Open Oscars Thread
Have at it.
**UPDATE: Way to drill down way lower than people’s worst expectations of you, Seth McFarlane. Bleagh.**
**UPDATE: WTF? appalling Onion tweet re Quvenzhané Wallis.**
...read moreOld man haz a sad that he’s not entitled to bang 20-year-olds
Poor Richard Cohen. He watched Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, and it turns out that even though James Bond is middle-aged, he’s ripped and studly when he takes off his shirt. And that is not fair! Old men of yesteryear didn’t have to be in decent shape to score babes half their age; they just had to be smarmy jerks.
...read moreSupport BARISTA
Feministe friends Nona Willis Aronowitz and Aaron Cassara are working on a great project and they could use your help.
...read moreA Simple Saturday Post: Leave Me Out of Your “Everyone,” Mr. Apatow.
I just wanted to quickly mention the trailer for the new Judd Apatow movie, “This is 40.” Of course, we all know that Hollywood is guilty of all sorts of offenses all of the time, but it seems rare even today to find one that is quite so up front with its surface-level exclusion. The [...]
...read moreOn Simone Weil
In 2004, I read this line: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” It so intrigued me that I decided to learn more about the woman who wrote it. Her name was Simone Weil and she was a French philosopher, activist, and mystic, from the 1930s. I was amazed by what I discovered.
...read moreOkay, seriously.
Come on, Peter Jackson. You’re the guy who condensed a thousand-plus-page epic into three briskly-paced films, and now you’re stretching The freakin’ HOBBIT into three movies? Blahblah Erebor blahblah Dol Guldur blahblah Necromancer. Dude. The Hobbit is a simple story, a kids’ story, really. Three hundred pages. If you want complex, make a film of [...]
...read moreFeminist Princesses
Disney princesses, ranked from least to most feminist. Interestingly, the most feminist princesses are the cartoon girls of color — perhaps because being non-white, it’s easier for (male, white) illustrators and writers to imagine them in non-traditional roles?
...read moreIn defense of the Black Widow
After the underutilization and literal objectification (Tony Stark: “I want one”) of the Black Widow in Iron Man 2, I was looking forward to seeing what would happen with her character in The Avengers under the directorial lens of Joss Whedon. I was not disappointed. Twice (once in IMAX). What did disappoint me? The same things that pissed off Fempop’s Kickpuncher, who found that no amount of badassery on the part of the Black Widow could direct men’s attention away from her (minimal) cleavage.
...read moreAmerican Pie part 39483
The latest installment of the American Pie movie franchise is hitting theaters. This time around, the characters are in their early 30s; hopefully this will be the last edition, and we won’t have to collectively suffer through nursing home boner jokes. Because as Feministe friend Allison McCarthy points out in the Guardian, the humor has gone from the simply crass and teenage-boy-ish to the straight-up sexist and rapey.
...read moreThe Hunger Games is not a love triangle (and why that matters)
(And then I promise I’ll let the whole thing go [probably (probably not)].)
A lot of reports accompanying the release of The Hunger Games (movie) have made reference to a “love triangle” between Katniss, Gale, and Peeta. And I get what they’re trying to do there: The top-grossing YA movies of late have involved at least some kind of three-sided romantic entanglement. But The Hunger Games isn’t a love triangle–not by the traditional definition, at least. And identifying the book as such and pushing the movie to serve as such does both the book and the fans a disservice, and that makes me sad.
Note: This post is bustin’ with SPOILERS for the book, although not so much for the movie (except to the extent that it’s, y’know, based on the book).
...read moreBest Films About Female Friendship
Last week I went to a screening of This Is My Life with Feministe friend Nona Willis Aronowitz. It was just lovely, and got me thinking about other films that center female friendship and relationships. My personal favorites: Steel Magnolias; Clueless; Now and Then; Romy and Michelle and Thelma and Louise (duh). But what am I missing? And why do all of these female friendship movies have reputations as mindless chick-flicks, while dude-friend movies are either universally hilarious or Oscar-worthy? Mysterious.
...read moreHunger Games: What do you mean, the black girl was black?
After The Hunger Games was released in the U.S. on Friday, “fans” who hadn’t seen a lot of advance materials got the shock of their lives to see a black character depicted by a black actress. Rue, played by the adorable Amandla Sternberg, was described as having “dark brown skin and eyes”–thus the ruination of the film at the hands of a dark-skinned, dark-eyed actress. And where else would enraged moviegoers turn but Twitter?
...read more
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