Bad Shojo Comics

 Iron Man is an AWESOME movie!

I was watching it with my grandma who has zero short term memory, and she kept on asking whether it was Arnold.  "Is it Arnold?"  it was kinda cute.  And then she kept asking me if he was James Bond, and i was like, "He *wishes* he was James Bond" which is true.

I never watch movies when i ought to, but since i wrote Tony Stark as a character in my latest (poorly received) saga, i figured i should watch it.  For research purposes.

Of course, the moment I fell for it was when the girl reporter accosted him and I was like: "It's Brookie!"  (I said this, aloud)  and then it was like, "OMG Brookie's in a movie with Gwyneth!  Nicole is going to be so pissed!"

Shockingly, Iron Man scores more Blechdel points than most Superhero movies.  It takes out Spiderman (with a whopping 1 point for sexy Kirsten Dunst [I really must be a nerdy comicbook loving boy underneath, because I couldn't give a fig for most dramatic actresses, but i fall so hard for the girls in Superhero movies... And if Paget Brewster was in a superhero movie I would have a heart attack and *die*])  Wait... is MJ the *only* girl in the first movie?  I fell hard for the cute Russian neighbor in Spiderman 2.  but does this mean that Spiderman gets 0 points, and S2 1 point, leaving Iron Man to save the day with 2 points!  2 Female characters!  With names!  (plus cute female soldier in the first scene who dies tragically)  Who actually have a conversation!  And if you try really really hard, about thirty seconds of their conversation is Not About Tony.  In fact, Christine seems pretty impressed to be in the same room as Pepper at all.  Too bad Miss Potts proceeds to act like a bitch and use a daring metaphor of trash removal.

But seriously, Who is doing the dry cleaning in this situation?  And who is looking really sexy in a burgundy shirt and nothing else?

Solid film, in the liberal superhero tradition.  Villainous ethnics are always merely dupes for the truly evil white man.  Weapons are really awesome, but only when you are Responsible!  And girls should be admired for their ability to remain unscathed while running away from explosions and gunshots *while wearing four inch heels*.

And because it is Marvel, the superhero is flawed (Hello Alcoholics Anonymous, my name is Iron Man), but noble, and really just a nerd who overcompensates a bit too much.  The eye candy is not killed to make the hero stronger.  *blech*.  And men can love men, very deeply, without losing an iota of their masculinity.

Personally, Tony's true love seemed to be his computer.  They were so cute together.

So, recap.

Bechdel Rule 2 points out of a possible three.
I can't in good faith give it any femslash thumbs, but as it makes me want to write Tony/Jarvis fic (or Tony/Yinsen), i will give it 2 big slashy thumbs up.
Superhero movie rating 9/10 (The fight scenes did not have the finesse of X-Men 1, and the graphics were not as tummy rumbling as Spiderman)

 Blogging attempt #1

Interview style:
Q: Alsike, what happened?  You made such a good showing with those movie reviews, why haven't you done anymore?
A: Well, Rhoda (yes, my imaginary interviewer is named Rhoda), it's because i don't watch enough movies.  The last movie i watched was... was... wait for it, um, Bad Santa?  Which was not my fault.  And seriously, giving that a Blechdel score?  Also, the copy i had skipped a lot during the Lauren Graham scenes, suggesting that it may have been used for masturbation.  I also watched The Thin Man, which was great!  Watch it!

Q:  Why is BBC Radio 4 is so much better than NPR?
A: The quiz shows.  Wait, wait, don't tell me, cannot compare with the News Quiz.  And Heresy.  What other station has a show that discusses (with Germaine Greer) why Obama did *not* bring hope to the world?  He did bring hope to Leftist America that armageddon was not imminent, but it's still sitting on the horizon.  And the most important reason: Cheryl Cole is never mentioned on NPR.  This is a tragic oversight.  Oh, and also: radio dramas.  I love radio dramas.

Q: Guiding Light?  Why, Al, why?
A: Bad anecdote; I got into a 'more christian than thou' situation on the CBS website.  I don't even consider myself Christian, but all these people saying 'I prayed about the Otalia storyline today, and i turn it off when my poor impressionable child is in the room,' got my hackles up.  i mean seriously, what happened to generosity and respect?  Anyway, what i learned as a Lit major was how to make a text support a point, so i gave a biblical backing to Otalia, because if it's about anything, it's about family.  And i really do respect the writers, because GL is full of bad people doing bad things.  How can kidnapping, lying and rape be less traumatizing for a child than two women who care about and protect each other?  Seriously, Ruth and Naomi anyone?

Q: No one is reading your stupid Custodian stories, why are you still writing them?
A: Because i can't stand JJ, and i need to get Emily together with Jill, but i don't make things easy on myself.  And i want to practice writing plot driven pieces.  But i'm also working on a new Law and Order fic, actually not (entirely) an AU (shockingly enough), where Casey gets lots of sex, whether she wants it or not.  I'm blaming lexus_grey  for this one too, specifically Vigilante, and i don't write Casey/Olivia, so it's something else...

Q: Best sport ever?
A: Rugby!

the best stories, i think, have resonances in reality.

I finally watched Serenity (i think i'm going to have to stop putting finally, because it's always finally. I never seem to watch a movie when i feel that i ought to). It was amazing, as expected. Every moment of harsh, frontier morality rang true. the language they used was beautiful. And the fear of a government that controls the way you think, the fear of "believers," these are all fears i hold close to my Barthesian influenced heart.

But i felt that an association i made in one distracted moment made the story be so much more powerful. In a western there's always going to be conflict between the man with his hard-fighting, gun-slinging, no man left behind, frontier morality and the US Marshall, sent to enforce law and order and the political decisions of the American government. But who do you fear in a western? And not those modern nancy-boy westerns that we get nowadays. Not even the good old Disney Davey Crocketts. But back when we didn't have to be PC, back when we could hear the pow-wow drums and really fear, and not think about the eradication of native cultures... I think you know what I'm talking about.

I felt horrified at associating Reavers with Indians, until the plot turned. We made our own worst enemy. We turned innocuous people into something to tell small children about in the dark. I'd heard before that the French introduced scalping, that we kill the indians who made peace with us and then complain when they attack. My mom tells the story of the massacre of the Native American women and children by US troops, who found a baby alive and the baby had a beaded cap with the image of the american flag sewn right in.

Serenity was a dramatization of a power that we have always had- the ability to make monsters. Sometimes the monsters only live in our heads: the monster of belief. Believing that others are monstrous can turn you into a monster. And sometimes we make real monsters, we hurt and we kill and we ignore and then we are surprised when they hate us. there's no defense for the actions of the monsters we create. they are still monsters. But we created them. How much of the blame falls on us?

Serenity 10/10
Yuri potential: Hot interesting women... each with a male attached... give it a half a thumb
Alison Bechdel's Rule: More than one woman: check. Occasionally the women talked to each other about something besides a man. Occasionally they talked about killing. But not often.
1.5/3

So, I finally gave in and watched "The Devil Wears Prada" this Monday. I had been resisting because I read the book and enjoyed it so much that I didn't want the movie to ruin it for me. There are so many people who have said that the book was badly written or vindictive or insipid, but I entirely disagree. I thought the book was fine. The writing didn't distract me from the story at all, and I cried at the end. Happy tears.

However, it's been four years since I read the book, and it has faded enough that I am no longer worried about ruining it. In addition, I've been reading fanfic for it. I was really surprised when i saw the first femslash fic for DWP. The pairing itself (Miranda/Andy) was also a surprise, because in the book there wasn't a lot of opportunity for such an idea. It was true that Andy's relationship with Nate was minimal and pointless, as was her relationship with Christian, but the book was written in such a arch single POV style that there was very little room for Andy to have an honest affectionate relationship with anyone, even herself.

The plot of DWP the book was about a girl who brushes against the dark side of her soul. We get to see her spiraling downwards and enjoying the ride, and when she realizes what an awful person she's become, that's when she pulls out. To my surprise the plot of the movie was entirely different. Yes, many of the plot points were the same (although the screenwriters changing her friend Lily from a struggling grad student of Russian Literature into a gallery assistant struck a blow to my heart and to all the hearts of academia-lovers everywhere), but the arc the screenwriters decided to focus on was not on Andy's internal development/deterioration, but rather the development of the relationship between Andy and Miranda.

First of all, thank you Meryl Streep, who made Miranda Priestly into a real person rather than a Cruella DeVille. (I love Meryl Streep. I saw her speak in person once, accidentally, and ended up crying in the back of the auditorium standing next to a sunglasses-wearing security guard, at her just being herself. She's wonderfully articulate and smart. And I'm blaming both instances of crying in this post on out-of-whack hormones from being sick.)

Miranda could have been played flat, or she could have been filmed flat, but both Ms. Streep and the cinematographer allowed Miranda to have her little reaction shots, checking out Andy's ass, or showing her bemused approval. Instead of Andy being victorious over a woman carved from stone, she's winning her affection and favor, and because Miranda really does grow to like her, to respect and trust her with her personal life, the story changes. No longer is it about one girl and her soul. the story becomes an odd sort of romantic comedy.

The fact is: the intimacy in their relationship is canon. It's not a sexual intimacy, but it's very clear that there is a certain amount of affection there, and it is only in the climax in Paris where this has some false notes.

First of all, Andy's wide eyed impassivity in the scene where Miranda is in her bathrobe is wrong. it's not wrong for the book, where she never really engaged even when intimacy was offered, but after all the struggles Andy has made for her boss, she really needed to be more bewildered, no, shocked at the breakdown. She needed to be more responsive to Miranda's pain. Second: the leaving scene. there was nothing wrong with the acting there, but really WTF! She's laughing and tossing her phone away because of what? Because she couldn't do it anymore? Because they lightened a lot of the moments where Andy comes face to face with her worst self, my sympathies fell with Miranda there. She was being abandoned. Andy was just walking away from her after her husband had walked away, after she had just barely fought off being kicked out of her job for someone younger. And she straightens up and does it herself, just like she's always been able to do, but she shouldn't have had to. I don't respect Andy's decision to just walk away without giving notice or a reason or even a hint. In the book her friend had gotten into a car accident which is much more understandable, but in the movie she had just done everything she could to help her boss, her boss had given her insight into her personal life, and bang, she cuts it out. The fact that Miranda gives her a job recommendation and then almost smiles at her when she's waving like an idiot on the sidewalk suggests an understanding of such depth and meaning that it doesn't require words. So yeah, totally shagging. :)

All in all, "The Devil Wears Prada" (the movie) gets a 9/10 and 2 femslashy thumbs up!
The book gets a 10/10 for chic/k lit