The radical notion that women like good movies
‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ succeeds in all the places you’d expect it to fail, but while Joss Whedon was tiptoeing around all the expected pitfalls of a major franchise sequel, he stumbled over a cliff when it came to the one character I would have most trusted him to get right: Scarlet Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, or Black Widow.
It’s easy to look at the ads for ‘They Came Together’ and expect a straight romcom. The poster and the film are glossy and full of comedic stars. New York is so important to the story it’s like another character. The leads, Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd as Molly and Joel, play exaggerations of the roles they could be cast in in any other film. She’s the big-hearted and dangerously clumsy proprietor of a quirky little candy shop that gives all its proceeds to charity, while he’s a big candy executive who dreams of a simpler life, obsesses over sex, and threatens to shut down Molly’s shop. They get together. That much is obvious once you hear it’s a romantic comedy.
As I wrote last week, I love me some Peggy Carter, and worried about how ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ would fare (mostly) without her. So I was pumped that Peggy not only appears from the past (interviewed in a video presentation in the Smithsonian exhibit on Captain America), but as an ailing nonagenarian Steve still calls “his best girl.”
And even better, the other women in the film are all some shade of awesome. I wanted more from all of them, but I’m greedy like that.
Tonight, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ will end its nine-year run with a one-hour season finale. A show that spawned countless catchphrases and running gags, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ will be remembered for its nonlinear storytelling and its portrayals of romance and friendship.
It will also be remembered as one of the most misogynistic sitcoms on TV.
Written by Megan Kearns as part of our Infertility, Miscarriage and Infant Loss Week. Originally published at The Opinioness of the World. Cross-posted with permission. I was ready. Poised to be pissed. For the first half of last season’s How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) episode “Symphony of Illumination,” I sat on the couch, scowling … Continue reading “‘How I Met Your Mother’ One of the Few TV Shows to Explore a Childfree Life for Women”
Bromances, buddy films, buddy cop movies, — notice a theme here? Most movies about friendship are about dudes, usually white hetero dudes. Considering the sheer magnitude of films and TV series, it’s shockingly rare how often a movie or series showcases female friendships. So we asked you: Who are your favorite female friendships? We received … Continue reading “Weekly Feminist Film Question: Who Are Your Favorite Female Friendships in Film and TV?”
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in The Avengers Cross-posted at Fem2pt0. Smashing box office records, audiences have been swept up in The Avengers hullabaloo. Interesting and compelling, the epic superhero film based on the Marvel comics unites Black Widow, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, the Hulk and Thor “to form a team that … Continue reading “‘The Avengers,’ Strong Female Characters and Failing the Bechdel Test”
