November 15th, 2009, 2 Comments »
Today I saw Whip It, the rollerderby movie directed by Drew Barrymore. It felt pretty ordinary to me, and would have been disappointing without the excellent Ellen Page and Marcia Gay Hardin. The critics generally liked (but didn’t love) it.
Confronted with a very rainy afternoon, I lingered for a couple of minutes in the lobby of the cinema. I looked over the eight movie posters in the lobby, and was surprised to see that five of the films they promoted had been directed by women. I snapped some bad photos on my iPhone, and made this unpretty collage:
The films are, in order of my dodgy collage:
Of those five films, three are mid-level Hollywood flicks, one is a Canadian indie and one is a feature-length documentary. How surprising is that result? In 2007, of the 13,000 members of the Directors Guild of America, only 7% are women. I don’t claim that my little lobby survey has any sort of authority, but it’s at least a little encouraging. The role of director has always struck as one of the last bastions of near-total male domination.
I’ll admit a little of my own sexism here: I was surprised to learn that best movie I saw all year, The Hurt Locker, was directed by a woman. Kathryn Bigelow has made a minor masterpiece in that movie. I wonder how many other war movies women have directed over the past fifty years?
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January 25th, 2008, 4 Comments »
Having not seen a new movie in two months, I downloaded Juno and we watched it last night. As anybody who’s seen it knows, it’s terrific–charming, witty and moving.
It actually has a really ordinary story (see also “Degrassi Junior High” and Saved, for starters), but it’s elevated to greatness by a superb ensemble, witty writing and great direction. I’m a big Ellen Page booster, but director Jason Reitman has made his job much easier by gathering a really terrific, empathetic cast. Everybody else has earned deserved acclaim, but I often think that Jennifer Garner is a better actor than she’s given credit for. Her looks and her history on Alias kind of gets in the way, I think. There’s a scene in which she and her husband discuss preparing the baby’s room which is beautifully acted with a lovely subtlety.
Combine the cast with great dialogue like this:
Leah: Yo Yo Yiggady Yo.
Juno MacGuff: I’m pregnant.
Leah: What? Honest to blog? Are you sure it’s not a food baby? Did you eat a big lunch?
Juno MacGuff: This is not a food baby all right? I’ve taken like three pregnancy tests, and I’m forshizz up the spout.
Leah: How did you even generate enough pee for three pregnancy tests?
Juno MacGuff: T don’t know, I drank like, ten gallons of Sunny D… I’m telling you I’m pregnant and you’re acting shockingly caviler.
Leah: Is this for real?
Juno MacGuff: Unfortunately, yes.
Leah: Oh my GOD. Shit! Phuket, Thailand!
I really enjoyed Reitman’s previous effort, Thank You for Smoking, and this was a very worthwhile follow-up. My only complaints: Jason Bateman’s character was kind of a modern cinematic cliche, Kinya Dawson’s music was too present and I didn’t think the finally scene struck the right note. These are minor quibbles, though. I’d recommend this movie to anybody with a pulse and a command of English.
I vaguely know the spouse of somebody involved in this film, so I feel a little guilty about downloading it. I’m going to make a donation to the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health to assuage my guilt.
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