tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/my-best-worst-film-94429/articlesMy Best Worst Film – The Conversation2020-11-17T04:11:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1494512020-11-17T04:11:21Z2020-11-17T04:11:21ZMy Best Worst Film: Identity Thief — yes the movie is bad, but Melissa McCarthy is a comic genius<p><em>In this series, our writers explore their best worst film. They’ll tell you what the critics got wrong – and why it’s time to give these movies another chance.</em></p>
<p>When New York Observer film reviewer Rex Reed <a href="https://observer.com/2013/02/declined-in-identity-thief-batemans-bankable-billing-cant-lift-this-flick-out-of-the-red/">trashed</a> Seth Gordon’s 2013 comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024432/">Identity Thief</a>, calling it “dreck” and a “chunk of junk”, few disagreed. </p>
<p>But his dismissal of Melissa McCarthy as a “gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success” sparked immediate <a href="https://twitter.com/paulfeig/status/299969654393290752?lang=en">backlash</a> in defence of her talent. </p>
<p>And it is McCarthy’s talent that brings us back to Identity Thief, one of our favourite bad films.</p>
<p>Identity Thief works on the premise that a fat woman can steal a man’s identity because she is effectively invisible. But, at the same time — as Reed’s mean-spirited comments confirm — her fat body is all-too-visible, pitiable and laughable.</p>
<p>Dubbed an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/02/07/review-of-identity-theft/1897775/">ill-conceived ripoff</a> of John Hughes’ buddy comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093748/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Planes, Trains and Automobiles</a> (1984), Identity Thief earned a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/identity_thief">19% rating</a> from Rotten Tomatoes for its haphazard plotting, lazy reliance on cliché, and politically incorrect humour. </p>
<p>As Roxane Gay has <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/roxanegay/identity-thief-and-hollywoods-narrow-road-for-overweight-act">pointed out</a>, McCarthy’s character Diana is written as a stereotype of fat femininity: an outsider with no friends, family, future. Or taste. </p>
<p>We don’t disagree. But the weaknesses of Identity Thief provided grist for McCarthy’s comedic mill. The film also gave McCarthy an opportunity to demonstrate her ability to tap into the emotional centre of even the most unlikely or unlikable character — a skill that has since won her praise.</p>
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<h2>Relishing bad taste</h2>
<p>When Identity Thief was released, McCarthy was best known for crafting adorable, quirkily likeable characters for the small screen in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238784/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Gilmore Girls</a> (2000-07) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1608180/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Mike & Molly</a> (2010-16). </p>
<p>Her break out big-screen role was Megan, the idiosyncratic sister of the groom in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478338/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Bridesmaids</a> (2011). </p>
<p>Sexually voracious and atrociously attired in Kangol Ventair caps, orthopedic sandals and pearls, Megan was the first of many McCarthy creations that speaks to her sympathy for — and delight in — the outrageously-dressed, tastelessly-coiffed and badly-behaved. </p>
<p>Entirely the product of McCarthy’s <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/melissa-mccarthy-gq-august-2011-bridesmaids">improvisational comedy</a>, Megan incarnates what Susan Sontag in <a href="https://monoskop.org/images/5/59/Sontag_Susan_1964_Notes_on_Camp.pdf">Notes on Camp</a> (1964) referred to as a “tender feeling” which “relishes, rather than judges” what others might deride as bad taste. </p>
<p>With its origins in the gay male subculture of drag performance, camp is strongly identified with ironic gender play – a key element of McCarthy’s comedy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-camp-was-the-met-gala-not-very-116742">How camp was the Met Gala? Not very</a>
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<h2>In control of the joke</h2>
<p>Identity Thief was originally written for two male co-stars. Producer and co-star Jason Bateman who plays Sandy Patterson, the man whose identity Diana steals, asked for the second role to be <a href="https://deadline.com/2011/08/jason-bateman-melissa-mccarthy-team-for-the-id-theft-158199/">rewritten</a> with McCarthy in mind. The scriptwriters appeared to struggle with McCarthy’s character, falling back on stereotypes in depicting Diana as an utterly isolated loser.</p>
<p>But we see McCarthy taking control of the joke through a high camp performance. She creates an outrageous female antihero whose larger-than-life masquerade of femininity is a survival strategy.</p>
<p>The production’s costume designer, Carol Ramsey, recalls that Diana’s wardrobe of candy bright floral and gingham was modelled on the <a href="https://www.female.com.au/identity-thief-set-costumes.htm">real-life horrors</a> of plus size fashion. </p>
<p>Combined with similarly garish makeup, Diana is styled as the embodiment of white trash, impulse-driven consumerism. Her visual excesses are set in contrast to the modest appeal of hard-working, underpaid family man Sandy.</p>
<p>But Diana never quite subsides into being just a tacky, pathetic fashion victim addicted to shopping. </p>
<p>Instead, she is transformed by McCarthy into something else: a female impersonator who glories in excesses of style and appetite. She enjoys her feminine masquerades and uses them to counter social and economic disempowerment. </p>
<h2>A second glance</h2>
<p>Identity Thief also showcases McCarthy’s virtuosity as a physical comedian. </p>
<p>Animated by McCarthy’s theatrically-manic, violent, physical comedy, Diana is relentlessly energetic and unscrupulous beneath her cartoonishly awful attire. She uses her surface appearance of harmlessness and her impressive improvisational talents (not so different from McCarthy’s own) as weapons. </p>
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<p>Angry and aggressive in response to her marginalisation — and quick with a punch to the larynx — Diana is ultimately an unlikely but oddly effective <em>femme fatale</em>. </p>
<p>McCarthy has continued to explore the possibilities of feminine masquerade, camp irony and physical comedy in films like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103254/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Tammy</a> (2014), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3079380/?ref_=nm_knf_i4">Spy</a> (2015), and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2702724/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_18">The Boss</a> (2016). </p>
<p>Her <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/09/11/melissa-mccarthy-wins-emmy-for-her-snl-sean-spicer-parody/">Emmy award winning</a> 2017 drag performance as Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live was satiric yet empathetic.</p>
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<p>Portrayed as both a bully and victim, Spicer confirmed McCarthy’s ability to engage emotionally with the most unlikely or unlikable characters.</p>
<p>While this talent was overlooked in negative reviews of Identity Thief, McCarthy received <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/30/can-you-ever-forgive-me-review-melissa-mccarthy-richard-e-grant">praise</a> for her portrayal of Lee Israel in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4595882/">Can You Ever Forgive Me?</a> (2018). Like Diana, Lee is unfashionable, difficult to like, and has a talent for (literary) impersonation drawn from her professional skill set.</p>
<p>Diana isn’t McCarthy’s most lauded performance, but she’s a lot more interesting and compelling than Identity Thief deserves — and makes this bad film worth a second look.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This 2013 film has a lazy script and crude humour – but Melissa McCarthy’s high camp performance of outrageously dressed, highly coiffed femininity is a delight.Amanda Howell, Senior Lecturer, Griffith UniversityLucy Baker, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1471752020-11-02T19:06:33Z2020-11-02T19:06:33ZMy best worst film: Across the Universe is a Beatles jukebox musical masterpiece<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365152/original/file-20201023-14-1bip31e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1914%2C1074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sony Pictures Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a new series, our writers explore their best worst film. They’ll tell you what the critics got wrong – and why it’s time to give these movies another chance.</em></p>
<p>In 2007, Columbia Pictures released the psychedelic <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445922/">Across the Universe</a>, using 33 songs by The Beatles to form a story of young bohemians living in New York during the Vietnam War era. </p>
<p>Liverpool dockworker Jude (Jim Sturgess) heads to the US in search of his American father, where he becomes friends with Princeton dropout Max (Joe Anderson) and Max’s sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). </p>
<p>Max and Jude move to New York, sharing a flat with Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a lesbian runaway from Ohio; Sadie (Dana Fuchs), a Janis Joplin-like soul singer; and the Jimi Hendrix-like Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy), who is fleeing the race riots in Detroit. When Lucy’s boyfriend is killed in Vietnam, she also moves to New York, where she and Jude fall in love. </p>
<p>The film is in a near-constant state of song — there are only 30 minutes of spoken dialogue – ending with the cast uniting in a rooftop performance of “All You Need is Love”. This mirrors The Beatles’ own <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/30/beatles-played-london-rooftop-it-wound-up-being-their-last-show/">final performance</a> on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building in London in 1969. </p>
<p>The movie was <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/across_the_universe">blasted</a> for its saccharine, hippy-dippy, sanitised depictions of the 60s. Critics called it commercialised fodder for bourgeois audiences who lacked any real engagement with the politics of the period – but <a href="http://www.screeningthepast.com/2017/12/a-double-layered-nostalgia-the-sixties-the-iraq-war-and-the-beatles-in-julie-taymors-across-the-universe-2007/">I think</a> the film actually asks something more complex of its audience.</p>
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<h2>A star director, a critical flop</h2>
<p>Director Julie Taymor is most well known for her stage musical The Lion King (1997), for which she became the <a href="https://www.tonyawards.com/news/women-making-history-at-the-tony-awards/">first woman</a> to win the Tony Award for best direction of a musical. While she has mostly worked in theatre and opera, her films before Across the Universe included <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120866/">Titus</a> (1999) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120679/">Frida</a> (2002).</p>
<p>In the early 2000s, musicals based on popular songbooks experienced <a href="https://www.cheaptheatretickets.com/mamma-mia-jukebox-musical/">renewed popularity</a> on stage and screen, and shows like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319931/">American Idol</a> (2002–), where contestants regularly sing 60s and 70s songs, became major hits. </p>
<p>The combination of a Beatles soundtrack and a star director should therefore have been a formula for a hit. But even with its popular soundtrack and Taymor’s credentials, Across The Universe did not replicate the success of other jukebox movie musicals of the decade like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/">Moulin Rouge!</a> (2001) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795421/">Mamma Mia!</a> (2008).</p>
<p>The film was a total flop at the box office, <a href="https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakdowns/2007-2/across-the-universe/">making</a> just US$29.6 million (A$41.8 million) against a production budget of US$70.8 million (A$99.9 million). It was slammed by critics.</p>
<p>Time Out <a href="https://www.timeout.com/london/film/across-the-universe">described Across the Universe</a> as “often so embarrassing to watch that you’ll be checking over your shoulder to check that no one’s looking.”</p>
<p>Stephen Holden from the New York Times <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/movies/14univ.html">called it</a> “unadulterated white, middle-class baby boomer nostalgia”.</p>
<p>But these sentiments miss the beauty and the artistry of Taymor’s reinvention of the music and the period.</p>
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<h2>Our personal connection to pop music</h2>
<p>Particularly interesting about Across the Universe is the way it activates a nostalgic longing for the counterculture of the 1960s through an <em>absence</em> of The Beatles – it is not a biopic about them, nor do they appear in the film. </p>
<p>Taymor uses The Beatles as a recognisable language. The characters take ownership of the songs’ sentiments, using popular music in the way ordinary people do all the time. </p>
<p>While Mamma Mia! completely decoupled ABBA’s songs from their origin, Across The Universe involves the audience in remembering The Beatles’ music, deploying these memories to make sense of the film and its reworking of the 1960s.</p>
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<p>Jude and Max bond over their shared rejection of society and become involved in a free-wheeling group of artists; Jo-Jo, dejected after his brother is killed by the National Guard, joins Sadie in creating experimental music; Prudence runs away from home as she struggles with her sexuality. </p>
<p>All along, the Beatles’ songs allow the audience insight into young characters who struggle with identity, expression and emotional development. With glorious artistic direction and enthusiastic choreography, Taymor reworks the famous lyrics for new characters and a new narrative. </p>
<p>In I Want You (She’s So Heavy), the originally erotic song lyrics are sung by a frightening Uncle Sam during Max’s drafting appointment. Uncle Sam reaches out from his poster and drags Max into an aggressive medical examination that becomes a dance sequence with an army sergeant. </p>
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<p>The song ends with Max and the fresh recruits carrying a giant Statue of Liberty through the Vietnamese jungle as they sing “she’s so heavy”. </p>
<p>This number resembles a trippy music video, relying on Taymor’s distinctive mix of theatrics, animation and puppetry. An originally sexy song becomes a frightening commentary on the senseless war in Vietnam.</p>
<p>When Max returns, he sings <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXWMt4vkQ80">Happiness is a Warm Gun</a> in a hospital ward with other injured soldiers. He hallucinates a vision of a beautiful nurse (Salma Hayek) who multiplies, administering morphine to the patients. The melancholy and nonsensical nature of the first verse is presented as Max’s incoherent ramblings to Lucy.</p>
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<p>Across the Universe understands the ways a reworked cover version can be used as personal expression. I Want to Hold Your Hand is sung by the closeted Prudence as she pines after a fellow cheerleader. </p>
<p>A once cheerful upbeat pop song about a cutesy love interest turns into a slow lament of lost love. </p>
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<p>Taymor <a href="https://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15963coll9/id/156020/rec/24">says</a> she set out to reimagine the film musical by harnessing the power of music videos as an alternative to traditional production numbers. The film successfully combined the film musical and the music video years before <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327801/">Glee</a> (2009-15) used the same format when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o1W_bvpE8U&ab_channel=MusicOfGlee">gay cheerleaders sang</a> to each other.</p>
<p>Across the Universe was dismissed for its cliched pastiche of the 1960s. But if you consider the way the film re-purposed the music for a new 60s without the Beatles, Taymor reinvigorated both the film genre and the music we thought we knew.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phoebe Macrossan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It was a box office flop, panned by critics. But in using the songs of the Beatles to craft a story of Vietnam-era America, Julie Taymor reinvigorated the film musical.Phoebe Macrossan, Associate Lecturer/Sessional Academic, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1473582020-10-25T19:03:23Z2020-10-25T19:03:23ZMy best worst film: Pink Flamingos – ‘one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364132/original/file-20201019-13-lzxbj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1506%2C1000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">New Line Cinemas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a new series, our writers explore their best worst film. They’ll tell you what the critics got wrong – and why it’s time to give these movies another chance.</em></p>
<p>While some may know John Waters through his family friendly <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095270/">Hairspray</a> (1988) – adapted into a stage musical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairspray_(musical)">in 2002</a> and back to the screen <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427327/">in 2007</a> – many know him as the Prince of Puke, the King of Bad Taste or the Pope of Trash. </p>
<p>Perhaps his most notorious film is the exploitation comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069089/">Pink Flamingos</a> (1972), the first in his “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072979/">Female Trouble</a> (1974) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075936/">Desperate Living</a> (1977). </p>
<p>Pink Flamingos is emblematic of Waters’ camp aesthetic, juxtaposing grotesque subject matter against pastel colours, kitsch props and bubblegum pop music. </p>
<p>Waters’ muse <a href="https://www.them.us/story/drag-herstory-divine">Divine</a> is Babs Johnson, the “filthiest person alive.” She lives with her mother Edie (Edith Massey), who dresses as a baby, sits in a crib and screams for eggs; her ghoulish lover Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce); and her son Crackers (Danny Mills), who, in a particularly gruesome moment, has sex with a woman while a live chicken is crushed to death between their two bodies.</p>
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<p>But Babs’ title of “filthiest person alive” is at stake, and she must rival Raymond (David Lochary) and Connie Marble (Mink Stole), who kidnap women, imprison and forcefully impregnate them, and sell their babies to lesbian couples. </p>
<p>Variety’s <a href="https://variety.com/1973/film/reviews/pink-flamingos-1200423192/amp/">first review</a> is now famous, calling it “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made.” </p>
<h2>Banned for indecency</h2>
<p>It wasn’t just the critics who were unimpressed. When distributors tried to bring the film to Australia in 1976, it was <a href="https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/films/p.html">banned</a> for “indecency”. A cut version was given an R rating and released that year theatrically. </p>
<p>The film’s full version was eventually granted an X18+ rating, for pornographic, non-simulated sexual activity, restricting sale and hire of the film to the ACT and some regions of the NT. </p>
<p>In 1997, for a 25th anniversary cinematic re-release, the uncut film was again refused. The classification board <a href="https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/films/p.html">said</a> films could receive an R rating when sexual activity was “realistically simulated” – but not when it was “the real thing”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot: Newspaper reads 'Exclusive photos of the filthiest person alive'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Babs Johnson may have been the world’s filthiest person – but the classification board thought this could be the world’s filthiest film.</span>
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<p>Films with unsimulated sexual activity, such as Catherine Breillat’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194314/">Romance</a> (1999) and John Cameron Mitchell’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367027/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Shortbus</a> (2006) have since been awarded R18+ classification, allowing the category to include them. </p>
<p>But the full version of Pink Flamingos maintains an X18+ rating. Even the National Film and Sound Archive’s 2017 <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/the-banned-and-the-beautiful-films-government-censored/8702692">screenings of banned films</a> showed a cut version rated R18+.</p>
<h2>Stupid? No: it was groundbreaking</h2>
<p>Despite this reception, Pink Flamingos is now heralded as groundbreaking. It shaped the boundaries of bad taste and gross out humour. </p>
<p>There are several shocking scenes in the film. One sees Divine and Crackers break into the Marbles’ home where, after licking all the furniture, Divine fellates her son. Another sees a shot of a man flexing his prolapsed anus so it looks like it’s miming the words to “Surfin’ Bird”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/boundary-pushing-films-are-more-than-their-clickbait-headlines-144062">Boundary-pushing films are more than their clickbait headlines</a>
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<p>But perhaps the most notorious is where, in the final scene, Divine eats dog faeces to the song “How Much is the Doggy in the Window?”.</p>
<p>Just how much can you stomach when watching something disgusting?</p>
<p>The characters in Pink Flamingos challenge normative ideas around sexuality, gender and family. Confronting perceptions of “good taste”, Pink Flamingos attacked an elitist culture that excluded many communities, such as queer folk and punks. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Devine wearing a red dress, holding a gun" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pink Flamingos wasn’t interested in telling respectable stories of queer lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike the respectable queer characters palatable to a broad audience in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164432/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Love, Simon</a> (2018) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157246/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Will & Grace</a> (1998–2005, 2017–), Pink Flamingos allows us pleasure in others’ disgust at these mad characters.</p>
<p>The film draws on a queer rage that channelled the discontent many viewers felt with assimilationist politics. Babs Johnson and her family were disgusting and broke the law – and the audience loved her for it. </p>
<p>Pink Flamingos contributed to a camp aesthetic that is imbued in many popular queer films, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179116/">But I’m a Cheerleader</a> (1999) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390418/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Raspberry Reich</a> (2004), and Waters’ rage became a key part of queer cinema, seen elsewhere in the <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/new-queer-cinema-movies.html">New Queer Cinema</a> movement of the early 90s and beyond.</p>
<p>In an era when films depicted queer folk as painfully banal, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065488/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_10">The Boys in the Band</a> (1970), or offensive, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080569/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Cruising</a> (1980), Waters’ films were a funny and crude counterpoint. </p>
<p>They were a promise of a brighter and queerer future. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-boys-in-the-band-once-banned-in-australia-this-pre-gay-liberation-story-is-now-a-fond-funny-netflix-remake-147005">The Boys in the Band: once banned in Australia, this pre-gay liberation story is now a fond, funny Netflix remake</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As I have argued <a href="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2019/20-years-of-senses/divine-dog-shit-john-waters-and-disruptive-queer-humour-in-film-issue-80-september-2016/">elsewhere</a>, Waters’ films do not make explicit political statements. His ideology is conveyed through humour. </p>
<p>Through co-opting the plastic, pink flamingo lawn ornament, Waters makes fun of middle class respectability. Before carrying out the punishment of the Marbles (for “asshole-ism”, no less), Babs Johnson proclaims: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth is my politics! Filth is my life! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The humour lies in the absurdity of the situation.</p>
<p>When Variety dubbed the film “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made”, Waters used this on the posters promoting it. Waters wanted to offend people with Pink Flamingos – and if you can stomach to look past the offence, you will find a biting and hilarious film, as shocking and politically relevant as ever.</p>
<p>But in revisiting Pink Flamingos, there is one scene that still doesn’t sit right with me. The on-screen deaths of the chicken (purely for the sake of comedy) are a cruelty and grotesquery that goes beyond my own sense of good taste. Everyone has their limits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Called ‘vile’ by Variety, and banned by Australian censors, Pink Flamingos is a shocking and hilarious film.Stuart Richards, Lecturer in Screen Studies, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1473572020-10-20T05:15:13Z2020-10-20T05:15:13ZMy best worst film: dubbed a crass Adam Sandler comedy, Click is a deep meditation on relationships<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363294/original/file-20201013-13-v1d1x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1268%2C718&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Columbia Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a new series, our writers explore their best worst film. They’ll tell you what the critics got wrong – and why it’s time to give these movies another chance.</em></p>
<p>As an academic, I am always amused to see my peers and students recoil in horror when I tell them I am a fan of Adam Sandler films.</p>
<p>“Really?” they usually say knowingly.</p>
<p>While his dramatic work in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/">Punch Drunk Love</a> (2002), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5536736/">The Meyerowitz Stories</a> (2017) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5727208/">Uncut Gems</a> (2019) has been critically lauded, Sandler and his brand of slapstick comedy, though popular with audiences, are equally unpopular with critics.</p>
<p>But if you look beyond the surface-level silliness, many of his mass-market films contain a clever blend of social commentary, philosophy and moral education — all of which can be seen in the critically maligned <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/">Click</a> (2006).</p>
<p>Directed by Frank Coraci, Click centres around Michael Newman (Sandler), a time-poor architect working long hours to try to get the promotion constantly dangled before him by his manipulative boss, all so he can provide an upper-middle class lifestyle to his wife and young children. Given a magical remote control, Michael finds he can speed up time.</p>
<p>Despite grossing over US$240 million (A$335 million) at the worldwide box office, Click has a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/click">Rotten Tomatoes</a> score of just 34%.</p>
<p>Writing for The Guardian, Phillip French <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/oct/01/comedy.sciencefictionandfantasy">said</a>, “There are more farts and embarrassing sex jokes than laughs — far more”. </p>
<p>John P. McCarthy from ReelTalk <a href="http://www.reeltalkreviews.com/browse/viewitem.asp?type=review&id=1746">declared</a>, “Sandler doesn’t have the class to pull it off”.</p>
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<p>This response isn’t surprising. Click is guilty of using the same brand of immature humour hated by Sandler’s critics. But beyond the crass jokes (such as the repeated motif of the family <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_ap6duS-E">dog mounting</a> a plush toy duck), Click delivers profound lessons on work, life and relationships.</p>
<p>Sandler’s genius lies in his ability to deliver these messages with impact to a mass audience.</p>
<h2>Searching for short-cuts</h2>
<p>Michael’s predicament is all too familiar. Do we work to live, or live to work? Should life be a race we rush through at breakneck speed, keeping up with the Joneses, living our “best lives” and succeeding at all costs? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1307512205760442369"}"></div></p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Companion_to_Wittgenstein_on_Education/DFbJDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein</a>, “In philosophy the winner of the race is the one who can run most slowly. Or: the one who gets there last.”</p>
<p>Click provides a perfect illustration of how tempting it can be to take short-cuts through life - contrary to the wisdom of Wittgenstein.</p>
<p>We see this play out early in the film, when Michael goes to buy a universal TV remote. At the shop, he meets Morty (Christopher Walken), a quirky salesman who gifts him one that performs like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiVo">TiVo</a>. Popular in the early 2000s, this kind of video recorder could pause and rewind live television. Only in this instance, the remote works for real life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Movie still: Sandler and Walken stare at a remote" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364195/original/file-20201019-17-1dhq5ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael’s life changes when Christopher Walken (of course) gives him a magical remote.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Columbia Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Michael is thrilled with the remote’s powers, eagerly using it to fast-forward through boring and difficult situations. But, much to his horror, he soon realises repeating this action over time programs the remote to do so on autopilot. </p>
<p>To make matters worse, he discovers skipping through all the bad parts of life means he loses his connection with his family.</p>
<p>This is the philosophy at the heart of Click: in relationships, there are no shortcuts.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1298353041666707456"}"></div></p>
<p>Strong, lasting relationships are not built on scattered celebrations of feelgood special events. Rather, it is the cumulative effect of doing mundane and insignificant things together <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-have-long-lasting-relationship-mark-manson-2017-11?r=US&IR=T">over and over</a> that bring us closer, and keep us close.</p>
<p>Having realised his relationships to his wife and children are more important than money and career, Michael desperately tries to spend time with them to make up for all that he missed. But it is too late – his wife has remarried and his children are now too busy living their own lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-best-worst-film-shes-the-man-amanda-bynes-shines-in-a-hilarious-commentary-on-gender-147570">My best worst film: She's The Man – Amanda Bynes shines in a hilarious commentary on gender</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It gets better</h2>
<p>Thankfully, Click does not merely place the problem under a microscope without offering closure. Upon discovering he has a chance at a do-over, Michael throws the remote away without hesitation. </p>
<p>In so doing, he demonstrates we can all choose to change for the better.</p>
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<p>Although TiVo has long since been superseded, I still love this film. Click never fails to remind me the time I spend with my loved ones matters. </p>
<p>As we all grapple today with the promise of perfect lives serviced by apps designed to help us rush through life at breakneck speed, this message is more pertinent than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Li Tay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Adam Sandler’s slapstick comedy has long been derided by critics. But scratch the surface, and you’ll find philosophical truth among the cheesy jokes.Jo Li Tay, Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1475702020-10-18T19:05:26Z2020-10-18T19:05:26ZMy best worst film: She’s The Man – Amanda Bynes shines in a hilarious commentary on gender<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362866/original/file-20201012-19-13ey1cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1535%2C997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB/Paramount</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a new series, our writers explore their best worst film. They’ll tell you what the critics got wrong – and why it’s time to give these movies another chance.</em></p>
<p>The critical consensus on <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454945/">She’s the Man</a> (2006), according to <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shes_the_man">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, is: “Shakespeare’s wit gets lost in translation with […] broad slapstick, predictable jokes, and unconvincing plotline.”</p>
<p>An adaptation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night">Twelfth Night</a>, here Shakespeare’s heroine is transformed into Viola Hastings (Amanda Bynes) who cross-dresses as her twin brother when the women’s soccer team at her high school is defunded and disbanded. </p>
<p>After donning a dodgy wig and sideburns and comedically lowering her voice an octave, Bynes passes as male soccer player, taking her brother’s place as he ditches school to travel with his band.</p>
<p>She’s the Man was a blatant attempt to capitalise on the success of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147800/">10 Things I Hate About You</a> (1999). The high-school set adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew was a critical and commercial hit. </p>
<p>Dismissed by critics, I find She’s the Man a highly underrated teen film. Screenwriters Kristen Smith and Karen McCullah, best known for writing “chick flicks” like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/">Legally Blonde</a> (2001) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0852713/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The House Bunny</a> (2008), with director Andy Flickman, take a 400-year-old play about mistaken identities and deceit, and craft a cutting – and hilarious – commentary on gender roles in the 21st century.</p>
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<h2>One star reviews</h2>
<p>Famed Rolling Stone film critic <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/shes-the-man-191179/">Peter Travers</a> gave the film one star: “There I sit, suffering total numbness of body and brain, no longer having to wonder what it might be like to be buried alive in gooey marshmallow.”</p>
<p>New York Times critic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/movies/girl-power-on-the-boys-soccer-team.html">Nathan Lee</a> wrote: “She’s the Man reminds us that girls can do anything boys can do, unless those girls happen to exist in a romantic comedy, in which case their ultimate ambition is to squeeze into an expensive dress and get it on with a dumb stud.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shes-the-man-2006">Roger Ebert</a> echoed these critiques: “Can Amanda Bynes convincingly play a boy? Of course not.” </p>
<p><img width="100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/qUdiWk9DnEfC0/giphy.gif"></p>
<p>The distinction between the film’s critical reception and its cultural popularity can be seen in the Rotten Tomatoes ratings. While the critical reception accrued a rating of 43% (rotten), the audience response has been considerably more positive with a rating of 79%. </p>
<p>Many critics dismissed the film on the basis Bynes’ performance of masculinity was “unbelievable” – which completely misses the point.</p>
<h2>Constructing gender</h2>
<p>Despite being dismissed by the (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-study-finds-that-film-critics-are-almost-80-percent-male-2018-6?r=AU&IR=T">mostly male</a>) critics, She’s the Man has gained a cult following among young women. </p>
<p>It has been the subject of <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/michellerennex/channing-at-peak-channing">Buzzfeed listicles</a>, <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/06/9840156/shes-the-man-dark-amanda-bynes-sexism">critical re-appraisals</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb4agp/shes-the-man-best-soccer-movie-ever">passionate</a> <a href="https://medium.com/@marissadriscoll/shes-the-man-is-better-than-mean-girls-change-my-mind-fd3d61b0e5f4">defences</a>. </p>
<p>The film satirises the societal expectations that shackle women, while portraying expectations of manhood as equally absurd. </p>
<p><img width="100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/S6Gm0pQvdm5Ww/giphy.gif"></p>
<p>At the end of an aggressive soccer game in the opening scene, Viola’s boyfriend is compelled to reassure Viola of her soccer skills, but she doesn’t need the reassurance — she is confident in her abilities. In contrast, when Viola teases his kissing prowess, her boyfriend requires immediate and verbose reassurance. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-sport-boys-play-like-a-girl-80328">When it comes to sport, boys 'play like a girl'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is the masculine characters who have a rigid sense of gender identity and performance. The young women see the possibility and malleability of gender. They understand the absurdity of gender performance. </p>
<p>As Viola says to her mother: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will not wear high heels. Because heels are a male invention designed to make women’s butts look smaller and to make it harder for them to run away.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The appeal of She’s The Man is watching young women have access to the freedoms available to young men without having to completely surrender their femininity, silliness and passions. </p>
<p>Bynes delivers a complex and nuanced comedic performance which deftly explores how gendered facades shift and falter. A montage of Viola following men and imitating their walks and mannerisms has the bonus of highlighting Bynes’ talent for physical comedy. </p>
<p><img width="100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/O54ccAi0NWcW4/giphy.gif"></p>
<p>Viola’s alter ego, Sebastian, performs masculinity in overt and stereotypical ways, rendering the performance (and masculinity itself) as absurd. In one scene, Viola-as-Sebastian emphasises her sexual desirability to young women: a display of heightened masculine prowess explicitly performed for other men. </p>
<p>The scene where Viola-as-Sebastian claims tampons spotted in her bag are kept on hand for nose bleeds is a great example of how the film plays with cultural and social anxieties around gender — in particular the bodily functions of people with uteruses. </p>
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<p>Masculinity is repeatedly framed as more fragile than femininity, evidenced by how many of the male characters are threatened by the mere existence of Viola in what they perceive as “their space” — sport. </p>
<p>In the numerous instances where Viola-as-Sebastian is at risk of being “outed”, the men presume a crisis of masculinity. When the principal catches her playing with her wig, he assumes it is the result of male pattern baldness, not cross-dressing. </p>
<p>The idea gender is up for grabs is outside their worldview. </p>
<h2>Girls to the front</h2>
<p>Historically, cultural objects beloved by young women – pop music, boy bands, chick flicks – have been culturally devalued or <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/12/8952462/girl-movies-for-women-reviews-male-film-critics-problem">dismissed</a>. But ignore young women and their tastes at your peril. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1313495184332804099"}"></div></p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/harry-styles-wont-let-anyone-dismiss-the-power-of-his-young-female-fans-51904">Harry Styles</a> said of his fans: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act “too cool.” They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Young women don’t follow trends, they set them – as evidenced by then 19-year-old Bynes who <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2462190/amanda-bynes-fought-for-channing-tatums-shes-the-man-role">encouraged the producers</a> to take a chance on a then largely unknown Channing Tatum, giving him his first role as leading man.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Ford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rolling Stone gave this modern adaptation of Twelfth Night one star – but She’s The Man is actually an intelligent and nuanced look at the performance of gender.Jessica Ford, Lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural Studies, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.