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Mamma Mia: Delayed Revenge Against Pauline Kael?

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

Meryl Streep has previously sung on screen (most recently for Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion), but the upcoming Mamma Mia! is the first real musical of her 30 year career. Why all the singing and dancing, and why now? “It was to prove Pauline Kael wrong,” insists Stuart Jeffries.

In this Guardian interview, he suggests to Streep that her decision to take a lead role in this likely summer blockbuster was nothing but a long-delayed strike against the film critic who decades earlier complained that Streep acted only “from the neck up.” Amazingly, Streep essentially shrugs and says, “Yeah, maybe”––and then goes on to tie Kael’s criticism of the actresses body language to the film critic’s ethnic/economic insecurity. The actual, speculative diss after the jump.

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Classics, Hollywood

On Blondes

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

The Reeler has an interview with film critic Carrie Rickey, who has curated an event in New York tonight called Dumb Blondes, Smart Blondes. The program sounds great, but Rickey says a few questionable things in the interview.

One thing I bristle at is the notion that Judy Holliday wanted to play smarter, “but she really didn’t get that opportunity because people really enjoyed the dumb blonde. I just think that Holliday and even Marilyn Monroe — as much as I love them — invite a certain kind of male condescension.” I don’t think that’s true at all. Born Yesterday was one thing, but I think Judy Holliday was at her best playing smart blondes, who allowed men to treat them as though they were dumber than they really were, so that they could then be a little bit sneaky about the smartness.

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