Ms. Cody, Mr. Reitman and Ms. Page have conspired, intentionally or not,
to produce a feminist, girl-powered rejoinder and complement to Knock-
ed Up. Despite what most products of the Hollywood comedy boys’ club would have you believe, it is possible to possess both a uterus and a sense of humor.
One of the more prominent roles of the year is the mail-
order blow-up doll Bianca in Lars and the Real Girl,
which really has to say it all. Because she certainly won't...
It's like real life: When a woman walks into a room full
of men, behavior changes; when a woman walks into
a movie full of men, the movie changes. It gets more
serious. And since audiences are avoiding serious, they're al-
so avoiding women. And the movies are avoiding them, too.
Manohla Dargis on 4 Months,
3 Weeks and 2 Days:
4 Months deserves to be seen by the largest audience pos-
sible, partly because it offers
a welcome alternative to the coy, trivializing attitude toward abortion now in vogue in American fiction films.
4 Months opens in Seattle on 2/8 (venue to be announced).
Finally: Five Films in Which Women
Actually Go Through With Abortions
Endnote: And here's something I just wrote for Amazon.
While I wouldn't label the following film "feminist," the POV
is decidely female. "Since the 1980s, the nerd has triumphed
in comedies from Weird Science to Napoleon Dynamite, but
what about the female of the species? In Eagle vs. Shark,
New Zealand's Taika Waititi presents his offbeat romance from
the perspective of the likeably quirky Lily (co-writer Loren Horsley)." So, Horsley writes and stars in her significant other's feature (in his commentary, he says they've been together for 12 years). Horsley also created the character. Not exactly a cor-
rective, but certainly a subtle improvement. And when Lily and Jemaine Clement's Jarrod sleep together? Well, they use a condom.
Images from That's So LA! and European-Films.net.