Blog PostsFemale Character of the Week: Jackie Brown

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite film directors for three reasons: 1) his whip-smart dialogue, 2) the way he plays with narrative structure, and 3) his strong female characters.  While some of his movies have problematic elements from a feminist perspective (I’m thinking primarily of Death Proof, which I still love), I get the overwhelming impression that Tarantino loves women, loves telling their stories, and loves having them kick some wannabe repressing motherfucker ass.  (He apparently has a bad influence on my language, though).  While Tarantino has showcased many empowered women in his films – The Bride/Beatrix Kiddo, Cherry Darling, the women in Death Proof, Shosanna Dreyfus – my favorite of all is the star of his underrated masterpiece, Jackie Brown. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsMore Themed Episodes Community Can Do

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Dan Harmon and the Community writing staff (and the actors as well, I’m sure) definitely love their themed episodes.  In the past two seasons, we’ve seen spoofs of specific genres (the war/post-apocalyptic movie episode, the zombie movie episode, the mockumentary, the conspiracy theory episode, the bottle episode, the Christmas episode, the space adventure episode) as well as the spoofs of particular movies and games (Goodfellas, Dungeons and Dragons, Pulp Fiction/My Dinner with Andre).

But what’s next for these writers?  What other genres and films can this wildly inventive show pay tribute to?

I had a few ideas. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsThe Real Reason Women Love Mr. Darcy

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Whenever I engage in a discussion of the relative merits of Jane Austen as a writer, the conversation inevitably returns to the subject of Mr. Darcy. Even if I’m trying to talk about Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion – you know, one of Austen’s other novels – Mr. Darcy is always mentioned.  Usually, the person who brings up Mr. Darcy is the one who doesn’t like Austen, and his argument boils down to the same thing: “Austen is only popular because women think Mr. Darcy is hot.”

OF COURSE!  It all makes sense now!  Our admiration of Austen’s writing has nothing, nothing to do with the way she portrays a close, sisterly relationship in Sense and Sensibility, or the homage/satire on the Gothic novel in Northanger Abbey, or the mature story about love and forgiveness in Persuasion, or the hilarious original Mommie Dearest story in Lady Susan, or the pointed commentary on hypochondria and gossip in her unfinished Sanditon. It’s ALL ABOUT MR. DARCY.  “I watched Colin Firth crawl out of the lake and I jizzed! in! my pants!”

Right, okay.  I could – and possibly will – write an entire thesis praising the merits of Jane Austen, but that post is for another time.  For now, I’m going to entertain the idea that Mr. Darcy is the source of Austen’s popularity.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Darcy is the main reason women love Pride and Prejudice. I counter with, “If that is the case, what’s wrong with that?” Continue reading →

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ReviewsJeff Winger’s Little Indian Girl Story: (Delayed) Thoughts on Community 2×19 – “Critical Film Studies”

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Last week on my favorite sitcom, Community fans tuned in to watch the Pulp Fiction-themed episode that NBC had been heavily promoting.  At the end of the half hour, the fans cried foul that they had been denied a real Pulp Fiction-themed episode while simultaneously adding My Dinner with Andre to their Netflix queues.

After NBC released a slew of promotional photographs with the gang as various Pulp Fiction characters, fans were likely expecting a campy, heavily referential episode along the lines of “Contemporary American Poultry” (the Goodfellas episode) and “Modern Warfare” (the action movie episode).  Instead, this was a more serious character study like “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” and I think the episode was stronger for it.

I feel like I could write an entire paper on the conversation Abed had with Jeff about movie references, and the amount of time people spend talking about fictional characters.  As a literary/television/movie nerd, I sometimes think that I would lose 90% of my conversation if I never made references to texts, and that thought scares me a little bit.  There’s a lot of meta genius in “Critical Film Studies” that I will have to talk about later.

For now, though, I want to talk about Jeff’s Halloween story. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsGender-Neutral Compliments: Look to the Yiddish

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Theresa Basile

It is common practice among us potty-mouthed people to describe a courageous man as having “balls.”  If a man’s courage comes into question, we wonder, “Does he have the balls to take this action?”

Sometimes we even compliment women by saying she has “balls,” e.g., “Lady T has a lot of balls.  She speaks her mind.”

Well, thank you.  I do speak (and write) my mind.  But, I would prefer that if you want to compliment me on my courage, you use the phrase, “She’s got a lot of ovaries.”

See, I object to the idea that courage = manhood, and cowardice = lack of manhood or womanhood.  I’m a woman. Don’t tell me that, by having courage, this makes me more masculine.  No.  Courage is not an inherently male trait, so don’t make it one.

But then I started thinking about people who don’t easily fall into the “man” or “woman” gender binary.

Continue reading →

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Blog PostsI Like Andy Samberg

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I like Andy Samberg.

I didn’t always.  The SNL “Lazy Sunday” Digital Short, even five years later, still makes me laugh, but I attributed much of my enjoyment to Chris Parnell’s performance.  I wasn’t that impressed with Andy Samberg aside from “Lazy Sunday” because he seemed to play the same frat-boy dudebro in every sketch.  People I knew got excited for Samberg’s sketches, while I always thought, “Whatever, show me what Bill Hader’s up to this week and then we’ll talk.”

But as he made more and more rap videos with The Lonely Island, I started really liking him, and I’ve figured out why.  Andy Samberg is possibly one of the most feminist comedians working today.

Why?  Because his targets are always sexist men.

Exhibit A: “Dick in a Box”

In this video, Samberg and Justin Timberlake make fun of the sexist guys who act like their penises are God’s gift to women, by making their dicks a gift…literally.

Continue reading →

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Blog PostsFemale Character of the Week: Katniss Everdeen

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Given the recent hubbub concerning the casting of the film version of The Hunger Games, this seems as good a time as any to honor its protagonist, Katniss Everdeen.

Name: Katniss Everdeen

Why She Rocks: Katniss is a hunter in the dystopian world of Panem, living with her mother and her sister Prim.  Every year, Panem holds a competition called The Hunger Games to keep the different districts in line.  A girl and boy from each of the twelve districts are thrust into an arena to fight to the death until only one of them is left.  In the very beginning of The Hunger Games, Prim’s name is chosen from the drawing.  Katniss immediately steps forward and volunteers herself in her sister’s place.

Already, the reader is on her side.  How can anyone not root for a character who wants to fight in the place of her sweet little sister?  A big sister myself, I gravitated toward Katniss immediately, and I liked her more and more as I read about her.

Being a contestant in The Hunger Games is more about just physical prowess.  A tribute also needs to master the public relations aspect of the battle, and this is where Katniss fails miserably.  She’s a terrible liar, she speaks her mind, and she comes across as cold.  She refuses to play the Capitol’s games.  She doesn’t fit into the neat box that the Capitol wants from its tributes.  Even though this can cost her some support from the viewers of The Hunger Games, she still won’t completely play their game.  This only makes us want to root for her more.

Katniss is not without her flaws, of course.  If she were, she’d be a pretty boring heroine.  Sometimes her justifiable, righteous anger gets in the way of her thinking about her best interests.  She’s a bit clueless when it comes to understanding interpersonal relationships, and really thickheaded when it takes her forever and a day to figure out that Peeta Mellark is head-over-heels in love with her.  But she’s admirable, tough, a rebel, and deeply cares about people.

Final thought: Katniss Everdeen is described as olive-skinned with dark hair in the books, with a thin, hungry frame.  Suzanne Collins keeps her ethnicity vague, one aspect of the book that I really liked.  So, of course, the directors went and cast a blue-eyed blonde after putting out a casting call that SPECIFICALLY asked for white actresses.  Fail.

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ReviewsCommunity 2×18 – “Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy”

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Theresa Basile

This week, Community was renewed for a third season on NBC, and there was much rejoicing.  Also, Britta ruined a friend for Troy and Abed, and Jeff tried to get rid of Chang by convincing him to try to impress Shirley.

Summary: Britta began dating a new friend of Troy and Abed’s, Luka (Dollhouse’s Enver Gjojak), and then found out he committed genocide in the Balkans (ruh roh!)  She struggled to find a way to tell them without making them hate her for wrecking their friendship.  Shirley tried to get Jeff to serve Chang with papers forfeiting any custody rights if the baby turns out to be his.  Instead, Jeff tries to encourage Chang to act like a real, responsible father, all with the ulterior motive of getting Chang off of his sofa. Continue reading →

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ReviewsQuinn Fabray and the Prom Queen Endgame: Thoughts on Glee 2×16 – “Original Song”

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I have many thoughts about last night’s episode of Glee.

First, while the lyrics for the original songs “Trouty Mouth,” “Big Assed Heart,” and “Oh Hell to the No” fell into the “so-bad-it’s-hilarious” category, the melodies for said songs were quite catchy and interesting.  They were certainly much better than the songs they performed at Regionals, which sounded like they came from the first draft of High School Musical but were rejected for being too twee and robotic-sounding.

Second, Kurt and Blaine finally kissed and set the world afire.  I loved absolutely everything about that moment – the way Blaine just went for it, Kurt’s initial hesitation like he couldn’t really believe it was happening, then touching Blaine’s face, letting his hand fall with a thud once they pulled away like the kiss was so wonderful it almost bowled him over…and, most of all, I loved that they kissed a second time, the camera cutting away halfway through, hinting that those boys kissed for a long time.  (No, I haven’t watched that scene ten times already, why do you ask?)

Third, I was amused – and not in a good way – by the show acknowledging that Blaine gets all of the Warblers solos, while still giving all of the New Directions solos to Rachel and Finn.  *sigh*

But even though all of those issues deserve long, ranty posts of their own, I want to take some time to talk about Quinn. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsMarch Movies I Won’t Be Seeing (And One I Might)

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Theresa Basile

It’s trailer review time again!  Let’s see what movies I can ignore in March.

First up is Sucker Punch, starring a bunch of life-sized Bratz dolls:

Summary: A group of girls escape from an insane asylum where they have been imprisoned against their will, kicking ass and taking names on the way!  They also happen to be wearing next to nothing while they do this, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence, right?

Predicting the ending: The girls win!  They beat up a bunch of bad guys while wearing fishnet stockings and not looking at all like a masturbatory twelve-year-old boy’s fantasy!

The Verdict: Dressing up young women as sex toys is the very cornerstone of feminism, isn’t it?  Oh, wait.  No, it’s not.  I’ll miss this one twice.  Continue reading →

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