Tag Archive for 'Diablo Cody'

So Jennifer’s Body tanked at the box office.  From what I can tell the word of mouth among women is way better than the word of mouth among men.  Vic Holtreman at Screen Rant took a unscientific look at the breakdown of the what reviewer thought and found that women liked the film much better than men.

There were many more reviews by men (77) than women (26). The majority of these were culled from the Rotten Tomatoes site, and I included a few (from both sides) from reviewers I know who are not part of the R/T scoring system.

Here’s the breakdown:

Male
movie reviewers: 39% liked it, 61% disliked it.

Female
movie reviewers: 54% liked it, 46% disliked it.

Maybe women — especially young women — will find this film in the coming weeks but most probably it will become one of those movies that becomes a hit when everyone has it at home.

Why did the movie do poorly?  Who knows?  Everyone is speculating and you can read the wrap up from Spout Blog here.   I think that the studio was afraid that if they played up the feminist/girl power angle they would turn off all the first weekend boys who they were trying to get into the theatre to see Megan Fox because they were titillated with a same sex kiss.  I guess that the fan boys were not interested in Megan Fox.  Do we really believe they went to see Transformers for her?  They really don’t seem interested in movies that are women centric at all.  I remember before Twilight opened it was the women who were excited, the guys indifferent.

The press on Diablo Cody, Karyn Kusama and especially Megan Fox has been pretty negative even from some feminists.  I’m not saying feminists all need to march to the same drummer, and I know Fox flaunts her looks and has created a persona that can be a big turn off to feminists, but they need to be appreciated by feminists because they are all outspoken women in Hollywood and that rankles feathers.

When women tank at the box office they suffer way more than men.  Fox is already being written off, people are happy that Diablo got put in her place (even though Toni Colette won a best actress Emmy for her show The United States of Tara) and Kusama one of the only women who directs action films will have a harder time getting her next gig made.

Yet Brandon Camp who co-wrote and directed Love Happens which also tanked last weekend is not receiving the same post-mortem as Jennifer’s Body.  (According to imdb we has both writing and directing projects in the pipeline.)  I have seen both films and Love Happens was one of the worst films I’ve seen in a while.  The bottom line to me is that studios that are making movies about women and girls need to figure out a way to step up and market to them and get them into the theatres. We buy tickets and if we are excited and engaged we will go and see it.  If you are afraid and mix the message then you turn off the men and the women.

Here is one of the best takes I have read on the film from ScarletScribe aka Genevieve:

And why don’t they understand the film? Because it’s one of the very few honest-to-goodness feminist films out there — and more so then being feminist, it’s one of the few films that views things from a female lens…For once we have a story with female main characters who aren’t obsessing about, fighting over, or bitching about boys every five minutes. Jennifer’s Body is about women and how they relate to each other, the horror moments are there for style and allegory, but at its heart the movie is about two girls whose own toxic friendship is eating them both alive.

In recounting this tale, Jennifer’s Body is packed with humor, one-liners, great moments of cheesy horror, and some poignant moments between Needy and Jennifer that will resonate with the female audience more than males. And that’s the problem.

Actually, no, that’s not the problem. That’s what makes the movie so great. The problem is that many audience members refuse to try to understand Jennifer’s Body and are subsequently calling it a failure because of that. For decades women have lived in a male-dominated world of cinema and have had to take things at face value but, thankfully, have found their understanding of men the better for it. How many male-bonding movies and buddy-comedies haven’t we watched with silent nods of “Oh, so that’s how guys interact when we’re not around. Good to know and I’m happy for that peek into something I normally wouldn’t see.”

Here are some other worthy links on the topic:

Rallying the Troops for ‘Jennifer’s Body‘ (Cinematical)

Jennifer’s Body and the Feminists who Hate It (Girl Drive)

Tags: Diablo Cody, Jennifer's Body, Megan Fox

Jennifer’s Body written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama is exactly what I expected.  It’s a campy, women centric look at the atrocities of being a teenage girl.  For some of us who have been there, the first line of the film “Hell is a teenage girl” seems just right.  Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried play two best friends who have grown apart.  Jennifer (Fox) is the nasty sex pot and Seyfriend plays Anita (Needy) the nerdy girl with the cute boyfriend who has become Jennifer’s lapdog.

Much has been made about how Diablo Cody wanted to put a feminist bent on the horror genre which she loves.  I’m not a big horror fan and this was way more campy than scary.  It’s about revenge on all the people who do you wrong.  Jennifer becomes evil “not high school evil” as Needy says but evil evil when an idiot band of indie rockers decide that the best way for them to become famous is to sacrifice a virgin to the devil.  (Go with it.)  Since they are in a small town, they think all the girls are virgins and so we know there will be trouble when Jennifer gets into their van looking for fun pretending she is a virgin.  Clearly, she doesn’t know what they have in mind and quickly believes she is about to be gang raped.  The ritual goes awry when the idiots sacrifice a non-virgin and so Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon.  (Go with it.)  And the demon wants revenge.  She wants revenge on all the guys who treat high school girls like crap.

Cody said in an interview with Reuters: “(Director) Karyn Kusama and I are both outspoken feminists. We wanted to subvert the classic horror model of women being terrorized.”

So now the terrorized is the terrorizer.  I want to make it clear that this film is by no means a work of art.  Megan Fox is beyond plastic looking and her acting is atrocious and on the whole the film is not particularly scary.  But as a fan of Cody’s work I love how she takes expectations and messes with them.  I also love the pop culture laden language and while Cody has talked about the feminism as being subversive, I found it to be very present and overt.

Here’s my favorite line: “PMS isn’t real.  It was created by the boy run media to make us seem crazy.”

Any movie that has the guts to say a line like that gets points in my book.

Film opens wide tomorrow.

Tags: Amanda Seyfried, Diablo Cody, Karyn Kusama, Megan Fox

The Festival just keeps getting more and more loaded.  (Descriptions are by the festival)

I’m sure I’m missing a bunch but here are some highlights of films by women and some not by women but about women.  Hopefully we will be able to see most of them in the near future.  Some already have releases scheduled.

Midnight Madness

Jennifer’s Body written by Diablo Cody, directed by Karyn Kusama

According to Jennifer’s Body, high school isn’t the best time of one’s life. It’s actually hell on earth, awash with teenage angst, hormones and fountains of blood. Penned by Juno scribe Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama (responsible for the acclaimed Girlfight), Jennifer’s Body is the shocking flipside to Cody’s slacker teen romance.

Contemporary World Cinema

Lourdes directed by Jessica Hausner

In order to escape her isolation, wheelchair-bound Christine makes a life-changing journey to Lourdes, the iconic site of pilgrimage in the Pyrenees Mountains.

My Year With Sex directed by Sarah Watt

A tender story from Australia highlights the realistic ups and downs of an Australian family in the year following a parent’s emergency medical procedure.

Discovery

The Angel directed by Margareth Olin

A young mother (played brilliantly by Maria Bonnevie) struggles with a history of drug abuse in this exquisitely rendered and deeply compassionate piece, the first fiction film from one of Norway’s most respected documentary filmmakers.

Applause directed by Martin Pieter Zandvliet

Paprika Steen delivers a tour-de-force performance in this devastating drama about an alcoholic actress trying to put her life back together.

Beautiful Kate directed by Rachel Ward

In order to make peace with his combative, dying father, a writer must return to his childhood home and confront long suppressed memories of the mysterious deaths of his brother and twin sister.

The Day Will Come directed by Susanne Schneider

Thirty years after giving her daughter up for adoption to join the terrorist underground in Germany, Judith is tracked down by her nowadult daughter Alice to a vineyard in the Alsace where she is living with a new family and a new identity.

A Brand New Life directed by Ounie Lecomte

Impressive debut by French-Korean filmmaker Ounie Lecomte who, inspired by her childhood, recounts the emotional journey of a little girl abandoned by her father in an orphanage.

Eamon directed by Margaret Corkery

A family holiday brings to a head the destructive love triangle between Eamon, a little boy with behavioural problems, his selfish mother Grace and his sexually frustrated father Daniel.

The Happiest Girl in the World directed by Radu Jude

Family conflict produces comedy in this story of a young girl who wins a car in a lottery and her scheming parents who insist on selling it.

My Dog Tulip directed by Paul Fierlinger | Sandra Fierlinger

Christopher Plummer and Isabella Rossellini voice this vividly animated, touching tale of friendship between an elderly bachelor and his German shepherd.

La Pivellina directed by Tizza Covi | Rainer Frimme

A small abandoned girl is sheltered by a circus woman in this tale of courage, loss and togetherness.

Shirley Adams directed by Oliver Hermanus

Intimate, precise portrait of a “coloured” mother in Cape Town, South Africa whose son is disabled in a neighborhood shooting.

The Unloved directed by Samantha Morton

Morton shifts from actor to director in this stark, intimate portrait of a young British girl thrown from an abusive family into the hands of government care.

Special Presentations

Bright Star- Jane Campion

A drama based on the secret love affair between 23-year-old English poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), an outspoken student of fashion. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. Only Keats’s illness and untimely death proved insurmountable.

An Education- Lone Scherfig

A coming-of-age story about a teenaged girl in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age. Torn between her parents’ dream of going to Oxford University and a more tempting kind of life, she must decide if the new path is one that will trap her or set her free.

Glorious 39- Stephen Poliakoff

This tense conspiracy thriller set on the eve of World War II and based on disturbing real events, focuses on a young woman who stumbles across evidence of a sinister Nazi appeasement plot. As her close friends begin to die in suspicious circumstances, she finds her own life in danger from an increasingly menacing and powerful enemy.

London River- Rachid Bouchareb

This intimate drama tells the story of two people, a Muslim man and a Christian woman, who are immediately affected by the July 2005 London bombings. Both of them are drawn to the British capital when their children go missing on the day of the attacks. Putting aside their cultural differences, they will give each other the strength to continue the search for their children and maintain their faith.

Mother- Bong Joon-ho

A unique noir thriller that digs into the secrecy surrounding a terrible murder and the mystery of a mother’s primal love for her son. The films of director Bong Joon-ho regularly, and brilliantly, break with convention, thanks to an imagination that is not confined to the accepted parameters of humour, suspense or horror – Mother is no exception.

Partir- Catherine Corsini

Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a well-to-do married woman and mother in the south of France. Her idle bourgeois lifestyle gets her down and she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist. Her husband agrees to fix-up a consulting room for her in their backyard. When Suzanne and the man (Sergi López) hired to do the building meet, the mutual attraction is sudden and violent. Suzanne decides to give up everything and live this all-engulfing passion to the fullest.

The Vintner’s Luck- Niki Caro

Set in early 19th century France The Vintner’s Luck tells the compelling tale of Sobran Jodeau, an ambitious young peasant winemaker and the three loves of his life—his beautiful and passionate wife Celeste, the proudly intellectual baroness Aurora de Valday and Xas, an angel who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Sobran. A fantastical creature with wings that smell of snow, Xas turns out to be an unconventional mentor. Under his guidance Sobran is forced to fathom the nature of love and belief and in the process, grapples with the sensual, the sacred and the profane—all in pursuit of the perfect vintage.

Whip-It- Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut stars Ellen Page (Juno) as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small-town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller-derby. Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Bliss’s disapproving mother, while Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Juliette Lewis (Old School) play roller-derby stars. Whip It also stars Eve, Jimmy Fallon, Daniel Stern, Alia Shawkat, Ari Graynor, Andrew Wilson, Zoe Bell and singer-songwriter Landon Pigg.

Women Without Men- Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat’s first feature-length film is based on a magic-realist novel written by Iranian author Sharnush Parsipur. The narrative interweaves the lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953, a pivotal moment in Iranian history when an American led coup d’état brought down the democratically elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah to power. The film chronicles each woman’s quest for change and their mysterious encounter in a magical orchard.

Vanguard

Fish Tank- Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold’s assured follow-up to Red Road is a taboo-breaking love story about a violent teenaged girl transformed by desire for her mother’s new boyfriend.

My Queen Karo- Dorothée van den Berghe

A young girl witnesses the moral dilemmas of free love when her parents join a squatter community in 1970s Amsterdam.

Tags: Diablo Cody, Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, Karyn Kusama

It will come as no shock to anyone that women can be as sexist and misogynistic as men.  That’s a fact most of us have figured out.  But it’s so much more depressing  when women get kicked in the teeth by other women on a great big movie screen.

I was looking forward to seeing The Ugly Truth because of Katherine Heigl.  She is a TV and movie star which is a hard thing to pull off nowadays.  She’s also developing her own material with her producing partner and manager, her mom.  And she stood up to Judd Apatow in saying that Knocked Up was sexist.  But she has lost a lot of credibility since her new flick The Ugly Truth is sexist and misogynistic.

Raunchy R rated comedies are one of the “things” now in Hollywood.  Think The Hangover and all of the Judd Apatow flicks and the knockoffs of his flicks.  Most of those films are about guys where women are basically missing and underwritten.  According to a Variety article Hollywood thinks that it can make money doing R rated comedies from a women’s perspective.  The article says these comedies are part of a “naughty girl” movement (could that be more sexist?) that is supposedly led by members of the Diablo Cody “fempire.”

Lumping women writers together is a common technique but Juno is nothing like The Ugly Truth.  Now I know Diablo Cody doesn’t need me to defend her, but  Juno didn’t sell out women the way the way The Ugly Truth does.  Incidentally Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith who wrote the script of The Ugly Truth with Nicole Eastman were not included in the story about the fempire so there is no way to know whether they are a part of the group.

Heigl plays a type of woman we have been seeing a lot lately.  The good at work but bad at life woman.  She is the producer of a morning show who turns into a walking idiot when she allows Gerard Butler’s Mike to school her in the ways of dating.  He basically says no guy would want a woman with your personality so dump who you are and pretend to be someone else cause that’s how you will get the guy.   The film is riddled with cliches about competent women and how they are all control freaks, have cats, wear ponytails, wear comfortable clothes, don’t masturbate etc.  Basically the film’s premise tells women to throw out 40 years of women’s progress cause it’s such a turn off.  BTW the film also sells out and demeans men.

I can understand the excitement that McCullah Lutz, Eastman and Smith must have had when they were given the freedom to write like a guy after years of being reigned in.  Here’s what they said in the Variety article.

“When they told us to make it R, the heavens opened and the angels sang,” Lutz says. “We always pitch our dirty jokes to each other knowing we can’t use them. Suddenly, it was like, ‘Oh my God! We can write like we actually talk!’ “

But just because you have the freedom to say f-ck or c-ck as many times as you want does that mean that you should?  And does this mean that we are now going to see women’s comedies that are just as bad as the guys in the theatres where the ones that are actually subversive and stand up for women like Spring Breakdown get relegated to the DVD shelves?

Is this progress?

Can Girls Out-Gross Guys at the Box Office? (Variety)

Tags: Diablo Cody, Grey's Anatomy, Katherine Heigl