Women in Film – Page 13

Guest Writer Wednesday: Film Review Roundup

In lieu of a guest review this week, we’re posting links to reviews of a few women-centric films we haven’t yet discussed at Bitch Flicks. Enjoy!

**********

The Kids Are All Right

Starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore

Written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko

Roxie Smith Lindemann at Roxie’s World writes:

… what finally—and deeply—disappointed us about the film, despite the splendid performances and some pitch-perfect moments of dialogue, were what felt like multiple failures of imagination in its depictions of lesbian sexuality, long-term partnership, and queer family-building. In the end, to use a metaphor in keeping with the film’s upscale SoCal look and value system, The Kids Are All Right opts to put new wine in an old narrative bottle, and the result is a vintage that looks good but leaves a nasty, corked aftertaste.

… the film gratifies the straight male fantasy that what every lesbian needs is a good roll in the hay and presents lesbian relationships as cheap imitations of the worst heterosexual marriages: like them in being riven by conflict, frustration, and inequality, unlike them in lacking the almighty penis …

**********

Winter’s Bone

Starring Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes

Written by Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, and Daniel Woodrell (novel)

Directed by Debra Granik

Natalie Wilson at Ms. Magazine Blog writes:

The film offers an extraordinary portrait of the ways class and gender intersect, revealing how the patriarchal Dolly clan abuses not only drugs, but also its female family members. As such, the narrative offers a lesson about the feminization of poverty, illuminating how poverty’s vice is harder to escape and more likely to ensnare when one is female.

… this gem of a feminist film has been attacked for the very thing that makes it so unique and so rare: its understated, implicit feminist narrative that rails against patriarchy, violence against women, cold-hearted capitalism and militarism, as well as critiquing the insidious and complex ways females are framed first and foremost as objects for male use and abuse.

Also, be sure to check out Part I and Part II of Lisa R. Pruitt’s posts at Saltlaw on “Winter’s Bone” and the Limits of White Privilege.

**********

Easy A

Starring Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, and Patricia Clarkson

Written by Bert V. Royal

Directed by Will Gluck

MaryAnn Johanson at FlickFilosopher writes:

This wonderful, hilarious, subversive film is a smart, witty smackdown to the slew of “dweeby teenaged boys on a quest to lose their virginity” movies we’re currently under barrage from, not to mention the general unfairness of how the universe treats women who own their sexuality. Easy A overtly shames the slut-shaming of our culture, the bizarre pressures that tells us girls and women that we must be sexy all the time, but for Christ’s sake, don’t actually have sex—except under certain strict conditions—unless you want to be labeled a slut, and humiliated for it.

… As satire goes, this is brilliant stuff. As an exploration of the tangled web of popularity and individuality teenaged girls have to navigate, and do so at more peril than boys do, it’s damn nigh unparalleled. More’s the pity.

Disembodied Women Take Four: … Look Closer

The first installments of Disembodied Women focused on film posters that use close-ups of women’s backsides and bare legs to promote movies, and one that illustrated the removal of the woman’s head entirely. This post gives examples of film advertising that uses women’s airbrushed stomachs, and in several instances, divorces pregnant women from the rest of their bodies. (Because we all know, once a women becomes pregnant, she ceases to exist.)

As if reducing women to a collection of nothing more than unrealistically portrayed body parts weren’t enough, the accompanying taglines of these particular film posters also caught my attention.

The Women and 27 Dresses don’t use a catchy tagline on the posters shown below. Maybe the designers of the posters felt that random words shaped into a woman’s torso would suffice, considering these two films exclusively target women audiences. And what do audiences comprised of women want to see in The Women? Nouns, apparently: Bonding Joy Jealous Kids Tears Struggles Laughter Thighs Balance Intuition Fighters Passion Elegance Shoes …

With the 27 Dresses poster, what else could we possibly need? She’s already been made into a fucking dress. (Get it? The movie is called 27 Dresses, so Katherine Heigl’s body is like totally a dress. Neat! Way to objectify a woman by turning her into an actual object.)

Juno’s “Due this holiday season” is the least offensive of the remaining taglines, again because the advertisers perceive no marketing bonus in sexualizing her … she’s a cute little indie hipster weirdo. Still, the fact that the poster emphasizes the pregnancy, rather than the woman who’s actually pregnant (except for the nametag, ha), sends the message that the pregnant woman is no longer as important as Her Pregnancy. (Think Hollywood starlets and the constant Baby Bump Watch.)

The other two posters depicting a pregnant woman each emphasize two men, the first one showing two men in a photo, and the other showing two men smiling ridiculously while cradling the woman’s stomach. Also note the … what, shaving cream smiley face? … painted on her stomach.

Then the taglines.

In Misconceptions, we get: “Good things come in other people’s packages.” Um, okay. Whose “package” are they referring to here exactly? The woman-as-baby-making-machine who will deliver a package in nine months? Or one of the two men apparently involved in providing sperm? With his … package? What the hell is happening here.

In the poster for The Brothers Solomon, they just come out and say it: “They want to put a baby in you.” Great! A film about a woman’s pregnancy that’s actually somehow about two men. Thanks, Hollywood.

The remaining posters that incorporate taglines:

Tomcats: “The last man standing gets the kitty.”

Swimming Pool: “On the surface, all is calm.”

Threads: “The fashion world … unzipped.”

American Beauty: ” … look closer”

The Babysitters: “These girls mean business.”

A couple of them might not be so terrible if they weren’t accompanied by the image of a woman’s bare stomach. But since they are, what differentiates the descriptions of these Hollywood films from the descriptions of soft-core porn?

The Social Network Roundup

Most of the commentary out there on The Social Network focuses on its awesomeness and front-runner status for this year’s Best Picture Academy Award. Plus, the film won its opening weekend’s box office, even though it’s numbers were lower than anticipated. While it very well may be a brilliantly-made film, one thing we can’t ignore is the film’s women. Other people are talking about the film’s misogyny, too, which raises this question:

Is The Social Network reinforcing the misogyny of its subject(s), or is it specifically offering their attitudes about women as critique?

While I hope it’s the latter, much of my reading never makes clear that the film rises above the attitudes of its ivy-league elites. An elitist attitude also seems to creep into articles that criticize those who note the film’s misogyny, dismissing complaints about yet another film that focuses on upper-class white men as unintelligent.

Here are some of our findings. If you’ve written about the women of The Social Network, or have read something good that we missed, please leave your links in the comments section.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien’s “The Social Network’s Female Props” @ The Daily Beast:

Complaining about misogyny in modern blockbuster cinema is about as productive as lamenting Facebook’s grip on our society. But what is the state of things if a film that keeps women on the outer circles of male innovation enjoys such critical acclaim; indeed, is heralded as the “defining” story of our age? What are we to do with a great film that makes women look so awful?

Tracy Clark-Flory’s “Female programmers on “The Social Network” @ Salon Broadsheet

But, oh, are there groupies: They aggressively undo belt buckles in bathroom stalls, take bong hits while the boys do their important coding work and rip open their blouses so that coke can be snorted off their flat little tummies. They are useless on the technical and business front, as is made clear in a scene where two groupies look on as Zuckerberg has a sudden revelation and begins barking orders to his all-male team. The doe-eyed coeds ask if there is anything they can do to help out — and the question itself is a punch line. Even a nubile Facebook intern who presumably does have some technical abilities is introduced only to party with Facebook’s smooth-talking president, Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), at a Stanford frat party. The women are trophies for these male history-makers.

Laurie Penny’s “Facebook, capitalism and geek entitlement” @ New Statesman

The only roles for women in this drama are dancing naked on tables at exclusive fraternity clubs, inspiring men to genius by spurning their carnal advances and giving appreciative blowjobs in bathroom stalls. This is no reflection on the personal moral compass of Sorkin, who is no misogynist, but who understands that in rarefied American circles of power and privilege, women are still stage-hands, and objectification is hard currency.

The territory of this modern parable is precisely objectification: not just of women, but of all consumers. In what the film’s promoters describe as a “definitively American ” story of entrepreneurship, Zuckerberg becomes rich because, as a social outsider, he can see the value in reappropriating the social as something that can be monetised. This is what Facebook is about, and ultimately what capitalist realism is about: life as reducible to one giant hot-or-not contest, with adverts.

Irin Carmon’s The Social Network, Where Women Never Have Ideas @ Jezebel

Hollywood’s solution to Facebook’s unsexy creation story was familiar: Add women as sluts, stalkers, or ballbusters. With very few exceptions, girls don’t even know how to properly play video games or get high off a bong, and they’re gold-diggers or humiliating bitches, and they certainly never come up with anything of value on their own. The result is a fictional Harvard as crudely misogynistic as Hollywood — which, thankfully, it actually wasn’t — and a world in which the best a woman can hope for is to have her rejection create as meaningful a legacy.

Melissa Silverstein’s “The Social Network” @ Women and Hollywood

The film depicts a world where women are crazy groupies, there for amusement, to give you blow jobs in bathrooms at parties, and to snort coke off of, but not to be taken seriously. The tech world has long been known as a world that favors guys, just this week twitter was all “atwitter” about a women in tech panel that occurred at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in SF.

I guess that is one reason why it is a perfect movie for Hollywood today. I know there are women doing some seriously important and great jobs in tech, just like I know that there are women doing some seriously important and great jobs in the films business. But we all know that the tech guys are more visible and the movie guys are more visible.

Steven Colbert’s interview with Aaron Sorkin @ The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Aaron Sorkin

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

March to Keep Fear Alive

Jennifer Armstrong’s “‘The Social Network’ has a woman problem” @ Entertainment Weekly’s Pop Watch

The Social Network has turned out to be the rare pop cultural phenomenon that is everything we hoped it would be. Smart, riveting, and very much of our time, it provides endless fodder for intellectual dissection and further exploration. The fact that it has become so all-engrossing, however, makes one glaring fact about it all the more disturbing: Its downright appalling depiction of women.

Roxanne Samer’s “Review: The Social Network” @ Gender Across Borders

Previously, I have argued that in some cases representations of sexism and racism can serve as political critiques of the mistreatment they depict. One could claim that Zuckerberg and his peers’ objectifying of women and fetishization of Asian women in particular is presented in the film as in poor taste. The film is by no means casting Zuckerberg, never mind Parker, as an innocent angel. But in the end one must ask: are these trysts etc. depicted as deplorable or as typical and tolerable 20-something boy behavior? My intuition says it’s the latter.

JOS’ “Social Network sexism” @ Feministing

The film follows an interesting pattern I’ve noticed in other work by contemporary male filmmakers (Inception as an example) – it offers compelling insight into sexism while also displaying a sexist perspective in its storytelling.

Cynthia Fuchs’ “‘The Social Network’: Fincher and Sorkin’s Story of Obsession” @ Pop Matters

Based on Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book, The Accidental Billionaires, and scripted by Aaron Sorkin, the film is already renowned for its breakneck dialogue (especially when Mark speaks, condescendingly and oh-so-cruelly). However fictionalized that dialogue might be (the book imagines conversations as it recounts events mainly from Eduardo’s perspective, and includes luridish party and sex scenes), it represents here an attitude that makes its own political and cultural point, that men and boys in privileged positions tend to see the world in ways that benefits them, that reinforces their privilege.

Jenni Miller’s “‘The Social Network’ and Sexism: Does the Film Treat Women Unfairly?” @ Cinematical

We’re given a trio of wholly unreliable narrators who do see women as props and prizes and ugly feminists out to get them. They’re emblematic of all the things that the fictional Mark Zuckerberg wants and feels are out of his reach, like the Harvard social clubs. Even Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) questions whether or not Zuckerberg’s screwing him over all boils down to the fact that Saverin got into one of Harvard’s fancy clubs where WASPs cheer on half-naked women making out with each other.

David Ehrlich’s “5 Reasons Why ‘The Social Network’ Does Not Define This Generation” also @ Cinematical

5. It’s a film about men in a generation that’s also about women (I hope).

Alison Willmore’s “The (Homo)Social Network” @ IFC

The suggestion that Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher had an obligation to insert a token “strong lady” character in order to make their film more demographically friendly or underline how their own intentions are separate from their characters is condescending to audiences. The film world still leans incredibly toward male perspectives, male characters and male audiences, and the way to fix that is by supporting and encouraging women making and working in movies, not by implying the need for an artificial quota of “go girl”ness.

Dana Stevens’ “Is the Facebook movie sexist?” @ Slate

The Social Network presents an odd paradox in its vision of the war between the sexes (which, like all the conflict in this movie, is a real war, brutal and unattenuated). It’s smarter about the way women circulate as objects of male competition, predation, and fantasy than it is about the motivations of individual female characters. The film’s “women problem” doesn’t lie in the fact that many of the women in it (with the exception of Erica Albright and the lawyer played by Rashida Jones) are shallow, self-serving jerks—so are most of the men. But any film capable of putting on-screen as complex and fascinating a jerk as Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg should be smart enough to do the same for the ladies.

Quote of the Day: Geena Davis

Gender in Media activist and actress Geena Davis

Perhaps best known for her award-winning roles on television and in film, Geena Davis is the founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. According to the website

Five years ago, while watching children’s television programs and videos with her then 2-year old daughter, Academy Award winner Geena Davis noticed a remarkable imbalance in the ratio of male to female characters. From that small starting point, Davis went on to raise funds for the largest research project ever undertaken on gender in children’s entertainment (resulting in 4 discrete studies, including one on children’s television).

The research showed that in the top-grossing G-rated films from 1990-2005, there were three male characters for every one female – a statistic that did not improve over time.

The concern was clear: What message does this send to young children?

We’ve highlighted our disappointment with Pixar for its girl problem (WALL-E, Up), but nearly every Disney film deserves the same–if not worse–scorn (and that’s just picking on two production companies). As angry as films make us when they don’t depict real, complex women, the problem really starts with children’s programming–and the solution might, too.

We really learn our value in society by seeing ourselves reflected in the culture–kids more so than anyone. I mean, as they’re learning what their role in society is and what’s their place and value, they’re exposed to massive amounts of media, and the message that boys and girls are getting currently is that girls are not as valuable as boys, and that women are not as important as men.

Kudos to Geena Davis for tackling this important problem. Check out her website, and watch a short interview about her project below.

Working Women in Film

Yesterday was Labor Day here in the U.S., and we wanted to highlight some films about working women.

When I sat down to write this post, I thought it would be relatively easy: brainstorm and research a list of movies about working women. But the more I searched, the more frustrating the list became. I kept coming across the same movies. These movies:

A quick glance at the list and the most basic familiarity with the titles (which vary in decade and genre, and range from horribly anti-feminist to some of our personal favorites) reveals some disturbing trends:

The women featured in these films–the protagonists–are overwhelmingly white. Where are the women of color?

Professions in which women work–every imaginable profession–aren’t widely represented. Most of the women here have Careers rather than Jobs, although the careers are heavily in the secretarial /assistant arena. In the newer films, the women who are working class, as Caryn James points out in Slate’s XXFactor, are heavy on criminality.

The Hollywood working-class heroine is usually a Norma Rae or Erin Brockovich, a reformer making a grand social gesture. The new indie films more authentically depict their characters’ workaday lives. That’s why it’s so disappointing to find them undermining their own heroines, reinforcing an assumption that should have been blasted away long ago—that the poor are morally suspect and quick to steal.

The successful career women, as John Powers points out in last year’s NPR article “On Hollywood’s Strong, Self-Hating Women,”

Nobody gets ruder treatment than career women, who are routinely portrayed as bossy, uptight and utterly without personal lives. What they need, we’re supposed to think, is a man. But before they can get one, they must have a mortifying comeuppance.

These observations on my incomplete list lead me to a few questions:

How do we define “movies about working women?” First, I want differentiate movies that feature women who work from movies about working women. The former category could include almost any contemporary movie with a major female character. But, movies that are thematically about working women are a different, rarer thing. They question what it means to be a working woman in a culture that is both dependent upon and hostile to them.

How do we define “working woman?” A working woman is not a rare thing; nearly all women work. Women have professional careers and jobs of all sorts. There are lawyers, teachers, doctors, writers, police…the list is endless. Try to argue that a woman who cares for her children isn’t a working woman, even though, I suspect, many people tend to equate work with wage. How do we define work? What does our definition of work and its role in our lives mean for women? Does it mean something different for men? Do you think of yourself as a “worker?”

And a couple of possible conclusions:

Women of color who are workers don’t weigh heavily in the American cultural imagination. When women of color appear in films, they tend to be secondary characters in low-paying jobs. Rarely do we see movies about working women who happen to be women of color. Rarely have I seen it, at least, which may be a personal failing.

All in all, I’m not very happy with this list, and I’d love to enlist your help in making it more complete.

Readers, help out! What are some of your favorite movies about working women?

*Remember, we’re not just talking about movies that feature women who work, but ones that explore what it means to be a working woman.

UPDATE: Readers have contributed additional films to the list. Here they are so far (we’ll continue to add any films you suggest):

All About Eve
The Apartment
Cleo from 5 to 7
Dancer in the Dark
Easter Parade
Gypsy
Mr. Mom
Places in the Heart
Showgirls
Sunshine Cleaning
Waitress
Winter’s Bone

Movie Review: American Violet

American Violet is a small victory of a movie.

American Violet tells the true story of an African American mother of four girls arrested and falsely accused of selling crack cocaine. Set in a fictional Texas town with the 2000 presidential election as a fitting backdrop of confusion and corruption, we see Dee Roberts fight–with the help of ACLU lawyers–to clear her name and the names of other innocent people arrested in a broad sweep that day.

Newcomer Nicole Beharie gives a powerful performance as Dee, and the supporting cast, including Alfre Woodard as Dee’s mother, and Tim Blake Nelson and Malcolm Barrett as lawyers for the ACLU, do an equally good job. There are good guys, bad guys, and everyone in between in American Violet.

It’s impossible to not love Dee–a beautiful woman, a kind and patient mother, a hard worker, and a caring friend. Her temper gets the best of her once in the film, but she’s protecting her children from their alcoholic father and his accused child molester girlfriend, and can hardly be faulted for it. I’m inclined to think the movie tries too hard to make her character likable. In contrast, Dee’s friend and neighbor Gladys–who is not a conventionally attractive woman, and does not have four adorable children trailing her–is a compelling and empathetic character, but the film completely drops the ball, even failing to credit the actor who plays her. Gladys is Dee’s inspiration for continuing to fight the DA even after her charges are dropped (because Gladys took a plea deal, while Dee would not), but we don’t get to explore Gladys or her situation. I’m curious as to why she’s part of the story, but not really allowed to be a character in the film. While the movie is about Dee, I would’ve liked to get to know Gladys a bit.

The film treats Dee with respect. We learn that her four children have three different fathers, but her private life is mostly kept private. When the DA questions Dee about “how many men she’s had sex with by the age of 24,” her lawyers quickly step in to remind them–and us–that a woman’s character is not to be judged by her sexual history. This was a refreshing moment in the film, when even in so-called women’s films, slut-shaming is regular and almost perfunctory. In another moment of the film, we see testimony from the DA’s ex-wife and daughter, and it’s the daughter’s mocking of her own father’s (racist) slut-shaming that ultimately brings him down. (An ironic and uncomfortable twist is that while Dee’s private life is off limits, the DA’s private life is the strongest testimony against him.)

American Violet is the kind of movie I don’t like to criticize, because it’s a movie interested in Doing Good. It’s a sincere film, it addresses real-life social problems, it has a heroine we root for and get to see achieve a victory, despite the odds. And, it’s enjoyable to watch. Doing Good movies rarely achieve blockbuster status; they typically don’t have large budgets, stars, or major marketing campaigns. Doing Good movies are the kinds of movies we wish the public, at large, would see. However, films that expose social ills tend to suffer from cliched characters, predictable narratives, and overly simplified stories. American Violet–despite its powerful performances—doesn’t escape these problems.

There are a couple of troubling things about the film. First, its creators have a background in documentary filmmaking, and their dramatic attempts were stilted (I’ll expound upon this point in the following paragraphs). Second, while I appreciate the surprise change of direction in the film–criminal charges against Dee are dropped, and the dramatic focus becomes her lawsuit against the racist DA–attacking a single DA for racism leaves the system intact. Yes, I realize this was a true story, but the filmmakers’ choice to dramatize this specific case–reportedly after they heard the story on NPR–feels a bit suspect to me. Texas law was changed as a result of Dee’s case (previously, a tip from a single informant was enough for an arrest), but the system itself seemed enforced; the “one bad apple”–the racist DA–abused the law, and was reprimanded. However, the DA remained in his position and was re-elected by voters who, in this district, weren’t particularly bothered by his racially-motivated policies. There was a real sense of ambivalence in Dee’s victory–a monetary settlement for her and the others wrongly accused, and a personal victory, but barely a scratch on the system. Perhaps the film’s inability to create great drama reflects our society’s inability to really change the system. We want the system to change. But the best we can get–in film or life–are small (yet not insignificant) steps in the right direction.

In light of the Senate’s recently passed legislation to reduce, not rectify, the mandatory minimum sentencing discrepancy for crack cocaine possession, we see a drug policy that is racist to the core. In the United States, possession of five grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years, while it takes 100 grams of powder cocaine to trigger the same sentence. According to the NAACP,

Everyone seems to agree that crack cocaine use is higher among Caucasians than any other group: most authorities estimate that more than 66% of those who use crack cocaine are white. Yet in 2006, 82% of those convicted and sentenced under federal crack cocaine laws were African American. When you add in Hispanics, the percentage climbs to above 96%. Since enactment of this law, the 100 to 1 ratio has had a devastating and disproportionate impact on the African American and Hispanic communities.

The mandatory minimum sentencing law was enacted in 1986 under false beliefs about crack cocaine, and its results have been devastating. Instead of equalizing the penalty, however, the Senate agreed to make it less worse: reduce the discrepancy from 100:1 to 18:1.

The facts about US sentencing laws are a bit beside the point in relation to American Violet; in the case of the film, the women we focus on are innocent. Police found no drugs or evidence of drug possession, distribution, or use. The filmmakers’ true interests here were legal in nature, though, and the characters in the film felt, at times, like tools for exploring the law. The specific laws on trial in the film are the now-defunct Texas single-informant law, the Clinton-era financial incentive to law enforcement agencies based on the number of drug convictions per county, and the rules surrounding and use of the plea bargain. While in jail, Dee learns that she can take a plea bargain to have her sentence suspended and return home to her children, or she can fight the allegations with her court-appointed attorney–who essentially tells her she’d be crazy not to take the plea. Before seeing this film, I never really thought about plea bargains–who cuts these deals and who ultimately benefits from them. In films we typically see the plea bargain used by people guilty of a crime to bring down the more-guilty parties involved. The issue felt like a minor point in the film, but in the end we see how invested in exposing the corrupt nature of the plea bargain the film really is. Ninety percent of the US prison population accepted a plea bargain, 95% never saw a jury, and the US has the world’s largest prison population. It’s a shame that the most shocking and dramatic moment of the film appeared in the end screen of statistics.

In this case, neither the DA nor the tactics really were impacted; what we get is Dee’s personal victory, which is still powerful and important. Not only was her arrest record expunged, but the other innocent people who were arrested with her also had their records expunged–meaning they could remain in their homes, apply for a job without fear of a background check, and not have to live with a false arrest haunting them.

Ultimately, I liked this film, and encourage others to see it. I do feel ambivalence about it, and am a little disappointed in some of the choices made, but do think it’s a strong, woman-centered film.

Watch a preview of American Violet and learn more about the film here. Leave your thoughts about the film–and any links to reviews or discussions you’ve read–in the comments.

Our Second Blogiversary!

Two years ago today we started the Bitch Flicks project. A big thanks to all of our readers, and those who link to us, comment on posts, and write guest posts. Here’s to another great year!

Movie Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Starring Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson, and Billy Burke. Written by Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay) and Stephenie Meyer (novel). Directed by Chris Weitz.

Critics have rightly argued that Twilight gives off a certain metaphor for teen abstinence vibe. Edward desires Bella so much that he refuses to let himself lose control with her. So, the audience gets a couple of scenes of passionate, intense kissing before the two melodramatically pull away from each other and decide to spoon innocently on the bed instead. If they decide to fornicate, after all, Bella could easily end up wounded by Edward’s thrusting vamp-strength or sucked completely dry. Of her blood. By Edward, her lover, who would of course be entirely unable to stop himself from sucking.

(For those of you unfamiliar, the Cullens, who are Edward’s vampire family, only drink the blood of animals to survive, even though they prefer human blood. The other, evil vampires in the movie, murder humans at will. Tsk, tsk.)

Twilight portrayed Bella as the passive object of vamp-Edward’s desire, who needed constant saving by him, from other vamps and from other men and from runaway cars, and who couldn’t make any decisions on her own throughout most of the movie. It shifts a little in the end, when Bella runs off to save her mother, ignoring the advice of the vampires who want to protect her. But by becoming an active subject in that scene, she’s punished, ultimately finding herself in a situation where Edward must save her yet again, literally by sucking poison from her blood.

But New Moon! How did you make me like you? It makes no sense—Bella still ends up in constant need of boy-saving, and she loses her freaking mind for months when Edward breaks up with her, which is not melodramatically showcased at all I swear, ha, by her constant nighttime screaming fits that force even her dad to run to her rescue. For the most part, Bella seems powerless, at the mercy of Edward, at the mercy of her nightmares, and eventually, at the mercy of the evil vampires who want to kill her (as punishment for Edward, who killed a vampire in Twilight).

So why did I find myself finally turning into an uber-fangirl as I watched? Because this time, the film is, dare I say … complicated.

Enter Jacob, Bella’s good friend who just happens to be a werewolf and who just happens to have the most incredible abs I’ve seen since Brad Pitt in Fight Club and who just happens to walk around with his shirt off constantly. And let’s remember the early scene in the school parking lot, where Bella watched as Edward walked toward her in exaggerated slow-motion, hair and button-down shirt blowing wistfully in the breeze, the camera steadied on him as Bella and me and fangirls across the country, yes, I’m going to say it, swoon. And then I started to wonder, “Is Bella entirely powerless?”

Not necessarily.

Because what strikes me most about the men in the Twilight saga is their desire to be looked at by Bella, which (fangirls everywhere unite!) positions Bella as the active subject (the gazer) and the men as passive objects (the gazed at). In the first film, Edward removes his shirt in the sunlight, revealing his twinkling vampire skin, and, upon seeing it, Bella says, “You’re beautiful.” She uses those words again in New Moon, this time with Jacob. When he says something along the lines of, “Why are you looking at me?” She responds with, “You’re sorta beautiful.”

Interestingly, (fangirls everywhere unite!) this direct physical objectification of women doesn’t exist in either movie—for instance, we don’t get traditional scenes of scantily clad girl-vamps trying to seduce men who they eventually eat (played as girl-power when it’s really just male fantasy).

But Bella isn’t without self-scrutiny. In the opening scene of the film, Bella dreams of herself as an old woman with Edward still at her side. That scene reveals an important plotline: fear of aging. Bella sees herself through the eyes of Edward (and therefore, men in general). She sees herself getting older while he stays young and twinkly-beautiful. She says, “You won’t want me when I’m a grandmother.” These feelings stem from living in a society that devalues aging women, and I like that the film explores the issue. Edward’s response? “You obviously don’t understand my feelings for you, Bella.”

Okay, so this is a total fangirl fantasy, right? I mean, a beautiful man loving you for what’s on the inside? I mean, honestly, we’re smarter than that, right? Right?! (Am I kidding?)

Still, in New Moon, even though Bella performs reckless acts, like jumping off a cliff and wrecking a motorcycle, just so faux-Edward will magically appear in some wavy fog-mist to male-dominate and tell her it’s dangerous, she still performs reckless acts. She makes decisions. She risks her life. For love! Ha. Of course, the fact that Edward can no longer save her—he isn’t physically there for real—means Jacob must step in. He does nice things … like taking off his shirt to reveal his Brad Pitt in Fight Club abs and to coincidentally wipe the blood from her forehead. He turns into a werewolf and saves her from one of the bad vamps. He performs CPR. Oh Jacob!

But then, after all this constant being saved by vampire-men and wolf-men, something amazing happens. Bella saves Edward. And even after she saves him, she saves him again, by convincing the Lead Evil Vampire God or Whatever to kill her instead of Edward. He doesn’t kill Bella, of course, because he becomes interested in—check out this awesomeness—her immunity to vampire powers. That’s right: the vampire mind readers can’t read Bella’s mind and the Dakota Fanning vampire can’t inflict mystical pain on Bella just by looking at her. It’s like Bella’s a vamp’s version of a superhero!

Look, is the film flawed? Yes.

The objectification of the men, for instance, also becomes an objectification of The Other (vampire/werewolf). Bella wants Edward to turn her into a vampire so they can be together forever but also because she doesn’t want to age (i.e. become undesirable). Bella can’t function when Edward leaves her, and she risks hurting herself just to get a glimpse of him again. Edward is 106 years old and she’s 18—would that work if the genders were reversed? And, when Edward agrees to turn Bella into a vampire, he insists that they marry first, which plays an awful lot like some creepy, conservative, let’s-get-married-before-I-take-your-virginity nonsense, creating that metaphor for teen abstinence vibe again.

But Bella isn’t a one-dimensional character anymore. In New Moon, she’s much more fleshed out, and perhaps most importantly, she doesn’t have to take her clothes off or perform a certain kind of femininity to get the boy. Edward falls for her because he finds her intriguing: he can’t read her thoughts (see True Blood), and he’s drawn to her because she smells delicious, sex metaphor? Jacob falls in love with Bella after they spend significant time together; it’s not some love-at-first-sight fantasy where he sees Bella, and the camera pans from her feet all the way up her legs and finally to her face where she either smiles coyly or looks down shyly.

As Dana Stevens writes in her review of New Moon:

The feminist in me wishes a lot of things. But say what you will about the Twilight films; they take female desire as seriously as a grad student from the early ’90s. The whole overcooked vampire vs. werewolf mythology (which also involves packs of shirtless wolf-boys and a sort of vampire Pope, played with camp glee by Michael Sheen) is, in essence, an excuse to place the viewer in Bella’s Timberland boots: torn between two flesh-eating monsters, feelin’ like a fool. Haters may construe Bella as a passive victim eager to be served up as vampire meat, but she’s the subject of this love story, not its object; she’s the lover while Edward and Jacob are her diametrically opposed beloveds, one hot-blooded (Jacob runs a constant body temperature of 108 degrees), the other pale and cold as stone.

Be sure to check out the Salon article, “Could New Moon Be a Feminist Triumph?” where Kate Harding argues that the movie’s box office gross could be a game-changer for the future of women in film.

Releasing on DVD: Tuesday, March 16

We previewed The Princess and the Frog back in June, noting the potential perpetuation of racial stereotypes and lamenting yet another princess movie where the princess still portrays the humanly-impossible physique of all who came before her. I actually watched this. The movie flirts with improvement, at least in its attempt to make the heroine independent and career-focused. And for the most part, she maintains an active role throughout, which isn’t a characteristic I associate with the former Disney princesses. But this time, one of her active roles becomes attempting to reform the prince. No thank you, Disney.

However, Matthew Belinkie at Overthinking It posts an interesting defense of The Princess and the Frog, arguing that even though it maintains traditional Disney Princess elements, it still manages to do things a little differently, in a good way. Definitely check out his article, and his Magical Disney Princess Chart below!

******

Oh Suicide Girls. Feminist? Anti-feminist? Since they burst on the scene in 2001, these women have certainly stirred up debate throughout the feminist community. From Megan Jean Harlow’s article, “Suicide Girls: Tattooing as Radical Feminist Agency,” to Wired’s 2005 article, “SuicideGirls Gone AWOL,” which reported that 30 models quit because “its embrace of the tattoo and nipple-ring set hides a world of exploitation and male domination” … well, what’s a feminist to do? If you’re interested, check out the new documentary Suicide Girls: Guide to Living, which releases on DVD today. You can also watch the trailer here.

******

Of Veiled Voices, a documentary about feminism in Islam, Margot Badran writes, “The film, the first of its kind…is not to be missed by any who wish to enter the world of contemporary Islam with its lively gender dynamics being refashioned under our very eyes.” And, contributing editor Mata H. over at BlogHer writes about the film as follows:

This grassroots movement of women establishing themselves as teachers of Islam may seem like a non-event to the Westerner used to female clergy, female teachers, religious and secular classes and worship where the two sexes sit next to each other. But in most parts of the Arab world, the realities of the West are as foreign to them as their realities are to us. And as Huda’s daughter says, all Americans are not George Bush, and all Arabs are not Osama bin Laden.

You can watch a trailer and read an interview with the producer/director Brigid Maher here.

******

For those of you who didn’t get to see Lesley Stahl’s full 60 Minutes interview with Kathryn Bigelow, it’s being released on DVD today. I’m sure many have seen clips of the interview, and Jezebel also covers it in good detail.

******

I don’t know much about the following films, but each of them focuses on women, and the stories appear to be interesting. If you see them (or have already), let us know what you think!

Broken Embraces

from amazon.com (this looks a little sketchy from the description): A luminous Penélope Cruz stars as an actress who sacrifices everything for true love in Broken Embraces, Academy Award -winning filmmaker (2003, Best Writing, Original Screenplay, Talk to Her) Pedro Almodóvar’s acclaimed tale of sex, secrets and cinema. When her father becomes gravely ill, beautiful Lena (Cruz) consents to a relationship with her boss Ernesto (José Luis Gómez), a very wealthy, much-older man who pays for her father’s hospitalization and provides her a lavish lifestyle. But Lena’s dream is to act and soon she falls for the director of her first film – a project bankrolled by her husband to keep her near. Upon his discovery of the affair, Ernesto stops at nothing to ruin Lena’s happiness.

Paris

from amazon.com: From Cédric Klapisch the award-winning writer/director of L AUBERGE ESPANGOLE comes a deliciously intimate new valentine to The City Of Lights featuring an all-star cast that includes Oscar®-winner Juliette Binoche (THE ENGLISH PATIENT), Romain Duris (THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED), Mélanie Laurent (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS) and François Cluzet (TELL NO ONE). It s the story of a young Moulin Rouge dancer (Duris) awaiting a heart transplant, his single-mother/social worker sister (Binoche), and their rediscovery of the life, laughter and love that hides within every balcony, apartment window, street corner and market stall. These are the stories of the middle class and bourgeois, immigrants and students, fashion models and homeless, and all the lovers and strangers whose paths could only cross and whose worlds are about to change forever in PARIS.

Bandslam

from amazon.com: Not just another by-the-numbers teen-angst movie, Bandslam is a joyful expression of pop exuberance, with an unexpectedly thrilling (and retro) soundtrack and numerous moments of visual excitement. Actor-turned-director Todd Graff brings stylish imagination and heart to this story of a much-taunted and beleaguered kid named Will (Gaelan Connell), whose miserable life at a Cincinnati high school comes to an end when he and his single mom (Lisa Kudrow) move to New Jersey. At his new school, Will befriends two very different girls: the laconic Sa5m (High School Musical‘s Vanessa Hudgens; the “5” is silent), and the take-no-prisoners, former cheerleader Charlotte (Aly Michalka of the pop group Aly & AJ), who is trying to get her rock band off the ground. The latter sees in Will–a student of pop music history–a potential manager who can help her group take top prize at an inter-school competition called Bandslam.

America’s Sweetheart: Gale Storm

from amazon.com: Winner of a national 1940s talent search on CBS radio’s Gateway to Hollywood (a precursor to today’s American Idol), Texas teen Josephine Cottle (now Gale Storm) literally took Hollywood by storm, becoming a legendary star of radio, film, television, records and stage. The wholesome, auburn-haired beauty won a contract with RKO Studio where she completed her schooling while filming. In 1941 alone, she starred in eight movies. Her debut television series in 1952, My Little Margie, a summer replacement for I Love Lucy, was a huge hit on live radio and TV. Following was the equally successful series, The Gale Storm Show, Oh! Susanna. A record breaking headliner at Las Vegas’ famed Thunderbird Hotel, her first record, I hear You Knockin’, sold over a million copies going ‘gold’ (platinum by today’s standards). Other hits followed and she starred in many popular musical stage productions. The ’50s icon continued to work into her later years, passing away in 2009. Also featuring Roy Rogers, Zasu Pitts, H.B. Warner, Frankie Darro, Mantan Moreland, Charles Farrell and more!

Releasing on DVD: Tuesday, March 9

Two Oscar-nominated films release on DVD today: Up in the Air and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Be sure to check out our guest reviews of both Precious and Up in the Air.

Also releasing on DVD is The Stoning of Soraya M., which is based on a true story from 1980s-era Iran. Check out our preview of the film to watch the trailer and for links to excellent reviews.

The Wedding Song, a film lauded for its portrayal of female relationships, releases on DVD as well. An excerpt from the NYT’s review by Jeannette Catsoulis:

Filmed with subtle eroticism and dreamy intimacy, the girls’ bond becomes a compelling love story that will be tested not only by personal grudges but also by anti-Jewish propaganda and inflamed animosity for the French colonists. Against a background of marching jackboots and falling bombs, the film’s women look to one another for emotional sustenance, and Ms. Albou creates a marvelously fleshy, female world in the casual nakedness of the bathhouse and the ribald humor of Nour’s engagement party.

But from henna-stained fingertips to a blood-spotted wedding sheet, the film’s images (lovingly captured by Laurent Brunet) remind us that here, female flesh is always the property of men.

Here are some additional women-centered films releasing on DVD that we haven’t yet seen, so they may (or may not–don’t blame us!) be interesting viewing:

Flick’s Chicks

imdb synopsis: Flick’s Chicks is a romantic comedy that centers around a young mother named Flick. After a lifetime of problems and disappointments with men, she decides she wants to spend her life with a woman. As sweet and funny as she is, Flick is flawed and confused but has come up with an unconventional way to find her new mate; A weekend sleepover. She finds the 5 women that she’s recently met and has been attracted to in one way or another and invites them to spend a weekend at an out of the way summer house by the beach. A weekend to get to know her and her daughter Roxy, who at only 10 years old, has a maturity far beyond her years. The only problem is, she has invited all 5 women to stay with her at the same time in the same house and none of them know that.

Plan B

amazon.com synopsis: There’s no telling what her Plan A might have entailed (perhaps a one-woman rendition of “Grey Gardens?”), but Bamford’s Plan B turns out to be a virtuoso, one-woman performance of a self-imposed stint in Northwoods exile. Filmed live at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, the extra-packed DVD now out from Stand Up! Records has an intimate and theatrical flavor that may feel unexpected to some of Bamford’s followers, but skillfully weaves together the most well-wrought portions of her repertoire. More focused than her usual stand-up routine, in Plan B Bamford takes on the story of her own Hollywood life, viewed from the much safer and possibly much weirder climes of Duluth, MN. Playing all of the characters, from her parents to her high school nemesis-cum-Target checkout girl, Bamford lovingly skewers her origins, reminding us that, while there may be no place like home, there’s really no place like home.

Shattered

imdb synopsis: Nikki, Claire, Regina and Heather have been best friends since the first grade. Now adults, they have just mortgaged their lives to open a bar together. But on the morning of its grand opening, Heather is attacked inside. She manages to escape, trapping her assailant in the bar’s storage room. As the clock ticks closer to opening night, they push their friendship to the limit deciding whether they will trust justice to take it’s course… or take justice into their own hands.

Stained Glass Windows

imdb synopsis: A darkly intelligent teenage girl struggles to overcome her past and the restraints of suburban society while trying to come to terms with the present.

Golden Globe Nominated Films: In Posters

I’m excited for this year’s film nominees! Julie & Julia stars two awesome actresses: Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Streep also stars in It’s Complicated, which was written and directed by Nancy Meyers. Nine (while, admittedly, might potentially sexually exploit the actresses) still boasts an all-star cast of women, including Oscar winners Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, and Penelope Cruz. Kathryn Bigelow has gotten all kinds of press for directing The Hurt Locker, and, while Up in the Air gives Clooney top-billing, I have no doubt that Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick will wake up to Oscar nominations in February for their wonderful performances. And Precious! What a great year for the many women involved with this film. Kudos to the Golden Globes for recognizing so many women in film this year!

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: A Closer Look

As I took a closer look at the list of nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards, I couldn’t believe, once again, how many of the films are male-driven. While this list certainly involves many more female-driven films than is usually the case with Oscar nominees or even Golden Globe nominees, I still can’t help feeling frustrated by this. I was immediately reminded of the words of Eileen Hunter, a guest reviewer of the film Pirate Radio. She wrote:

I had a discussion with my husband after the film, and pointed out that most women perceive themselves as the protagonists of their own lives, not as an avid audience for men as they play out their stories. My experience throughout my life when watching movies like this has been to desperately try to find a place for myself among the male characters …

… The sad thing about this film is that I could have really enjoyed it otherwise. As I was watching it I wondered why I was feeling so fatigued, and I realized it was because it was yet another time that I was expected to happily stand in the sidelines and watch boys have lots of fun. That’s such a bummer to me nowadays that I can’t even pretend to be enthused anymore.

And that’s pretty much how I feel right now, after examining the nominees and realizing that, with the exception of Precious, every single female-driven film that was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award (with the possible exception of a few of the performance-related nominees) is, in fact, a non-English language film. (Note: An Education, though an English-language film, is still considered a foreign film—and is nominated in that category—because it’s from the UK.)

So, what gives? What do all the readers think about this phenomenon? Is it that we’re just not making progressive films in the U.S.? And is a female-driven film something we should actually have to consider progressive at this point?

Below, I’ve listed the nominated films and have gathered a brief synopsis of each from either imdb or rotten tomatoes. For the films that don’t seem to be exclusively either male- or female-driven, I’ve listed them as ensemble-driven. (One could argue, as I did in my review, that a romantic comedy like 500 Days of Summer treats the male as the protagonist and might not fit in the ensemble-driven category, but it walks a fine line, so I’ll leave it off the male-driven list.)

Male-Driven Film Nominees

Zero Bridge: In occupied Kashmir, where every day is another lesson in survival, a teenage petty criminal’s last chance at escape is threatened when he faces a moral crisis over his last victim. (Urdu/English)

Humpday: Two guys take their bromance to another level when they participate in an art film project.

Big Fan: Paul Aufiero, a hardcore New York Giants football fan, struggles to deal with the consequences when he is beaten up by his favorite player.

A Serious Man: A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house.

Two Lovers: A Brooklyn-set romantic drama about a bachelor torn between the family friend his parents wish he would marry and his beautiful but volatile new neighbor.

A Single Man: A story that centers on an English professor who, after the sudden death of his partner tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles.

The Messenger: An American soldier struggles with an ethical dilemma when he becomes involved with a widow of a fallen officer.

Easier With Practice: In an effort to promote his unpublished novel, Davy Mitchell sets out on a road trip with his younger brother.

Crazy Heart: Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

Anvil: At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal,” influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, despite never hitting the big time.

More Than a Game: This documentary follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio and James’ journey to fame.

Un Prophete: A young Arab man is sent to a French prison where he becomes a mafia kingpin. (French/Arabic/Corsican)

Adventureland: A comedy set in the summer of 1987 and centered around a recent college grad who takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park, only to find it’s the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.

The Vicious Kind: A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process.

Cold Souls: Paul Giamatti stars as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of “Uncle Vanya.” Paralyzed by anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by extracting souls.

Bad Lieutenant: While investigating a young nun’s rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Female-Driven Film Nominees

Treeless Mountain: In Seoul, Korea, two sisters must look after one another when their mother leaves them to search for their estranged father. (Korean)

Sin Nombre: Honduran teenager Sayra reunites with her father, an opportunity for her to potentially realize her dream of a life in the U.S. Moving to Mexico is the first step in a fateful journey of unexpected events. (Spanish)

Precious: In Harlem, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.

Amreeka: A drama centered on an immigrant single mother and her teenage son in small town Illinois. (English/Arabic)

Everlasting Moments: In a time of social change and unrest, war and poverty, a young working class woman, Maria, wins a camera in a lottery. The decision to keep it alters her whole life. (Swedish/Finnish)

The Maid: A drama centered on a maid trying to hold on to her position after having served a family for 23 years. (Spanish)

Mother: A woman is forced to investigate a murder after her son is wrongfully accused of the crime. (Korean)

An Education: A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age. (English, from the UK)

Ensemble-Driven Film Nominees

The New Year Parade: When Mike and Lisa separate, their children suffer quietly in the middle of the annual Mummer’s Parade.

The Last Station: The Countess Sofya, wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy, uses every trick of seduction on her husband’s loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people.

500 Days of Summer: An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn’t believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.

Paranormal Activity: After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

Which Way Home: Which Way Home is a feature documentary film that follows unaccompanied child migrants, on their journey through Mexico, as they try to reach the United States. (English/Spanish)

October Country: October Country is a beautifully filmed portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse.

Food, Inc.: An unflattering look inside America’s corporate controlled food industry.

********************

About a month ago, Publisher’s Weekly made news with its list of the Top Ten Best Books of 2009. Not surprisingly, the list included no women, and the group WILLA: Women in Letters and Literary Arts, spoke out strongly against the embarrassing omission. They decided to compile their own list, with the help of anyone wanting to contribute, called Great Books By Women In 2009. As awards season for films continues to gain momentum, and considering past and current evidence of the omission of women in all areas of film, I’d love to see us come up with a list of Great Female-Driven Films of 2009. Leave your favorites in the comments section!