DOCSLIB.ORG

The Heat Movie Review & Film Summary (2013) | Roger Ebert

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Heat Movie Review & Film Summary (2013) | Roger Ebert In Memoriam 1942 – 2013 | ★ ★ ★ ★ ROGEREBERT.COM Choose a Section REVIEWS THE HEAT ★ ★ ★ | Sheila O'Malley June 28, 2013 | ☄ 22 There's a scene in "The Heat" in which two people, FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) and Boston police detective Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), struggle with one another to be the first to open a door. It has already been established that Mullins Print Page resents the snooty interference of an FBI outsider into her case. We also know that Ashburn has problems getting along with, well, Like 15 anyone. Ashburn and Mullins are forced to work together to bring down a Boston drug kingpin, or something like that — it doesn't 6 matter — and for the majority of the film they bicker over whose case it is, whose interrogation style to follow, who knows more about the background intel. Tweet 11 All of that comes to comedic fruition in a lingering slapstick scene of the two women in a death-grip with the door, unable to move forward, unable to retreat, both willing to look completely foolish in order to be the first one through that door. Director Paul Feig (who helmed "Bridesmaids") knows his way around slapstick moments such as this one. He is confident that the event being filmed is funny and worth watching, so he stands back, points the camera, and lets the actresses go to it. It's a very funny bit of physical comedy, deeply logical (neither character can bear to be "second" in anything) and yet deeply illogical (who cares who goes through the door first?). It's a pleasure to watch a film that is confident in what it is. Yes, it's a cop-buddy film, and of course there is a case to be solved. But nobody cares about the familiarity of the premise. You get the sense that Paul Feig doesn't care either. The Boston-drug-lord-plot is merely the architecture on which to present the dynamic of the two main characters. Their dynamic is consistently humorous, entertaining, often cringe-inducingly awkward, and, occasionally deep. The pace of the film is uneven, and the big plot-points are presented so casually that you can almost feel how bored everyone is by having to spend time on them, but Bullock and McCarthy make a phenomenal team. The conversation never stops. The arguments never stop. You can forgive a lot if a film shows you watchable, interesting characters. Sarah Ashburn lives alone, is a workaholic, and kidnaps the neighbor's cat periodically in order to get some affection. She is gunning for a promotion at the FBI. Her boss tells her she needs to work on her people skills, and as a test he sends her up to Boston to try to bring down a drug kingpin. Working with the local agencies has been a problem for Ashburn, who strides around so arrogantly that she has to be told no less than five times in one scene that she is going the wrong way. On the other side of the spectrum sits Boston Detective Mullins, wearing a Paw Sox T-shirt (a perfect detail), and wreaking havoc amongst neighborhood thugs and small-time drug dealers and prostitutes. The rest of the department lives in fear of her, and within two seconds of spending time with Mullins you can see why. Ashburn is assigned to investigate Mullins' case. They are supposed to work together. Neither character is okay with the partnership. This is clichéd stuff, the mismatched battling duo, but it's worked in comedies since the beginning of time and it works here. Ashburn is buttoned-up (both emotionally and physically), and Mullins lets it all hang out. Each are equally horrified by the other. Clichés are avoided. Bullock has played cops before, and she does officious bureaucratic-speak very well, but here she adds a flicker of panic and need in her eyes which makes her awkward and pathetic. You can smell her misery. And perhaps the most tragic sight I will see all year is Bullock standing miserably in the nightclub bathroom, mortified because her Spanx have converted by Web2PDFConvert.com been revealed. Mullins has an active sex life (she is approached twice by men who wonder why she never called them: "I thought we had fun the other night"). Unlike Ashburn, she seems comfortable in her own skin. The character is is reminiscent of Megan, whom McCarthy got an Oscar nomination for playing in "Bridesmaids." That movie's pooping-in-the-sink scene got a lot of commentary, but I was more fascinated by the fact that McCarthy's character worked at some high-level government job, bought an 18-wheeler for no reason, had zero neurosis, and was in many ways "having it all", something none of the other characters can say. Working the case brings Mullins and Ashburn into contact with a series of crackpots and weirdos, an albino D.E.A agent (played by Dan Bakkedahl; "You look evil as shit," comments Mullins, a conscious callback to the albino villain in "Foul Play", seen on a television earlier in the film), a nasty drug addict named Tatiana (the hilarious Kaitlin Olson, who only has one scene, and kills it), and an exhausted white-haired police sergeant who says, "This job is destroying me. I'm 43. My son calls me Grandpa." Mullins comes from a big crazy Boston family whose members are no longer speaking to Mullins because she put her own brother (Michael Rapaport) in jail. Mullins' own mother (played by the criminally underused Jane Curtin) slows down the car as she drives past Mullins, holding up her middle finger. "The Heat" is violent, with some pretty gruesome moments and some questionable police work. That's part of the fun. Cagney and Lacey these two ain't. When they finally join forces, they go rogue with a gusto that is refreshing. The movie acknowledges the uphill battle women face in male-dominated workplaces—in this case, law enforcement—but it handles the matter in throwaway lines, an admirable choice. Neither Mullins nor Ashburn are complainers, and they know by heart the compromises they face, and they know that it will be doubly hard for them to move ahead because of their sex. But they don't dwell on it. They're too busy. When they do finally bond, it doesn't come in the usual package of relationship advice, personal revelations, or a makeover scene, although all of these tropes are acknowledged and then tweaked, turned inside out. "The Heat" turns female-buddy picture conventions on their ear. Good. Uneven pace and irrelevant plot aside, I keep thinking of Bullock and McCarthy struggling with that door, frozen in a pointless battle of wills, bodies contorted into insane positions in order to impede the other. It's a scene that expands into an almost transcendent comic loopiness the longer it goes on. Who will win? How long can this standoff last? Don't these women realize how ridiculous they look? They do, and that's the point. POPULAR BLOG POSTS Steven Moffat: Destroyer of Hopes and Dreams Ian Grey Ian Grey thinks the choice of Peter Capaldi, y et another white male, to play Doctor Who is a sy mptom of an underly ing... Why most modern action films are terrible Nick Schager Nick Schager ponders the new crop of action directors, who bring 'serious film' cred to the genre, but can't seem to ... Quiet Mastery: Hitchcock's early films Donald Liebenson Hitchcock's silent films hav e been lov ingly restored, and they 're touring selected cities. If y ou're any where near on... "From Russia with Love" and its place in the Bond canon Gerardo Valero Gerardo Valero offers an in-depth rev iew of "From Russia with Lov e." POPULAR REVIEWS converted by Web2PDFConvert.com The Conjuring Elysium ★ ★ ★ ★ converted by Web2PDFConvert.com ★ ★ ★ We're the Millers ★ ★ ★ converted by Web2PDFConvert.com The Spectacular Now ★ ★ ★ ★ Reveal Comments THE HEAT (2013) Cast Demián Bichir as Hale Taran Killam as Adam Michael Rapaport as Jason Mullins Jane Curtin as Mrs. Mullins Director Paul Feig Writer Katie Dippold Action Rated R WATCH THIS MOVIE Fandango Powered by GoWatchIt A D V E R T I S E M E N T converted by Web2PDFConvert.com Odd Alzheimers Behaviors? www.SoutheastMichiganElderLaw.com Discover the Secret to Dealing With Them in 60 Seconds. Free Report. Mattress Sale at Macy's Macys.com/Mattresses Save 35-50% on Mattresses + 12 Months 0 Down 0 Interest Now! 3 Early Signs of Dementia www.newsmax.com Doctor: Know These 3 Warning Signs You're About to Suffer Dementia Flexible Packaging www.NexusPlastics.com Bags, Sheeting, Films. CALL US NOW 800- 486-3987 Excellence for 30 yrs SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LIST Enter Your Email Address Subscribe The Ebert Club is our hand-picked selection of content for Ebert fans. You will receive a weekly newsletter full of movie-related tidbits, articles, trailers, even the occasional streamable movie. Club members also get access to our members-only section on RogerEbert.com Premiere Member : $20.00USD - yearly A D V E R T I S E M E N T converted by Web2PDFConvert.com REVIEWS RSS IN THEATERS ▶ PagPeagPeagPeagPeagPeage 1 2 3 4 5 6 ★ ★ ★ Elysium ★ ★ ★ ☇ In a World... ★ ★ ☇ Jug Face ★ ★ Lovelace ★ ☇ Off Label ★ ★ Planes ★ ★ ★ ☇ Prince Avalanche ★ ★ ★ Chennai Express ★ ★ ☇ Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters ★ ★ ★ We're the Millers MOVIE REVIEWS CHANNELS CONTRIBUTORS Reviews Cannes Roger Ebert Patrick Z. McGavin Great Movies Demanders Chaz Ebert Nell Minow Interviews Matt Zoller Seitz Michael Mirasol BLOGS Opening Shots Project Simon Abrams Jana Monji Roger Ebert's Journal Festivals & Awards Ali Arikan Omar Moore Chaz's Blog Sundance Steven Boone Omer M.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • En Genusmedveten Analys Av Varför Remaken Ghostbusters Blivit Hatad
    Örebro Universitet Institutionen för humaniora, utbildning och samhällsvetenskap En genusmedveten analys av varför remaken Ghostbusters blivit hatad Självständigt arbete 15hp 2017-01-12 Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap med inriktning film Handledare: Anne Bachmann Författare: Linnea Hamrin & Amanda Holmstedt Abstract This essay is about the hate Ghostbusters (2016) has received. To find out why the film is hated, a reception study has been done. YouTube and IMDb are the two websites used in this study to collect the hate-comments and reviews. Ghostbusters (2016) is a remake of the original film with the same name from 1984, the original solely has men in the main roles. A big difference between the two films is that the remake contains women instead of men in the main roles. The trailer of Ghostbusters (2016) got many “downvotes” on YouTube and there after the hatred streamed in. Why is the film hated? The theories used in this study contains subjects of representation, attraction and fat studies. As a method Stuart Hall’s Encoding/decoding was used to analyze the reception of the film. This essay contains content which can be connected to cultural studies and feminism. Keywords: Ghostbusters, cultural studies, feminism, gender studies, encoding/decoding, hate speech, fat studies Innehållsförteckning: 1. Inledning 1 1.1 Bakgrund 2 1.2 Syfte 4 1.3 Avgränsningar 4 2. Tidigare forskning 6 3. Teoretiska utgångspunkter 8 3.1 Representation 9 3.2 Attraktion 10 3.3 Fat studies 11 4. Material och metod 13 4.1 Urval och material 13 4.2 Metod 14 4.2.1 Encoding/decoding 15 4.2.2 Susan Faludi 17 4.3 Metodproblem 18 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Ghostbusters Special
    GHOSTBUSTERS SPECIAL After 27 years, the Ghostbusters are finally back... With a completely new line-up. Director Paul Feig and his cast explain why this all-new origin story is the ideal franchise resurrection WORDS NICK DE SEMLYEN 056 JUNE 2016 JUNE 2016 057 GHOSTBUSTERS SPECIAL from Bill in terms of doing another hit. Rarely has there been so much some landfill somewhere”) and is made one, because his brain was elsewhere. pressure on one movie — or one team. as giddy by the Ghostbusters’ tech, And when Harold (Ramis) died their ecto-insulated encapsulators (in February 2014) I was kinda Paul Feig strides across and P. K. E. valances, as their jokes. depressed, and decided I wasn’t the cavernous building where much of Still, he initially turned it down. “I going to direct the next film myself. Ghostbusters 2016 is being shot, a former was in Budapest making Spy,” he recalls, But everybody seemed to agree it’s Reebok warehouse not far from Boston. “when I was contacted by Ivan, who at not fair of us just to leave the thing The director clearly has no need of that point had another script.” Written fallow. So finally we made a deal with a walking stick, but he’s holding one by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, Sony: they were free to expand what anyway: a remarkable thing with a skull veterans of the US version of The Office, he Ghostbusters are back in business. this is mission control for all things the series could be.” atop it. “It’s a medical student’s cane, it involved the original Ghostbusters Above: Spirited away: Right: Director Paul can testify to this, since we’re .
    [Show full text]
  • Papa John's Answers the Call with Ghostbusters Film Partnership and XL Dual Layer Pepperoni Pizza
    July 11, 2016 Who You Gonna Call? Papa John's Answers the Call with Ghostbusters Film Partnership and XL Dual Layer Pepperoni Pizza Pizza brand releases details about new TV spot, film integration, sweepstakes and latest pizza offer LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Papa John's International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA), has teamed up with Sony Pictures on the reboot of the iconic film, Ghostbusters. In addition to Papa John's pizza making a tasty cameo at a vacant Chinese restaurant serving as Ghostbusters headquarters, the brand is offering an XL Dual Layer Pepperoni pizza for only $12 delivered in a Ghostbusters themed pizza box featuring "honorary" Ghostbuster Papa John, alongside the ECTO-1. Additionally, the new Papa John's TV spot introduces new Ghostbuster - Papa John - along with one of the brand's "best customers" - Slimer. America's favorite pizza maker delivers a stack of XL Dual Layer Pepperoni pizzas to Slimer, only to get slimed for his efforts. The Papa John's TV spot will air primarily across national cable entertainment and sports networks including AMC, ESPN, and Comedy Central. "The original Ghostbusters film debuted in 1984, the same year I opened the first ever Papa John's location," said "Papa John" Schnatter, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Papa John's. "Over 30 years later we are able to reveal one of the secrets of our success - Slimer loves Papa John's pizza!" But don't take Slimer's word for it; consumers rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer satisfaction and product quality among all national pizza chains in the 2016 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis from Parks to Presidents: Political
    THESIS FROM PARKS TO PRESIDENTS: POLITICAL SENSIBILITIES OF NARRATIVE POLITICAL FICTION Submitted by Seth J. Willden Department of Communication Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Fort Collins, Colorado Summer 2016 Master’s Committee Advisor: Nick Marx Karrin Vasby Anderson Doug Cloud Copyright by Seth J. Willden 2016 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT FROM PARKS TO PRESIDENTS: POLITICAL SENSIBILITIES OF NARRATIVE POLITICAL FICTION This thesis examines the ways televised narrative political fiction can portray political sensibilities. Using the NBC program, Parks and Recreation (2009-2015), and the Netflix streaming service program, House of Cards (2013-2016), I explore how narrative television presents political philosophies to audiences, equipping them to discuss political discourse. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Before we begin discussing the political implications of narrative television, I must first provide a narrative of acknowledgement. The MA program in Communication Studies is only a two-year program, and this document marks the end of that two-year journey. But I have been at Colorado State for five years. In a way, the last chapter of this thesis will be the last literal chapter of my five-year career as a CSU student. I wish to first thank the professors that transformed my understanding of the world: Dr. Thomas Dunn, Dr. Scott Diffrient, and Dr. Eric Aoki. You were my first communication studies professors. Each in turn provided excellent education, guidance and support throughout my time as a scholar. I will never forget your pedagogical styles and hunger for understanding the communicative processes of our world. Next I want to thank my thesis committee: Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • 2020 Annual Report | Together We Are Feeding America
    TOGETHER W E ARE FEEDING AMERICA PG 1 ANNUAL REPORT 20 20 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2020 ANNUAL REPORT MOTIVATION MISSION IMPACT 3 5 9 FINANCIALS 27 SUPPORTERS 30 LEADERSHIP 67 PG 2 MOTIVATION 2020 ANNUAL REPORT MEET ELENA On a hot summer morning, Elena Martinez, along with her sons—Kevin, 4 and Adonay, 2—arrived at a food pantry that works with Capital Area Food Bank, a member of the Feeding America network. Before the impact of COVID-19, Elena worked in a restaurant kitchen. Due to the economic fallout from the pandemic, she— like tens of millions of people across the country—lost her job. As Elena saw the nutritious food available for her to take home to help feed her family of seven, she smiled, excited about the meals she could prepare amid a devastating time of unemployment and uncertainty. Women like Elena are overrepresented in some of the hardest-hit industries for job loss, including leisure and hospitality, healthcare and education, and women—especially “ Black and Latino women—lost jobs in those sectors I’M VERY at disproportionate rates. GRATEFUL TO GOD THAT MY FAMILY IS ABLE TO EAT BECAUSE OF THE FOOD THAT I RECEIVE FROM THE PANTRY. ” PG 3 MOTIVATION 2020 ANNUAL REPORT MEET OUR VOLUNTEERS Before the pandemic, the Feeding America food bank network relied on the generous time of nearly 2 million volunteers each month. The impact of COVID-19 quickly shattered that. Adhering to shelter- in-place orders, social-distancing protocols and health concerns, food banks saw a 60% decline in this critical volunteer workforce.
    [Show full text]
  • Last-Christmas-Movie-Production
    UNIVERSAL PICTURES Presents In Association with PERFECT WORLD PICTURES A CALAMITY FILMS Production A FEIGCO ENTERTAINMENT Production A PAUL FEIG Film EMILIA CLARKE HENRY GOLDING MICHELLE YEOH and EMMA THOMPSON Executive Producer SARAH BRADSHAW Producers DAVID LIVINGSTONE, p.g.a. EMMA THOMPSON, p.g.a. PAUL FEIG, p.g.a. JESSIE HENDERSON, p.g.a. Story by EMMA THOMPSON & GREG WISE Screenplay by EMMA THOMPSON and BRYONY KIMMINGS Directed by PAUL FEIG Last Christmas_Production Information 2 PRODUCTION INFORMATION EMILIA CLARKE (HBO’s Game of Thrones, Me Before You), HENRY GOLDING (A Simple Favor, Crazy Rich Asians), MICHELLE YEOH (Crazy Rich Asians; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and two-time Oscar® winner EMMA THOMPSON (Sense and Sensibility, Saving Mr. Banks) star for director PAUL FEIG (A Simple Favor, Spy, Bridesmaids) in Last Christmas, a romantic comedy inspired by a GEORGE MICHAEL beat, from a screenplay by Academy Award® winner Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee) and writer/performer BRYONY KIMMINGS. Kate (Clarke) harrumphs around London, a bundle of bad decisions accompanied by the jangle of bells on her shoes, another irritating consequence from her job as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. Tom (Golding) seems too good to be true when he walks into her life and starts to see through so many of Kate’s barriers. As London transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, nothing should work for these two. But sometimes, you gotta let the snow fall where it may, you gotta listen to your heart … and you gotta have faith. Set in London during the 2017 holiday, Last Christmas features the music of George Michael and Wham!, including the bittersweet holiday classic of the film’s title.
    [Show full text]
  • Alexis Carreiro, Queens University of Charlotte
    Media Pandering: The Good, The Bad, and the… Inclusive? Alexis Carreiro, Queens University of Charlotte I’m a forty-one year-old, white, female. When I heard about the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, my first thought was “Oh my God. Yes! I loved that movie. I love these woman. This will be so much fun.” Then, the critiques started pouring it. First, critics accused the director (Paul Feig) of ruining their childhoods and destroying the franchise. Then the “pandering to the female audience” accusations poured over the internet covering it, and the project, in a sticky coat of misogynistic, nerd boy nostalgia. However, this didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the project. It actually increased it, because I thought “If this is what it means to be pandered to, then I say: Bring. It. On.” The more it pissed the Internet trolls off, the happier it made me because it indicated that the film would be more “for” me than it was for them, and that often isn’t the case. Throughout my life, I’ve sat through more all-male comedies (written by all male writers) and have listened to more jokes unique to the male experience (like penis and testicle jokes) than I can count. They’re ubiquitous. But all-female comedies? Written by female writers? That include jokes unique to the female experience? Not so much. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but they’re not nearly as common. So to reboot and reinvent a film from my childhood like Ghostbusters for a (presumably white) female audience and include a queef joke early in the film was—and is—rewarding and satisfying.
    [Show full text]
  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 6, 2012
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 6, 2012 2013 WRITERS GUILD AWARDS TELEVISION, NEWS, RADIO, PROMOTIONAL WRITING, AND GRAPHIC ANIMATION NOMINEES ANNOUNCED Los Angeles and New York – The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in television, news, radio, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2012 season. The winners will be honored at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 17, 2013, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. TELEVISION NOMINEES DRAMA SERIES Boardwalk Empire, Written by Dave Flebotte, Diane Frolov, Chris Haddock, Rolin Jones, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Andrew Schneider, David Stenn, Terence Winter; HBO Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, George R. R. Martin, Vanessa Taylor, D.B. Weiss; HBO Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime Mad Men, Written by Lisa Albert, Semi Chellas, Jonathan Igla, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Brett Johnson, Janet Leahy, Victor Levin, Erin Levy, Frank Pierson, Michael Saltzman, Matthew Weiner; AMC -more- 2013 Writers Guild Awards – TV-News-Radio-Promo Nominees Announced – Page 2 of 7 COMEDY SERIES 30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Luke Del Tredici,
    [Show full text]
  • Funny Business: Women Comedians and the Political
    FUNNY BUSINESS: WOMEN COMEDIANS AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HOLLYWOOD SEXISM by DIANA MARTINEZ A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2017 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Diana Martinez Title: Funny Business: Women Comedians and the Political Economy of Hollywood Sexism This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: Sangita Gopal Chairperson Quinn Miller Core Member Priscilla Ovalle Core Member Kenneth Calhoon Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded March 2017 ii © 2017 Diana Martinez iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Diana Martinez Doctor of Philosophy Department of English March 2017 Title: Funny Business: Women Comedians and the Political Economy of Hollywood Sexism In the last five years there has been great public interest in Hollywood’s “gender problem,” namely its unequal representation of women in key creative roles such as director, producer, and studio head. Yet, in the long history of women in film and television, comedians have had the greatest success and degree of agency over their work. From silent film comediennes like Mabel Normand to Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, and more recently Tina Fey and Amy Schumer, women comedians have resoundingly had success behind-the-screen as well as in front of it. In order to comprehend the disjuncture between the data and the women comedians’ success, we must account for the women at the center of contemporary popular culture who seem to have successfully navigated highly gendered structures of media.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: SCREENING DIVERSITY: WOMEN and WORK in TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY POPULAR CULTURE Laura K. Brunner, Do
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: SCREENING DIVERSITY: WOMEN AND WORK IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY POPULAR CULTURE Laura K. Brunner, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor A. Lynn Bolles Department of Women’s Studies Screening Diversity: Women and Work in Twenty-first Century Popular Culture explores contemporary representations of diverse professional women on screen. Audiences are offered successful women with limited concerns for feminism, anti- racism, or economic justice. I introduce the term viewsers to describe a group of movie and television viewers in the context of the online review platform Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and the social media platforms Twitter and Facebook. Screening Diversity follows their engagement in a representative sample of professional women on film and television produced between 2007 and 2015. The sample includes the television shows, Scandal, Homeland, VEEP, Parks and Recreation, and The Good Wife, as well as the movies, Zero Dark Thirty, The Proposal, The Heat, The Other Woman, I Don’t Know How She Does It, and Temptation. Viewsers appreciated female characters like Olivia (Scandal), and Maya (Zero Dark Thiry) who treated their work as a quasi-religious moral imperative. Producers and viewsers shared the belief that unlimited time commitment and personal identification were vital components of professionalism. However, powerful women, like The Proposal’s Margaret and VEEP’s Selina, were often called bitches. Some viewsers embraced bitch-positive politics in recognition of the struggles of women in power. Women’s disproportionate responsibility for reproductive labor, often compromises their ability to live up to moral standards of work. Unlike producers, viewsers celebrated and valued that labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Top 25 Public University in the Nation
    # Best U.S. college offering health 1profession degrees 500,000+ million in Alumni $656 research Top 25 Public university in the nation million annual 2.1 patient visits A top college Top doing the most for the American 100 Dream world university 69,000+ students Great things to know about Our Points of Distinction Rutgers is among the best public research universities in the United States and the world. International rankings place Rutgers among the top 100 world universities. In U.S. rank- ings, Rutgers is a top 25 public national university; and in New Jersey, Rutgers is the number-one public national university. Ranked TOP 25 Public University in the Nation U.S. News & World Report: Best Colleges USA Today/College Factual: Best Colleges Forbes: Best Value Colleges Money: 25 Best Public Colleges for Big Paychecks Washington Monthly: College Guide Best for Vets l Rutgers ranks 4th in the nation among four-year institutions for student veterans services in the Military Times annual Best for # Vets survey. l Rutgers University–Camden in New Jersey was named a Purple Heart University by the Military Order #1 public national university of the Purple Heart for the services #1 public national university, high school counselor rankings it provides for student veterans and their families—the first 1#1 public national university, freshman retention rate university in the state to earn the #1 public national university, undergraduate business distinction. #1 public national university, undergraduate engineering #1 public national university,
    [Show full text]
  • “The Melissa Mccarthy Effect”: Feminism, Body
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School “THE MELISSA MCCARTHY EFFECT”: FEMINISM, BODY REPRESENTATION AND WOMEN-CENTERED COMEDIES A Dissertation in Mass Communications by Catherine Bednarz © 2020 Catherine Bednarz Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2020 ii The dissertation of Catherine Bednarz was reviewed and approved by the following: Matthew P. McAllister Professor of Communications Chair of Graduate Programs Dissertation Adviser Co-Chair of Committee Michelle Rodino-Colocino Associate Professor of Communications Co-Chair of Committee Kevin Hagopian Teaching Professor of Communications Lee Ahern Associate Professor of Communications iii Abstract Immediately following its release in 2011, Bridesmaids was met with enormous critical praise as a woman-centered and feminist comedy. This praise was due to the largely female cast of characters in a major film comedy, a rarity in Hollywood. Women face sexism at every level of Hollywood, especially in comedy, so the success of a woman-led movie within the comedy genre was significant. Reviewers described the triumph of Bridesmaids as a game changer, claiming it would open the door to other woman-fronted comedies. This potential was labeled the “Bridesmaids Effect” (Friendly, 2011) by reviewers. However, while some comediennes may have benefitted from the success, I argue that the influence may be more accurately described as a “Melissa McCarthy” effect. This is particularly significant because though there have been several notable and successful female comedians before Melissa McCarthy, very few would be considered fat and feminist. The presence of fat women is not accurately reflected in mass media (Henerson, 2001).
    [Show full text]