Everyone’s talking about the new R-rated trailer for Jennifer’s Body, a horror comedy starring Megan Fox as a possessed cheerleader. My first impression was that it seems too much like last year’s Teeth, only with less interesting subtext. Alison Willmore of The Independent Eye instead finds the movie reminiscent of 2000’s Ginger Snaps, though she doesn’t think that’s a bad thing. Either way, coming from screenwriter Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body doesn’t appear original in any way except for its forced, writerly dialogue (”You need a mani bad. You should find a Chinese chick to buff your situation.”). And interestingly (coincidentally?) enough, her Oscar-winning movie, Juno, just so happens to feature actress Emily Perkins, costar of the Ginger Snaps trilogy.
Originality aside (it’s also being likened to Heathers and Species), Jennifer’s Body is being celebrated as low culture, criticized for being worse than low culture and otherwise dividing the bloggers up as only Cody’s feature follow-up to Juno could. Meanwhile, the truly important people (i.e. the teen boys looking at blogs) probably won’t care about what’s a good screenplay or what films this may have ripped off, because they’re probably only paying attention to all the teased Megan Fox nudity (including plenty of footage of that “topless” scene we saw “leaked” photos of last year).
By the way, my second impression of the trailer was that it’s cool they used a Runaways song so that this Bloggery can be linked to last Friday’s posting, in a way. Shows how bored I was with the plot/dialogue/visuals. Also, because you probably won’t see her acknowledged on most posts about this movie, Jennifer’s Body is directed by Karyn Kusama, of Girlfight and Æon Flux.
Now, on to the film blog reactions, after the jump:
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I initially planned to write an Antichrist-inspired list of most misogynistic movies ever made. But after some minor research, I decided that as a man, even one who has studied feminist film theory, I’m not the best judge of what titles to choose. Besides, I figure there are already enough places on the web where we can debate whether or not Neil LaBute and Lars von Trier are misogynistic filmmakers or if they are in fact the opposite.
I could have instead attempted a list of movies that are misandric, but I don’t think hatred towards men is equally as off-putting to male viewers as misogyny is to women. So, here’s something slightly similar, also inspired by Antichrist (particularly a disturbing genital-mutilation scene in the film), because there’s certainly nothing more difficult for men to watch than scenes in which male sex organs are harmed.
Of course, cinema has been hurting guys’ balls for laughs throughout the existence of motion pictures. And plenty of action and horror flicks depict castration by shotgun, knife, van door and other means on a regular basis. Therefore, I’ve gone specifically with these six sex scenes, since they add to the pain by first teasing pleasure. But no, masochistic delight is nowhere to be found in any of these hard-to-watch movie moments.
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Movie posters have become increasingly more controversial in the past decade, or else people have become a lot more sensitive. Either way, it seems like there’s a new and controversial movie poster or billboard being banned somewhere. Usually it’s for one of two reasons: sex or violence, with violence being far more popular. One of the first sexually banned posters I could find was 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, which featured an A-frame design that was banned. It wasn’t so much the vaginal roof as it was the exposed buttocks, so they had to release a retouched version that covered more derriere.
It’s been more than 25 years since that poster was sent back to the drawing board, so why do posters keep getting banned? Marketing people know that controversy can turn into a marketing campaign of its own, so maybe they’re pushing the boundaries in the vein of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” With that in mind, here’s a look at controversial movie posters from the past several years. Prepare your innocent eyes and take a look after the break.
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