'Sex and the City 2' is not (quite) a romantic comedy

By Sarah Sluis

The reviews are in for Sex and the City 2, and some of them are positively scathing. If you start with the New York Observer review, which opened with "The only thing memorable about Sex and the City 2 is the number two part, which describes it totally, if you get my drift," and work down from there, you have a pretty good idea of what people are saying.

Sex and the City 2 is an extremely easy target, with its over-the-top antics and tenuous connection to real life (at least in movie form). But it's also worth noting what it's not. It's not a story that ends when the girl and the guy get together. And, as I mentioned in my own review, the movie is about how sex, the city, and relationships bond the women to one another. The men in the story are always less important than the friendships, and that's what sets this series apart. It's also what makes some people call the show feminist, empowered, and things like that. It's like the teen movie Now and Then, but with cocktails and crazy clothes.

Writer/director/producer Michael Patrick King's interview with the Wall Street Journal best illustrates how this works (my bolding).

"Mr. King admitted that 'Sex and the City' and its great volume of stories has affected the romantic comedies that have come after. "It's not that they're stealing from us, but we stole from life," he said. "And we got there first. But they've lost the comedy in romantic comedies, or they've lost the romantic. Like girls are doofuses and they're sneaking into beauty parlors and dying each other's hair blue," Mr. King said, referring to the Kate Hudson film Bride Wars."

At one point (when "Sex and the City" was a series), it did feel like it was emulating (a more glamorous than yours) real life, describing the details of socializing in Manhattan and the silly quirks of relationships. I don't feel that the movies capture that feeling as well as the series, which had an added intimacy by being televised in one's own home. I also think the costuming got way out of control--I sincerely doubt anyone would wear a ball gown skirt and T-shirt in a Middle Eastern market. It just looks weird.

Sex and the City has its many detractors, including those that despise its particular brand of feminism. The series itself was supposed to be revolutionary, because it had independent women who were single long after they were supposed to be. As King says to the WSJ, "Sex and the City is about outsiders. Single girls as lepers, should have been married by now. It's the reason the whole thing took off." However, the fact that three out of four of the women are married by the second movie may negate this point. Was "Sex and the City" merely reflecting the fact that people were no longer marrying and having children in their early twenties?

I'm at the point where I hope there won't be a Sex and the City 3 (I've had my fill), but I will also be eagerly awaiting the box office returns from today, opening day. If I can choose between last year's juggernaut Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Sex and the City 2, I'd definitely like to see more of the latter.

Golden Globe nominations a mixed bag for female directors

By Sarah Sluis

Today the Golden Globe Nominations were announced, and, as usual, there weren't quite enough nominations to cover all the great performances (in particular, Nicolas Cage's crazy-amazing performance in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans). Inspired by New York Times critic Manohla Dargis' recentdocumentation of the lack of female directors in Hollywood, particularly for studio films, I also decided to tally up the nominations for female-directed movies. Results and analysis follow.

The Takeaways

* Golden Globes reward more female directors, but this is because its picture and acting nominations are genre-specific: "Best Drama" and "Best Comedy/Musical." More females direct in the latter category, allowing them to rack up more nominations. When it comes to the Oscars, however, the majority of the nominees usually come from the more prestigious "Drama" category.

*Of the twenty films nominated for a form of Best Picture (Drama, Comedy/Musical, Animated, Foreign Language), three were directed by a female. Kathryn Bigelow recieved a nomination in the Drama category, and Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers were nominated in the Comedy/Musical category. This is slightly higher than the 60 females out of 600 directors (10%) that Dargis figured for 2009, but given the small sample size, this isn't significant.

*Zero of the ten "Best Actor" nominees were directed by females. Four of the ten "Best Actor" nominees were directed by females, including two directors not nominated in the "Best Picture" categories. Sandra Bullock was nominated for her performance in Anne Fletcher's The Proposal and Carey Mulligan for Lone Scherfig's An Education. This correlation is difficult to judge, but it could reflect a well-known Hollywood bias that female directors are only offered women's films.

*One female, Kathryn Bigelow, was nominated for "Best Director." She's running against her ex-husband, James Cameron (Avatar).

Bigelow, the sole director to receive a nomination for "Best Director," was highlighted by Dargis as an example of Hollywood's unequal treatment of female directors. Before Hurt Locker, she hadn't directed a film since 2002.

Dargis compares her to director Michael Mann, who was in a similar

standing to her at the time. Both directed films (Ali and K19: The Widowmaker, respectively) in the early aughts that underperformed.

Dargis writes, "What

did a $22 million difference in box office mean for the directors

of "Ali" and "K-19"? Well, Ms. Bigelow didn't direct another feature

until 2007, when she began "The Hurt Locker," a thriller about a bomb

squad in Iraq that was bankrolled by a French company and is said to

cost under $20 million." Mann, by comparison,

directed three big-budget movies, and produced several more--all a mix

of hits (Collateral) and misses (Miami Vice). She goes on to say,

"I

imagine there are a host of reasons why Mr. Mann has been able to

persuade executives to keep writing such large checks. He's a dazzling

innovator, and big stars keep flocking to his side, despite his

reputation for difficulty. But Ms. Bigelow is one of the greatest

action directors working today, and it's hard not to wonder why failure

at the box office doesn't translate the same for the two sexes."

Dargis seems to have drawn the conclusion that women are held to higher standards than men, and have to be that much better in this position in order to succeed.

The other key to equality in film direction is making projects open to both

male and female directors. Lee Daniels directed a great film (Precious) with a female cast, just as Kathryn Bigelow has distinguished herself for her "testosterone" action film. Besides Bigelow, Scherfig (An Education) and Jane Campion (Bright Star) have been mentioned as the standout directors of the year, but their films' lack of nominations could push them out of the running. Bigelow's nomination for The Hurt Locker makes her chance of being nominated for Best Director at the Oscars that much more likely.

'Whip It' breathes life into the coming-of-age genre

By Sarah Sluis

Yesterday's advance screening of Whip It! included some unusual invitees: members of New York's roller derby team, who came clad in outfits of sweatbands and striped stockings. The audience was

raucous and frequently laughed out loud, which always makes a movie that much more fun.

What's surprising is that Whip It! uses a stock plot and situation to make a fast-paced, original-feeling movie. Here's the coming-of-age tale 101:

1. A girl in a small town dutifully, but grudgingly, follows her parents' idea of her life.
2. Until she's pulled into a new activity in which she discovers herself.
3. She must hide this new life from her parents, who would disapprove.
4. This leads to a crisis point where she can't lead both lives at once (and/or gets found out)
5. At which point she must reconcile her two worlds.

In Whip It!, this activity is roller derby (cue training montages). The movie does a great job initiating newbies into the ins and outs of the game, and by the end you'll be just as appreciative of the double-leg whip as I was. But how can a movie that follows so closely to a set genre seem so original and fresh? I've come up with a few answers.

The acting: Ellen Page does a superb job as Bliss Cavendar .a.k.a. Babe Ruthless. You're with her the whole time.
The soundtrack: Like all Fox Searchlight movies, the movie has a killer soundtrack, featuring catchy songs from indie bands. You'd want to listen to it at the gym or before going out with friends.
The feminism: The roller derby girls are sexy but tough. In one scene, they're showing off the bruises on their bottoms to each other, to the delight of some nearby boys. It's funny and revealing: the girls

admiring their bodies for their power and toughness, and the boys because it's a female body. Takeaway: girls don't need to be dainty to be admired. Ellen Page also dumps a boy without a second thought because it appeared he was cheating on her, without a second chance.
The dialogue: The movie may use a stock plot, but the dialogue feels genuine.
The details: Good comedies get jokes from authentic, not gaggy, costuming and props. There's the pink furry phone in Legally Blonde and Jason Segel wearing Ugg boots in I Love You, Man. In Whip It!, it's the pig aprons the girls wear at the diner they work at. You really believe that they have to wear them, Ellen Page meets the boy she has a crush on while wearing this ridiculous, stuffed pig apron. They are laughably hideous, and just the kind of thing you'd be forced to wear in Bodeen, Texas.

Whip It! opens this Friday, and hopefully its originality will be rewarded at the box office.

Disney Princess Watch

By Sarah Sluis

Continuing my Disney theme from yesterday, the studio made several announcements about its upcoming movies, including three princess-themed projects, each planned for a December release over the next three years: The Princess and the Frog, Rapunzel, and The Bear and the Bow.

Disney had the stroke of genius several years ago to group all their princesses together into one marketing line of "Disney Princesses," and with the December release of The Princess and the Frog, they've added one more to the group and put its protagonist, Tiana, front and center.

The Princess and the Frog will be a return to Disney's hand-drawn animation (which makes me nostalgic for my youth), and feature its first black princess. Because there's never been a black princess before, Disney is under

much more pressure to come up with an unequivocally positive role model. The full trailer for the movie, as well as the teaser that released awhile ago, has made many uncomfortable. I think part of this has to do with the characters' New Orleans accents, which seem to differ by race, as the black and white princesses in the trailer talk differently. Knowing Disney, this has been extensively researched and is historically accurate, but it can be uncomfortable to hear because these accents have been so frequently lampooned in other contexts. There's also some voodoo/black magic references that could generate mild controversy. The credits say the movie comes from the directing team that did Aladdin, which also faced criticism from Arab-American groups for the lyric "Oh, I come from a land.../Where they cut off your ear/ If they don't like your face/ It's

barbaric, but hey, it's home." After protests from the group, they changed the rhyme to "Where it's flat and immense / And the heat is intense" in the home-video version.

'Princess and the Frog' Teaser Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

Rapunzel, which is scheduled for a Christmas 2010 release, has cast its main roles. Mandy Moore will voice the lead and sing Rapunzel's songs, and Zachary Levi of "Chuck" will play the male lead. Moore is definitely more talented than her debut as a 15-year-old pop singer revealed, so I am thrilled to see her take on this role. The plot, too, has been expanded and changed from the original fairy tale. When Disney announced an adaptation of Rapunzel, many were disappointed, since the female is especially passive in the fairy tale. According to the presentation, Rapunzel will be much more of a female hero. Her hair still "comes to the rescue," but this time she uses it as a weapon to defeat their enemies.

Finally, artwork for Pixar's The Bear and the Bow, planned for a December 2011 release, was unveiled. The character sketches look much different than the bubbly CGI animation that has characterized Pixar's work, so I am curious to see how this visual look develops. It appears that Pixar is trying to emulate the style of Medieval artwork that was popular during the time period of the film, which takes place in 10th century Scotland (French animated film Azur et Asmar did similar work incorporating Middle Eastern-inspired artwork into its animation). They also revealed that the plot will be less about the princess (Reese Witherspoon) finding love, and more about her relationship with her mother (Emma Thompson). There's also a witch, par for the course, who will be voiced by Julie Walters.

Each of these films has tried to "twist" typical Disney plotlines towards the empowerment of young girls, a move that I applaud. In the end, Disney will have three more princesses to add to its line, and three more stories to enchant young and old audiences. Sounds like a win-win.

Audiences really 'Into You;' 'Coraline' attracts crowds to 3D venues

By Sarah Sluis

Friday night, a friend called me ranting--her planned activity of sisterly bonding, a screening of He's Just Not That Into You, was foiled by sold-out shows throughout Manhattan. Apparently, even at noon on

Friday, many evening showings of the film (probably an above-average draw in the "Sex and the City" epicenter) were sold out. The film cleared an estimated $27.5 million over the weekend, earning it the number one spot. It's no surprise to me that the light-hearted ensemble romance won at the box office. From my friend's perspective, it looked a lot better than Bride Wars, and was the kind of film you "plan" to see with a friend. She had even extended the invitation to a co-worker, but was turned down because the co-worker had already promised to see the film with someone else.

The release of romantic comedies always prompts the scorn of those wishing for more diverse options for women, but I have a hard time with those arguments because, however over-the-top and out-of-touch the movies are, they're fun, forgettable fantasties. Like a horror movie, they provoke a specific reaction, then are over and out. And for every actress mired in romcom fare (I'm talking to you, Kate Hudson), others eschew froth. Take Angelina Jolie. Admittedly more of a "guy's girl" than a "girl's girl," she's starred in a number of films centered on women that don't fall into the traditional "romcom" formula, such as Girl Interrupted, Changeling, A Mighty Heart, and Wanted. Her closest thing to a romantic comedy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, was delightfully influenced by 30's screwball comedy, and hilariously subversive of traditional gender roles. Before I hear another argument bemoaning the half-dozen films per year falling into the "consumerist romance" genre, I wish someone would take the time to pick apart more than anecdotal evidence.

Looking through the rest of the top ten, number two film Taken dropped just 17% from last week to earn $20.3 million, providing fare for an underserved demographic, primarily older males.

Coraline and The Pink Panther 2 came in at number three and number four, earning $16.3 million and $12 million, respectively. The two kid/family oriented pictures, put together, equaled the gross of He's Just Not That Into You. The overlap cut into each film's performance, but critical success Coraline should benefit from stronger word-of-mouth through the President's Day weekend. Considered a difficult sell, Coraline already outperformed studio expectations. Rolling out in 3D in a disappointing 43% of its release, the movie made up for it by earning 70% of its gross from 3D venues. Since 3D tickets generally cost just 20% more, the numbers suggest that audiences searched out 3D venues. Also, because 3D movies require glasses, the film likely deterred movie hoppers.

Summit's plot-tangle superhero movie Push debuted at $10.2 million. The garbled plot had nobody, including the studio, fooled, so Summit is likely happy it did better than last week's flop New in Town, which didn't even break $10 million last week (or make the top ten this week).

Long-in-release films like Gran Torino and Slumdog Millionaire continued to do strong business, each dropping less than 10% and racking up another $7 million each.

The weekend ahead holds not only a Saturday Valentine's Day, but also an extended three-day weekend for President's Day, ensuring that movies about couples, singles, families, and kids will see extra action over the weekend. Horror pic Friday the 13th, actioner The International, and consumerist comedy/romance Confessions of a Shopaholic will join the three-day fray.

Complete studio estimates viewable here.

Why 'Bride Wars' misjudges the female audience

By Sarah Sluis

The MTV Movie Blog, perhaps because of their preview/commercial show "Spoiler," frequently posts
"EXCLUSIVE" clips from upcoming films.  They recently posted clips from Bride Wars and Bedtime Stories.  Despite my lifelong residence in the "young female" quadrant, the Bride Wars clip drove me nuts (trailer here), to the point that I found the pet hamster "young male" humor of Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories vastly more entertaining and less offensive than Bride Wars, which seems to view the crazed female stereotype as one grounded in reality.

I love romantic comedies, but I now have very, very low expectations for Bride Wars.  For a female-oriented film, they are entirely off base: by making the psycho brides (bridezillas) initially plausible types, they insult their female audience.  Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson play seemingly normal best friends who come undone when a scheduling error leaves only one open spot for their weddings.  The women are petty and conniving without any good reason other than those "bridal hormones" floating around.  Ever the optimist, I'm willing to say that perhaps my impression comes from a discrepancy between the marketing and the film itself.  Maybe the movie will present Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson as over-the-top, unrealistic stock characters (see Elle Woods reference below), who have no other option than to use the appalling backstabbing techniques played for laughs, but I'm not getting my hopes up.  Both actresses generally play genuine, fresh-faced characters (not stock villains or mean girls), and I just can't imagine why these sensible, normal women couldn't just resolve matters through a double wedding or another corny compromise in the first place.

Compare this treatment of women-gone-wrong to some other comedies that poke fun at female stereotypes without condescending to them: Legally Blonde (2001) for example, trots out every
poofy-blonde stereotype imaginable, but because Reese Witherspoon's performance is such a clear caricature, her behavior is entertaining, not offensive.  Entirely oblivious to how her pink wardrobe (a.k.a. her heightened femininity) precludes her from full participation in the professional world, WItherspoon's Elle Woods ends up trouncing all those who underestimate her
for the way she looks.  A few waves of feminism later, Elle's Barbie-inspired wardrobe seems a modern permutation of Katharine Hepburn's androgynous, for the time, clothing: both present women who dress and act in counterpoint to convention, but end up succeeding anyway.

As for Bride Wars, if I want to watch two women fight with each other, I'll watch some reality television instead--at least that genre knows to present its characters as exaggerated, unbelievable stereotypes,
self-contradicting and petty, and (despite the misleading name) totally unreal.  The fresh-faced, good girl personas of Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson just don't work in this situation.

With Bride Wars off my must-see list (except out of fascination to see if the film can redeem itself from
the marketing campaign), I have a couple other options.  Ridiculous shopping addict Isla Fisher takes a cue from Reese Witherspoon in her caricature performance in Confessions of a Shopaholic (the novel an engaging few hours) and, of course, I might pay to see the hamster jokes (side benefit: better comedic timing and editing) in Bedtime Stories.