Posts Tagged ‘Ellen Page’
2 items.
Feb27
For the record, Julie Christie is a total G.I.L.F.
Then again, maybe some thoughts are better kept to yourself.
I don’t know how today’s comic became a commentary on the overabundance of opinions in the digital age, but I don’t think the observation is any less true.
You can’t swing a USB mouse online without being confronted by someone else’s opinion about something. Truthfully, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We seek it out. When we buy a new camera, we want to learn about someone else’s experience with it. When we hear about the latest celebrity scandal, we check our favorite blogs to have our disgust validated by someone with a more erudite sense of humor.
The downside to all of this is that it creates a Critic Culture. Just like I pointed out in the comic, everyone has an opinion and no one can be wrong.
It may be a moot point when it comes to something like the Oscars since winners have always been chosen by industry people – members of the Academy or Motion Arts and Sciences.
Still with the annual cottage industry set up around the Oscars, all of the articles written, the handicapping, the predictions, the red carpet coverage, the dissection of fashion – it’s become more than recognizing achievement in film. And between the internet and cable television, there are a lot of hours to fill with opinions about all of it. Audiences asorb it and become part of the process. They start spouting off their own opinions. Is anyone an expert on anything anymore? Would you trust them if they claimed they were? Probably not. It won’t be long until every awards ceremony basically becomes a blown up version of the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards.
Maybe that’s not such a bad thing? Certainly no one is taking them seriously now. I mean, the lowest rated telecast in Oscar history? Yikes. Either people are starting to see through the charade the Oscars have become (do we really need so many montages during the show?) or true movie fans are a dying breed.
The Academy made some interesting choices this year. A lot of indie fare that most people didn’t get to see. So blame the Academy or blame the audience. Me – I blame the Critic Culture.
The one I proudly represent.
[ No Comments ]
On Monday I talked a little bit about seeing a sneak preview of Whip It! last Saturday. I promised a review at some point. A review the never came. So, instead, you get this comic and I’ll kind of splice in portions of the review I was going to write here in the blog post.
I think I said on Monday that Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut has a certain level of enthusiasm that I think can be attributed by Barrymore’s usual rah-rah “Girl Power” mantra. Despite being a film about hard-nosed roller derby chicks, the film is optimistic and sunny.
Ellen Page as the film’s heroine is serviceable. Her character is a mousy beauty pageant competitor by day and a roller derby chick by night. Unfortunately, she doesn’t really fit into either of those roles very well.
To me she seems too sharp, her wit to acerbic, to be some mousy teen bullied into pageant life by an overbearing mother. Conversely, she doesn’t have the physical presence to skate around a rink and throw elbows.
The film explains away some of the later by acknowledging Page’s pocket-sized physique. Her roller derby alter-ego “Babe Ruthless” gets by on her speed and agility and less on her right hook.
Still, I think it would have been interesting to see someone like Kat Dennings in the role. Then I might have found the dichotomy between pageant queen and roller girl a little more believable.
As I mentioned in the comic, the cast for this film is amazing. Not just for the depth of the semi-recognizable names, but for the variety. In what other film are you going to see the stunt woman from Death Proof roller skate with the female rapper who was once First Lady of Ruff Ryders?
Gotta give points to the casting director for bringing Juliette Lewis into the mix. Sinewy, snide and possibly smelly, Lewis fits perfectly into the role of Page’s riot grrl nemesis.
Special acknowledgment, however, I think needs to be given to Kristen Wiig, who finally stepped out from behind the Nervous Nellie persona she’s perfected on Saturday Night Live and in supporting roles from films like Adventureland and Knocked Up.
Despite the eccentricity of being a roller derby competitor, Wiig plays her character like a normal, everyday person. At this point, playing someone normally was probably the most shocking thing she could do!
Story-wise, there’s nothing in Whip It! that you haven’t seen in a thousand other coming-of-age comedies. Basically, an awkward girl finds something she’s passionate about and comes out of her shell in opposition to her parents wishes. Do the parents come around at the end? Of course. Are valuable life lessons learned? You betcha.
But like I said, there’s a positive vibe reverberating off this movie and a certain zest of life to the characters. The live their lives on the fringe of society in an already liberal-minded alternate reality known as Austin, Texas. They skate in abandoned warehouses under pseudonyms, get drunk and listen to loud music. Their exploits are liberating and we, the audience, get to live vicariously through that.
That’s pretty much the role of any good movie. If you can watch the characters on screen and say “I wanna hang out with them,” or “I wanna do that,” then there has been some transformative effect that has allowed you to transcend whatever hang-ups or stress is waiting for you back in the real world. By that measure, Whip It! is a rollicking success.
So what about you? Any plans to hang out with Smashly Simpson and The Hurl Scouts this weekend? Does Whip It! look like a film that interests you? Did any of you manage to catch the sneak preview on Saturday? If so, what did you think? Leave your comments below!
[ 14 Comments ]
