I came into "Bridesmaids" last week expecting it to be the "revolutionary" movie it was hyped up to be: an all-female ensemble comedy that is actually laugh-out-loud, Judd Apatow-funny.
And it was. Melissa McCarthy totally Galifianakised the whole thing up. Kristen Wiig was pitch perfect. The scene where she traded insults with a bratty tween rich-girl was perhaps the funniest in Paul Feig's career (and I'm a huge "Freaks and Geeks" fan). But what shocked me wasn't that girls were actually funny (because I didn't grow up Amish) or that they were willing to shit in the sink or throw up on each other's hair when the need arised. "Bridesmaids" turned out to be "revolutionary" for an entirely different reason that apparently slipped through the cracks of the pre-showing buzz: Hollywood now has the female answer to the forlorn Cameron Crowe Hero.
It took us eleven years into the 21st century but someone has finally done it. This should be as much a cause for celebration as the realization that Kristen Wiig can hang with the Steve Carells, Seth Rogens, and Paul Rudds of the comedy world (news flash: she's funnier than all of them; I knew this way before "Bridesmaids"). No, scratch that: THIS OUGHT TO BE A BIGGER DEAL.
What Kristen Wiig has managed to subvert is as sacred a Holywood tradition as there is. The Croweian Hero has surpassed the level of mere movie archetype. It has now evolved into the source of a contemporary ideal; whether we are aware of it or not, whether we like it or not.
In his book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs", Chuck Klosterman deconstructed the prototypical Croweian Hero: John Cusack's Lloyd Dobler in the iconic, yet underratedly overrated "Say Anything". When the movie came out, Lloyd Dobler became a type of guy: the loser-y, sweet, and extremely romantic guy girls tend to overlook. Klosterman argues, however, that somewhere along the way - in the years that followed in which people forgot about "Say Anything" and people who never even saw "Say Anything" finally came of age - Lloyd Dobler had mutated from a mere archetype into an actual romantic expectation for all women. "This is why I will never be completely satisfied with a woman," he writes. "And this is why the kind of woman I tend to find attractive will never be satisfied by me."
Cameron Crowe created Lloyd Dobler in the late 80s. He was just getting warmed up. The Croweian Hero would be crystallized further in the next two decades, more popularly by Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire and Patrick Fugit's William Miller in "Almost Famous", but more perfectly by Campbell Scott's Steve Dunne in "Singles".
Jerry Maguire's success and a-holeness at the start of "Jerry Maguire" limits him as a Croweian Hero; same with William Miller's precociousness. Steve Dunne in "Singles" nails every Forlorn Croweian Hero category so perfectly that he was remade 17 years later by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "(500) Days of Summer" (of course with a little dash of John Cusack thrown in): a young, hopeful civil engineer with big dreams, who sees it all crumble before his eyes when the girl he loves leaves him inexplicably. If only this cute, unassuming, and vaguely inspiring girl would come back and save him from the doldrums and make everything okay. Oh, what's that? Kyra Sedgwick is knocking on the door?
Kristen Wiig's Annie in "Bridesmaids" is the first female romantic comedy lead allowed to be a loser in the Forlorn Croweian Hero tradition. She's not merely looking for a promotion, or has no ambition besides working at the counter of a New York subway (yes, Sandra Bullock, I haven't forgotten). Annie opened up a bakeshop only to watch it fail miserably, leaving her broke and borderline homeless. In short, she's allowed to have man-failures.
What she does, though, catapults her over every Croweian Hero before her: she gets her shit together, on her own, and then comes kissing her man without having to say "You. Complete. Me." (although she does pull a Lloyd Dobler on Chris O'Dowd, with a cake serving as her boombox).
So while everyone wasn't looking, while maledom was busy aspiring to be Lloyd Dobler or Jerry Maguire and listening to Coldplay, the female aspiration has shifted towards self-reliance, self-introspection, and self-healing. So guys, not only has Hollywood tricked us into believing that this whole sensitive-smart shtick would actually work (when in fact it was still sexy-cute, repackaged to a new generation), they have also turned us into girls. And girls, thanks to people like Kristen Wiig, are now turning into women.
And it was. Melissa McCarthy totally Galifianakised the whole thing up. Kristen Wiig was pitch perfect. The scene where she traded insults with a bratty tween rich-girl was perhaps the funniest in Paul Feig's career (and I'm a huge "Freaks and Geeks" fan). But what shocked me wasn't that girls were actually funny (because I didn't grow up Amish) or that they were willing to shit in the sink or throw up on each other's hair when the need arised. "Bridesmaids" turned out to be "revolutionary" for an entirely different reason that apparently slipped through the cracks of the pre-showing buzz: Hollywood now has the female answer to the forlorn Cameron Crowe Hero.
It took us eleven years into the 21st century but someone has finally done it. This should be as much a cause for celebration as the realization that Kristen Wiig can hang with the Steve Carells, Seth Rogens, and Paul Rudds of the comedy world (news flash: she's funnier than all of them; I knew this way before "Bridesmaids"). No, scratch that: THIS OUGHT TO BE A BIGGER DEAL.
What Kristen Wiig has managed to subvert is as sacred a Holywood tradition as there is. The Croweian Hero has surpassed the level of mere movie archetype. It has now evolved into the source of a contemporary ideal; whether we are aware of it or not, whether we like it or not.
In his book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs", Chuck Klosterman deconstructed the prototypical Croweian Hero: John Cusack's Lloyd Dobler in the iconic, yet underratedly overrated "Say Anything". When the movie came out, Lloyd Dobler became a type of guy: the loser-y, sweet, and extremely romantic guy girls tend to overlook. Klosterman argues, however, that somewhere along the way - in the years that followed in which people forgot about "Say Anything" and people who never even saw "Say Anything" finally came of age - Lloyd Dobler had mutated from a mere archetype into an actual romantic expectation for all women. "This is why I will never be completely satisfied with a woman," he writes. "And this is why the kind of woman I tend to find attractive will never be satisfied by me."
Cameron Crowe created Lloyd Dobler in the late 80s. He was just getting warmed up. The Croweian Hero would be crystallized further in the next two decades, more popularly by Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire and Patrick Fugit's William Miller in "Almost Famous", but more perfectly by Campbell Scott's Steve Dunne in "Singles".
Jerry Maguire's success and a-holeness at the start of "Jerry Maguire" limits him as a Croweian Hero; same with William Miller's precociousness. Steve Dunne in "Singles" nails every Forlorn Croweian Hero category so perfectly that he was remade 17 years later by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "(500) Days of Summer" (of course with a little dash of John Cusack thrown in): a young, hopeful civil engineer with big dreams, who sees it all crumble before his eyes when the girl he loves leaves him inexplicably. If only this cute, unassuming, and vaguely inspiring girl would come back and save him from the doldrums and make everything okay. Oh, what's that? Kyra Sedgwick is knocking on the door?
Kristen Wiig's Annie in "Bridesmaids" is the first female romantic comedy lead allowed to be a loser in the Forlorn Croweian Hero tradition. She's not merely looking for a promotion, or has no ambition besides working at the counter of a New York subway (yes, Sandra Bullock, I haven't forgotten). Annie opened up a bakeshop only to watch it fail miserably, leaving her broke and borderline homeless. In short, she's allowed to have man-failures.
What she does, though, catapults her over every Croweian Hero before her: she gets her shit together, on her own, and then comes kissing her man without having to say "You. Complete. Me." (although she does pull a Lloyd Dobler on Chris O'Dowd, with a cake serving as her boombox).
So while everyone wasn't looking, while maledom was busy aspiring to be Lloyd Dobler or Jerry Maguire and listening to Coldplay, the female aspiration has shifted towards self-reliance, self-introspection, and self-healing. So guys, not only has Hollywood tricked us into believing that this whole sensitive-smart shtick would actually work (when in fact it was still sexy-cute, repackaged to a new generation), they have also turned us into girls. And girls, thanks to people like Kristen Wiig, are now turning into women.
1 comments :
Just saw Bridesmaids last night. I have never have had a single relationship, Yeah, thanks for pointing out the unreachable male romantic standard Hollywood is telling us works.
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