This is a very rare lead role in cinema. Women, I find, we’re defined a lot by men and thus defined by our gender, who we are through our relationship with men, be it as a victim or a love relationship. The idea that this is a woman who defines herself by her work and by her brain and doesn’t try to sleep with her superiors, that to me is really inspiring.
Everybody’s doing it
In which Annie Choi and I go to the movies (perhaps you can guess which movie we saw?). By the way, you should read Annie’s hilarious book if you have not done so already. As for the movie…
Annie: It was a big, fat meh, to me. Maybe my expectations were too high. I tend to have high standards. I’m Asian.
Mary: My expectations were low, based on the trailers. And the poster outside the theater that said “Chick flicks don’t have to suck.”
War/comedy is hell
Larry the Cable Guy promoting Delta Farce in a 2007 episode of Greta Van Susteren’s On the Record:
VAN SUSTEREN: The new movie, I’ve seen clips of it, is drop-dead funny. Especially to those of us stuck in the seventh grade, which I confess, I remain stuck in the seventh grade. Tell the viewers — it opens Friday. Tell the viewers what a treat they’re in for. What’s the story line?
LARRY THE CABLE GUY: [T]his movie is about — I’m down on my luck. I just found out my girlfriend broke up with me so my buddies are going to take me out for a day of shootin’. We go to the armory where we are like state militia, so we are in the armory. All of a sudden the sergeant comes in and says, “Come on, we are going to Iraq.” He thinks we’re actual soldiers. So, we’re on our way to Iraq. We’re screw-ups, we are sitting in the Humvee, we fall asleep. We are in the C-130, we are in bad weather. They dump equipment C-130, our Humvee parachutes to the desert. We land in the desert. We think we’re in Iraq but we are in Mexico. And it was taped on location in Los Angeles.
Help me out, Elliott Gould:
Q. We live in a time of war now, and yet you don’t see people making war comedies. What was it about that era that permitted a film like “MASH”?
A. It was Robert Altman.
One of the many infuriating things about SATC 2
Their wealthy Middle Eastern hosts could arrange four Maybachs but only two camels?
