My Fat Friend's Wedding

Movies: Bachelorette

Bachelorette is an enjoyable, if a bit "on the nose", bad-girl movie. The lovechild of Heathers and Bridesmaids, Bachelorette is neither as evil as the former nor as kind as the latter. It's a bitchy movie, but not a nihilistic one.

When I say "on the nose" above, what I mean is that the characters in Bachelorette are broadly drawn stereotypes. There are two significantly overweight characters in the film: Bride-to-be Becky (played by the awesome Rebel Wilson, who played Kristen Wiig's creepy roommate in Bridesmaids), and groomsman Joe. Both of these characters are nice, funny, and caring towards their fellow human beings. The rest of the characters are conventionally good-looking and slim, and with the exception of Becky's nice-guy fiance, Dale, the skinny characters are selfish, immature, stupid, slutty, drug-addicted, and just plain mean.

While it's nice to see an inversion of the "fat guy gets skinny chick" stereotype, with plus-size (but otherwise conventionally good-looking) Becky getting fit, attractive Dale, it's also just plain dumb the way these characters line up perfectly as heroes and villains. Becky is the first of a group of high school friends, the "B-faces", to get engaged. Her fellow B-faces (why do high school girl groups always have names? I'm pretty sure there were no "Plastics" or "Heathers" at my high school) include slutty coke-fiend Jenna (Lizzy Kaplan), unbelievably stupid Katie (Isla Fisher), and Type-A mean girl Regan (Kirsten Dunst, walking the line between loyal friend and complete bitch nicely). Regan is the first to find out about Becky's engagement and calls her friends expressing her confounded feelings that the fat friend, known as "Pig face" in high school, is the first to get married!

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. FAT GIRLS GET MARRIED!!?? My mind is blown, seriously. Especially since, you know, overweight people make up the majority of Americans and like, 90% of Americans marry at least once in their lifetime. But ok, ok. Let's take this movie at face-value. Becky is the fat, and also awesome friend, and she is achieving a traditional, heterosexual rite of passage before her skinny, terrible friends, which is like TOTALLY CRAY-CRAY AMIRITE?!

Jenna, Katie, and Regan come together as bridesmaids of Becky. Regan is the maid of honor, which is smart on Becky's part because Regan is basically a more glamorous version of Tracy Flick from Election. Regan may be a bitch, but she gets. shit. done. I want a maid of honor like her if I ever get married.

During a drug/alcohol-fueled pre-wedding moment of tomfoolery, these three geniuses manage to tear Becky's plus-size wedding dress. The rest of the movie revolves around them trying desperately, in the middle of the night, to repair and clean the dress. Meanwhile, the gals continually run into the groomsmen, who are out for a night on the town with hapless Dale, the nice guy groom who doesn't want to go to a strip club (awww...but also, yeah right).

I won't go into details about what happens, but I will say that Regan redeems herself by actually being there for Becky minutes before she has to walk down the isle. Becky falters for a moment, whispering, "My mom thinks I'm too fat for [Dale]." Regan, who spent much of the movie mocking Becky's weight, looks Becky in the eye and says "Becky. Fuck everyone."

Fuck everyone. 

Wow. Obviously, you can't use "fuck everyone" as your day-to-day mantra because everyone would say "fuck you too" back and you'd have no friends. But at a moment like this, when it's time to woman-up, put on the big-girl panties, "fuck everyone" is exactly what I would want a friend to say to me. This is why Regan manages at the last minute to transcend the hero/villain dichotomy of Bachelorette. Sure, Regan is terrible in a lot of ways, but she still saves to day--with her sheer iron will and dominance. Some people in the movie refer to her as a psychopath. But I think she's just smart.

Bachelorette is hardly a paradigm-shifting film. The characters can be pretty one-dimensional, particularly Isla Fisher's brain-dead portrayal of Katie (between Ansel in Killer Joe and Freddie in The Master, dumb people are having a moment in film). And it really annoyed me, but also kind of cracked me up how, in the first scene, Regan and Becky are having lunch together and Regan orders a Cobb salad, "hold the chicken, bacon, and avocado" and Becky orders a burger and fries, with cheesecake for desert. I wonder if the director intended for them to order such eye-rollingly obvious "skinny" and "fat" people food. It's actually kind of genius how brazen some of the stereotypes were.

Bachelorette is no Bridesmaids, but it's also smarter and funnier than your average chick flick.

3.75 out of 5 stars

Hot Talk

Movies: For a Good Time, Call

For a Good Time, Call is bubbly, happy little movie that had me leaving the theatre with a smile on my face. It's not going to win any awards, but it will probably get some laughs and maybe even tug a few heartstrings.

On its surface, For a Good Time, Call is a raunchy sex comedy about two women in their late twenties who start a phone sex business to make some extra dough in a crappy economy. But what the movie is really about is friendship; specifically, it's about how friendship in and of itself can be a sort of love affair.

Katie (played by Ari Graynor, a lady so cute that she strongly tests my heterosexuality) and Lauren (Lauren Miller, also the screenwriter) don't start out as friends. The met briefly in college, but due to a mishap involving a cup of urine in a moving car, they had a falling out and never spoke again...until 10 years later when their guy pal introduces them since they are both in desperate need of a roommate.



Begrudingly, they move in together. When prim Lauren hears lusty, deep-voiced Katie constantly talking dirty on the phone, she asks what's up. Katie admits that she makes extra money on the side as a phone sex operator. Lauren's response? To make it into a business. The two ladies coin their sex talk business "1-800-MMM-HMMM" and the cash (and heavy breathing) starts rolling in.

But here is where the movie goes from a good-natured sex romp (with cameos by Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen as horny customers) into something more. During a "threesome" scenario, a customer asks Katie and Lauren to look at each other and describe what they see. Instead of the typical lewd talk, a tightly-framed camera focuses on each actress while they say things like "She's the most honest person I've ever known." and "She's so beautiful. Her hair is perfect." Katie and Lauren have gone from vaguely hating each other to what can aptly be called a "homoromantic" relationship. And the best part is: they never make out!

Don't get me wrong--I would not be adverse to seeing them make out. It's just that the For a Good Time, Call doesn't exploit Katie and Lauren's friendship as an excuse to show some unrealistic girl-on-girl (for a hetero male gaze). I'm a woman who tends to have female friends. I've never made out with any of my female friends...but have I told some of them that I loved them? Yes. And I meant it.

Likewise, For a Good Time, Call shows female friendship as love, not backstabbing and bitchery. Sure, Lauren and Katie have some serious ups and downs, but when it comes down to it, they genuinely care about each other and want each other to be happy. This is what real friendship is--when you accept someone's flaws and want the best for them. When you can be yourself around them and know that they won't judge you (much...). Without that comfort, honesty, and caring--why bother?

For a Good Time, Call also handles sexuality in a really positive way. It takes place in a world where women own vibrators, and that is considered normal. There's also a subplot where a character reveals a secret about her sexuality that is indeed unusual, but it's treated as not a big deal. The film has an attitude of "I'm OK, you're OK" when it comes to sex. It's refreshing.

Even though I don't run a phone sex hotline, I felt like For a Good Time, Call really spoke my language. The characters were friendly and relatable. Unlike other female-led comedies such as Clueless and Mean Girls, this movie is populated with people I'd actually want to be friends with. Although clearly feminist and sex-positive, For a Good Time, Call is also just plain fun.

4 out of 5 stars

Cult of Personality

Movies: The Master

Paul Thomas Anderson directs horror movies in which no ghosts, ghouls, werewolves, or vampires appear. Instead, the monster haunting his films is humanity itself. When I saw Boogie Nights for the first time in high school, it disturbed me so much that I vowed never to watch it again. However, when a friend in college proclaimed his love of the scene in BN where Alfred Molina uses a blowtorch to smoke crack, I gave the film a second chance (that scene is pretty classic, btw). I was still disturbed, but I was older and more able to feel uncomfortable while also acknowledging greatness in movies, books, and art.

Years later, P.T. Anderson's movies still disturb me, but I am up for the challenge. His 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, is a true masterpiece and a total gut-punch of a movie ("I'm fiiiinnnished!"). It shows the complete obliteration of empathy and decay of the soul in the character of Daniel Plainview, especially after his one tie to humanity--his adopted son--is damaged. It's a terrifying film, but it's also a brave one. It acknowledges that monsters do indeed walk among us. And sometimes, they drink our milkshakes.

In The Master, Anderson once again turns a brutal eye on humankind. And it is beautiful, unsettling, and kind of...disappointing.

The Master has been hyped as a movie that's about Scientology, but not really, but yeah kind of is. Officially, Anderson denies any connection between his character Lancaster Dodd (played grandly by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. However, the fictional character and the real life man do share a similar timeline, and "The Cause"--as Dodd refers to his religion/cult/lifestyle--has similarities to Scientology.

But these connections are beside the point. Dodd creates The Cause as a way for human beings to rise above the animals and perfect themselves. According to The Cause's followers, humans can mentally go back in time to past lives and correct mistakes and illnesses in an attempt to perfect themselves in the present. It all sounds like mumbo jumbo of course, but Dodd has a gentleness and warmth that lulls new followers into a sense of security and belonging.

A place to fit in is exactly what troubled WWII veteran Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix, in a performance that will make us all forget that unfortunate "rap" career) needs. Quell is violent, shell-shocked, and an alcoholic whose addiction is so extreme, he turns to Lysol and paint thinner in a pinch. Phoenix plays Quell with a mush-mouth that would put Marlon Brando to shame. I could barely understand what the man was saying (and could hear all the other characters perfectly). Quell seems so out of it that I wondered if he was supposed to be brain damaged. It's an excellent performance, but it's not relatable in any way. It was hard to feel anything for Quell except a mild, consistent sense of disgust.

Quell stumbles into Dodd's world purely by accident, but he's accepted by the man immediately. It's clear that Dodd wants to use Quell as an experiment of sorts: can he cure this broken man? And Quell, although eager to fit in, proves more slippery than Dodd expects.

The Master is an ambitious film. It's a visually beautiful film as well, shot in 65mm film, which has an extremely high resolution. Indeed, you can see every crinkle, freckle, and imperfection on Hoffman and Phoenix's faces (which are often shot in close-ups). There are also wonderful scenes of oceans and deserts. I felt like I was watching an IMAX film in a regular theatre.

As I mentioned above, the performances, particularly Phoenix and Hoffman, are just wonderful. This really was a great choice for Phoenix in the aftermath of the I'm Still Here dumbassery. Phoenix, like Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando, is a hell of a method actor. His agony and anger is palpable. Phoenix really becomes Freddie Quell. And Hoffman once again blows a performance out of the water. He's the perfect fit for the serene, yet self-righteous cult leader.

Despite all my praise, I didn't really like The Master. There was something missing. Boogie Nights had dark humor, Punch-Drunk Love had sweetness, and There Will Be Blood had brutality. All The Master seemed to have was weirdness. Weird bordering on alienating. Granted, pretty much all of Anderson's movies are alienating, but in the case of The Master, it just didn't work. I don't know. I think Anderson really, really wanted this movie to be a great masterpiece--and it shows. It tries too hard. From the interviews I've read about Anderson, he seems like a pretty pretentious and prickly dude. I think he is very aware that he is a great artist, and perhaps this self-knowledge is his achilles heel. The Master has a studied self-consciousness that holds it back.

This is a hard movie to grade. On the one hand, it's got so much going for it. On the other hand, it's too cold and clean to truly be a masterpiece. It's solid, it's good...but it's not great.

3.75 out of 5 stars

Finger Lickin' Good

Movies: Killer Joe

Sometimes I think there is something wrong with me. A miss-wiring of sorts that lets me laugh at events and situations in movies which would be horrifying in real life.

Or maybe I just like dark comedies.

Killer Joe, directed by William Friedkin, is a movie that I would describe as "Tarantino-esque" in the sense that it is graphically violent and also hysterically funny.


Based on the play by the very talented Tracy Letts, Killer Joe is about the Smith family. Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch), a drug dealer, owes his boss a considerable amount of money. He decides that the best way to make some quick dough is to hire a hitman to kill his hated mother, who has a hefty insurance policy. He conspires with his moronic father, slutty stepmother, and young, naive sister, to hire Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey, in a performance that deserves an Oscar)--a cop who moonlights as a hitman--to dispose of the woman.

When Chris and his dad, Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church), can't front the killer's fee, Joe says he is willing to accept collateral in the form of Chris's virginal sister, Dottie (Juno Temple). With no other option, Chris reluctantly agrees.

Of course, things don't work out as planned.

A few spoilers ahead...

I was surprised at how much of the film was dedicated to Joe and Dottie's "relationship". Dottie is a very interesting character. She's looks like, acts like, and is treated like a naive schoolgirl. However, she is very observant and is the focal point on which the movie turns. I had difficulty figuring out how old she was supposed to be. There was a scene where I thought she said she was twelve; but then the friend I saw it with insisted she was actually older--say, 15. In either case, Dottie is clearly underage, but has a body just mature enough so that's it's only creepy with she and Joe have sex--as opposed to being downright repulsive.

Regardless of whether Dottie is pubescent or post-pubescent, her seduction is indeed gross. It's hard to read what Killer Joe's interest in her actually means: is he trying to infuriate Chris, or does he just really like young girls? In any case, his manipulation of Dottie is short-sighted since the girl is much smarter than she looks, and, as we find out in the end, isn't easily bossed around.

In addition to statutory rape, Killer Joe has some scenes of violence that made me cover my eyes. Let's just say that you will be put off of pumpkin soup and fried chicken for a while. But all of the scenes of violence were undercut by an absurd humor, to the point where the humor essentially overrode the violence. I found the fried chicken scene, which got so much hype, to be more silly than horrifying. But that's just my reaction. This movie is not for people who don't like violence.

Killer Joe is filled with excellent performances. Emile Hirsch, an actor we don't see enough of, is great as the weaselly Chris. Thomas Hayden Church nails it as Ansel, Chris's father, who is so idiotic he borders on brain dead. Gina Gershon plays the sexy, scheming stepmother Sharla who gets her comeuppance in the above-mentioned fried chicken scene (Google it, if you want to know the details). Juno Temple plays Dottie, the observant girl who falls for Joe. And the titular Joe is played stupendously by McConaughey, who, between this movie and Magic Mike, is having a hell of a year.

The wonderful cast has an excellent script to work with. Letts, who has written a few other very successful plays (Superior Donuts among them), balances the conventions of film noir with scenes that range from nail-bitingly tense to hilarious and absurd. There's a scene--and I don't know if I should credit the writer, director, or cinematographer for this--where Joe tells (not demands or requests, but tells) Dottie to take off her clothes and put on a black dress. While she disrobes, he turns his back and removes his handcuffs (remember, he's a cop), and sets them on the table. My stomach turned at the thought of him using the cuffs on Dottie...but then he removes his gun and badge as well. It turns out that he was also disrobing, in a way. But the way in which he removes the cuffs first was a clearly deliberate choice to make the audience cringe for a moment, before realizing in relief that he was only removing the cuffs, along with the badge and everything else, as a way of undressing. Of course, the relief is short lived when we remember that this is a 40-something man seducing a girl barely in her teens.

It's moments like this--moments that aggressively and cleverly challenge the audience--that were so appealing about this movie. Killer Joe really was a smart-trashy film, if such a thing is possible.

5 out of 5 stars

Prime of Their Lives

Movies: Hope Springs

Hello readers! I am, once more, back from an extended blogging break. I have been settling into my awesome new job and have barely had time to catch my breath, let alone go to the movies. I apologize for my disappearance.

However, I did find the time to see one movie recently: the pleasant, if unremarkable Hope Springs. The film concerns late middle-age couple, Kay and Arnold, who have been married for over thirty years and now act more like roommates than lovers/friends/spouses. In a desperate bid to save her marriage, Kay takes $4,000 out of her personal savings to pay for a week of intensive couples therapy in the small (and vomit-inducingly cute) town of Hope Springs, Maine. Arnold threatens not to go, then begrudgingly shows up but kicks and screams his entire way through the therapeutic process.

The film has *some* cliched characters. I feel like a blasphemer for writing this, but Meryl Streep feels miscast as the passive-aggressive, submissive (and not in the chicka-chicka-bow-wow way), sexually unadventurous Kay. I am so used to seeing Streep in strong, vital female roles that her performance as mousy, pleasing Kay just seemed off. I think the director wanted an attractive actress in her early 60's, and Streep was the only person he could think of.

Tommy Lee Jones, however, was perfectly cast as Arnold: an old fart curmudgeon who is content to live a life of separate bedrooms and nightly ESPN binges. Arnold is deeply suspicious of therapy and the huge amount of money it costs, and he belittles the process constantly, to the point of deeply hurting Kay, who has invested so much in saving their marriage. Arnold comes off as a close-minded bully, and it's hard to see any possible redemption for such a tightly wound jerk.

One very much *not* cliched character is Dr. Bernard Feld, played compassionately by Steve Carell in a rare dramatic role. Feld is a legitimate expert in marriage counseling and he is never played for laughs. He's a counselor you would actually want to go to in real life, and Carell plays him wonderfully, with kindness that is inherent to Carell's performances, minus the goofiness.

Other reviews have noted that the best scenes in Hope Springs occur between Streep, Jones, and Carell during the therapy sessions. I agree. These scenes show what therapy is really like--with the psychologist leading the couple through their thoughts and feelings, fears and hopes. As therapy often does, this leads to some uncomfortable revelations about oneself and one's partner. Therapy is hard work; you are forced to confront things about yourself that aren't pretty. And Hope Springs shows therapy in a true and sensitive manner, as opposed to a joke or something only for weirdos and crazies.

Where Hope Springs fails is in its cutesy, cliched humor, such as when Kay visits a "Cheers"-like bar where the bartender pours her a free round while commiserating with her marriage trouble. And then there are the scenes of sexual experimentation between Kay and Arnold that are played for laughs but come off as silly. But peppered among these silly scenes are moments of nearly painful intimacy (or lack thereof), such as when Kay and Arnold are given the basic "homework" assignment by Dr. Feld to spend time in each others arms. The two are so used to not touching--even in a non-sexual way--that this assignment is extraordinarily difficult. Even after thirty years of marriage. There but for the grace of God go the rest of us.

Hope Springs is a mix of silly, non-offensive sex jokes about 60-somethings doin' it, a genuine look at marriage counseling, and a somewhat depressing drama about how two people who love each other can become strangers in their own home. It's not the greatest movie ever, but it offers some hard truths--and, yes, hope--about marriage.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Playing Catch-Up

Movies: The Dark Knight Rises, Turn Me On Dammit!, The Campaign, Ruby Sparks

Hey guys, so sorry about not updating this blog for a long time. I have been busy moving to a new state and preparing for a new job! But now that I'm settled in, it's time to review a few movies I saw recently.

The Dark Knight Rises

For everyone living under a rock, TDKR is the third film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The final film finds Gotham nearly a decade after the Joker wrecked havoc on the city and the vigilante known as "the Batman" killed beloved public official Harvey Dent (or so the people of Gotham believed).

Now a new villain, the terrifying Bane, is causing chaos in Gotham in the form of violent civil unrest (imagine if the Occupy movement was run by an violent fascist). Bruce Wayne, who has been avoiding Gotham for years, must suit up and return to save the day, while also fielding the affections of two lovely women, Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard).

As with Nolan's other Batman movies, TDKR is intense, violent, and more than a little nihilistic. It has some truly intense scenes of destruction (when Bane starts setting off bombs all over Gotham) and fights (the opening scene where Bane takes over a plane in mid-air is awesome).

However, TDKR lacks something that The Dark Knight had. First, I didn't find Bane as compelling as the Joker. Part of this was due to the fact that you can't really tell what's going on behind that scary gas-mask contraption on his face. While Tom Hardy does the best with what he has to work with, his performance doesn't live up to Heath Ledger's insane and oddly sympathetic turn as the tormented Joker.

Also, as someone not familiar with the Batman comics, I was easily able to follow the plot and understand the motivations in The Dark Knight whereas I was often at a loss for what drove the villain(s) in TDKR. So many people seem to want to destroy an entire city because of its "corruption" (where the main corruption comes in the form of those who seek to destroy it) or for revenge. However, I did like the sequences that took place in the South American (or Middle Eastern?) prison.

Despite these quibbles, TDKR is a very good and entertaining movie. Once again, Nolan shows his flair for creating slick, fanciful, and exciting worlds, as well as writing complicated plots that leave the audience with much to debate and discuss.

4 out of 5 stars

***

Turn Me On, Dammit!

This little coming-of-age gem from Norway has something many American teen movies lack: female sexuality without the side helping of exploitation. The film opens with 15-year-old Alma masturbating while listening to her favorite phone sex operator, Stig, describe a juicy scenario to her. Like most teens her age, she lives with her mom and enjoys the rare moment of lack of supervision by indulging in a common pastime (masturbation...not talking to a phone sex operator).

Alma is a normal teenager in her podunk little town in Norway, but she soon finds herself an outcast after her crush, Artur, randomly pokes her with his penis at a youth group event. Alma tells her jealous, mean girl friend, Ingrid, who accuses her of lying. Artur of course denies it, and Alma earns the nickname "Dick Alma". The teasing becomes so bad, that Alma looks for a way out--whether by retreating into her fantasy life, or by literally running away.

The best thing about this movie is how real it is. Alma, Ingrid, and the other teens look and act like real teenagers. They're mean, petty, and horny, but also intelligent and capable of empathy and kindness. The film doesn't blow their small dramas out of proportion (for example, Alma doesn't end up pregnant or raped for her sin of having sexual feelings). Alma has a generally good relationship with her single mother, who is embarrassed and taken aback by Alma's interest in phone sex and porno mags, but she never flips out on her daughter. I can't imagine what this movie would look like if it were made by Americans. Probably pretty dumb.

4 out of 5 stars

***

The Campaign

Speaking of dumb, the latest Will Ferrell comedy sadly has more idiocy than laughs. The movie concerns North Carolina politician Cam Brady (Ferrell), a slick democratic incumbent, who loses popularity after he accidentally leaves a ridiculous and vulgar message intended for his mistress on the answering machine of a conservative local family. Republican bigwigs in DC see the opportunity to run a gullible Yes Man candidate against Brady in the hopes that if this man wins the election, he will blindly pass any legislation they want. Their pick for the Republican candidate? Effeminate, pug-loving Marty Huggins (Zach Galifanakis, who is the best thing about this movie). Huggins is the naive son of Southern Good Ol' Boy Raymond Huggins, who is so old-fashioned, he makes his Asian maid talk like a black Mammy to remind him of times gone by (the joke gets old before it even starts).

Although there are some pretty good jokes and great cameos, The Campaign offers very little you haven't seen a million times before. The writers seem to value penis jokes more than actually coming up with original ideas. It's your typical not great, but not awful comedy.

3 out of 5 stars

***

Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks, written by and starring Zoe Kazan, turns the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope on its head. Ruby Sparks is the name of a character created by young writer Calvin (Paul Dano, great as always). Ten years ago, Calvin wrote a Salinger-esque novel that was a huge critical and financial success. Hailed a genius, he has been living off the royalties since and has failed to come up with his next great novel. He has also failed at love, preferring to avoid women and keep to himself, opening up emotionally only to his therapist (Elliot Gould).



Calvin longs so hard for a perfect female mate, that he begins to write about a girl named Ruby who grew up in Dayon, Ohio. Ruby roller skates to work and doesn't own a computer. Ruby wears red dresses and purple tights. Ruby loves giving blow jobs and can cook French cuisine. In other words, Ruby is a geeky male fantasy. The weird thing is...this fantasy comes to life.

One day, Calvin wakes up to find Ruby in his kitchen. At first, he thinks he's going crazy. But when other people see Ruby too, Calvin realizes that he has literally written Ruby into reality. And not only has he created her, he can change her at will, simply by writing whatever changes he would like. The movie takes a dark turn when Ruby begins to do things Calvin doesn't like, such as bond with his mom and stepdad, and flirt with other men. In the end, Calvin has to decide whether he will keep a perfect woman as a prisoner, or let Ruby go off to become a "real girl".

In spite of a sticky-sweet ending that didn't mesh well with the rest of the movie, I loved Ruby Sparks. I thought the idea behind it was fun and interesting, without being heavy-handed. The acting was great--Paul Dano is perfect as the well-meaning but insecure Calvin, and his real life lady love Zoe Kazan is wonderful as the cute, moody Ruby. The supporting roles, including Antonio Banderas as Calvin's hippie stepdad, are equally well cast. If you hate the whole Manic Pixie Dream Girl phenomenon, I'd recommend giving Ruby Sparks a try. It suggests that even "kooky" femininity is still kept under lock and key by men who want a partner who was placed on this earth for their pleasure alone.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Katrina Fairy Tale

Movies: Beasts of the Southern Wild

In Benh Zeitlin's magical, moving, revelation of a film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, characters that many of us would consider the reddest of rednecks live in disgusting, abject poverty. They literally sleep on top of trash. Their clothes are ratty and covered in dirt and filth. Yet, the director asks us to believe that they are happy. We (and by "we", I mean most anyone who has shelter, a place to shower, healthy food, and possibly an Internet connection) have difficulty believing that there can be anything other than misery and pain while living in such conditions. Yet we are asked to believe that with such poverty comes a certain dignity and community that cannot be replaced with nice clothes, nice cars, and safe, stable homes.

I had a hard time believing it, I'll tell you that. I would take a safe, clean home and running water over "The Bathtub" any day. The Bathtub is what the residents of the waterlogged, Southern Louisiana community call their town. Beasts takes place in this town in the not to distant future, where global warming is a fact of life, the ice caps are melting, and big chunks of Florida and Louisiana are all but under water.

While most everyone has moved north to avoid the storms and constant flooding, the Bathtub residents have decided to stick it out until...well, until they're underwater. Even if that means having to construct motorized boats out of the backs of dismantled pick-up trucks to glide around in after the storms. Such stubborn refusal to relocate somewhere safer is difficult to believe, especially since some of the Bathtubbers are young children.

Hushpuppy is one such child. She is a motherless six-year-old girl with an unstable, sick daddy who somehow manages to be braver and wiser than many of the adults around her. Quvenzahane Wallis plays Hushpuppy, and her performance is just unbelievable. Hushpuppy is an old soul; acutely attuned to nature. She has a habit of picking up creatures--birds, farm animals, etc--and listening for a heartbeat in their chests. When the ancient beasts that give this movie its title start to roam the land, it is Hushpuppy who is unafraid to face them.

The only thing that Hushpuppy is not equipped to handle is life outside the Bathtub. After a forced evacuation of the area, Hushpuppy and the other Bathtubbers are taken to a stark white shelter that feels more menacing than safe. The 'Tubbers desperately want to return to their warm, wet home, despite its dirtiness and danger.

Although I couldn't relate to the 'Tubbers and their love for their flooded hometown, I was touched by the film's suggestion that home is where one chooses to make it, and the freedom to do so is ultimately more important than safety, convenience, and even life itself. Beasts is a bizarrely patriotic film, given that we live in a country where patriotism is now something you can purchase at Walmart [or Chick-Fil-A ;)].

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a singular film. It is a fairy tale without the glass slipper and the fairy godmother. It's a patriotic film about the very people who are considered lowest on the totem poll of America. It's a film that says inner strength is what makes someone human, not clean clothes and a warm bed. It's a celebration of the human spirit that doesn't put humans on a pedestal above nature.

5 out of 5 stars