Movie Droughts and the Passing of a Giant

We've all experienced it. We decide to spend a day hanging out with a friend (or friends), and what better way to do that than to go see a movie? Huge drinks, horrible popcorn, and darkness are what help build the bonds of friendship, right? You get your heart set on it, and you even go so far as to check movie times. Then you make the horrible discovery. There is absolutely nothing out that you want to see. The few passable options have already been seen by someone in your motley crew.



The current selection of major releases.


I bet you can guess what happened to me on Monday. A friend and I are having a girls' day. Through the haze of a carb induced stupor, we think, "Hey, we could go see a girly movie." What is our only option, you might ask? That's right, Magic Mike, a film to which there will be no review in this esteemed blog because I refuse to see movies that I know are going to be crap. I don't care how much man candy is in the film, if it doesn't have at least the promise of good plot, I am not going to see it. Musing a bit more on this subject, I realize that there haven't really been any major rom-coms released this year. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, looks good, but it's only showing at the artsy theater here in Knoxville. It looks good, but probably raises questions, and does a lot of that "communicating ideas" thing that they teach you about in intro level Cinema Studies courses. A fun girly day kind of movie, it is not (quoth Yoda).



See! He agrees with me. Just look at that face.


Further into my musin's and ramblin's, it struck me that there will be a dirth of really good rom-coms for the forseeable future. These are the kinds of movies that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but that you also want to buy when they come out on DVD. They are thoughtful without being too thoughtful, and they aren't Nicholas Sparks adaptations. Why this drought of rom-com-y goodness (so many hyphens)? Nora Ephron's passing.

I know it isn't exactly current news, but I'm going to talk about her anyway. Nora Ephron did for the romatic comedy what Francis Ford Coppola did for the gangster movie. Sleepless in Seattle is probably the most famous romantic comedy she did, but she also wrote When Harry Met Sally. The films that she had a hand in have high watchability. She was also one of the few really influential women in Hollywood. In an industry that is overwhelmingly dominated by men (at least behind the camera), she reached some of the most powerful positions in a film that you can have: producer and director. Women aren't uncommon in the positions of writer and editor, but women actually directing or producing films is unusual. Her filmography isn't extensive. Her films are popular and fun, even if they aren't particularly spectacular from a film studies perspective. Nora Ephron, and women like her, have broken the trail for the next generation.



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"I'll have what she's having." - Estelle Reiner in When Harry Met Sally

Sorry Belle, but Merida wins.

If you are a woman who happens to be an avid reader, independent, a brunette, intelligent, and/or an introvert, then Belle of Beauty and the Beast has probably been your favorite Disney princess for the last twenty years. She certainly was my number one until this past Saturday when I met a new Disney princess. This new princess is named Merida and she's from Pixar's newest film, Brave. She may not be a brunette (thus adding yet another princess to the list of "princesses I will never be able to cosplay"), but she is wildly appealing from a feminist perspective.

OMG! What did she just say!?

No, I did not just have a seizure and inadvertently type something on the keyboard. I'm well aware that I just said the "f" word, but please hear me out. This will not turn into any kind of hateful rant against men. I'm a feminist not a feminazi. I believe in equality, not feminine superiority. Now that I've clarified that, I will continue.

Belle, until recently, was the most different Disney princess. While some may argue that all the "Princesses" of the nineties were different from the original princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty), Belle held an appeal that the others did not. I'll take this moment to clarify another little detail. Mulan, Pocahontas, and Esmeralda are not technically Disney princesses, no matter what the Disney marketing people want you to think. Mulan isn't remotely royal, Pocahontas' culture didn't view her as having an elevated position, and Esmeralda (in the Disney version) marries a lowly knight (do the Rom have princesses?). Adding Cinderella and Belle to the list of princesses is even debatable as they aren't princesses until after marriage.

Whatever, Belle was my favorite. She was highly intelligent, well informed about the world she lived in, and she was fairly competent. I say fairly because she ran out into wolf infested forest in the dead of winter. Not a smart move, but it did serve as a good plot device. The only problem is that she fell into the same trap as all the other princesses. She got married. What's worse is that she married the guy who kept her prisoner. Don't get me wrong, I love that movie. I can play it in my head. I know the words to all the songs. But you can see the problem here right? Belle and all the other Disney leading ladies get married or at least engaged by the end of their movies. Ariel marries a guy who cheated on her. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella decide to marry guys that they'd just met. People in the real world have a phrase for that: "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." A little romance is all well and good, but these are not relationships that you want to serve as examples in our culture.

You ARE the guy who held me here against my will.

Enter Merida and possible spoilers. I repeat POSSIBLE SPOILERS. Like many a young woman, Merida feels confined by the role that she is supposed to play in her society. She argues with her mom about it. She doesn't feel ready to get married to some guy she doesn't know. She doesn't have any real choice. All she gets to do is choose how the "first borns" of the other clans compete for her hand. That would lead to the archery competition that I'm sure you have all seen in the trailer. She also makes the bad decisions that most of us are destined to make when we're young and angry. Unfortunately it isn't anything as tame as a tattoo or drinking binge. She asks a witch to change her mom. In those words. Of course her mother is turned into a bear rather than just changing her mind. The bulk of the movie is about the mother-daughter relationship and how they learn to find a middle ground. It's really beautiful.

Re-enter feminist perspective. Merida stands out from the other princesses for a variety of reasons.

1. She can use weapons, really, really well. Even Mulan had to use her "wiles" to compensate for a lack of physical strength. Merida takes on her dad, a man with god knows how much more experience who happens to be three or four times her size, and wins. We aren't talking archery here. She fights him with a sword.

2. She can go where she wants, within limitation. The limitations she faces have more to do with her age and her perceived responsibilities than with the fact that she's a girl. Her father supports her interests. Which leads to. . .

3. Reversed roles of the parents. Well at least I think they're reversed. I've just now realized that the tales of Disney princesses are littered with foster, step, and single parents. Usually it's the dad doing the confining, but in this case it's the mother.

4. Merida and her mother are different. They have different goals and desires. They're like real life women. Some women want careers and some women want to raise families. Some women want both. All women want the right to choose.

5. Merida gets the right to choose. She doesn't get married. There is no romance. The Pixar people let you believe for just a second that there might be, but then there isn't. The end of the film is full of possibilities, and most importantly, choice.

She can beat you up. Don't doubt it.

This is why Merida, and her story, stands out. She doesn't marry a prince because in the end she doesn't need one. She's not on a quest for love, she's not "fighting for her man." She's fighting for herself and for her mother, for their relationship. This is why she's my new favorite. No surprise that it took Pixar to make this movie. They aren't scared to take chances. Ladies and gentlemen of the production, I salute you.

"A princess disna stuff her gob." - Emma Thompson as Queen Elinor
"If you had a chance to change your fate, would you?" - Kelly Macdonald as Merida