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New York, 12:55 PM
Sat Dec 5
61 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/22/09
09/22/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
Pleasantly surprised by MFox. She really seems to have a feel for Cody's very distinctive speech patterns, and some of her lines I literally LOLed at.
Extra points for a normal portrayal of teen sexuality without the idea that it makes you slutty or bad or impure. (The Chip/Needy sex scene is win--very real and sweet and accurate. I think I even had the exact same bra as Needy. Now that's detail-oriented for you.)
Extra extra points for Beaver Casablancas in eyeliner.
09/21/09
She gets flogged because her Cody-isms are so far out there that the average person CAN'T figure them out.
"He's so salty. . . " And Amanda Seyfried's character had to explain that to her boyfriend and the audience.
When you have to explain your lingo in the screenplay, you're trying too hard. And it's the trying too hard that's irritating.
With that said, I LOVED the movie. I thought it was a smart/different kind of horror flick. And as much as I love horror films, I didn't see the explanation for why/what Jennifer killed, is and that rates high on my list of horror films.
09/21/09
The "He's so salty..." comment was meant to indicate to the audience that Needy "gets" Jennifer when no one else does, complete with understanding her Jenniferisms. It's a character moment, not a trying too hard moment.
But, I'm glad you liked it.
09/21/09
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09/21/09
Lost Boys is a great film, one of the best vampire movies, still.
So, I'm not so much comparing them like they're the exact movie. Just suggesting that, yes, in terms of tone, they are similar. I'd say that's also true of Slither and a bunch of other movies, like Ginger Snaps.
09/21/09
You so got hearted for mentioning Ginger Snaps.
It's on my annual list of October movies for getting into the Halloween mood.
09/21/09
My boyfriend and I were enjoying the movie when, ten minutes into it, a woman (who appeared to be about 60) walked in with her cane and a little girl who could not have been more than 6 years old. I guess it was her grandchild. They sat down in the same row as us, 3 or 4 seats away.
About 45 minutes into the movie, the woman fell asleep and half of the fucking theater could hear her snoring. Beyond that, the little girl (whose feet did not touch the ground) alternated between staring at the scary stuff happening on screen with her mouth hanging open and poking her (presumed) grandma saying things like "I'm scared" and "I wanna leave." These proclamations did not wake up her caretaker except for once, when the girl said "I don't wanna watch this movie" and the woman responded "It's the movie I wanna watch."
Finally, after she snored through the sexytime kissing scene (which was the quietest part of the movie, so everyone heard and was turning to see where the sound came from), my boyfriend got up and told an usher. The usher came in and woke the woman up. Rather than leaving, the woman got up (leaving the small child there) and came back with a soda. They stayed until the end.
I was fucking incensed. It was the single worst display of parenting I have ever seen first hand, I think.
09/21/09
09/21/09
Imagine what she is going to have say at Storytime in class on Monday!
classmate ask, "What's a wettie?"
09/21/09
i know it's not fair, but part of having kids is not always getting to see the movie you want to see when you want to see it. and maybe i feel this way because my mom was very strict about what i was and was not allowed to watch until i was in high school pretty much. ugh.
[/rant]
09/21/09
One, it's just inappropriate to bring a small child to movies like this. Two, it's rude to bring a child to a movie when that child will disrupt it for everyone else. I don't bring my baby to movies because that would be idiotic.
09/21/09
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09/22/09
But yeah, kids and horror = not a good idea.
09/21/09
My favorite part? The payoff during the ending credits. That part was pretty fucking awesome.
09/21/09
I wasn't super interested in this movie, but I HATE the kind of dismissal it's getting, and hate even more the armchair feminism critiques taking place surrounding it. I'll go see it (and maybe hate it) just to show my support, though.
09/22/09
09/21/09
although, what bothered me about my movie watching experience was that my brother and i were the only ones laughing. say what you want, but that movie was legit funny and kind of silly and i think people were taking it way too seriously. because come on, jk simmons with a hook for a hand, how can you not laugh at that.
also! and this bothered me the most. some people in the theater actually said "ew" when needy and jennifer kissed. i don't know if it's because i live in the conservative wasteland of central california or if people hate megan fox that much. mostly i just thought it was inappropriate and actually kind of hateful.
09/21/09
09/21/09
i went to go see it at the grove in l.a.
09/21/09
09/21/09
And just to be more relevant, yeah, I heard something similar from a few guys in the audience. I think they felt left out. Something similar happened when I saw Superbad, two girls had a FIT about the scene towards the end where they hugged. And that was in NYC.
09/21/09
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09/21/09
Pillowcase. :-)
09/21/09
09/21/09
:)
09/21/09
09/21/09
Personally, I though there were some really interesting feminist takes on the genre/tropes.
09/21/09
Adam Brody was really very good in his comedic timing. I actually laughed out loud a few times.
09/21/09
But that is just my opinion. Feel free to chuck assorted rotten vegetables at me.
09/21/09
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09/21/09
No veggie-chucking necessary, I don't think. This is the same universe that has decided, cf. Marcus Buckingham and La Dowd, that women are unhappy because of feminism.
09/21/09
09/21/09
I think Whedon has an advantage in this comparison because of his chosen medium. Whedon's a TV guy by and large, Cody's got her movie thing. She's got a show on Showtime I think, The United States of Tara, and she's listed as a writer on 12 of the episodes aired so far, but as far as I know it hasn't caught on very much in the nerdosphere. Which doesn't mean that it's bad. That's just the kind of hype Whedon gets. And I think Whedon's a great world-builder, if not a great writer. He's got a certain feminist streak to his shows and he's a feminist (pro-feminist?) as a public figure but more than that his shows are nerdy. Cody is feminist, but she's not nerdy. She's hip. So I don't think she'll be getting much cult fanfare whether her writing is good or not.
I only kept up with USoT for the first few episodes and I didn't find it very compelling, but it very well could be a slow burner (Whedon's Dollhouse certainly wasn't that awesome for the first few weeks of its run, by all accounts). I think I also took issue with what I perceived as continued hollywoodification of mental illness. Go figure. Maybe it'll get more exposure now that Toni Collette's got an Emmy for it.
As for Jennifer's Body, from the sound of it the characterization is left by the wayside to better convey the irrational nature of female friendship? Not being female I guess that sort of prevents me from enjoying the movie as it's meant to be.
09/21/09
Actually, Cody is VERY nerdy. If you read/hear any of her interviews she's a big time nerd/geek. She's incredibly articulate and self-aware, a major horror geek, and Juno was actually a pretty nerdy film when looked at a certain way. I think that the fact that it was written by a woman about a female character is partly why it infuriates so many people, in particular some male nerds. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "No girls are into horror/punk." Which is ridiculous, but a sentiment I hear often.
United States of Tara is not a genre show like Buffy or Firefly or even Dollhouse, so, no, it's not going to get to the nerdosphere the same way. But that's actually largely irrelevant. It's on Showtime, not one of the regular networks, so the audience is completely different. And it's ratings were quite high for that audience. It has nothing to do with the dialog appealing to nerds.
As for Jennifer's Body, no. You might want to re-read Dodai's post. It doesn't leave characterization at the wayside and it's not about the "irrational nature of female friendship". It's about a particular kind of obsessive relationship taken to an extreme from a female perspective, with established horror tropes.
My husband saw the movie and was able to enjoy the movie for exactly what it was. Stories about women that are from their perspective as characters, or creators, do not preclude men from either "getting" them or relating to them. Provided they actually attempt to.
09/21/09
Maybe I'm bitter, since for about a year after its release, people at work/on the streets would stop me and say, "You know who you remind me of? Did you ever see that movie Juno?" Great. So I remind people of an obnoxious jerk of a teenager. Whee.
But, that said, I'll still go see Jennifer's Body. I resent the implication that it's anywhere near Heathers, The Breakfast Club or Clueless though. As if!
09/21/09
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09/21/09
Nah, I'm sure it's fine, but I will be shocked if it's to Heathers level. I'll go in with an open mind, though.
09/21/09
(don't do it!)
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