And here we go again...
As a feminist accidentally born with testicles, I am always hopeful when Hollywood attempts to package movies designed for women. As we know, 99 percent of all Hollywood product is aimed at sexually confused 19 year old males. Give Hollywood some credit--in recent years, they've really tried to introduce diversity to their slate of films and that, of course, means movies produced by and for women.
Here's the problem:
Equality does not mean imitating the worst behavior of the worst men. Hollywood seems to think (and has done a great job of convincing a lot of women) that replacing penis jokes with vagina jokes represents some radical evolution in filmmaking. It doesn't. Hollywood has been trying to make Animal House with a female cast for some time and they don't even understand what made Animal House an enduring film. There is, ultimately, a camaraderie amongst the men of the Delta house which allows them to come together at the end of the film and battle the forces of conformity.
Snatched pretends there's warmth between the mother-daughter pairing of Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, but it never feels genuine. This is what has sunk the whole slew of "women behaving badly" movies that started, I believe, with Bridesmaids and has continued through the Ghostbusters reboot and Bad Moms (I'm sure there are a few other, but they slip my mind at the moment).
This is a bit of a tragedy. When Amy Schumer's career began, she was very funny and, in some ways, very radical. She's given in, however, to the pressure to be vulgar for the sake of vulgarity. This is not an attractive trait in any self-respecting woman. It's no different than women solving problems with guns and other phallic symbols in an action movie, as opposed to solving problems with their minds.
This movie will make you yearn for the 30s and 40s, when women in Hollywood were respected and were given roles in films about women negotiating life in an intelligent, realistic manner.
If Hollywood cannot do better than this, the women's movement is doomed.
As a feminist accidentally born with testicles, I am always hopeful when Hollywood attempts to package movies designed for women. As we know, 99 percent of all Hollywood product is aimed at sexually confused 19 year old males. Give Hollywood some credit--in recent years, they've really tried to introduce diversity to their slate of films and that, of course, means movies produced by and for women.
Here's the problem:
Equality does not mean imitating the worst behavior of the worst men. Hollywood seems to think (and has done a great job of convincing a lot of women) that replacing penis jokes with vagina jokes represents some radical evolution in filmmaking. It doesn't. Hollywood has been trying to make Animal House with a female cast for some time and they don't even understand what made Animal House an enduring film. There is, ultimately, a camaraderie amongst the men of the Delta house which allows them to come together at the end of the film and battle the forces of conformity.
Snatched pretends there's warmth between the mother-daughter pairing of Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, but it never feels genuine. This is what has sunk the whole slew of "women behaving badly" movies that started, I believe, with Bridesmaids and has continued through the Ghostbusters reboot and Bad Moms (I'm sure there are a few other, but they slip my mind at the moment).
This is a bit of a tragedy. When Amy Schumer's career began, she was very funny and, in some ways, very radical. She's given in, however, to the pressure to be vulgar for the sake of vulgarity. This is not an attractive trait in any self-respecting woman. It's no different than women solving problems with guns and other phallic symbols in an action movie, as opposed to solving problems with their minds.
This movie will make you yearn for the 30s and 40s, when women in Hollywood were respected and were given roles in films about women negotiating life in an intelligent, realistic manner.
If Hollywood cannot do better than this, the women's movement is doomed.