Tag Archive for 'Jennifer’s Body'

I am seriously sad.

Whip-It didn’t do well at the box office this weekend.  The chatter has started about how the future of young women’s movies.

Here’s what Cinetic Media’s Matt Dentler asks on Twitter: “After the very poor starts for Whip It, Jennifer’s Body, and Bright Star, what does that mean for the future of young women’s movies?” (h/t Thompson on Hollywood)

So now we won’t have movies about older women and we won’t have movies about younger women.  Great.

But let’s be real.  While I might put Whip-It and Jennifer’s Body in the same category, I wouldn’t put Bright Star in there.  First, because it’s a smaller movie not released by a big studio and secondly, because even though Fanny drives the story at times, this film is an artistic triumph and draws a very different type of audience than both Whip-It and Jennifer’s Body.   I really don’t want these trend stories to start happening especially when we have An Education opening this weekend and Precious coming soon.  Both those films (as well as Bright Star) are Oscar contenders and need to get some sort of box office traction is order to have legs for awards season.

The bigger story to me, which I find disturbing, is that all three of this so-called underperforming films (and keep in mind their budgets were very low so they will probably make money) are directed by women.

I hear from people that they want to see Bright Star.  I hear from people that they are going to see Whip-It.  Maybe because we are out of summer they will have time to develop some word of mouth.  One can only hope.  BTW, Julie & Julia has quietly amassed almost $100 million at the box office, it is still playing in places and has been open since August 7th.

Here’s some more box office info:

Box Office Mojo: According to distributor 20th Century Fox, the audience was 70 percent female and 52 percent 25 years and older.

From Thompson on Hollywood: “Women aren’t showing up,” said one studio marketing exec. “Girls don’t get into roller derby.” Searchlight downplayed that aspect in favor of the movie’s girl power theme.

More thoughts: What I find interesting about the numbers is not the 70% women, it is the 52% over 25.  (I really wish they broke down those numbers better for us in the public)  What this says to me is that they didn’t figure out how to get the young girls who live the “girl power” lives.  Maybe they couldn’t get their guy friends/boy friends to go, so they just acquiesced and went to see Zombieland.  Maybe the girl power message is a turn off to guys?  Maybe some of it is about how women’s sports is treated in the culture?

So the people were adult women, ones who are comfortable saying I want to see women onscreen.  This shouldn’t be news.  We know that women over 25 go to see movies starring women, it’s just that not enough of them come out on opening weekends to make a dent in the box office except on the rare occasion.

I know I’ve been posting a lot about Jennifer’s Body but I’ve been holding onto these links from interviews with Karyn Kusama and they are too good to not share.

Seems that she even knew (didn’t everyone besides Fox?) that selling the film to boys would flop as she says to Jenni Miller over at MTV.com.  I also love how she stands up for creating a film that reflects women and not men’s images of how women should be and act.

I don’t know if selling the film as a straight horror film and selling it primarily to boys is really going to do any of us any favors, frankly,” Kusama said. “But we’ll see. I’m really crossing my fingers that I am completely wrong and I really hope I am, you know. I really do.

I think boys will really enjoy it, but it makes me extremely, extremely frustrated to imagine that I have been working on this movie for nearly two years now and have committed this much time and energy because, precisely because I felt like if I were nineteen again, I would know someone was speaking to me and gave a s–t about my existence in the pop cultural landscape.

On how things still are the same after 20 years:

It’s a little tough sometimes to feel like things haven’t changed all that much in over 20 years, speaking for my nineteen-year-old self, and 20 years later, things seem as barren… for smart, complicated entertainment [made] for females that boys will also enjoy, you know? It gets under my skin, as you can see!

For those who have followed Kusama’s career she has had her challenges in Hollywood as a female director who directs out of the box.  She started with the amazing Girlfight and also directed Aeon Flux. Here she talks about the challenges facing women directors:

I definitely think it’s a conversation that needs to keep happening,” she said. “As much as I am tired of it, I’m tired more by the fact that it’s a conversation that needs to keep happening. We are not out of the woods, by any means, and I just think we have to sort of accept that information and then try to do something about it, you know? Try to examine it and try to really consider how we’ve gotten here and why we can’t seem to move past it, you know? That’s sort of where I’m at, just sort of trying to understand better the slow march toward change.

It’s hard to get a woman director in Hollywood to say this out loud.  Yes, we are tired of needing to have this same conversation for the past two decades, but if we stop asking the questions and figuring out the answers we will never make change for women directors.

ST VanAirsdale also gets some good nuggets in his excellent interview at Movieline:

About what she was drawn to the Jennifer’s Body script and her passion for horror film:

For me, one of the most interesting ideas in the movie is that the monster is female, but the villain is male. It’s her victimization that creates a monster. And that says a lot to me about femininity.

I’ve been asked countless times, “Why are you drawn to horror films? Why do you think women are drawn to horror films?” And it’s because in a way, it’s one of the few genres that tells it like it is. A lot of times, women do feel like they’re running for their lives somehow.

Lastly, her honesty in the next quote in talking about making mistakes and the difficulties on directing a studio film:

With Aeon Flux, I was so green to the politics of studio egos and agendas that I had no idea I was in trouble — even when I was. This was a different situation. I had people who were equipped and willing to protect me in a completely different way.

I got really lucky with this movie. There were some big disagreements between me and the studio, but ultimately we found our common ground. I don’t know how you make movies — and try to protect the meaning of your work that you know need to still be there — without those disagreements. When you make a studio movie, do you decide to be compliant or resign yourself to it? I don’t, and it might kill me. The system breaks you. It does. In some ways it can really make you a leaner, meaner machine. Maybe I’ll be that. Or maybe as time goes on, the harsher it’s going to be for me. But I think it’s worth fighting for your work. At the end of the life you live, that’s all there is. That’s why I do this.

She has totally impressed me.

‘Jennifer’s Body’ Is Strong Enough For A Man, But Made For A Woman (MTV.com)

Director Karyn Kusama on Jennifer’s Body, Megan Fox and the ‘Crisis of Being Looked At‘ (Movieline)

‘Jennifer’s Body’ Director Karyn Kusama On Women In Hollywood, Diablo Cody And Outsiders (MTV.com)

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)

Diablo Cody is one of the figures who gets both the love and hate especially from other women.  On the one side she used her sexuality (her stripper book and pole-dancing life) to get her break in Hollywood and I bet that meetings in Hollywood with Diablo are nothing like meetings in the past with female screenwriters.

On the other hand she used what she knew and broke into the boy’s club and now in two years is kicking ass up and down the street with a new movie (Jennifer’s Body- out September 18) and a successful TV show The United States of Tara.  She has figured out what works (like so many guys have) and has run with it.  Her success opens the door for other women.  Her success also opens the door to lots of scrutiny and because there are so few other women at her level, she has a lot of responsibility to continue to be successful cause you know the saying (in Hollywood) when one women fails — we all fail.

I know that women and lots of feminists have issues with Cody and her work.  But I am impressed with her.  She stands up for herself and her beliefs and for women and feminism.  Who the hell else in Hollywood admits so publicly and proudly that she is a feminist and that everything she does is layered with feminism?  Let me think.  No one.

Here’s some stuff she said in a great interview on The Frisky:

My feminist hat is permanently welded to my head—I definitely can’t take it off! It’s so important for me to write things from the female perspective and in service of women and in the right roles for women. That’s usually what I’m thinking going into it. Obviously, the story goes first. But then my next priority is how am I going to sneak my subversive feminist message into this?

The Frisky: Do you always think the female perspective is the feminist perspective, though?

DC: No, not always. But I think representation is obviously the first step to equality, so if women aren’t being represented in a diverse way in movies, they’re going to remain marginalized.

You have to listen to her on Elvis Mitchell’s show, The Treatment.  She’s humble, smart, in awe of the opportunities she has gotten, and is a true lover of pop culture.

Now I haven’t seen Jennifer’s Body yet (I will at the end of this week.)  I have never been interested in the horror genre before but I want to see this film because Cody wrote it and because it is directed by Karyn Kusama.  (Cody also has an executive producer credit on the film.)  Who knows if the film will be feminist.  Just because the person who wrote it is a feminist doesn’t mean that the film will be feminist even if it stars women.  This is a mainstream Hollywood movie.  It was bought by Fox Atomic (which doesn’t exist anymore) and now is being released by big Fox.  It’s opening wide which means 2500 plus screens.  It could potentially gross 30 million or more on opening weekend.  It’s going to attract young men and young women.  The men cause Megan Fox is hot and the women cause young women seem to love horror films.

Here’s what the NY Times had to say about women and horror:

And yet recent box office receipts show that women have an even bigger appetite for these films than men. Theories straining to address this particular head scratcher have their work cut out for them: Are female fans of “Saw” ironists? Masochists? Or just dying to get closer to their dates?

Jennifer’s Body is a film created to appeal to both men and women (I think it will skew young).  If they can manage to pull it off it will be a big deal.

“Jennifer’s Body” was designed with both feminists and 15-year-old boys in mind, a seemingly eccentric blueprint that, as Ms. Kusama points out, is in line with the best movies of the slasher tradition. “It may be one of the best ways for a young male audience to experience a female story without feeling like they have been limited by a female perspective,” she said.

I think that women, feminists, need to stop beating up on Diablo.  We love to eat our young.  Sure her feminism is different but does that mean it’s not feminism?  Just the fact that we are having a conversation about feminism in a horror movie to me is a step forward.

Here’s the trailer:

The Fempire (Women & Hollywood)

Taking Back the Knife: Girls Gone Gory (NY Times)

Exclusive Q&A: Diablo Cody Talks Megan Fox, Therapy, And Doing “The View” With Courtney Love (The Frisky)