Miss Representation more than just a feminist documentary

Thanks to my new status as an official Gapers Block staffer, I had the chance to attend the YWCA’s sold out screening of Miss Representation. The night was amazing and potentialy life changing. Check out the first snip from my review and the documentary’s preview below:

It would be easy to blow off Miss Representation as just another panties-in-a-bunch feminist documentary; and I imagine a good majority of the penis-clad population  might do just that and not read past the word feminist. But at the risk of sounding like a naggy bitch, please don’t. Miss Representation is not just another “Annie get you guns” feminist mantra meant only to enrage the vags and turn us all into lesbians. Miss Representation is the story about our society; it is a story about the increasingly bruised and bloody relationships between the media and the women; and the lesson of this story is how shitty media hurts vags and penises alike. So if you have a vagina or just love vaginas in all their equal glory, this documentary is your story as well.

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Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

Lesson of the movie Bridesmaids: Girls like inappropriate vomit too

Seeing Bridesmaids yesterday was more than just the typical “out with the gals” kind of night. After weeks of reading the feminist call to arms, seeing Bridesmaids had become a brave act of political support of actresses; a bold rally behind the idea of well-rounded, relatable female characters; a plea, hope, and desperate cry for the the end of the gender funny gap in Hollywood. It was bigger than burning a bra in the 60’s.

It was also just a really damn funny movie.

As I crammed into the theater with the most ideal group do eight wonderful women and cracked open a smuggled mini-bottle of cab sav, I felt like a real feminist, a real classy feminist about to embark on a journey into my soul.

And then the movie started, the cab kicked in and I laughed, cried and sighed my not-so-feminist-but-more-humanistic sympathies for 2 hours. I forgot that I was there to make a statement and instead enjoyed the movie.

If this movie is ground-breaking or ceiling-crashing in some way, it just proves how much the ground sucked before or how unnecessary that ceiling is. Bridesmaids is not a feminist movie or even a movie for women; it is just a god damn funny movie.

From crazy British roommates to projective vomit, from failed business to moving back in with your mom, from bad fucks to bad luck, Bridesmaid is a good movie, a real movie, and a movie that should be repeated more often.

The movie isn’t a “guy movie” with a female lead. It is a funny realistic narrative of an imperfect woman who occasionally gives her friends food poisoning and then vomits. If this movie proves anything it is that women think projective vomit is funny too. And apparently men like it too. The opening weekend had a 35% male audience according to the LA Times.

And according to the newspaper this is a trend many hope to continue. “Female Filmmakers are hoping these movies, which center on flawed but empowered women behaving badly, will reverse a decade-old trend of reducing comedic roles for women to either the Type-A power suits too busy for love or girlfriends/wives determined to squash the boys’ fun.”

By god, let’s hope the LA Times is right with this one because I for one am ready to see a woman fart on the big screen.