Not Your Typical Chick Flick
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70 FEATURES HORIZONS 71 In 2010, when Angelina Jolie signed on to star in a role originally written for a man— Tom Cruise—in the action blockbuster Salt, she had only two requests: That she NOT YOUR TYPICAL could do all her own stunts and that they do no re-writing to accommodate the film’s new heroine. A year later, what was being described as the female answer to bachelor-party box- CHICK FLICK office smash, The Hangover, hit theaters. Bridesmaids, with its infamous airplane scene and featuring a then-unknown Melissa McCarthy, would become the yard- ALL-FEMALE MOVIE REBOOTS ARE CHANGING THE WAY stick with which all female-led comedies would be measured. Equal parts hilarious HOLLYWOOD THINKS OF WOMEN’S PICTURES. and touching, it was an honest, relatable look at friendship that just happened to feature a cast of women. It wasn’t just funny for a female-led film. It was plain funny, BY JESSICA HAAS and it had the box office numbers to prove it: almost $300 million in ticket sales. © PHOTO CREDIT HERE CREDIT PHOTO © HERE CREDIT PHOTO © © 2016 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. The cast of Ocean’s Eight, from left to right: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Sarah Paulson. 72 FEATURES Since then, Hollywood studios have tried to recreate that lightening in a bottle, THE ROLES with mixed results. What’s safe to say, though, is that women are taking the chick THAT REDEFINE flick back. What was once a term used as an insult—Cosmos, romantic mishaps, eventual heavy rotation on the Lifetime network—is now one that audiences ex- Danielle Macdonald, Patti Cake$ pect more from, and studios are beginning to deliver what they now demand: Smart, Australian newcomer Danielle Macdonald clever stories with multifaceted characters who just happen to be women. McCar- gives a breakout performance as Patricia thy’s character in 2016’s all-female reboot of Ghostbusters summed it up pretty well: Dumbroski, aka Patti Cake$, in this 8 “All right, girls, let’s loosen his grip.” Mile-meets-Juno story about an aspiring New Jersey rapper. LESS STRESS Sure, she may have been referring to a giant poltergeist with way too much power, Gal Gadot, Justice League but then again, many would call that a pretty close analogy when it comes to Hol- more control lywood and how it has historically approached which films get the greenlight. After the success of Wonder Woman, fans couldn’t wait to see more of Gal Gadot as the lasso-wielding super hero. On a Late Show appearance last year, Stephen Colbert asked Cate Blanchett why Thanks to Justice League, they didn’t the all-female reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven collection—which she stars in—is only have to wait long. Ocean’s Eight. She joked: “There’s only eight women working in Hollywood.” And in an interview with Elle magazine, Blanchett’s Ocean’s Eight costar Anne Hathaway Awkwafina, Ocean’s Eight reflected on how she rarely gets to experience that feeling of being in familiar ter- With a star-studded female cast that ritory on a set: includes Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Rihanna, the ultimate heist may turn “Hollywood is not a place of equality. I don’t say that with anger or judgment; it’s a out to be a scene stealer for this rapper/ statistical fact. And even though I’ve been in some female-centric films, I’ve never comedian from Queens. been in a film like this. It just kind of makes you aware of the ways you sort of Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes unconsciously change yourself to fit certain scenarios. It’s not better or worse… Coming off her Oscar for La La Land, or right or wrong, but there are certain things you understand about one another Emma Stone traded tap shoes for a killer because of experiences you have in common…it’s probably easy for men to take that backswing in this true story about the for granted. Just being on a set where I’m the one who possesses that ease is really infamous 1973 tennis match between something. It’s a nice alternative narrative.” Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. That narrative is especially hard to create in comedies. The all-star cast of the Ghostbusters reboot—which included McCarthy and Bridesmaids costar Kristin SKY FINDER COLLECTION Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon—learned just how challenging it is to be embraced as funny women. Even before the movie hit the- aters, the reactions to news the film existed at all was visceral. Upping the “dislikes” Be the pilot of your life with the new Skyfinder Collection, on its YouTube trailer became a game, and the comments were a reminder of how embedded as all Philip Stein products with our unique far women still have to go when it comes to gender equality: “Women are just in- Natural Frequency Technology ® which harnesses and The cast of the 2016 Ghostbusters capable of being funny. What a terrible idea;” “Feminists ruin the world;” “Did this channels frequencies to help you feel less stressed and remake failed to impress at the box office. just become a chick flick?” improve your overall wellbeing. “It’s not fair that, in 2016, we should be in this situation where this is standard,” Paul Feig, who directed Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids, told the New York Times. “That’s where Hollywood should go, ‘Wow, we are so behind the times.’” He went on to say, Discover your wellbeing at philipstein.com “The whole chick flick idea is an excuse for guys not to have to see something. 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Before Bridesmaids, women’s films program, where students learn both the artistic and business were typically kept PG-13: Strategically placed sheets, a little side of filmmaking. cat fighting, and a mildly potty-mouthed sidekick who, “tells it like it is.” But recently, Hollywood has (slowly) started to “Studios have been reduced to making really expensive mov- acknowledge that women can curse like sailors, drink whis- ies,” he explains, “and so they have always had a reliance on key, and—gasp—have sexual encounters that take place previous performance. Because they’ve had little proof of above the covers. Even rarer still is the R-rated studio com- successful women directors, there’s a reluctance to hire fe- edy directed by a woman. Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001 was male directors—or make ‘women’s’ films—and so it perpetu- the last one, if we don’t count It’s Complicated, which earned ates. Which is all kinds of silly, because if you want to run the an R because Meryl Streep smokes marijuana in one scene. numbers, there are more women going to movies than men.” Despite that fact, only 29 percent of the top 100 films in 2016 Last year’s Rough Night—another film described as the fe- featured women in leading roles. male answer to The Hangover—was directed by Lucia Aniello, who also writes and directs for Comedy Central’s Broad City, The industry that has successfully changed, he says, is, television. a show that’s been described as, “a love story…about two hap- less, pot-smoking, sexually experimental, striving, swearing, “For the first time in the industry—which is aware they have a struggling, inseparable young gal pals running amok on the problem—the number [of female roles and directors] is much streets of modern-day New York City.” She, too, wonders why higher in television than film.