Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 1:51 PM
Mon Dec 21
22 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
| Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
| Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan Morrissey
| Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
| Twitter
Sadie Stein
| Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
| Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
| Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Lizzie Skurnick
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Weekends/Commenter Moderator:
Hortense
| Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/16/09
I'm not a Rom-Com kinda gal, but I'm definitely going to see It's Complicated over the holidays with my mom. I saw the preview for that at the same time I saw the preview for that stupid looking Kristin Bell vehicle about having multiple men in love with her because she did some silly Italian love spell thing (of course). That sort of post-Sex and the City bourgeois urban narcissism is the kind of thing that keeps women from being taken seriously, inside and outside of the film industry.
12/16/09
Someone needs to give that goddess a new movie. I was like, "No, I will not see Grifters even though I love Cusack and Walsh, the entire premise is just loathsome," and of course found myself Netflixing it.
I watch Prizzi's Honor at least once a year, in part because I find it hilarious and there aren't exactly slouch actors anywhere in that movie, but also in great part because of her magnificent, magnificent performance.
12/16/09
Meryl's articulation and immense talent tend to overshadow it, but she is an absolutely stunning woman. Classically beautiful. Some gals get all the luck.
12/16/09
It is really easy to forgo botox and plastic surgery when you look like Meryl Streep at 60. Give me a female who is as weathered looking as Clint Eastwood* yet still considered attractive and given starring roles. At that point I might think we are actually making improvements.
*Not saying he isn't an attractive man but I think he is an attractive man who looks his age. Whereas these females are attractive females who look years younger.
12/16/09
"The Hangover" is their wheelhouse. Everything else is a fluke.
One of my writer friends had a great idea for a script and her own agents told her don't bother writing it because NOBODY cares about women over 35.
12/16/09
12/16/09
12/16/09
12/16/09
She can pretty much pull off any role for me. I buy her as a detective in Murder By Numbers, as an alcoholic party girl in 28 Days, as pretty much any female romantic lead (except for All About Steve, which I will never see). I thought she was excellent in The Blind Side, she completely made the movie for me.
She is very I'm-every-woman, at least the woman you realistically wish you could be. Smart, determined, down-to-earth, funny, and oh yeah, beautiful but naturally and effortlessly so.
I can't think of any other actresses like her.
12/16/09
So yes, Virginia, women WILL watch movies with actresses over 40!
12/16/09
(Streep, Baldwin and Martin, PLUS John Krasinski and Hunter Parrish? Yes please!!!)
12/16/09
I think Sarah Palin can take at least part of the credit for making a 40-something brunette associated with beauty pageants and down-hominess extremely popular again. There's probably a significant overlap between purchasers of Going Rogue and The Blind Side tickets. Sandra Bullock's character in the latter is friendly, gorgeous, unpretentious, and quite determined--all qualities that Palin's followers attribute to her, rightly or wrongly.
The rest can be attributed to the fact that Sandra Bullock is an intelligent, genuinely funny actress making some clever choices regarding aging in Hollywood. Her co-star in The Proposal is ridiculously hot and twelve years younger than she is--when was the last time you saw that? The same year, she stars in a warm fuzzies movie about sports and race. That's about the perfect balance of (relatively tame) sex and family values to keep most of America quite happy.
12/16/09
12/16/09
Also, I think Sandra does good job of protraying someone who can't get a date better than J.Lo or Katherine Hiegel.
12/16/09
And as much as I really don't like romcoms lately, or the thought of All About Steve, I still have a soft spot for Sandy.
12/16/09
She went absolutely against type and gave this amazing nuanced performance.
(Of course I was already a fan; I own 28 Days and both Miss Congenialities on DVD. Her commentary alone on MC 1 is worth the price of admission.)
12/16/09
My favorite Meryl films are Kramer vs. Kramer and She-Devil.
12/16/09
She is ridiculously good in it.
12/17/09
12/16/09
Also, she knows how to play funny. Good comedic actors don't necessarily make great dramatic actors (though, lots of times they do) and Sandra hasn't shown any evidence of Meryl's range, but she does a great job with romantic comedy roles and especially physical comedy. Also, she has been the only one of Hugh Grant's female costars who has seemed at all well-matched for him, and I love me some Hugh Grant.
12/16/09
Plus, I really liked both The Proposal and The Blind Side. Didn't expect to like either one.
12/16/09
So studio execs fail to consider the multi-generational appeal of these movies -- even if they can't picture themselves going to see them, you'd think they would notice that women tend to be into them no matter how old they are.
12/16/09
A bunch of them were even men. This was apparently an equally huge shock to Hollywood--they figured a couple of guys would show up to watch Anne Hathaway.
12/16/09
There's your trouble.
Because, you know, the whole world really is all about them.
12/16/09
12/16/09
I think she is the most feminist of any mainstream successful actress and she is just so all-around appealing. Love love love her.
12/16/09