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nurit-horak
Reviews
Air (2023)
A nostalgic film, without a woman lead
The movie is very nostalgic for the eighties (I'm not sure why), even to the level of the soundtrack (in some parts it is too much), and it does a good job of convincing us it is located in that time period.
But this movie is also similar to movies from the 1980s in another aspect: the lack of leading female characters. Most of the women in the film are secretaries who get a line here and there (weren't there no female executives in Nike during the middle 1980s)?
And so, the only major female character in the movie is Michael Jordan's mother, Deloris Jordan (played by the excellent Viola Davis), and she is also represented in the movie in relation to her son and how she believes in him and his future abilities. Following that, the main male characters in the film are portrayed only by their lack of family and romantic relationships, their work place, and their professional ambitions.
I liked how in the movie, with sport so central to its' plot, there is a discussion about the way we as humans move-from walking to running to driving-and about what each of these activities represents to us.
Michael Jordan's family story seems very interesting, and I would like to see a movie about them and Deloris in the future, but this is not this movie.
The actors are at their best, the script is great, I just prefer movies that are less commercial and less supportive of the American capitalistic way of life.
Saving Neta (2016)
Women who are bound to their connections, and a men who is free
"Saving Neta" (2016) is an Israeli film that describes the story of one man through the story of the four women he meets during the film. These women each in her turn change the story of Netta and influence him.
"Saving Neta" is an interesting film in terms of Bechdel test, since it is a film that very easily, without trying to "think" about it too much, to process it or emphasize it, passes the test in the first few minutes. As such, it is one of the few (if any) Israeli films that I can think of that "solves" the problem so easily and in fact does not treat it as a problem at all but rather as a self-evident norm. It is also probably one of the few Israeli films where the ratio between the number of actors and the number of actresses playing in it plays a significant difference in favor of the second.
The film focuses on women and women's relationships with one another. Mothers and daughters, spouses and sisters, lovers, etc. The film opens in its first few minutes in a conversation between three women who do not deal with a man but with the daily plans of those women and it is full of such conversations.
It seems that the women of "saving Netta" are busy all the time. The talks between them are about a military course, car repairs, a family picnic, mourning and pregnancy. They are constantly active and need to function in their relationship with each other or in the role that the society has set for them (a military commander or a woman in a lesbian relationship who is chosen to bear the children). In contrast, Neta is a wanderer, Between the various episodes in the film, he does not do anything other than "flow" and mourn lost connections. In this sense, the film's script gives more freedom to its masculine character than to the female characters who are always committed to something or to someone.
All the female characters try to fight the commitments that the society or those around them have imposed on them and fail again and again. The "successful" women, in the film's last story, is a woman who insists on having her retarded sister put in an institution after the death of their mother and provokes anger and rejection from the viewers. This is probably the strong statement of the film and not the private story of Neta himself.
Molly's Game (2017)
A strong women?
Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain is as wonderful as ever) the heroine of the movie "The Big Game" is a strong woman. She was an Olympic athlete in her teens, she ran a successful gambling business in her twenties, she wrote a book that became a best seller and she bravely stands up to police pressure and refuses to give away details about her clients when she is judged for her actions and rdo not wish to play by the "their" rules. She rents out the services of an expensive lawyer that she can not afford with the assurance and absolute faith that she can repay his duty and after all this she also succeeds in being a roll model for that lawyer's daughter when their relationship reminds her of her own relationship with her competitive father.
But the movie "The Big Game" not only shows us how strong Molly is. In fact it keeps trying to show us how weak Molly is in the world of the men thyat surrounds her. It begins with her father, who ignores her medical condition and drags her to a sporting event from which she almost dies at the beginning of the film. This continues with the players in the game she runs in Los Angeles, celebrities who are addicted to the thrill of the game and eventually prove to her that it is not her game at all, as she was wrong to believe. After that the aggressive poker players she meets in New York when she tries to start over, from royalty to Russian mafiosi. And it ends in the legal system itself, where the men decide between themselves about her fate when Molly is asked to leave the room. Until finally it is not clear why Molly has been arrested in the first place and there is a growing suspicion that Molly is right, and she has been a colorful gimmick to add popularity to one of the largest illegal gambling trials in America. All of these impair Molly Bloom's ability to really be a strong female figure on the screen and influence the viewers. Moreover, her psychologist father even diagnosed Molly with a situation in which she was caught up in her desire to take revenge on men who are as aggressive as her father. Thus, in a very simplistic interpretation, Molly's independent and competitive character is erased, and this is the main weakness of the film, especially when it repeatedly chooses to ignore the intersections in which Molly failes to escape from the game and the events around it.
The film does not even pass the Bechdel test. Other female characters who could become more central like the daughter of the lawyer, Molly's mother, and Molly's employees are lost in the plot and have almost no place, they come in and out of the movie immediately as if they themselves were a beautiful decoration for the set. The only scene in which two women talk about Molly's "work" can not really be considered "passing" because of the insignificant place it has in the film. On the other hand, the film does manage to criticize the male world in which Molly operates. A world where a woman is only a means, a world where big money is running without any second thought, a world made up only of men that only them have the crazy sums to spend on dangerous games. Men who often appear as ridicules and weak at best and manipulative, unscrupulous and murderous at worst. Accordingly, Molly's outward appearance changes when she wants to please these men as she enters the game and earns more money and becomes a successful businesswoman who rolls millions. This external figure is so adamant that she continues to be her outward persona years later when she appears in court and with her lawyer. When the latter comments to her in a patronizing tone that she might wear something else, she replies that she has no other clothes. Imagine that...
Dogma (1999)
A revolutionary film that invents new mythology
"Dogma" is a comedy from the creator Kevin Smith (1999), a director that tends to create genre cult films that often displays plots with supernatural themes, and grotesque characters.
In "Dogma" Smith criticize organized religion, primarily the Catholic faith, while presenting new biblical characters like the denied Christ's apostles Rufus that was not mentioned in the New Testament because he is a black man (Chris Rock).
But "Dogma" does more than inventing new mythology. It seems to also include an important discussion on issues of gender as it presents images of women that challenge the existing order, and 'men' and 'Women' that actually don't have any sex organs and their gender identity is in doubt. This discussion is not unusual to science- fiction and fantasy movies and TV shows today (especially the works of creators like Joss Whedon), but in my opinion this was quite innovative in the year in which the film was made.
The muse and other supernatural beings in the film are portrayed as sexless (except Rufus). The Two angels and God's voice don't have sexual organs. The angel Loki (Damon) even complains about his inability to masturbate and Metatron (the God's voice) says that in heaven the act of sex is considered a joke.
The revolutionary aspect of the film is expressed most notably in God character. Throughout the film, a discussion is being held between the characters whether God is male or female when every time he/she "are" treated differently. God as he / she is represented in the film as a creature that combines the two genders and rises above them so it does not really matter what is the truth and the ongoing discussion in the movie as it is presented by Smith is futile and ridiculous..
The film passes the Bechdel test. It presents a number of main women characters who talk among themselves even though for most of the film the main character (who is a woman) speaks primarily with male characters.
Gone Girl (2014)
lacks credibility in it's portrayal of women characters
"Gone girl" is a dramatic film (2014) directed by David Fincher ("The Social Network")with Ben Affleck. The film follows the story of Nick and the disappearance of his wife Amy. Amy and Nick are presented from their early days as a couple, through the bumps in their relationship and up to the film dramatic conclusion. In the film are three main female characters: Amy, Margo (Nick's sister) and Rhonda the detective (Kim Dickens). The three portray a spectrum of female representations from the most problematic one (Amy) to the most positive (Detective Rhonda). Amy is seemingly the perfect woman. She begins her life as a daughter to parents who write about every experience she has as a child in a successful book series called Amazing Amy. Although the success of the books allows Amy financial freedom it also interferes with the relationship between her and her parents, since it is clear that Amy could never be so perfect as the character her parents have created. On the other hand it seems that in her relationships with men Amy tries to be "amazing" as possible or at least in the relationship with Nick as the film describes a sequence of events that mimic a romantic comedy with no connection to reality. Unfortunately this lack of credibility also appears in the rest of the events of the movie.
The two other leading women characters in the movie are less interesting than Amy. Margo, Nick's sister and best friend, serves as a backbone as she supports all her brother actions. Margo is supposed to be Nick's twin sister but while Nick is portrayed by Ben Affleck, the actress who plays Margo is nine years younger than Ben in real life and that gap is clearly visible on screen. I found it very annoying. It is not clear why it was necessary to categorize the brother and sister as twins. this example also shows the problem of age difference in Hollywood where young actresses often portray a much older women and men play younger men, and that of course has implications on the way viewers see the way a woman should look like in those ages. The third and more positive is Rhonda the detective. In fact she is portrayed in such a good manner that there is no particular meaning for her being a woman and it was possible to cast for her role a man instead with no apparent transformations in the film. She is very professional, tough, honest and serious at her work (much more than all those around her). I would not recommend the film for anyone who sees herself as a feminist, because it is very problematic toward women. I can not specify without spoilers but I'll just say that what no movie has done since "Fatal Attraction" with Glenn Close (1987) this movie dares and by doing so jeopardize so many years of feminism.
Trash (2014)
A movie with important criticism that fails when it comes to female representation on the screen.
"Trash" (2014) is a dramatic film that tells of three children in Brazil who collect garbage for a living. One day one of them find a wallet that takes him to an adventure involving corrupt politician, aging prison inmate and an idealistic lawyer. The three, following the male group tradition, become detectives and try to solve the mystery with childlike innocence as they refuse to stop despite the brutality of the policeman that chases them, the damage they cause to their local community and the physical violence that they have to suffer. The three children do not have much to lose, and so they are infused with a sense of saving the world that motivates them until the plot ends. During this adventure two foreigners are helping them: an elderly priest who is busy with fighting with the local authorities (Martin Sheen in a great casting) and his assistance who works as a teacher and gets inside the adventure of the children named Olivia (Rooney Mara from "the girl with the dragon tattoo "). Olivia is the only woman in a major role in the movie and she is surrounded by children, boys and masculinity. Apart from Olivia other women appears on the screen for a few seconds (other women who work in the garbage, the corrupt politician's wife, a cleaner at the politician house or the priest's housekeeper), but these women do not generally have meaningful dialogue. The movie critic the political and police corruption, and shows the hard poverty living but do not forget to be currently relevant and to correspond with the current reality of Brazil's recent demonstrations against the World Cup, but it fails when it comes to female representation on the screen. Although Olivia is a key figure in driving the plot it is not clear why she remains alone in being the only significant female character almost to the end. boyhood films tends to favor boys over girls but to me it seems as if we made some progress from Enid Blyton's books. The criticism of the film is indeed important, but it ignores the fact that women are similarly affected by corruption and poverty and draws a world without women almost completely or portray women who have no voice in the matter. Although it is a good movie with great directing, in a feminist context unfortunately there is not much to say about it.