Salon.com > Kirsten Dunst

In defense of “Bachelorette’s” mean girls

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Before I saw “Bachelorette,” the relatively new comedy starring Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher as three coke-snorting, shit-talking, emotionally damaged bridesmaids, now showing in theaters and On Demand, I was expecting a movie about three women from hell. The reviews of the film not only positioned the stars as the “Bridesmaids” chicks gone rabid, but as emotional relatives of Charlize Theron in Diablo Cody’s “Young Adult” and Cameron Diaz in “Bad Teacher," characters who were intentionally heinous, detestable and unredeemed. Whether one liked "Bachelorette," or loathed "Bachelorette," found it hilarious, disgusting or somewhere in between, the three women in it were supposed to be capital B bitches. Imagine my surprise when I just flat-out liked them.

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.

Six degrees of Spider-Man

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Is your Spidey sense tingling? Marvel Comics and Columbia Pictures certainly hope so, having made the unorthodox decision to recast and reboot the immensely successful “Spider-Man” franchise, just a decade after Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and writer-director Sam Raimi captured the nation’s post-9/11 mood -- and launched the 21st century superhero boom.

As anyone who’s seen a bus shelter, a train station, a freeway billboard or a television set in the last several weeks already knows, “The Amazing Spider-Man” will open worldwide just before the Fourth of July, with English actor Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin in “The Social Network") as tormented webslinger Peter Parker and Emma Stone (Skeeter in “The Help”) as his love interest.