Disney’s feminist polemic. I know right? What does Disney think it’s doing serving up this thinly veiled feminist propaganda? What are they trying to do, influence the minds of our courageous young boys and tractable young girls? I know what kind of barrow you’re trying to push Disney, you’re trying to tell us that girls can do boy jobs. In fact sometimes they can do boy jobs better than boys because girls are essentially moral and they always try and do the right thing. And if only those aggressive boys would just listen to those good girls they might learn something. Just as long as the girls don’t get too emotional. Or try to tell the boys what to do. And need saving when the going gets really tough. Continue reading
Category Archives: Bechdel pass
Burnt (2015)
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Bradley Cooper is a CHEF. He’s had a TROUBLED PAST. He wants to prove that he’s the BEST. But he can’t do it ALONE. And I can tell all of this just from the poster. I laughed when I saw the poster at the cinema a few months ago. It seems like such a formulaic premise for a movie, something that movie execs cook up thinking that it can’t possibly fail because it has all the right ingredients. And it’s not a terrible movie, but it’s like dining at McDonald’s, you know exactly what you’re going to get when you walk in and no amount of artisan presentation will change the fact that it’s the same burger you’ve eaten many times before. Continue reading
Carol (2015)
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Or cigarettes and sombre faces. Carol is directed by Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven), based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley) and stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Good credentials as far as I’m concerned. It is set in early 50s New York, a post-war world where women are beginning to emerge from the constraints of the past and it explores a lesbian relationship, highlighting the challenges and inequities for women who don’t conform. It is based on an experience of Highsmith’s and her story existed many years under a pseudonym with Highsmith denying authorship until the late 80s, a telling fact as to how long these inequities existed (and still exist). Continue reading
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict (2015)
StandardI have mixed feelings about this documentary. I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about an interesting and non-conformist woman who had an impact on the development and understanding of modern art, something that seemed to be the domain of men in the mid-20th century. The documentary itself, though, is rather pedestrian and does not match its subject’s love of challenging and expressive art. Continue reading
In the Shadow of Women (L’ombre des femmes) (2015)
StandardOr why sometimes it is better to cut and run. Pierre and Manon are married. They are documentarians who struggle to make ends meet. Pierre is silent and dour, Manon sparkles and pleases. Pierre meets a younger women, Elizabeth, and begins an affair. One day Elizabeth spies Manon in the arms of another man and must decide if she should tell Pierre. Continue reading
Room (2015)
StandardThis Irish/Canadian drama has an interesting premise. We meet five-year-old Jack and his mother, Ma. They go about the ordinary business of domestic life in their home but it soon becomes apparent that Ma and Jack are confined to a single room. It takes a while for us to discover why and, for a while, we are no more than arm’s length from them, seeing everything through their eyes. On the surface, the film explores the challenges we face in life and the courage we may find within ourselves but it also posits a deeper question – how much do we need to protect children from the world? Continue reading
Valentine’s Day (2010)
StandardToday we watched one of my favourite romantic comedies just because it was Valentine’s Day. It’s not up there with Love Actually but it has a similar sensibility, it shows us that love has many forms and doesn’t always work out as we planned, it just does it in a slightly cheesy Hollywood style. It still makes me feel good though when I watch it. Continue reading
The Danish Girl (2015)
StandardOh goodness me. Another film inspired by a true story. This one couldn’t be more different from The Revenant in style and sensibility, although I reckon it might also be playing to the Academy Award crowd. Eddie Redmayne plays Einar Wegener, a Danish artist in the 1920s who was the first publicly-known person to undergo gender reassignment when he became Lili Elbe. The Danish Girl focuses on him/her and Gerda, Einar’s wife and fellow artist. The story is…nice, palatable, inoffensive. Transgender packaged up neatly for a heterosexual world. Continue reading
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Standard“Let me pitch you this idea. We’ll take a movie that was made 20, 30, 40 years ago and we’ll remake it, using pretty much the same story, but with a modern twist. We’ll make the token female role much tougher, although, don’t worry, she’ll still need saving by a guy lots of times. And we’ll bring back some of the original actors so the old fans feel included and we’ll make a joke of the fact that they’re really old. We’ll show everyone how much better CGI is nowadays and we’ll make the story line much more complicated with lots of ‘science’ to explain all the things that don’t make sense. And we’ll fill it with white guys.” Terminator Genisys or Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Continue reading
Love Actually (2003)
StandardLove Actually has become our Christmas Eve tradition. It used to be just the adults watching it while we wrapped presents and ate mince pies but this year it was the whole family (although the youngest looked away during all of the kissing bits, and there were quite a few of these). This is not a standard romantic comedy though, which stands or falls by the credibility of the main couple and their narrative, this is an ensemble piece that shows us love in its many guises. Continue reading
