Our headstrong, but sweet and suggestible protagonist Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) embodies the concept of financial deficit through her insatiable materialism. The Aussie actress tells The Herald Sun that the consumerist fetishization shown in the film will inspire consumption and public spending, hopefully to revitalize the economy.

The movie’s website promotes online shopping too—hosted by BlueFly Inc.—a “NASDAQ Smallcap company,” viewers can buy shoes, cashmere sweaters and other expensive clothing products. 

She compares her childhood love of beautiful things like a commercial fairy tale:

“When I was 7, most of my friends stopped believing in magic. That’s when I first started. They were beautiful, they were happy, they didn’t even need any money: they had magic cards!”

She takes a job in New York city as the only female financial journalist at a high powered savings magazine. Ironically enough, she’s the moral authority on spending; giving advice to the rest of the world on how to best invest their cash. Meanwhile, her love of shopping takes her down to a dark place of hopeless addiction, and the nauseating visual of her massive stack of unpaid credit card bills is enough to make anybody cry.

Rebecca and her myriad of high-end outfits

Buying nothing but high-end couture, all of the value of her material possessions are grossly inflated, and through her unending pursuit of fashion happiness she overspends, over borrows, and has to come up with a way to pay it all off.

That’s not the only negative way women have been portrayed in film recently. I read a particularly angry blog that made the observation that:

“Though women are the leads in the #2-grossing movie of the year so far (that would be Bride Wars), we’ve spent most of the month getting chased by maniacs, haunted by ghost children, slashed with knives, abused by our husbands, ignored in movies where we’re supposedly the main characters or forced to fall in love with Kevin James.” 

The stereotype of women and governments overspending is one that leaves much to be desired, and this film doesn’t give the female image any credibility when it indulges in four minute long scenes involving two women fighting over the last pair of Gucci boots at the boutique…. sigh.

The movie is based on the bestseller book which was written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, who also wrote the wildly popular Sex and the City. Cinematically, the novel has been translated onto an all-star cast including Academy-Award winning writer Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting).

According to Cooper and co-stars Justin Long and Kevin Connolly, the movie defies the stereotypes of the typical estrogen-heavy film genre. That’s because the men act like women.

The trio list ten quintessential clichés such as bad outfit montages, someone “sliding down a wall, crying,” or a “quirky/sardonic/sassy best friend,” which this film avoids completely. There isn’t even an open declaration of love, or omniscient droning narratives of the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Phew.

Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly and Ginnifer Goodwin talk about what women want

He’s Just Not That Into You is a glimpse into attraction and the social mores of dating in the 21st century, from the viewpoint that changes in the role of women and that of technology often dictate the course of romantic human relationships.

Flaunting the tag line “Are you the exception… or are you the rule,” the film follows the dating stories of a group of thirty-somethings who are all interconnected in their Baltimore locale. They’re battling through shallow, dead-end relationships, searching for a meaningful connection with another person through a myriad of mixed signals and miscommunication. The mutual goal: matrimony.

The book focuses on the frequent inability of men to act on their romantic impulses, despite the machismo attitudes they have about work, their industry, and all other aspects of their life. The movie dwells on the excuses women make for men who haven’t pursued them, such as:

“He’s afraid to get hurt again.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to ruin the friendship.”

“Maybe he’s intimidated by me.”

“He just got out of a relationship.”

However, the reality of the situation is that these men are too terrified to say “You’re not the one,” and this is where the women step in.

The film’s due this Friday, February 6th in theaters, just in time for the joyous Valentines occasion. “You might think this sucks, but it’s not your typical chick flick!”

It’s a film about lifelong platonic friends who are broke, disillusioned with their dead-end jobs, and cohabitate in financial squalor. Much like the global financial crisis they need to come up with a “stimulus package” and thus decide to film a pornographic movie so they can have their heat, hot water and electricity again.

Instead, they find the greatest electricity of all as they fall madly in love during the production.

It begins by showing the camaraderie of best friends—Zack Brown (Seth Rogen) and Miriam Linky (Elizabeth Banks) are roommates who are just starting their day in frosty Pittsburgh. Miri’s in the kitchen making coffee when camera pans out for us to see a mass of unpaid bills, dirty dishes and the sad crumbs of deep-seated depression. 

While Zack and Miri may be able to drag themselves out of their financial skids, the profitability of the porn industry is not what it initially claimed to be. A year ago, Newsweek wrote that the size and value of the business was always unclear, which isn’t surprising for an industry that depends on enlarging its appearance. In 2001, Forbes reported that the “Business of Smut” was valued at $2.6 billion to $3.9 billion annually, which isn’t even close to the Forrester Research that estimated $10 billion.

Zack and Miri discover lust first, love second

The film touches on this a little bit, and has all of the traditionally crude jabs and jokes that porn incites. It even stars former Penthouse model Traci Lords, whose audition involves blowing soap bubbles out of her vagina. “It’s a little something I picked up doing bachelor parties,” she says chewing bright pink bubble gum.

Overall, the film shows how the illusion of pornography hides other meanings. In the financial world, it has the semblance of being more profitable than it actually is, but that is because porn is far more mainstream than people think it is. For Zack and Miri, the illusion of making a pornographic film together brings out deeper feelings for each other that they were previously unaware of. 

Miri: So… what about me? How do I look? 
Zack: I mean, you look beautiful – you always look… so beautiful, so I guess it’s not a big deal. But you… you look amazing. 
Miri: [grabbing his hand lovingly, then quickly beginning to swing it back and forth] Okay! Let’s go make a porno! 

For those who don’t know, Smith has a substantial roster of subversive films. His 1997 flick Chasing Amy starred Joey Lauren Adams, a comic book illustrator whom Ben Affleck falls madly in love with, only to learn that she is a lesbian. 

His style has been likened to Judd Apatow’s, the director who brought similar off-beat, crude comedies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Superbad. 

While Zack and Miri largely depended on perverted humour and awkwardly graphic sex scenes, it was surprisingly heartwarming.

Snuff shows how life is cheap?

Research has shown me that snuff isn’t always defined as having sexual content, but certainly contains over-the-top, vainglorious depictions of violence, centered around the act of murder. They’re macho, ultra-domineering, omnipotent and aggressive. Basically, movies for guys.

What about women though? Looking back at the films of 2007, a question is begged: what happens when women play out this role? The rise of female-driven rape revenge films over the last year has triggered a new cinematic phenomenon — a new genre of retribution and violence made for women.

Think back to Thelma & Louise, a movie where a housewife and a waitress from Arkansas kill a rapist then flee to Mexico. While this kind of role was more or less unprecedented, even for its seasoned actresses, Time wrote that this was, in no way, a feminist film. The only way these two women were able to endure their social environments and nurture their friendship was by behaving like men.

Descent  is a film about a college girl who is brutally raped, but she learns to regain her shattered sense of self through the politics of violent intimidation, drugs, and nightlife. Maya, played by Rosario Dawson, is traumatized after a savage non-consensual sexual episode, compounded by her assailant moaning derogatory epithets in her ear — a commentary about violence against women of racial minorities. Maya’s salvation is restored as she seeks justice in brutally raping him in the end with another, bigger male accomplice she met at the bar.

Written by Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) and directed by Eli Roth, Grindhouse: Death Proof surprised everyone by killing off the alpha male (Kurt Russell) when you think the whole time that he’s going home with all those girls. Using booze and drugs to lure women into giving him lap dances and sex, Russell’s character gets killed off in the end rather gratuitously by having his head kicked in by one of the girls.

Jodie Foster takes care of her fellow woman

A little less savage approach to the female revenge act was portrayed by Jodie Foster in Neil Jordan’s film The Brave One. After Erica Bain (Foster) and her fiancé are assaulted in a park, his death sparks a vigilante flame within our thoughtful, introspective reporter. By using her outwardly delicate and frail appearance, Bain goes on the hunt of a lifetime to find the criminal who changed her forever. Time dubbed her as the “feminist avenger,” and Foster agreed with her role as the feminist vigilante:

“Such a big part of the female psyche is that we hate inwards. What if there was a woman who said, ‘I’m not going to be that kind of victim. I’m not going to hurt myself, I’m going to hurt you.’ What would that feel like? This was no feminist design on my part — although I call myself a feminist — but that’s exhilarating to women who see this movie.”

Perhaps the rise of female victims-gone-assailants is a statistical issue. According to Statstics Canada, the rate of ‘serious violent crime’ among female youth has more than doubled since 1986 growing from 60 per 100,000 to 132 per 100,000 in 2005. Among female adults, the rate has also grown from 25 to 46 per 100,000. However, that’s defined as “assault, muttering threats,” and not really what’s going on the movies. The same report also stated that “Female rates for homicide, attempted murder and sexual assault were negligible” in relation to information about males.

I’ve always thought about whether or not it was a good idea to broadcast violence in such graphic and massively accessible ways. Seems a bizarre outlet for people to relieve (or vicariously relive?) acts of savagery while maintaining the calm exteriority of a respectable citizen. The discussion continues.

. After watching the disturbing movie, it had an interesting effect of combining classic mythology with the modern woman becoming empowered by self-acceptance.

The film blurs the lines between the power of female revenge, the idea of women as objects of violence, retribution, and the age-old phenomenon of gynophobia. Toting the tag line that “Every rose has its thorns,” Lichtenstein shows how women can be very scary things indeed.

The story is centered around Dawn O’Keefe (Jess Weixler), who is going through the normal growing pains of adolescence. Like her name, she represents the promise of a new day, remaining abstinent despite the increasingly inappropriate sexual encounters she is subjected to by her stepbrother, stepfather, and her brutally intrusive gynecologist. Caught somewhere between a horror and a comedy, the hybrid genre adds a surrealistic tone to the realities of rape in America, and modern misogyny.

Sex changes everything

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 60% of sexual assaults in America are not reported to the police, and neither does our protagonist. She does, however, take matters into her own hands by using her new found sexuality to punish those who deserve it. Maybe movies like this will deflate that horrifying statistic, or at least give sexually abused women the power they need to speak out.

The bildungsroman of the film is when Dawn realizes that she has power over the men in her life because she is a potential object for violence. Enshrouded by the veil of “the other,” she is able to retaliate because men just don’t understand her, and are too ignorant to ask. Not only that, she has incisors in her vagina that grind mechanically, involuntarily, any time that she is penetrated.

As Hélène Cixous wrote in the Laugh of the Medusa (1976), it is the riveting story of two horrifying myths: the Medusa and the abyss. The woman and her mystery. Instead of trying to understand it, men fear it.

“The toothed vagina appears in the mythology of many and diverse cultures all over the world. In these myths, the story is always the same. The hero must do battle with the woman. The toothed creature can break her power,” Dawn explains.

So it seems like the best thing for a man to do is to try to get to know a girl first. If it’s fear of the unknown, the incalculable, or the general mysterious aura of a woman, it’s a good idea to say “please.” The film shows how the dogma of castration prevents the normal course of ‘teenage dating’ in the traditional sense, and suggests a deep-rooted fear of female sexuality through the mythical undertones of the vagina dentata. It also suggests that idea that violence towards women isn’t always based on pure conceptions of mysogyny, but rather a plain old fear of the unknown. In this case, the fear of castration seems to conquer all.

It’s actually the story of a bad girl gone feminist, struggling to find meaning in a careless, Kafkaesque universe.

Craig Schwartz (John Cusack), a social misfit and self-proclaimed puppeteer finds a portal in an office building that leads to celebrity John Malkovich’s mind for 15 minutes. Just take a moment to fully grasp the metaphysical scope of such a discovery.

Another set of driving themes, however, are the principles of enslavement and stockholm syndrome, which are induced by the female antagonist, Maxine Lund. She’s the strongest, most manipulative female character in all of cinematic history, and she successfully controls all the men in her world.

Maxine Lund is the ultimate female predator.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to have two people look at you, with total lust and devotion, through the same pair of eyes?” She’s evil and narcissistic, but all she really wants is to be loved.

Maxine is played by Catherine Keener, the cruel, raven-haired beauty who represents the temptation and female manipulation in a male-driven environment. The two of them learn how to use Malkovich’s body for their own personal gain, charging $200 to people who want to be John Malkovich for 15 minutes.

Maxine Lund gets what she wants

While working together, Craig falls helplessly in love with her, who rejects him with little sympathy for his suffering. She tells him that “If you ever get me, you wouldn’t have a clue what to do with me.”

She breaks up Craig’s marriage. His wife, Lotte (played by Cameron Diaz) goes into the portal when Maxine is on a date with the real Malkovich, and they have sexual intercourse. Her sexual voracity now destroys a once solid relationship built on love, care, and principles of equality.

“Behind the stubble and the too-prominent brow and the male-pattern baldness… I sensed your feminine longing. And it just slew me,” she tells Lotte, proclaiming her now-bisexual inclinations. 

Propelled by their desire to be enslaved, Lotte and Craig are now fighting for Maxine’s love. Craig wins by becoming a prisoner in Malkovich’s body and the two move in together. Lotte becomes increasingly obsessed with Maxine and goes after her with a gun.

Standing beside the traffic at the New Jersey Turnpike, Maxine and Lotte reconcile and embrace in the muddy ditch, symbolizing the final gesture at something beautiful in the midst of urban and industrial alienation.

When Craig leaves Malkovich’s body, Maxine dumps him for Lotte. She has broken down two people in her pursuit of self-discovery, but now settles down with Lotte and the two are happy together as a lesbian couple.

Two people fall madly in love with her in this film. Lotte, Craig, and to some extent, even the real John Malkovich. Maxine dominates all the other characters in the same vein that stockholm syndrome takes hold in the captive - and this becomes literally true as the three of them become trapped in the body of John Malkovich.

The resounding message: teenage girls don’t need to put out, because abstinence is sexy.

The combination of hatred, the sensuality of physical attraction and the violence of drinking blood create a titillating, almost pornographic story about two lovers who abstain from anything sexual despite their unique and passionate bond.

The film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown), takes place in a little Washington town. While the time setting is current, the small-town vibe adds to the quasi-Biblical sense of morality, citizenship and propriety.

Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a sharply attractive but anti-social vampire falls in love with Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), the shy new girl. While vampires can read other people’s thoughts, Edward is inexorably drawn to Bella because he cannot read hers. She’s the female vixen who draws him in, challenges him, and makes him question his ability to restrain his appetites.

Abstinence is sexy

Diffused with moral paradigms that dictate the reasons why they can’t act on their attraction, the relationship is highly sexualized at the same time. Its like the lion who fell in love with a lamb.

We find two lovers with unparalleled sexual magnetism, but the fear of spoiling the purity of their relationship sets them apart. Edward is a vampire, and Bella is a mortal. Their challenge is that of staying together despite that fundamental difference, but getting too close will be the destruction of their ideals. If Edward drinks Bella’s blood, they can be together forever. While Bella desires this equally, the drinking of her blood represents the collapse of the natural order. Edward’s ethical prerogative battles with his carnal thirst to kill Bella – and that is the irresistible magic of this story.

“It’s you, your scent, it’s like a drug to me. You’re my own personal brand of heroin.” Edward has never wanted to kill a human being so badly before. Although he abstains from the evils of drinking human blood by feeding on animals, his thirst for Bella makes him question his sense of personal restraint.

“I still don’t know if I can control myself.”

Edward and Bella’s ‘naughtiness’ essentially climaxes with an extremely cautious kiss. Edward initiates it, but pulls himself away when even this innocent act gets too heated.

Bella tempts him with her constant presence and insistence to be around him. Like Edward, she finds herself irrevocably drawn to him, and although she understands the dangers she faces, cannot tear herself away from him.

The sexual tension between them is mainly exhibited by longing stares, piercing silence, and Edward’s hatred of her. When they meet for the first time, Edward covers his mouth and nose as if she emanates a putrid odour, causing Bella to feel disliked and self-conscious. He glares at her with an expression of loathing and aversion.

The animosity he feels towards Bella is reminiscent of Freud’s sexual psychoanalytical theories, the expression of sexual frustration towards the subject of their interests – such as his gnawing desire to consume her. It’s the classic tale of wanting something so badly that you cannot have. If he did indulge his appetite, he would have to live with an eternity of his own guilt.

Indeed, the undertone of Christian guilt crosses the mind of the viewer, and that may be the work of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer who is Mormon. Meyer tells Time Magazine that she herself was a late bloomer, revealing that holding hands at 16 years of age was a milestone in her sexual awakening.

For the first time, there is a genuinely sexy movie that doesn’t even have sex in it. Twilight is about the excitement of sexual attraction, not the actualization of it.