Review: Clerks 2

Bechdel test: Fail
Feminist points: 
Movie: 

Writer, Director, Editor, Podcaster, TV presenter, Shop owner, Busiest man in Hollywood, Kevin Smith gives us his sequel to Clerks (1994). This is for me a re-watch after I heard that he secured finance for upcoming Clerks 3.

 

Smith isn’t known for his complex female characters, but at least here’s a director who gives his actors substantial dialogue and creates characters that you love and hate and want to see again, we’ve so far seen Jay and Silent Bob in 6 of his movies and in at least 2 guest appearances in Scream 3 (2000) and Fanboys (2009).

Even though I’m a huge fan, Clerks 2 has got some minor problems with its gender roles. Dante’s (Brian O’Halloran) wife for example has a t-shirt saying ‘mrs Hicks’, she is therefore ‘branded’. Is she his property now? Is she an object?

On the other hand, they do refer to her as ‘his golden ticket’, since her parents are going to give him a better job and help them to buy a house. Is he a gold digger?

 

I’m sorry about the lack of deep thought and insight into this films gender politics, but I guess I’m just watching it through rose tinted glasses.

 

Don’t miss 1:

One of the best scenes of all time!!!

Don’t miss 2:
Kevin Smiths wife Jennifer Schwalbach playing Emma.

Don’t miss 3:
Jay’s Dogma T-shirt.

Don’t miss 4:
Producer Scott Mosier in a cameo.

 

 

-D

Review: True Detective Ep. 02

Bechdel test: Yes
Feminist points: 
Episode: 

It’s weird that throughout the first and second episode they have referred to the killer as he. They’ve never even reflected on that it could be a she or a they. That’s just how good they are!

I guess this is the episode where we’re supposed to get to know Woody Harrelsons character Marty, and figure out that he’s also a complicated character, struggling with his masculinity, just like Rust. It starts with him fondly recalling the time he stopped a woman for a traffic violation and then had sex with her. There, alarm bells starts going off! He continues later in the episode with repeating that he has a mistress to “get his head right”, and that he’s doing it for his daughters and his wife. I’m sure they’re all very grateful. We at least here get the sense that he’s repeating it several times to show the audience that he’s not such a good guy after all, it’s too bad that they just figured out self reflection in episode 2, and only momentarelly.

 

We also get to know his mistress and their relationship, and I must say that I love the style and realism of this critically acclaimed show. It’s so original that it actually casted 28 year-old Alexandra Daddario in the role of Lisa, Woody Harrelson’s (53 years old) mistress. I’m just saying, which 28 year old reporter would not want to hook up with a middle aged, drunken, married father of two?

At the end of the episode he redeems himself by giving some money to a young prostitute, telling her to leave that line of work. So all of a sudden he’s the guardian of right and wrong. We feel your pain Marty!!!

 

And let’s not forget about Rust, it’s not like Rust is just creeping in the shadows this episode. He has his fair share of fun. Like when he doesn’t get the answers he wants from a couple of mechanics, and he walks out to his car and takes his jacket off and walks back in to kick the living crap out of these guys. This scene is shot and edited in a lighthearted fashion so that we understand that he’s the good guy, just doing his duty, and at the same time showing us how tough he is. Yeah, we just can’t get enough of that police brutality, it’s so much fun!

 

Let’s look forward to the next episode where, hopefully, our heroes might kill someone.

 

-D

Review: Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys

Bechdel test: No
Feminist points: 
Movie: 

Jersey Boys is the story of the rise and fall of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Alternative title: Goodfellas meets That thing you do.

 

The biopic, we’ve seen it so many times now, I almost brought out my check list, prison – check, marriage – check, divorce – check, suicide – check, fame – check, hard times – check, drugs – actually no.

 

It’s hard to fathom how a movie with so many important female roles, still feels old-fashioned Hollywood-y, but I think I’ve figured some of it out. According to Tommy Devito (Vincent Piazza, the bad guy), there are two types of women, and they both break your balls. Luckily for me, I managed to count FIVE types of women in the world of Jersey Boys, they are as follow, ‘the mother’, ‘the daughter’, ‘the wife’, ‘the girlfriend’ and ‘the groupie’, just like in real life. Another aspect on why the deep-rooted gender stereotypes are so cemented can be that the conservative director is 84 years old, but hey, that doesn’t explain Million Dollar Baby, Changeling and The Bridges of Madison County. So I’ll just blame the writers of the stage musical. At least the music was great.

Don’t miss: Charming little cameo from director Clint Eastwood when Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen) watches an old western starring the director on TV.

Don’t miss 2: Is Renee Marino a younger version of Isabella Sciorra?

-D

Review: True Detective Ep. 01

Bechdel test: No, not even close
Feminist points: 
Movie/Episode: 

 

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey play Marty and Rust, two miss matched police officers in the Louisiana homicide department. They immediately get confronted with a murder which is going to haunt them for the next 17 years.

 

The first episode of the popular HBO series starts off with presenting the first female “character” naked, dead and tied to a tree. The 2^nd and 3^rd are prostitutes. The fourth is Marty’s wife Maggie (Michelle Monaghan), who is introduced with a shot of her ass, whilst lying in bed. The only female authoritative figure, Cathleen, who’s the receptionist at the police station (which makes her rank below the male officers), is addressed for the first time with an affectionate joke about the colour of her skin. Oh I almost forgot, Marty’s got a young mistress, of course!

 

There is an apparent lack of women in the small town Louisiana police department (as seen in the picture), but I guess that the reason is to minimize the risk of sexual harassment?
Oh wait, there’s a woman in orange in the back cleaning the floor.

It’s sad to see that this show, which is supposed to be the BEST of the best, have such flat female characters with zero complexity. I just hope that the next episode will present us with less misogyny and more philogyny.

-D