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Is ‘Mad Max’ Furiously Feminist — or Just the New Normal

May 30, 2015 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Hardy, Theron: jerky tough., no words wasted.

Hardy, Theron: jerky tough., no words wasted.

I am among the first people to wave the feminist flag. I believe in female empowerment, the right to choose, and even our right to choose and make mistakes. The simple definition. I pay my tab. But I’m uncertain whether it’s a step forward to hail the futuristic sci-fi film Mad Max: Fury Road, which I reviewed here, as a feminist film. I agree with the Guardian’s Jessica Valenti to a point. And she made many good ones Including this:

The movie, as has been said by others, is glorious: beautifully shot, fun, fast-paced and, yes, feminist. And if the popularity of the film is any indication (global cumulative box office is already $227m) this iteration of Mad Max shows that movie audiences are thrilled by its female action heroes, a plot that shows the necessity of dismantling patriarchies and its “leading” man who supports the real hero – the leading lady.

What I would like to argue, both with and against my colleague Valenti, is that the film has taken a step toward normalizing the images of women we see on the screen. That isn’t just feminist, it’s humanist. (Oh, and good business, too.) Charlize Theron, who plays the female heroine Furiosa opposite Tom Hardy’s burly Max, has a three-dimensional role with a past, present and hopefully a future. That she has one arm suggests a story that remains largely untold here, a past hinted at and shaping the character she reflects in those steely blue eyes beneath the damn-it-all buzz cut.

It is like we have become so starved for strong, full female characters in the desert of Hollywood mainstream movies that we jump on Furiosa as feminist. And, of course, she is and kudos to (male) director George Miller and screenwriters Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris for normalizing their stories. I embrace this, although we live in a ridiculous pop cultural amnesia zone that forgets that Hollywood gave us the great Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire, or Claudette Colbert in The Palm Beach Story or Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind or Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz or Joan Crawford and Bette Davis and ….

And we don’t want to overlook the fact that while there is a small posse of crones (those invisible women over 45) that supports Furiorosa in her battle against, well, ok, the Patriarchy (or just the yukky bad guys), there is also a harem of bulimic, bee-stung lipped supermodels to satisfy the core audience. Lord knows where these chicks got all that conditioner in that futuristic wasteland but I’ll accept that lack of continuity. But remember how Miller introduces the breeders in a male fantasy display as these stunners of many colors wash their long, skinny limbs (and, for some, sensually bulbous pregnant bellies). The dystopic wet-T-shirt scene reminded me of the supermodel gas station frolic in Zoolander.

So, yes, Jessica Valenti and the many more women  including my sisters at the feministmadmax Tunblr who stride up to call Mad Max a feminist film. For me, it’s another step toward normalizing the images of women on screen to reflect the badass beings that we are — from the time we are young fillies to our wise crone-ship.

 

 

Filed Under: Essay, Movies & TV Tagged With: Action Adventure, Bulimic Supermodels, Charlize Theron, Crones, Dystopia, Feminist, Mad Max: Fury Road, Misogyny, Tom Hardy

Time is of the Essence for George Clooney in ‘Tomorrowland’

May 24, 2015 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Serious (formerly Curious) George

Serious (formerly Curious) George

Tomorrowland, named after Disneyland’s future-themed neighborhood, is Spy Kids in space. Which turns out not be a bad thing although it may come as a surprise to those who have watched George Clooney do the endless P.R. rounds, hefting his epic charm as if it were Thor’s hammer.

On screen, the crinkly-eyed mega-star and activist — who plays spunky boy inventor turned fifty-something paranoid crank Frank Walker — disappears from the movie for nearly an hour in a very awkward and not particularly magical script bubble.

Precocious prepubescent Walker escapes to the future with his home-made jet-pack created from an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, landing in a silver-and-light Oz of the future that would have suited The Jetsons. (Interesting side note: at the theme park, Tomorrowland was intended to be 1986. So, if you’re relatively into Einstein, the future is technically the past).

Walker the boy makes this time leap from the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Park with the help of a magic pin handed to him by a girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy). If you know your mythology, Athena cracked out of Zeus’s head with an unmatched warrior spirit, which is what the Greek Gods had instead of spunk.
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Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: Brad Bird, Disneyland, Dystopia, George Clooney, Monsanto, Tomorrowland, Walt Disney

Hardy Boy Drives ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ to Fast and Furious Action

May 15, 2015 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Hardy, Theron: jerky tough., no words wasted.

Hardy, Theron: jerky tough., no words wasted.

The original Mad Max, the 1979 nihilistic low-budget death derby starring a beautiful yet crazy Aussie unknown, Mel Gibson, was the movie that first turned me on to action. This was testosterone, baby, and I was an estrogen-pumping college student in Berkeley catching Manhattan and Meatballs and Mr. Hulot’s Holiday. Enter Gibson and Director George Miller, angry and furious and driving the rusty old engine of cinema into the dusty dystopic future. I was exhilarated. And I was hooked. Blame them, or own it, I became an action junkie.

The Max madder-than-hell, I’m angry and I’m not going to take it any more sequels always overstretched the simple premise of the original, going to Thunderdome and beyond. I’ll leave it to the diehard online list-makers to rank these films like so many kindergartners sitting on mats learning their numbers for the first time. And, so, it is with relief and joy that I pick up with Hardy, an absolute favorite of mine, with his manly-man Max a pussycat compared to his Bronson performance.

Hardy inhabits the titular hero – all scarred muscle and tortured eyes and more flashbacks than a habitual LSD user — in a movie that is as linear and relentless as the original. There’s birth and death and the question becomes how much torture, inhumanity and deprivation an individual has to survive until that final apocalypse (or Valhalla depending on your faith).
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Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: Action, Blockbuster, Charlize Theron, Dystopia, George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mel Gibson, Tom Hardy

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