Chick-Flicks for Reel Women
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
Chick-Flicks. How we despise that name and
what it connotes, implying as it does the lowest of sappy mindless drivel
produced with soaring soundtracks to tell you when to cry; mothers, lovers
and/or children dying; lost love, betrayal, accidents, tragedy and mucho
suffering.
They’re Sophie’s Choice meets Ordinary
People meets Beaches meets Message in a Bottle.
Woman with working brains don’t much
appreciate the label and men just cringe at the thought.
The fallacy with the idea of the
chick-flick is that all woman want only to watch overly made-up
unrealistic babes sitting around chatting and dishing---for instance, the
often alluded to top-ten chick-flicks: Beaches, Waiting to Exhale and
Steel Magnolias.
Watching a movie with gal-pals, (or even
the odd evolved man), calls for something better than dramatized Oprah
episodes. In short, it calls for characters with character.
My aim here then is to offer an alternative
list of sorts. These are movies whose appeal is based on sparkling
dialogue, intrigue, strong women and appealing men. I call this the
"sense and sensibility chick-flicks," or S&SCF.
Firstly there is romantic comedy. It’s
one of the hardest genres to pull off well and frankly the good ones were
all made many years ago.
The best of the screwball comedies and
topping the S&SCF list are such classics as The Thin Man, where Myrna
Loy and William Powell share martinis and witticisms while solving crimes
and looking smashing; His Girl Friday is one of the best films to
highlight the incredible screen appeal of Cary Grant, as does The Awful
Truth with delightful Irene Dunne, a flick that soars with sex appeal and
lunacy; The Palm Beach Story, The Philadelphia Story, Holiday and It
Happened One Night.
Two of the recent film versions of Jane
Austen novels are included on the list as well.
Pride and Prejudice, (the six-tape A&E
version), and Persuasion are so well-made, played and directed--with
moving and intriguing situations and dynamics--that even men have been
known to be sucked into Austen’s world of repressed desire and eccentric
characters.
But fear not. This list also includes
movies featuring guys. Face it, we woman like to see cute guys, who are
funny.
Diner and Breaking Away are two of these.
They feature several actors in their thinner and untainted youth. In
Diner, the first of Barry Levinson’s Baltimore movies, Paul Reiser,
Mickey Roarke, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern and
Ellen Barkin appear as an ensemble of just barely mature friends in the
1960s.
They were nearly all unknowns when the
movie was made in 1982. It’s enjoyable to see these currently
recognizable actors’ quirks already evident. Besides which, the movie is
hysterical, convincing and uncanny.
Breaking Away featured Dennis Christopher
as a bike racing fanatic with Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle
Haley. This gem of a movie, mostly forgotten, was nominated for Best
Picture in 1979.
So, why do these particular films rate as
S&SCF?
Because the guys look great, there are very
funny lines, great performances and believable stories about true
friendships which women relate to despite the friends’ genders.
What else makes it on this list? Movies
with sex, of course.
Unbearable Lightness of Being. It’s
smart---based on the Milan Kundera novel—it has gorgeous actors, Daniel
Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche, in an intriguing story with
fascinating characters who have a lot of sex with each other. See?
Something for everyone there.
Likewise, Women in Love, from the D.H.
Lawrence novel, though emotionally very dark, has clever women, a dialogue
driven plot line and an extremely earthy nude wrestling match between Alan
Bates and Oliver Reed.
All About Eve may be one of the smartest
movies made. The female leads are brittle, conniving, and vulnerable, and
the men are no slouches either.
Some Like It Hot. Oh yes, this is one of
the funniest movies ever and sense and sensibility women love it since it
involves friends, men-in-drag, Marilyn Monroe at her ripest, and the
funniest final line ever.
To wit:
An exasperated (and in drag) Jack Lemmon
after being proposed to by Joe E. Brown: "But I’m a man!"
Joe E. Brown’s nonchalant response:
"Nobody’s perfect!"
Bull Durham is a movie which is very nearly
perfect, synergizing sports, aging, romance and a smart, though daffy lead
female role.
Though Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon
famously fell in love during this movie, it’s her repressed desire for
Kevin Costner and his for her that generates heat. It’s literate, the
soundtrack’s a gas, and it’s about that most cerebral of team sports
--baseball.
Dr. No.
Let me explain my choice. Sean Connery, in
1962, was as choice a specimen of the male gender as you are likely to
find anywhere, anytime. Besides that he shares the screen with Ursula
Andress, a Jamaican locale, a thrilling adventure, and what man would say
no to it.
Two seldom seen and great rents to share
with gal-pals are My Brilliant Career and Impromptu, both starring the
peerless Judy Davis, before Woody Allen discovered her and made her into
another neurotic female version of himself.
How about a few epics and romantic
adventures to liven up the night? What would any list be without Gone With
the Wind and Citizen Kane? Let’s add Shakespeare in Love, Last of the
Mohicans, (1992 version), The Princess Bride, Star Wars, and Raiders of
the Lost Ark.
To sum it up, hitherto derogatorily called
chick- flicks are merely sappy tearjerkers. They are not movies for, about
or even made by women. They are men’s fantasies and often feature
glorified dead wives and prostitutes with hearts of gold and unnaturally
buffed bodies.
Go ahead, if you must, watch those. We
reel-women will be viewing A League of Their Own.
