"The Help"
(Spoiler alert: Please see the movie before you read this post. It's really good.)
===========
===========
--- I saw the film Wednesday afternoon. How dare Hollywood market this as just another shitty romantic comedy. It's the frontrunner for Best Picture (Malick won’t win for "The Tree of Life", I don’t think).
And the tepid reviews in the papers and online for "The Help"? Crap.
I'd give "The Help" a B+/A-.
--- Bryce Dallas Howard plays the villainess, and was so brave and wonderful. She might get pigeonholed into certain future roles, and she can forget about being the next Julia Roberts after this role, but Howard is almost 30, so having a career is better than not being up on screen at all. She was brilliant and I think eventually people will watch the movie just to remember how divinely evil she was. She never once winked at the camera, thankfully. I expect that a Best Supporting nomination is a certainty, and a win very possible.
--- I read in one of the magazines recently of some actress complaining that Hollywood agents talk about who’s fuckable and who's not, as if that was something unusual and awful. Man, that’s how everybody talks. Not just agents. All men. Women too. Brad Pitt is very fuckable. So are most if not all stars of both genders. It's part of the gig, toots. Actresses like Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain have to deal with that type of thinking, as we all do.
--- A little editing out of Jessica Chastain’s story line would have helped. What was the point of that?
--- Emma Stone is now a woman, a woman who can carry a truly great movie. Many more adult parts are sure to follow.
--- I can’t believe that this is Tate Taylor’s (very Southern name “Tate Taylor”) first attempt directing a major film. What a magnificent job he does here. He's very giving to the actors, allowed them freedom to create. This is an actor’s movie, with great parts for a bunch of women. I think director Taylor should have made MORE clear that all the women were playing with their lives. That is NOT made clear enough. The assassination footage of Medgar Evers does not seem to involve the women's dangerous situation enough, at least in my mind. Maybe a death threat from some redneck to Skeeter or one of the maids would have worked. There was funny stuff halfway through that really served the film by cutting the tension.
--- Viola Davis needs to prove she has a sense of humor so she doesn’t get pigeonholed into "angry middle aged black woman" parts every time out (Davis' Oscar nominated scene from "Doubt" was as powerful a ten minutes of film as I’ve ever seen. It gives me goose bumps to think of it.). Octavia Spenser was sensational. What a great look she had in this one.
===========
The marketing of this wonderful movie as a harmless, flighty comedy is racist, flat out. The studios did not trust people to see a women’s/black themed movie. Shame on them. People are flocking to it via word of mouth. A beautiful thing.
===========
===========
--- I saw the film Wednesday afternoon. How dare Hollywood market this as just another shitty romantic comedy. It's the frontrunner for Best Picture (Malick won’t win for "The Tree of Life", I don’t think).
And the tepid reviews in the papers and online for "The Help"? Crap.
I'd give "The Help" a B+/A-.
--- Bryce Dallas Howard plays the villainess, and was so brave and wonderful. She might get pigeonholed into certain future roles, and she can forget about being the next Julia Roberts after this role, but Howard is almost 30, so having a career is better than not being up on screen at all. She was brilliant and I think eventually people will watch the movie just to remember how divinely evil she was. She never once winked at the camera, thankfully. I expect that a Best Supporting nomination is a certainty, and a win very possible.
--- I read in one of the magazines recently of some actress complaining that Hollywood agents talk about who’s fuckable and who's not, as if that was something unusual and awful. Man, that’s how everybody talks. Not just agents. All men. Women too. Brad Pitt is very fuckable. So are most if not all stars of both genders. It's part of the gig, toots. Actresses like Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain have to deal with that type of thinking, as we all do.
--- A little editing out of Jessica Chastain’s story line would have helped. What was the point of that?
--- Emma Stone is now a woman, a woman who can carry a truly great movie. Many more adult parts are sure to follow.
--- I can’t believe that this is Tate Taylor’s (very Southern name “Tate Taylor”) first attempt directing a major film. What a magnificent job he does here. He's very giving to the actors, allowed them freedom to create. This is an actor’s movie, with great parts for a bunch of women. I think director Taylor should have made MORE clear that all the women were playing with their lives. That is NOT made clear enough. The assassination footage of Medgar Evers does not seem to involve the women's dangerous situation enough, at least in my mind. Maybe a death threat from some redneck to Skeeter or one of the maids would have worked. There was funny stuff halfway through that really served the film by cutting the tension.
--- Viola Davis needs to prove she has a sense of humor so she doesn’t get pigeonholed into "angry middle aged black woman" parts every time out (Davis' Oscar nominated scene from "Doubt" was as powerful a ten minutes of film as I’ve ever seen. It gives me goose bumps to think of it.). Octavia Spenser was sensational. What a great look she had in this one.
===========
The marketing of this wonderful movie as a harmless, flighty comedy is racist, flat out. The studios did not trust people to see a women’s/black themed movie. Shame on them. People are flocking to it via word of mouth. A beautiful thing.
posted by joe sweeney at 7:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home