Comments | galactic_jack: I agree with this

galactic_jack

I agree with this

Feb 20, 2009 23:30

One of the best, Anne Billson.
Where are the meaty comedy roles for women?

More Of Anne Billson's Guardian columns right here

If anyone knows where and how I can get hold of a copy of her book Spoilers, please let me know.

Comments 6

laurainlimbo February 21 2009, 03:05:51 UTC

bless you for posting that article - it's so perfectly on track! there does need to be a geek girl gets chased by gorgeous man hunk, or girl stoner car-chase movie ala pineapple express. girl buddy movies - why aren't there more of those??

galactic_jack February 21 2009, 08:56:45 UTC

I guess that some would call those flicks that Billson rails against here (Bride Wars, Shopaholic and the like) girl buddy films, but they're not, really - not in the way that there are examples for men. But it doesn't have to mean the flicks should just replace men with women, they need to inhabit lived female experience as well as a good ol' dose of daftness; we don't want Dudette, Where's My Gucci Bag?, but things have moved on since Thelma & Louise too. She mentions Smiley face, apt example, but it wasn't very good all told. The Banger Sisters? What else?...

laurainlimbo February 22 2009, 04:00:55 UTC

well a few years back there was Lovely and Amazing, but that wasn't really comedy. and there was also Friends with Money, also not really comedy. but those have some very talented actresses, and they present women as smart and multi-dimensional. I'm so offended by movies like Sex and the city (as well as the show) because they assume all women only care about sex and shoes and handbags. and money. it's insulting, really.

I know that Anna Faris is very talented as a comedienne, and Tina Fey has potential if she would choose more stuff like her parody of SArah Palin. Jennifer Aniston also has real talent, and I wish she'd do more risky films. you're very right that we don't need dumb buddy movies with girls, which only succeeds in making women look dumb. it's a challenge for women because there is always the double standard in Hollywood as in other places in life. it's no fair, but it's probably always gonna be this way.

danschank February 21 2009, 06:29:04 UTC

this woman is AWESOME. both of these essays totally rule.

galactic_jack February 21 2009, 08:10:09 UTC

Glad you like her. She's neatly summing up a lot of what's out there, with, like, the best perspective. And lordy, she makes the point well. There was a bit on her book Spoilers (which has collected a lot of her pieces together, not just these Guardian ones) that excited me, but I can't find the link. But it's for sale at lulu.com.

And she's written books in the mini-BFI range on The Thing and Buffy, which makes her extra awesome...

sheldrake February 21 2009, 10:20:41 UTC

Good article - I think I heard her talking about this on the radio recently.

Talking of the lack of 'girl buddy movies' as above, made me thing of this thing called The Bechdel Test. It comes from an old comic strip by Alison Bechdel, in which a character says that [from Wikipedia]:

"she only watches a movie if it satisfies the following requirements:

1. It has to have at least two women in it,
2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man."

Once I'd heard about this I couldn't help idly applying it to films I watch, and it's really interesting to note how many don't pass...