Lizbeth Finn-Arnold

I was left speechless by Speechless

How can a TV show about sensitivity be so insensitive to women?

Last week, I finally found time to tune into the new ABC comedy Speechless. The show has been positively praised by just about every TV critic as being one of the best, if not the best comedy of the year. If you scan the reviews you’ll find words such as: aspirational, offbeat, genuinely funny, compelling, irreverent, nimble, quirky, and heartfelt. The show is hailed for showing the complexity of living with a disability, while not becoming overly-sentimental or sappy. One reviewer said: “Speechless exemplifies simple human decency without emphasizing it. Its world exists as ours should; unembellished. And in that, its powerful message could become extraordinary.”

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Fiona's Run

Been reading a lot about the inequality in Hollywood, not just about the lack of jobs for female directors/writers but also how warped it is that actresses aren't allowed to age. Kind of sad that by the time a woman turns 29 in Hollywood she's deemed TOO OLD to play the wife or girlfriend to Leonardo DiCaprio or George Clooney or all the other old farts whom we are expected to believe can still kick ass and get barely-legal ass well into their 60s and 70s.

Talk about male fantasy. Sadly, it's porn mentality that rules Hollywood, and I call it porn mentality, because women exist as beautiful blank slates, who are just here for men's gaze, sexual gratification, and entertainment. And the men in power, who make these films, see nothing wrong with that. They don't even question that maybe, just maybe, WOMEN AREN'T HERE FOR MEN'S ENTERTAINMENT. We have our stories to tell too!

Texting and Walking Zombies

In NJ, they are proposing a bill to make texting and walking illegal.

I think fining the "walk-and-texters" is a great idea because they drive me nuts, and it is actually dangerous. I cannot comprehend why people can't live without their phones for even one second. I see kids getting off buses, staring like zombies at their phones, unaware of the world around them. Cars whizzing by? They don't even register it. They literally can't wait two minutes to get inside their homes before they answer a text?

Also I hate shopping in stores, because people on their phones continuously walk into me (and then look at me like I'm an alien). I see people walking around in cities completely clueless to the world beyond their phones. Whatever happened to being street smart and aware of your environment? And why does every message need to be returned instantaneously?

 

Everything is Copy

I was lucky to see a sneak peek of this doc about Nora Ephron last night. It's written and directed by her son, Jake Bernstein, and it is pretty fantastic. However, that being said, I still have mixed feelings about Nora. She was a tremendously accomplished female screenwriter and director (not to mention journalist, essayist, playwright) in a time when few women have been able to make great strides in these fields. To many she is a feminist icon. I have much respect for her.

However, while she has been praised for her brutal honesty and scathing wit, I have often felt it was not completely authentic. Yes, it was all mentally and intellectually spot on, but I felt there was something missing emotionally and spiritually in her writing. Her essays sometimes felt shallow and false (just like many of her romantic comedies). It's like maybe she shined a spotlight on something funny (her own flaws and those of others), to take the spotlight off of other things, perhaps too emotionally painful to express?

The Sexy Goddess Trope in Films and Why It Makes Me Cringe

There is something worse than the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope. Saw a french film last week called MY GOLDEN DAYS, which all the critics of course love. But to me it was dreadfully pretentious. Instead of the manic pixie, we have the french version -- the Needy Pouty Alluring Sex Goddess. She's the beautiful adolescent girl who oozes sex appeal and experience, and has the young male protagonist under her tantalizing spell. He's mesmerized (as are all the boys), and literally cannot function without her.

Sexy Goddess is a fantasy, a obsession, a fetish, an object for male pleasure. However, underneath her seemingly confident exterior she's a needy, fragile child with the emotional and mental capabilities of a five year old. She doesn't have dreams/goals of her own (other than mesmerizing boys) and she has no story arc. She exists merely so the young man in this coming of age tale can act out his fantasies and dispose of her when it's time to grow up and become a man.

Steinem Insults Feminists with Remarks

Shame on Gloria Steinem for making such a grossly sexist remark to Bill Maher, asserting that young women are only supporting Bernie Sanders because they want to "meet boys" and boys support Bernie.

Really? I would expect Trump to say something stupid and crass like this, but not the feminist icon who has allegedly been fighting for equal rights for the last five decades. Nothing sells feminism like a feminist elder telling the youngsters that they are all stupid bubbleheads who can't think for themselves.

52FilmsbyWomen - Obvious Child

For week two, ‪#‎52FilmsbyWomen‬ I checked out OBVIOUS CHILD. This film, dubbed the "abortion rom-com" is truly a film only women could make. And that's a good thing. Because the life of women is complex and messy and it only feels authentic and hits a nerve when women are involved in telling their own stories.

The film is surprisingly sweet and smart, while also being raunchy and funny, and not shying away from dealing with a truly adult topic. Sometimes the most adult thing a young woman can do, is admit she's not mature enough to take the next step in life, and yet still take responsibility for herself. It helps, of course, to have a gaggle of supportive and funny friends and family members along for the ride.

Because of the subject matter, this will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am looking forward to seeing what else this creative team of women have up their sleeves.

Directed and written by Gillian Robespierre, story by Robespierre, Anna Bean and Karen Maine, produced by Elisabeth Holm, and starring Jenny Slate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2GN3wdfqbA

 

Don Draper Teaches the World to Sing In Perfect Harmony

Mad Men has left the building...

SPOILER ALERT (do not read if you haven't watched the finale yet):

Todd over at Vox nailed the ending (good job, Todd), and I have to say as I was watching Don Draper meditate at Esalen surrounded by New Age hippies, with Peggy's words to his broken, lost self echoing in my head (encouraging him to come home and work on Coke) I actually gasped. I realized YUP, Todd was right, we were going to end this thing with a Coke and smile and a song.

True, I expected (like Todd) to see one last Don Draper miracle pitch. I thought we'd see Don come home. Home being NYC, and advertising, and Don being great at what Don does -- creating illusions and inventing love to sell nylons. I thought we'd see Don pick himself up and once again, shake off the dirt and grime from the hobo life and the previous night's bender and make everything shiny, and new in the dawn. Usually for Don that just meant putting on a clean white shirt and tie, and slicking down his jet black hair.

Oscars 2015

My take on this year's Oscar were this: YES, overall they were dull. But mostly they were rude. I say stop rudely interrupting people in their acceptance speeches and LET THEM TALK. These are people who created amazing art from places of deep passion and inspiration and love. In many instances, it also came from deep places of pain and sorrow. And this was their moment to shine. So I say, LET THEM HAVE WHATEVER TIME it takes to express their joy, gratitude and appreciation.

I like hearing about the origin ideas. I like hearing that grief can become art that inspires millions of others. I like hearing gratitude expressed with true emotion, rather than hearing a generic laundry list of thank yous rattled off superfast that begins with the Academy and ends with 'my agent.' YAWN.

Why must the Oscar's telecast be so super-focused on keeping time that it removes human emotion from the event? Yes, the opening was fantastic and Neil Patrick Harris shines in this mode. But in the rest of the show, as the host who tells random zingers -- mostly unfunny putdowns about celebrities being rich and movies being bad -- he was totally unnecessary.

But it's not NPH's fault completely. I think the fault lies with the comedy aspects of the show itself. It is dated. It is a relic of another era. It is hokey, and about as funny as your belligerent drunk Uncle at Thanksgiving dinner. The host is basically always unnecessary on Oscar night after the big opening. Once he introduces the affair, he has nothing to do. And trotting him out to tell these ill-timed jokes is always awkward, in my opinion.

Let's put it this way, the Oscars are a big fancy, classy affair, and I'm not sure why the producers utilize the host to insult all his guests to their face throughout the event in the most inappropriate way. Like I said, it would be like inviting the entire family over for Thanksgiving dinner, singing them a beautiful song and telling them each how much they mean to you one minute, and then randomly roasting them the next. However, not in a humorous way, but with really bad jokes, and right after they opened up to you about their son's suicide or the recent death of their spouse. Know your room. Don't trot out a yuck yuck joke when the room is still emotional and swooning after hearing Common and John Legend sing Glory.

Because it's no coincidence that the highlights of the night were Lady Gaga's performance and the before-mentioned Glory, and anything that evoked true emotion, like Patricia Arquette's demand for equality for women, and Graham Moore admitting to a suicide attempt at age 16 and encouraging young kids to "stay weird, stay different" during his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay (IMITATION GAME). Jokes can be funny to me when they are organic, but on this night, they are so obviously scripted by committee and dumped in at the most inappropriate times that they aren't funny (even if the comic writers scripting them are the best). Very few Oscar hosts are quick enough on their feet to write their own jokes that are timely and responsive (which is odd because people on Twitter sure can write funny fast), and as much as I love NPH, he ain't one of them.

So my advice to Oscar producers, because I know you're listening (LOL) is shake things up next year. Keep the affair classy. Start off with a big song and dance number and lose the ONE HOST idea. He/she isn't necessary. Lose the committee of joke writers. Not necessary. Have a bunch of comedians come out in the beginning after the big song and dance number and do their jokes and then you don't need to lob those lame zingers all night. They land with a thud and aren't funny after winners start opening up about the pain and sorrow that brought them on their journey. KNOW YOUR OWN ROOM, and start focusing on the HEART of the show, stop trying so hard, and allow it to happen organically and you'll have us all night to the finish line.

Fifty Shades of No Thank You

I have no intention of flocking to see 50 Shades of Stalking. Seriously, when I read the book (and I use the term lightly) I was extremely disturbed by how creepy, controlling, domineering and abusive Christian Grey's character is. Not talking about the dominant stuff. Talking about him telling Ana what to wear. Who to talk to. Threatening to repeatedly hit or punish her outside the bedroom for her offenses of defying him (i.e. having her own mind and acting as if her body is her own). Raping her. Acting like he can't live without her after meeting her two minutes ago. In real life when a guy acts that clingy (following you to your mom's house cross country when you asked for space), you usually end up in an episode of Dateline.

Why is that romantic? It's offensive on so many levels. And I'm not just talking about the poor sentence structure.