the shock and horror

[olamina]

I went to see Knocked Up yesterday excited to see a witty and ridiculous fluffy romantic comedy. What I ended up seeing was a blatant and offensive celebration of white male privilege that also doubled as some sort of advertisement for a liberal pro-life agenda

Comments

[bing_crosby]

hmm, I guess that would be me? I can't help loving the Apatow-branded dudes hanging out together humor. Totally get your criticism, and the ridiculousness about the abortion issue has been well covered in various conversations, a NY Times article, other lj posts I've seen, etc. In general (as I mentioned when I posted about it) I find the women in Apatow's films have very little depth or motivation. I heard Seth Rogen on the radio talking about how he used Woody Allen as an inspiration-- how he manages to play a total doofus/jerk but somehow you believe that a woman might possibly remotely fall in love with him. I left thinking that he was just as unsuccessful in doing that as Woody is, as I always feel like "why would that beautiful smart woman fall for that?" in his movies too. But that poor premise doesn't stop me from laughing at the comedic male character in Woody Allen flicks either

[olamina]

I think it is exceedingly important to point out the insidious and underhanded ways these attitudes infiltrate into the mainstream. While so many are busy pointing out glaringly sexist policies and practices, I don't think we should downplay the cultural significance of these lighthearted comedies. Apatow is an increasing important player in the world of mainstream comedy and he is holding up a (mostly uncritical) mirror to the white middle-class liberal demographic. I'm going to keep taking notes.

[electric_honey]

it's been a few weeks since i saw it so i can't necessarily cite specific funny moments. but i do think it was unrealistic that she didn't have an abortion, and it kept me from really getting attached to her as a character because her actions were so different from what mine would have been if i got pregnant after a one-night stand. then again, if i lived with two children and had a well-paying job, who knows how i would feel.

i might also have had a different reaction than you because i am pretty physically attracted to seth rogen (have been since freaks and geeks), so although on screen he was being presented as this big loser, in my head he's not.

[electric_honey]

also, the scene with paul rudd and seth rogen in the hotel room, where they're talking about how they can't believe women love them--my boyfriend (and most of his friends) could have been right there with them.

[olamina]

Yeah, I am all for the big white male camraderie party if they wanna have it but you don't have to insult women to have it. All the women were humorless, hormonal fall-guys for these over-grown man children. It seems that except for a few things like Annie Hall and When Harry Met Sally women in romantic comedies are there to be lampooned. Judd Apatow has very little understanding of women and their humor and I don't think he cares enough to take the time. If he wants to have a bro-fest great but sacrificing a woman's life and body for it is a bit over the top. Now that I am looking at it, I think 40 Year Old Virgin was almost about the same thing.

[electric_honey]

when i think of romantic comedies, i wouldn't think of knocked up. i think of things like because i said so or 13 going on 30, movies where there is real love-overcomes-all romance. i didn't find this movie very romantic, and i don't think it was meant to be. even though katherine heigl and seth rogen work out, it's clear that leslie mann and paul rudd will always be unhappy and are, as katherine heigl's character says, just wrong for each other. it's subtle, but i think that is the undercurrent of criticism of the choice to have the baby--they did it, and look at them.

[alice_ayers]

I don't know if I raved about it--I did like Katie Heigl, though, and thought she and Leslie Mann were very funny.

Why doesn't she have any other friends? I think it's the same reason that she doesn't/won't move out of the guest house or make her own breakfast. I think she's stuck in a moment, like a self-absorbed zombie that we've all been either for a moment or had whole zombie years where nothing motivated us enough to do more.

I did blog that I wished the word abortion was actually said outright and not made into painful scenes with pothead friend and Pinot Grigio lunchs with the WASPier than thou mother.

In terms of pure comedy, I thought the OB-GYNs were funny, too.

Leslie Mann, though,she just killed me when she yells at Paul Rudd in the street--"just because you don't yel doesn't mean you aren't mean"

[olamina]

I didnt think either of the women were funny in that they were humorous. They were sometimes funny to laugh at and they were in humorous situations but they in and of themselves were uniformly surly and "took themselves too seriously". The one night that Heigl's character Allison actually did go out an let loose proved to be a big mistake. The movie was very much centered around this big humorous lug (Rogen, who we see in opening montage of the film living it up with his bros while Heigl is at home somberly getting ready for work) showing an overly-serious girl how to "live again" by injecting her (literally and figuratively) with "new life".

The whole thing screams female hysteria to me and the series of "meetings" with OB/GYNs only substantiated it. Pelvic massage was copsidered a popular treatment for the "disorder".

[olamina]

[olamina]

"Patients diagnosed with female hysteria would undergo "pelvic massage" - manual stimulation of the woman's genitals by the doctor to "hysterical paroxysm", which is now recognized as orgasm."

[donuty]

I liked it because it was "a witty and ridiculous fluffy romantic comedy." I did not go into the viewing expecting to see any tough feminists (why would you expect that character to be a tough feminist in the first place? do you expect all women- real and fictional- to be tough feminists at all times?). And maybe you see "white male privilege" but I just see a bunch of lazy (and extremely hilarious) losers who can barely pay their rent- I believe they come in all different colors and forms.

[bing_crosby]

but you've got to admit-- there is no woman like Linda Cardellini's character in Freaks and Geeks in any other Apatow production. There's a diff between "tough feminist" and "real believable, sensible woman." I generally assume that the good character development in F&G came from Paul Feig.

[olamina]

I was honestly just waiting for real believable, sensible woman. I didn't need feminists banging a battle tune out on drums but this movie read like a vision of a world where the feminist had never really happened.

And yeah I love me some Paul Feig, I read Superstud. Ha ha.

[donuty]

I guess the scenarios I saw in the movie, and the female characters seemed pretty believable and furthermore- quite common to me... maybe not so sensible (well, far from it). But most people don't make sensible choices. They make the ones they think they're supposed to make, according to social cues (whether we want to admit it or not

[nursedoa]

I hated it,

http://nursedoa.livejournal.com/151496.html

I think "awful dystopian nightmare" really does this move justice.

[alice_ayers]

I'd be interested in your take, too--could you make it public?

[nursedoa]

Sure, I thought it was public. Fixed.

[electric_honey]

you make a really good point about how allison is as much of a slacker as ben. i hadn't thought of it that way.