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Pick of the week: “Bridesmaids” gets a meaner, smarter big sister

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:59:00 +0000

If I tell you that writer-director Leslye Headland’s debut film, "Bachelorette," is a wedding comedy built around ruthless female characters and intelligent but foulmouthed dialogue – well, you’re already confused, right? Is it a sequel to “Bridesmaids,” that summer 2011 hit that elevated co-writer and star Kristen Wiig to the A list and became a symbol of Hollywood feminism and a talking point in the endless (and moronic) debate over whether women are funny? Or is it just a shameless knockoff? Well, the correct answer is neither. “Bachelorette” is like the meaner, smarter sister to “Bridesmaids,” the sister who just got back from a debauched first year of college with black eyeliner, a taste for cocaine and an appetite for drama (in all senses of the word). Sound appealing? Yeah, to me too. But don’t claim you weren’t warned.

Maid of dishonor

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A longer version of this piece originally appeared on Christine Macdonald's Open Salon blog. It was written in response to an open call for sibling rivalry stories.

Armed with a half gram of cocaine, I locked myself in a bathroom stall and straddled the back of the toilet with my dyed-to-match pastel pumps, my strapless, floor-length bridesmaid dress dangling precariously over the seat. I knew I still had time before the wedding toast because I could hear the music thumping down the hall. Besides, no bride expects her maid of honor to be high on drugs on her big day -- especially when it’s her younger sister.

At 18, I had little life experience, so my mother served up a crash course in maid of honor etiquette the night before the wedding. My toast was to be lighthearted and personal, a trip down memory lane with my sister and new brother-in-law. The problem was, I didn’t really have any stories, nice or otherwise. Short of the pre-wedding hullabaloo, my sister and I barely spoke.

Melissa McCarthy’s great big win

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Melissa McCarthy doesn't get small parts. She stars in a sitcom about characters who met at Overeater's Anonymous. She does "Saturday Night Live" sketches that involve guzzling bottles of ranch dressing. As a result, she has faced her share of cruelty and stereotyping – most notably in 2010, when Marie Claire blogger Maura Kelly wrote a piece on "Mike and Molly" and declared herself "grossed out," not just by the idea of "fatties" kissing, but frankly by them "doing anything" at all.

But along the taunt-strewn way, audiences and critics began to take serious notice of a very funny actress. When "Bridesmaids" became a massive hit last spring, its success was fueled in no small part by McCarthy's fearlessly brash performance. (Once you know that McCarthy based her character on Guy Fieri, the entire thing gets that much more fantastic.) It wasn't just the ferocious comic energy that McCarthy put into using a sandwich as a sex prop or defecating into a sink that made her so instantly indelible. It was the way she gave Megan such a convincing heart. In a sea of poop jokes, she emerged as the most real character in the whole movie, the one you'd want in your own entourage.

The Oscars play it safe, nostalgic

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:15:00 +0000

As usual, it all went almost exactly as expected. This year's Academy Award nominations went to a plethora of already much-accoladed movies and performances, with a rich dose of nostalgia and sentiment. Yet when Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak and last year's best actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence announced the contenders this morning, there were still a few gasps to be had.

The surprises started with the supporting performance nominations. Kenneth Branagh, Jonah Hill and Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") all seemed likely nominees. But it was the sentimental inclusion of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close's" Max Von Sydow, and left-field nod for Nick Nolte in "Warrior" that roused the crowd.

For the supporting actresses, there were even fewer surprises to be had, with the likes of Bérénice Bejo and Octavia Spencer once again going head-to-head. But the inclusion of this year's comedic It girl, Emmy winner Melissa McCarthy, for her bawdy, ballsy turn in "Bridesmaids" was a nonetheless sweet moment – and a rare display of evidence that you don't have to be a glamazon or Dame Judi Dench to be in the running for Oscar. And the best original screenplay nomination for "Bridesmaids" was another encouraging sign, proving at last that women can not only make successful movies involving explosive diarrhea, they can make Academy Award-nominated movies involving explosive diarrhea.

Early signs of a “Bridesmaids” bump

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:01:00 +0000

Last week, the summer's surprise blockbuster, "Bridesmaids," was released on DVD, after a spectacular run both in the United States and abroad. The fortunes of the film, which starred a brace of funny women and dealt equally in fart jokes and friendship, were regarded as crucial to the future of women in entertainment.

Hollywood, perpetually on the verge of never making another movie for anyone but teenage boys, was in need of a slap in the face, reminding it that women buy tickets, fill theaters, tell friends they loved it -- and know men who are occasionally eager to see the opposite sex portrayed compellingly on celluloid. "Bridesmaids" delivered a wallop, bringing in more than $280 million worldwide, and drawing an audience reported to be a third male, and largely over 30.

But has it actually whetted the film business's appetite for more female-driven projects? Salon called Lynda Obst, producer of movies like "Sleepless in Seattle," "Contact" and "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days," the television show "Hot in Cleveland," the author of "Hello, He Lied" and all-around movie sage, to see what, if anything, has changed in her town this summer.

Wiig rides “Bridesmaids” success into new role

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:45:00 +0000

According to Variety, "Bridesmaids" star and co-writer Kristen Wiig will begin filming "Imogene" -- a "passion project" she's been hoping to get off the ground for "more than two years" -- in August. The film will mark Wiig's first starring role since her major May hit, which smashed records by becoming both Judd Apatow's best-performing film and the biggest-ever female-led, R-rated comedy.

Of "Imogene," Variety writes:

Wiig will star as the title character, a moderately successful New York playwright who stages a fake suicide attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend, only to end up being forced into the custody of her gambling-addict mother.

“Bridesmaids” saves the chick flick. Now what?

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Since its opening in mid-May, Kristen Wiig's "Bridesmaids" has gone from "social responsibility" -- a film that female fans flocked to see, not only for its entertainment value, but also on principle -- to box office triumph. Last week, it became Judd Apatow's highest-grossing film ever, and now it's surpassed "Sex and the City 2" to become the biggest female-led R-rated comedy in cinema history (though "Bridesmaids" won the critical competition long ago, its more-than-respectable Metacritic score of 75 putting "Sex and the City 2's" measly 27 to shame).

Why “Wonder Woman” can’t get off the ground

Fri, 13 May 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Just because the world may be ready to accept women as the stars of their own gross-out comedies doesn't mean it's gung ho to embrace them as superheroes. On Thursday, after years of back and forth speculation and months of hype, NBC officially nixed the David E. Kelley/ Warner Bros. TV reboot of "Wonder Woman."

The project, like any reinvention of a beloved franchise, was plagued with skepticism from the start. Just imagine a legion of Comic Book Guys registering their disgust -- and I include myself in that group -- and you get the picture. David E. Kelley? What could the man who gave us waifish hot mess Ally McBeal know of an Amazon princess? What could the miniskirt enthusiast understand of a superhero who quite literally wears the pants? The answer, apparently, is not a whole lot.

Seeing “Bridesmaids” is a social responsibility

Thu, 12 May 2011 16:17:00 +0000

It's a strange day when our social movements coalesce around a movie comedy that appears, from its trailer, to hinge largely on an explosive farting scene, but Hollywood's warped gender politics seem to make each day stranger than the last.

This week, with a viral enthusiasm usually applied to marches on Washington, grass-roots presidential campaigns or saving Planned Parenthood from House Republicans, women (and men) who believe in a future that includes movies for and about women have turned the comedy "Bridesmaids" -- written by "Saturday Night Live's" Kristen Wiig and her collaborator Annie Mumolo, and starring a passel of funny women -- into a cause. "Bridesmaids" activists want to send a bracing message to a business that has become increasingly oppressive for the women who work within it as well as for those who consume its product. That message must be delivered in the form of box office receipts, which means that for a certain set, seeing "Bridesmaids" this weekend -- and encouraging others to do the same -- is more than a trip to the theater; it's a social responsibility.

“Bridesmaids”: A triumph for vomit, and feminism

Tue, 10 May 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Meet "Bridesmaids," your first black president of female-driven comedies. Since its earliest gestation, the new bromance-but-with-chicks, "Bridesmaids," has been the subject of much speculation, hand-wringing, and pundit pondering over the state of -- and potential for success of -- funny women in show business. There's an awful lot riding on Kristen Wiig's slender shoulders. Industry insiders have publicly worried about what the movie's box office showing could mean for other similar projects -- as if the show business future of the entire gender is at stake.

With its ensemble of comedic powerhouse performers, vivid gross-out gags, and guy-pleasing team of director Paul Feig and producer Judd Apatow (whose collaborative history dates back to the still much mourned "Freaks and Geeks"), "Bridesmaids" has the sort of alcohol- and embarrassment-fueled concept that would be a box office no-brainer with a male cast. The last five years have been a bonanza for summery, vomit-flecked comedies with hearts of gold, from "Superbad" to "Knocked Up" to the sequel-spawning "The Hangover." But in all those films, women have been secondary players -- untouchable hot chicks, shrill mothers, redemptive catalysts for getting jobs and selling off action figures. Was it simply because, as Christopher Hitchens once suggested, women just aren't funny? Or was it something else: Hollywood's fear that audiences don't want to see women behaving like buffoons when they could watch Kate Hudson or Katherine Heigl pining for some lovable rogue?