Brave and Magic Mike

[oyceter]

The number of unfinished book reviews I have keeps growing, and yet, I keep writing movie posts instead.

Brave

I was somewhat hesitant going in because much as I think "princess defies gender norms and doesn't want to marry" stories are necessary, I've consumed quite a few of them and have complicated feelings because I tend to be pretty stereotypically feminine. I liked it much more than I was expecting to, though I do wish Pixar's first female protagonist didn't have to be princess.

Also, the little I've seen of Brave merchandise confuses me. I want Merida's pretty dress, yes. But I also want her bow and arrows!

Signed,
Girl who liked Susan best in Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and ran around with construction paper bow and arrows

Also x2, this may not be the best movie to watch with your mother if your relationship is (much, much) less than ideal.

Signed,
Oh god that was awkward

I weirdly felt like the movie passed the Bechdel Test and yet didn't? I mean, it does on the basic terms, and it even foregrounds female relationships in a way that I rarely see in movies. On the other hand, I wish the background characters hadn't been so majority male.

Still! Mother-daughter relationships being complicated and human! I'll take it! I also like that Merida gets to show her mother how cool she is in her own environment (the fish!), but also that her mother coaches her through talking to the chiefs. In conclusion, not my favorite Pixar movie, but I liked it and roll my eyes at the reviewers who found it "unrelatable."

Also, BEARS!

Magic Mike

Somewhere on DW, I read that this was a film in which all the men were basically valued for their sexuality and their looks, while most of the women had careers. It's an interesting look at the lives of two male strippers, done through the point of view of a young, directionless guy who gets taken under the wing of an older male stripper and introduced to the business. I feel this is a fairly standard trope, but one that's rarely done with male protagonists.

I was very interested in how traditional masculinity was both parodied and upheld in the movie; the strippers are playing directly to female fantasy (it seems to be a het-based club, not gay), but in a way that resembles how many romance novels uphold the narrative of pursuer and pursued.

It barely passes the Bechdel test, but I like the main female character a lot, and there's another side female character the film does interesting things with. On the other hand, there are a lot of basically nameless, voiceless women in the crowds, as well as various romantic interests of the male strippers. So the film doesn't completely escape the male gaze despite the objectification of the main male characters' bodies. I don't actually think this is a bad thing; it feels much more descriptive than prescriptive.

And like I said, I'm still noodling at all the ways stereotypical notions of femininiuty and masculinity, of power and control, get played out.

Also, I actually liked Channing Tatum.

And there are a lot of tearaway pants. A LOT.

Comments

[al_zorra]

I liked the bear content all the way through, and how the spell played itself out, particularly when they got back to the castle. I liked that the art made family resemblences in the physiognomy of mother and daughter. I liked hearing the mother and the daughter speak because it was musical, whether or not it was authentic, and it sounded 'real,' at least as real as you can expect from a screen production. And the production values were splendid. Like you, however, I did rather wish she were not a princess, and -- if she is a princess, why has she no girls her own age as retinue? Even in the ye olde days of the 8th, 9th, 10th or whatever century it was supposed to be, even a lord's daughter would have some sort of retinue or posse -- even if she wouldn't have a Clydesdale as they didn't show up until late into the 18th century .... Too expensive to have indivualized other girls her age, as opposed to the cost-cutting of the brothers being identical triplets much younger than their sister, who do not speak, and do provide so-called comic relief?

Love, C.

[oyceter]

Yeah, no idea. It would have been nice if the triplets were girls also to counterbalance the "men are impractical and do wacky things while women run the show" divide.

[lnhammer]

"Unrelatable," what?

I also wanted more background female characters, but at least there were some. Three of them with speaking roles, even.

Also, fish!

---L.

[oyceter]

For more meta on the reviews of Brave:
http://elf.dreamwidth.org/630640.html
http://swatkat.dreamwidth.org/318181.html
http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/983971.html

And... I don't think it's Pixar's strongest movie, and I do actually agree with a fair amount of points in several reviews (uneven pacing, switch-and-bait re: preview and actual movie). But then there's the bit about how Ariel and Jasmine are braver than Merida, or how she's an honorary boy, or how focus on mother-daughter relationships isn't empowering, and I ... bzuh?

[glass_icarus]

And there are a lot of tearaway pants. A LOT. - ahahahaha omg. xD I am resisting watching Magic Mike, mostly because I refuse to pay NYC prices for an eye-candy movie, but this is good to know!

[oyceter]

I am surprised to say this, but I actually don't think it's just an eye-candy movie! There is a lot of eye-candy, but I also think Soderburgh does some interesting things with gender that I'm still poking at, FWIW. And it was actually very interesting to watch as a story.