examples you gave, maybe, just maybe (I've not seen it, so I don't say for certain), negative reaction to 'Ghostbusters' is due to it being a typical rubbish Hollywood easy cash in remake rather than it has female leads?
OK, I very much grant you that I'm sure if you searched you can easily find hate against strong female driven films, strong female leads .. Absolutly, from bigoted idiots .. I'm sure you will also find haters against - say- (with little thought, so off the top of my head) Sarah Conner in Terminator, Ripley in Alien .. etc etc .. from similar trolls. And I very much hope that you know me well enough by now to know I will strongly stand shoulder to shoulder with you against them.
A film that is female driven has every right to be judged as just a film, and not condemned for that female slant ..
But I do feel neither should it be immune from criticism for that, and not liking a film that happens to be female centric is not necessarily an attack on women.
Diana: yeah, I haven't met a woman yet who thought the food poisoning thing was funny. Well, Thelma and Louise is often dismissed as a "chick flick" (one of my least favorite terms). But I understand what you mean, it does seem like a bit of an exaggeration. But I feel like even if a movie is judged fairly I feel like the actual hate comes from the fact that they are women. And I am using the new Ghostbusters as a model for this.
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