Everything about the marketing campaign for and the critical reaction to Bridesmaids is driving me fucking crazy. On the front end it’s all (paraphrasing), “ZOMG, chick flick for doodz!” and “The Hangover for wimminz!” and “There are farts in it, we promise!!!” and on the back end it’s all (direct quoting), “Chick flicks don’t have to suck” and “These are smart, funny women!” Sigh.
I mean, look. I know I’m a white woman living in America in 2011, so I’m not particularly oppressed. It’s not like I’m considered property fit only for domestic labor and baby manufacturing—anymore (it’s been like 50 years already, ladies, take a Midol and quit cryin’!)! I can be anything I want to be, such as a nurse or a middle manager or a sexy policewoman or a real housewife! BUT OH MY GOD, SOMETIMES BEING A WOMAN IS SO INFURIATING I WANT TO EXTRACT MY UTERUS WITH A FORK AND THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW.
You know that look-at-us-we-killed-
Osama-in-the-brains situation-room photo? Did you notice that there are only two women in there? Two. And we’re 50 percent of the population. I get that President Hillary would have just gotten her menses all over the Oval Office and changed Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Raw Cookie Dough Makes the Crying Stop Day and slashed funding for men’s reproductive health and made football illegal. And when football is illegal, only the terrorists will play football. Fine. I get it, all-you-people-who-are-totally-not-sexist. You are beacons of equality and tolerance, and I would be honored to serve as your sex-
ottoman/chicken-nugget-delivery-system. Feminism is dead. Ding-dong.
HOWEVER. On top of all that, am I really expected to swallow the phrase “These are smart, funny women”? Really? As though that’s a sentence worth writing down, let alone reproducing in poster form. Can you imagine a poster proclaiming “Movies with men in them don’t have to suck!” or a critic writing the phrase “These are smart, funny men!” No. Because that WOULDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE, BECAUSE PEOPLE TAKE MEN SERIOUSLY BY DEFAULT. Hold on—I have to go sharpen my fork.
I can’t believe I’m bothering to say this (also, all this typing is making my weak noodle arms exhausted!) but: Women are funny. Women are smart. Tina Fey exists, and Kristen Wiig exists, and Bridesmaids exists, and Bridesmaids—as a movie, not as a woman-movie—is astoundingly good. Wiig (who also cowrote the script and should probably be cast in every movie ever starting now—GO!) plays Annie, an aimless, single thirtysomething who finds out that her best friend (Maya Rudolph) is engaged. Annie agrees to be the maid of honor and plunges into the weird, fucked-up, stupid world of modern American wedding culture. The highest of jinks ensue in all the directions you expect, and a dozen you don’t. Rose Byrne’s tiny, delicate ears costar. And as though Judd Apatow has been creepily listening at my keyhole, the guy from The IT Crowd plays Wiig’s love interest. Squeal.
Apatow produced Bridesmaids (as per his contract with Hollywood, which states that he shalt produce all movies ever made), and his masterful comedic hand is obvious. But thanks to director Paul Feig—creator of Freaks and Geeks, the most perfect, noncorny blend of humor and heart ever captured on camera—Bridesmaids has all the humanity that Apatow projects usually lack. Both sides of the coin—hilarity and sincerity—brought me to tears. But I was probably just on my period. 
Thanks, Lindy. I was going to see it anyway to support Melissa McCarthy’s career, but it helps to know you liked it.
Still laughing about the menses all over the Oval Office crack. Except I shouldn’t because it is so sickenly true. Oh, well. I still have hope for women in a world that has you in it. If things can get better for teh gays, they’ll eventually get better for women even if I don’t live to hear “Madame President.” I have faith that YOU will. Or your grandchildren.
Lindy, you’re a smart, funny humanoid. Gold star!
This is an amazing review. Too bad weddings have traumatized me and there is no freaking way I could see a movie (gee, even one with smart, funny women) about the whole fucked up Wedding Industrial Complex that really, truly exists.
I was holding my breathe through the first three paragraphs, worried that you didn’t like the movie. Whew! I’m so glad that it is good – not just not-bad!
My impression from the trailer is that Melissa McCarthy is the butt of a lot of fat jokes, and look-at-the-fat-girl-puke jokes. Is this not the case?
PMS-ey
@5: Not the case! Astonishingly not the case.
#5, I saw it at a free screening a month ago so I might be remembering wrong, but she was more of a Zach Galifinakis schlubby weirdo outcast type where her looks were part of her character but her fatness wasn’t the punchline of all jokes related to her.
She played a pretty one-note role like Galifinakis. However, she also had one of the best scenes, involving lots of golden retriever puppies.
This movie was hilarious. Way better thanthe Hangover.
are you fat on purpose so it’s easier to hate men?
Wow #9, you are a pathetic human being.
LINDY THIS REVIEW IS GOOD. GOOD.
I hear you on the smart, but sorry, “These women are funny” is a sentence worth writing down. Have you ever been to a comedy club? It’s a horror show every time a woman gets on stage.
I know what you’re going to say: Tina Fey! Amy Poehler! Kristen Wiig! You know how I knew you would say that? Because women are so predictable? No, not this time. Because those are the same three women everyone always mentions? Bingo. Those are the three funny women.
@12: That’s incredibly offensive. Do you want me to write you a list? I count myself on it, for one. And most of the women I know.
@12: And I guarantee you I spend more time at comedy clubs than you do, and it’s a horror show most of the time men get on stage too. But the difference is that men are encouraged to give it a shot and keep working until they get better, whereas women are shot down even before they begin by all of the bullshit above (your comment included).
Great review, Lindy. As fucking always.
As for the “women in comedy are a horror show” – I’m reminded of a comic: http://xkcd.com/385/
I want to see this movie. I really do. But I don’t want to see it because it is being promoted through word of mouth as “if you don’t see it, you are sexist.”
I’ll probably watch it online because I am too lazy to leave the house.
I’m a women and I’m hilarious.
Yeahhh, the advertising campaign for this movie IS totally ridiculous. But, the poster has a bride and a bunch of chicks in pink dresses on it, so I guess they want to let GUYS know that it isn’t 27 Dresses or Bride Wars. But STILL. “Chick flicks don’t have to suck?” Yick. Don’t even boys already know Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph from SNL, and Ellie Kemper from The Office? Ugh, whatever.
My husband’s taking me to see it this Friday. 🙂
And Lindy? Great piece.
Yup, for a carbon based lifeform (with boobs) you are fuuuunnny. Lindyroolz!!
Co ja kurwa czytam?
@21: IT’S A TRAP!
#14, not to mention at comedy nights there are generally, like, four women to every ten men, so the odds are skewed against them to begin with considering most comedy shows have only a few actual funny comedians.
And when a woman bombs, bigoted dumbasses tend to think of her as representative of the problem with women in the industry, while when a guy bombs, he’s an individual who sucks. It’s the same with women in music.
Also, how “unpredictable” were #12 and #9’s comments?
lindy,
in the article you are referencing, writer drew writes of writer feig; “Feig, of course, is the guy who created ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ and he’s a whip-smart comedy writer.”
not quite:
“These are smart, funny men!”
No.
Because that WOULDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE, BECAUSE PEOPLE TAKE MEN SERIOUSLY BY DEFAULT.
it’s a pretty simple writing trick to take a poorly written concept, assume that it represents “PEOPLE” and their “VIEWS” and then blow it up.
simple yes, but you executed in a way that was fun to read. thanks.
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captu…
😉
The idea that the movie is being marketed as “not all movies for women have to be terrible” is an unprecedented admission to the fact that Hollywood knows what a disservice they have been paying to the female demographic.
“Chick Flick” is a pejorative term now. And for good reason. Its a genre of movies that treat their target audience like children who had to repeat the 4th grade. Every single time Matthew McConaughey’s shit eating grin pops up on a poster with the skinny white woman of the moment, I can’t imagine how people keep falling for the lazy, jaded razzle-dazzle of the Hollywood romance industry.
I hope that this movie finds an audience with women. Its going to be a grand experiment to see if a real studio can make money by taking women more seriously. Because as things stand, I feel like you are all being treated like morons.
“I have a new pity if not respect for women and the depressing materials they’re given to jerk off with.” -Seanbaby
The idea that the movie is being marketed as “not all movies for women have to be terrible” is an unprecedented admission to the fact that Hollywood knows what a disservice they have been paying to the female demographic.
“Chick Flick” is a pejorative term now. And for good reason. Its a genre of movies that treat their target audience like children who had to repeat the 4th grade. Every single time Matthew McConaughey’s shit eating grin pops up on a poster with the skinny white woman of the moment, I can’t imagine how people keep falling for the lazy, jaded razzle-dazzle of the Hollywood romance industry.
I hope that this movie finds an audience with women. Its going to be a grand experiment to see if a real studio can make money by taking women more seriously. Because as things stand, I feel like you are all being treated like morons, and you deserve better.
“I have a new pity if not respect for women and the depressing materials they’re given to jerk off with.” -Seanbaby
I can’t wait to see it. Looking forward to it the same way I look forward to a Lindy West column.
Kristen Wiig was in Flight of the Conchords about two years back as the owner of a lost dog (gone several years and wearing a kitty costume,) and her deadpan is perfect.
Lindy West for Something Big.
Lindy, what if we thought the Hangover, and half of Apatow’s movies suck? Would this be a netflix type of movie?
I’m excited to see this now. I thought there was a possibility of Suck, but I love Wiig so much I didn’t care. Now I know I’ll love her even more for seeing it.
And, Lindy, you are rocking awesome, uterus and all.
Per the loser male replies, feminism obviously isn’t dead. Ding.
Because of the quality of talent attached to the project I was expecting to laugh. I was not expecting to get a bit teary-eyed. But both happened, a lot!! This movie is bloody-fantastic. The marketing is abysmal. Yes, there is some delightfully low-brow squirm-inducing slapstick…but there’s so so much more. GO!
The tag-line, while dumb and useless like most of them are… wasn’t about trying to override some inherent prejudice that all women are stupid.
I could quite easily see, on a comedy film like The Hangover, after showing a bunch of insane nutshots and idiocy, the PR people insisting that “These are smart and funny men!” so as not to drive away anyone who thinks that this movie is just filled to the brim with low-brow humor and has no treats for an intellectual. That’s a hurdle you need to leap with ANY wacky comedy movie. And I don’t think the emphasis was on “women” in that sentence–it wasn’t about trying to convince you that women can be smart. It’s trying to convince you that this sort of comedy can still be smart.
As for the whole chick-flicks thing… once again, they’re trying to broaden up the audience. A lot of people roll their eyes at chick flicks because they’re over-simplified romantic fairy-tale stories.
“I have problems.”
“Let me solve your problems. With my penis.”
Once again, chick flicks aren’t an integral part of female culture, and therefore any insult to them is an insult to women. Not at all. A lot of the eye-rollers are women who go “what the hell? This is a movie ‘for us’? No. This isn’t what I want.” I’d lump chick flicks in the same category as gratuitous action movies. All men like explosions and brawn and nonexistent plots? NO! You have to convince me a movie like that is worth watching.
…and to do so, you should assert that the characters are “smart and funny.”
I’ll be honest, I initially thought this article would be bashing how horrible the movie is–because that’s what I expected. Based on the commercials, my perception was that “oh look, someone’s trying to cash in on the success of ‘The Hangover’ (which was funny, but not groundbreaking in any way), by throwing a little twist on it.. and it’s probably going to be filled with stereotypes and I REALLY don’t want to see it.”
The marketing division, realizing that this sort of perception would be out there, needed to assert that this movie would be witty and good in its own right, rather than just a knock-off. Which is where the quote “These women are smart and funny!” came about.
The tag-line, while dumb and useless like most of them are… wasn’t about trying to override some inherent prejudice that all women are stupid.
I could quite easily see, on a comedy film like The Hangover, after showing a bunch of insane nutshots and idiocy, the PR people insisting that “These are smart and funny men!” so as not to drive away anyone who thinks that this movie is just filled to the brim with low-brow humor and has no treats for an intellectual. That’s a hurdle you need to leap with ANY wacky comedy movie. And I don’t think the emphasis was on “women” in that sentence–it wasn’t about trying to convince you that women can be smart. It’s trying to convince you that this sort of comedy can still be smart.
As for the whole chick-flicks thing… once again, they’re trying to broaden up the audience. A lot of people roll their eyes at chick flicks because they’re over-simplified romantic fairy-tale stories.
“I have problems.”
“Let me solve your problems. With my penis.”
It’s not like chick flicks aren’t an integral part of female culture, and therefore any insult to them is an insult to women. Not at all. A lot of the eye-rollers are women who go “what the hell? This is a movie ‘for us’? No. This isn’t what I want.” I’d lump chick flicks in the same category as gratuitous action movies. All men like explosions and brawn and nonexistent plots? NO! You have to convince me a movie like that is worth watching.
…and to do so, you should assert that the characters are “smart and funny.”
They wouldn’t have to market this if so many chick flicks didnt’ suck. So many chick flicks are – woman likes man, man not interested, something happens, woman and man end up happy together. I think it was paul constant that posted the Vonnegut talk where he talks about how crappy a lot of movie plots are, and most of these chick flicks fall into this category. A bunch of the previews at the showing I saw fall into this category of crappy chick flicks. I think the ad campigain is trying to distance itself from these shitty movies. There’s nothing wrong with that, if you’re looking for someone to blame, blame all the writers/actors/producers/audicence members of the crappy chick flicks, that bring so much of this crap to market.
And I have heard this type of marketing with other movies in other genre, i.e. this is not your typical action movie/sports movie/etc.
With so much crap movies being made, it’s fair for people to assume that good movies, such as this movies, might fall into the same crap as similar movies, and it’s fair for the studios to try to say hey everyone, this isn’t crap.
Really this is all katherine heigl’s fault.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, I think this movie is much much much much better than the Hangover. The Hangover was just a bunch of guys getting hurt over and over again.
I’ve been entertained by this review and the comments. It’s so cute when girls try to do stuff. Thanks! 🙂
@9 Your insult to Lindy is unappreciated sir (I’m assuming you’re a sir). I find women with big bellies quite attractive, so go live in your victoria secret fantasy world where women are pretty and don’t come off like insufferable screeching harpies.
Yes, women can be funny.
Lindy West? No – no not all…
Nice job not perpetuating the stereotype of the whiny bitch.
The movie just didn’t do it for me.
#9 and #12 are trolls. Vig is the funniest actor around right now. I’m dying to see this. I didn’t think the Hangover went far enough or was real enough to be really funny. There’s maybe one funny movie a year, and Family Guy fills the gap. I’m just praying this is worth seeing a couple times.
@12 – Sarah Silverman, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho, Whoopi Goldberg, Roseanne Barr (though I will grant you she’s off her rocker a lot of the time), Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhart, Cathy Jones, Wanda Sykes, Garfunkel & Oates, Ellen DeGeneres (married to a woman 1000x hotter than the best you will ever do), Amy Sederis, all of my friends (most of whom were chosen to be my friends because of their ability to make me laugh so hard that milk would come out my nose). For a start.
Bridesmaids was genuinely funny, even considering that they blew more than 50% of the laughs by revealing them in the trailer. Considering it was Wiig and Mumalo’s first script it is an impressive accomplishment (forgiving some of the formulaic/structural problems with it). Without Wiig’s tremendous talent, the film wouldn’t have played as strong.
With that said, I just wish that Ms. West had expended more words talking about the film and less about her own issues. The Stranger is such a great publication. I just wish it would employ a film “critic” who was more willing to demonstrate a stronger grasp of film and less willing to make herself the fulcrum of every piece.
@ 12 – Jane Curtin Gilda Radner Laraine Newman! Janeane Garofalo! Wanda Sykes! Ruth Buzzi! Goldie Hawn! Rosie O’Donnell!
Phyllis Diller! Elaine Boozler! Paula Poundstone! All of the Golden Girls! Lucille muthafuggin Ball, baby! Wheeee!!
Great review, Lindy – can’t wait to see the movie!
Finally! Another female that watches IT Crowd, I’ve been looking everywhere for one!!
Sorry. Bridesmaids SCREAMS “chick flick.” I’m not getting anywhere near it.
While stating “these women are smart and funny!” does read like a “believe it or not!!” statement, it doesn’t necessarily mean “believe it or not, sometimes women are smart and funny too!” It could just as easily be saying “believe it or not, the female characters in this movie aren’t written to be accessibly shallow plot pawns like they are in almost every ‘chick flick’ you’ve ever seen.”
Like, “OK I know you’ve been burned before but this time it’ll be different baby, I’ve changed I swear.”
But honestly my gut reaction from the title and poster for this movie didn’t exactly give this stereotype a lot of breathing room. It’s really pretty hard not to do that with Hollywood movies.
And on that note, there is still a bottom line to be reached for a marketing department. Especially with Hollywood movies, if the movie is anything but run-of-the-mill, you’re gonna have to get the point of it across to the thick-skulled masses to get there. I think comment #49 demonstrates the difficulty with the “american dudes” demographic pretty well — jamesdingo evidently couldn’t get the point even with an article breaking it down for him.
People of diff genders despise chick flicks but dig chick comics, so advertisers & media want to make the distinction clear- they expect their audience (of all genders) to be excited to hear about it & go see the movie.
@45 Stop perpetuating stereotypes…Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers and Whoopi are not funny. Ellen DeGeneres should start and end your list. One of the greatest comics ever. Too bad she doesn’t do stand-up much anymore.
@53: Carol Burnett is not funny?
You, sir or madam, are one delusion little fishy.
I’m with you on Ellen though. An outstanding comic.
@54 I’m a little too young to remember the Carol Burnett show, so maybe i should have withheld judgement on that one, but based on cameos and her work on password, i stand by my not-funny assessment.