Day 20 - There's Something About Mary
First Impressions:
"There's Something About Mary" is a less heartful Farrelly brother offering than "Shallow Hal", seemingly written as a com with a dash of rom for 13 year old boys.
Released in 1998. The same year as "As Good As It Gets". What I conclude is that political correctness was unimportant in 1998. We really are sensitive little snowflakes in 2017.
Sarah Silverman as part of the bff entourage <3
Personal Reflections:
Mila Kunis is the millenial Cameron Diaz - the cool attractive girl who likes sports and a brewski (brewskie? brewsky?). "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn has been flitting through my mind since "Friends with Benefits". In particular, the passage about the "cool girl":
"You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who'd like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them."
Two men wrote "There's Something About Mary"; care to guess who wrote "Friends with Benefits"...three men.
Yes, Nicholas Sparks wrote "The Notebook", a man wrote "La La Land", and two men wrote "500 Days of Summer"; this is not a tirade against men writing rom-coms. This is an inquiry into why so few rom-coms have been written by women who are apparently the intended audience.
I expected the com with a dash of rom movies to be written by men: "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Shallow Hal", "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "As Good As It Gets" (definitely written by a man). What I didn't expect is that none of the 20 movies I've watched has been written exclusively by a woman.
In fact, only THREE of the movies has been co-written by a woman: "13 Going On 30", "Never Been Kissed", and "He's Just Not That Into You" (source material written by a man). And what's even more, Abby Kohn co-wrote both "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Never Been Kissed". So that's two unique woman writers so far.
I don't get it. Why have 10% of the rom-coms I've watched been half-written by women, if the intended audience is women? And as Gillian Flynn aptly alluded, when we watch rom-coms, do we internalize the type of woman projected in order to be the heroine of our own rom-com? Woogie's wife bends over backwards to offer Ted a refreshment and when he doesn't accept anything offered, Woogie asks her to go inside to bake Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Ted responds he wants a woman like that.
I considered that my assumption of the intended audience might be wrong; maybe rom-coms are written for men too. From talking to other women and my own experience this month, asking a guy to watch a rom-com is met with 'no'. Do they prefer to watch them alone in case they cry?
Ah, right, what did we learn from "There's Something About Mary"? Well, the movie was basically a re-hash of the biblical story of King Solomon: that the person who would rather give a baby away than cut it into pieces to share is the person who should get the baby.
Rom-Com Tropes:
1. Cool girl trope. Mary is an insanely attractive doctor who likes beer and football and is very patient and understanding with her mentally impaired adult brother and all the duplicitous men who enter her life.
2. First love lasts a lifetime.
3. Omniscient narrator in the form of wandering minstrel Jonathan Richman.
Soundtrack:
They played The Dandy Warhols! The upbeat pop song to fade us out: Build Me Up Buttercup.
"There's Something About Mary" is a less heartful Farrelly brother offering than "Shallow Hal", seemingly written as a com with a dash of rom for 13 year old boys.
Released in 1998. The same year as "As Good As It Gets". What I conclude is that political correctness was unimportant in 1998. We really are sensitive little snowflakes in 2017.
Sarah Silverman as part of the bff entourage <3
Personal Reflections:
Mila Kunis is the millenial Cameron Diaz - the cool attractive girl who likes sports and a brewski (brewskie? brewsky?). "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn has been flitting through my mind since "Friends with Benefits". In particular, the passage about the "cool girl":
"You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who'd like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them."
Two men wrote "There's Something About Mary"; care to guess who wrote "Friends with Benefits"...three men.
Yes, Nicholas Sparks wrote "The Notebook", a man wrote "La La Land", and two men wrote "500 Days of Summer"; this is not a tirade against men writing rom-coms. This is an inquiry into why so few rom-coms have been written by women who are apparently the intended audience.
I expected the com with a dash of rom movies to be written by men: "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Shallow Hal", "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "As Good As It Gets" (definitely written by a man). What I didn't expect is that none of the 20 movies I've watched has been written exclusively by a woman.
In fact, only THREE of the movies has been co-written by a woman: "13 Going On 30", "Never Been Kissed", and "He's Just Not That Into You" (source material written by a man). And what's even more, Abby Kohn co-wrote both "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Never Been Kissed". So that's two unique woman writers so far.
I don't get it. Why have 10% of the rom-coms I've watched been half-written by women, if the intended audience is women? And as Gillian Flynn aptly alluded, when we watch rom-coms, do we internalize the type of woman projected in order to be the heroine of our own rom-com? Woogie's wife bends over backwards to offer Ted a refreshment and when he doesn't accept anything offered, Woogie asks her to go inside to bake Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Ted responds he wants a woman like that.
I considered that my assumption of the intended audience might be wrong; maybe rom-coms are written for men too. From talking to other women and my own experience this month, asking a guy to watch a rom-com is met with 'no'. Do they prefer to watch them alone in case they cry?
Ah, right, what did we learn from "There's Something About Mary"? Well, the movie was basically a re-hash of the biblical story of King Solomon: that the person who would rather give a baby away than cut it into pieces to share is the person who should get the baby.
Rom-Com Tropes:
1. Cool girl trope. Mary is an insanely attractive doctor who likes beer and football and is very patient and understanding with her mentally impaired adult brother and all the duplicitous men who enter her life.
2. First love lasts a lifetime.
3. Omniscient narrator in the form of wandering minstrel Jonathan Richman.
Soundtrack:
They played The Dandy Warhols! The upbeat pop song to fade us out: Build Me Up Buttercup.
I always think of that cool girl quote from 'Gone Girl!!' The cool girl doesn't exist!! Haha. Great reflection and what a revelation..all written by men huh. Maybe we ought to change that: enter lost souls/soles!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jayde. I think Amy Schumer might be a female voice. Remember "Trainwreck"? Personally it seemed like a woman playing the man-child character.
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