Monday 27 April 2015

The Ultimate Breakdown Of Sarah's Favourite Chick-Flicks.

So, when you dear audience members decided to delve into my blog and get very confused by it all, you signed a contract with the devil. Which states that you must read what I write about films, and thereafter think "well that was a bit too long for a review" or indeed "Sarah is awesome, everything is cool when you're part of a team, etc, etc."

Well anyway, strap yourselves in for a rollercoaster and a half. Here we have my:
 'Ultimate Breakdown of Sarah's Favourite Chick-Flicks.'
*Cue heavenly music*

So let's begin:

Clueless
Mean Girls
Easy A
She's The Man
John Tucker Must Die
Wild Child
Sydney White
St Trinians
The House Bunny
10 Things I Hate About You
Miss Congeniality
The To Do List
13 Going 30
It's A Boy Girl Thing
Confessions Of A Shopaholic 
Pitch Perfect
Legally Blonde
Freaky Friday
The Princess Diaries
Bachelorette

Yeah...
These are some of my favourite films within the Chick-Flick genre. I went through an odd phase of pretending that I didn't in fact like Romantic Comedies, even though I actually did.
#Hardcore
I dunno, maybe it was just to impress the guys when I went through that horrible misogynistic phase of "I'm not like the other girls!"
But anyway, yes I do indeed like to watch a Chick-Flick, every now and then I take a lot of enjoyment in a film made for girls... unfortunately most are predominantly created by men. But yet they do it successfully as well, so maybe I'm talking dirt. Although, let's just say that there are the many Rom-Coms out there which are made to prey on our hard earned money, then give nothing back.... 50 Shades of Misogyny!
It's a hard subject. Are Chick-Flicks created just for the money? I mean yes, but is there any form of art put into any Chick-Flick ever? And is a Rom-Com always regarded as a Chick-Flick? Can there be a Rom-Com targeted for a large male audience?

Will I answer all these questions in one post?
Probably not...

So the 'Ultimate Breakdown' I promised, will only consist of a few of my particular favourite Chick-Flicks. I know I have a lot of time on my hands, but there is more Daredevil on Netflix for me to catch up with and yet even more uni work for me to ignore.

So, the first in our instalment shall be Clueless.



Now Clueless is a iconic film... mostly due to the disaster which Iggy Azalea.
The less said about that, the better.
But anyway, Clueless director - Amy Heckerling of the Look Who's Talking fame, uses the 90s to her advantage. The reason why I love this film is that it shows a stuck up, but well meaning protagonist - Cher, go through a series of changes and come out 'not so stuck up' at the end of it. She embarks on doing good deeds, such as ensuring that her two teachers fall in love with each other - in order to bump up her grades. Cher talks her new classmate into a uptown makeover - both physically and emotionally. And you're all like, but why does she bother? And the main thing is that she really is just a happy soul. A little thick, but that's why it's a Comedy... and also maybe why it's called Clueless...
Bravo Sarah.
But all in all, yes this is a very good film... Perhaps some racist stereotypes if you will however. A cult film in its own rights truly due to the tremendous fashion and 90s Beverly Hills rich girl aesthetic.
(Tumblr gone wild).

FYI: It's also based on the Jane Austen novel - Emma. That's why the slightly F-ed up ending kinda. Yet it's still a happy one.

Pitch Perfect



Pitch Perfect somewhat came out of nowhere with a Chick-Flick which combined comedy, female solidarity and also... some more racist stereotypes. God dammit Chick-Flicks. Is nothing safe!?
Anywho, Pitch Perfect is pretty funny. Simple one liners, a happy ending and now with a sequel out as well as a third instalment in the running. It's becoming a vast franchise already, and it's good. It's a good film. When you've got most of Hollywood having to make films about anything and everything - for example: roller-skating, football, bowling, tennis, ping-pong, swimming, ice skating, undiscovered princesses as well as princes, weddings, theatre, gymnastics, rock bands, barber shops, journalism, restaurants, boxing and cars... This film adds to the long line of subject Hollywood films which are mostly incorporated into Chick-Flick and Rom-Coms. Think about it, woman meets man in restaurant job/wedding preparations/auditions, they both hate each other for some trivial reason, then end up falling deeply in love after they have a montaged summer together.
Aw.
As I was saying, Pitch Perfect depicts the journey of an acapella group, which is now apparently a cool thing within the highschool community. But it is very funny, and uses a multicultural group of women to put across the point that they rule and won't let music nor men come between them...
How cringe-ball.

Mean Girls



The Holy Grail, if you will.
Here it is folks.
The one that got us all interested.
Mean Girls
*More heavenly music*
I think this could have been the film which first brought attention to how bullying goes on in highschools within the newer generation. Or indeed how it did occur within the generation I grew up in. Yes there are still very mean girls about, but the more it happens lately, society likes to think the bullying concept of school is ending. But, yeah, nah, it's not.
So, Mean Girls is the peak of how good a Chick-Flick can get with regarding the teen film, with maybe an exception for Easy A. (Which I didn't have enough time to add to this, sorry).
With this you've got your new kid in school who is tearing it all up because she's good looking but not popular... until o m g, the popular girls take her under their wing.
If you're gonna watch this for one thing, and one thing alone, it's gonna be Damien and Janis.
Oh yeah and also Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Tim Meadows.
As well as the Janitor from Scrubs.
Full star cast if you ask me.
Mean Girls is more risky with all the sub-par sex references which seemed over the top when you were watching it at 13. It's a big thing within the Chick-Flick world, it provides you with what teens really were/are like... either Art Freaks or Plastic or somewhere in between.
....
Don't look at me.

Confessions Of A Shopaholic



A small finisher here with a film which not everyone talks about. Well not as much as the others on this list. However, I like this one. It's got everything you expect from a Chick-Flick - love, comedy and a low part before the big triumphant ending.
Rebecca Bloomwood is a raging shopaholic. Isla Fisher here is delightful as always. She plays a girl with a problem and like all addicts - freezes a credit card in a block of ice and puts it to the back of the freezer, even though she's trying to get her life back on track. With all her crumbling debt, her life spirals out of control when she loses her cushy job at a magazine company when it suddenly folds. Rebecca suddenly writes a magnificent piece (whilst drunk, as you do) in which it informs people of the ways they are ripped off in day to day life. She sends it to the wrong magazine company and ends up with yet another cushy job with a lower graded magazine.
I mean really, for a girl in the worst debt imaginable she does get a few good breaks in this film.
She falls for her boss.
What
a
surprise.
And with some complications along the way, Rebecca gets a lot of help from her parents - Joan Cusack (hero) and John Goodman (also hero), her boss being Hugh Dancy - Hannibal, and her best friend Krysten Ritter.  Rebecca saves the day and gets the guy.
Oh sorry I just ruined a little bit for you.
But what were you expecting from another Chick-Flick.
Really?
Anyway, it's a good film.
Believe me.

SO, that concludes my second compilation post. I have an ill feeling that these will appear a lot more on this blog from time to time, due to me spending my money on y'know... food.
Perhaps you'll be treated to a sum up of the new Avengers film.
Maybe.
Maybe don't bet on it for just a moment.

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