Within the Sinister Cabal that is Blogcritics.org, there exists a Double Secret Society of Men. Manly Men, who wear plaid, spit, swear and scratch private parts. These are the Manly Men of Mondo. Their existence has been whispered about and speculated upon and soon, a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks will be released to show the world the truth behind the Mondo Myth. To get to the kernel of that truth took cunning, bravery, and a decidedly feminine touch. I took on the task to infiltrate this conclave, this cabal within a cabal. I brought coasters, doilies, chamomile tea, and a case of beer. Ingratiatingly charming but ready to fling the fucks with the best of them, I am – The Gurl.
From: Mary
To: The Hot Topic Team
Re: Chick Flicks
So, here I am, yakking about movies. A gurl at that, in the midst of the Boys of Mondo, talking about movie preferences based on gender. Well, do I go to see a movie based on the stud appeal of the leading men? No, that’s not the driving force. There are a lot of hot leading men out there that I like to look at, but it takes more than that to earn my crumpled, sweaty dollars. So, assuming I’m not seeing a movie for my kids, assuming I’m seeing something just for me, what turns me on? Ah, I dunno. I have been thinking of my favorite movies, and why they remain favorite movies.
Some I like purely for the talking. Tons of dialogue, doesn’t have to be witty (though, I love witty too), just deep. Dialogue that provokes conflict, which speaks to some dark part inside me. Take The Anniversary Party. Although some of the more interesting dialogue occurs after the characters have taken ecstasy, I enjoy this kind of slow-moving film. Maybe part of the allure is the fine cast, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Cumming (both also wrote and directed the flick) Jennifer Beals, John C. Reilly, Jane Adams, and Kevin Kline. Or maybe I just like talky movies with Kevin Kline. The Big Chill hit me in a big way when that came out. Tons of talking! That’s all they did! Oh they had a little sex, did some drugs and played football. Or maybe I just like the movies where they take drugs. Who knows?
But hey, I like action movies too. I don’t know if they are just fun to watch, or because it’s what you do when you’re in a house full of men. The technology has advanced in film-making that for me anyway, watching today’s Batman Begins or Mr. and Mrs. Smith can be jaw-dropping. Of course, not to discredit some older action flicks, 1981’s Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was incredible. I remember seeing it with a girlfriend, and the momentum of the movie stayed with me as we left the theater. I wanted to drive very fast afterwards.
![Delicatessen [NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - UK]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZX6ZFTJ6L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - DJRadiohead
There are some ManCards in need of revoking on this thread, fellas.
Next Hot Topic: Porno and Spagetti-Os.
2 - chantal stone
if porn and spagettio's are the next Hot Topic...i WANT IN!!
great post everyone :)
3 - Mary K. Williams
Porno and spaghetti-o's?
OK I can handle that. : )~
4 - Mary K. Williams
Thank you Chantal!
Be on the lookout for Franco-American musings. : )
5 - Mat Brewster
This aint half bad...for a girl!
6 - Bliffle
Bah! Stand aside you perfumed hanky waving dandies and let a Big Bad Burly Manly Man tell you about movies! And I have the credentials. Why, I'm so manly I'm wearing a plaid shirt at this very moment, and not because I was attending a Fashion Tea at Banana republic, I can tell you! This Bad Boy was out tossing drywall panels around at 7AM with Framer Dave, another Big Burly 6 foot 2 big-framed weight-lifting martial-arts guy, 30ish with red hair and an infectuous smile that can make a woman swoon at 30 paces (now don't get any ideas about a Brokeback Moment here: we're Manly Men who punch each other in the shoulder, talk in deep somber voices about truck tires, and openly ogle the tall slender well-formed blonde who walked up to the counter at the lumber yard).
Movies are about PICTURES. They even call them "Moving Pictures". If you want words, read a book. Books are better at words. If you want emotion and sentiment read poetry. If you want words and sentiment read Steinbeck, etc. Plot? Who cares? If you've lived as long as this reviewer you've already had a surfeit of plot, what with all the wives, girlfriends, children, lawyers and business bozos. Plot is for the young and naive and those who've led very protected lives and need to get their 'plot' from safe sources: at a distance.
Pictures! And pictures that move to give the viewer that slight sense of movement that reveals life and vitality. That's what movies are about. For Manly Men that means beautiful and powerful outdoor scenes, usually of magnificent forest and mountain vistas in Montana, sweeping deserts in SW USA, etc., sea and forest interaction on the Maine coast, the incomparable blues of Carribean seas, the interplay of ocean and desert in the Greek Isles, etc. For Manly Men that means beautiful women, naked as appropriate (but not always, as the real admirer of female beauty knows). And NOT porn! Porn wastes too much effort on plot and dialogue. Frankly, to men, the stud is just a nuisance, provided to increase the plot-quotient for a mans girlfriend.
Strip all the superfluous dialogue and plot out of "High Sierra" or "Petrified Forest" and what do you have? A PBS documentary, that's what! And a damn good one if it's in HD, projected on an 8 foot screen by an HD projector. The movies I've kept on My Manly Mans PVR are PBS HDTV docs of Idaho, Utah, etc. Take any old John Wayne movie and split the sound and picture. Would you rather listen to the dialogue on the radio or watch the scenery, in silence, on a large screen?
How many of us men have slogged thru a million introspective Ingmar Bergman movies just so we could get a glimpse of Harriet Anderrsons marvelous beauty in "Naked Night"? How many sat thru the stupid drivel of Al Brooks "Modern Romance" to get a peep at the fabulous Kathryn Harold? Ah, but the rougher the path and more arduous the journey, the greater the triumph at reaching the prize!
7 - Mat Brewster
The testosterone of that last comment knocked me out of my seat!
Certainly film is about visuals. But I think films unique ability to mix the visual with the aural that makes it so wonderful.
8 - Bliffle
Mat: "But I think films unique ability to mix the visual with the aural that makes it so wonderful."
Yeah sure. Me too. Just don't stand in front of the visual when Sophia Loren gets on that tram in "Too Bad She's Bad". You're likely to hear some unpleasant aural instantiation approximating Italian that singes your delicate ears.
Now that's a MOVIE! And if you've never seen it I pity you.
9 - Bennett
Aw fuck. How can I be be a ManlyMan when Bliffle's in the house.
Great stuff Mary, Matt, Sir Duke, DJ, and Bliffle!
And All.
10 - Mary K. Williams
Bliffle says:Framer Dave, another Big Burly 6 foot 2 big-framed weight-lifting martial-arts guy
You had me at 'martial arts guy'Way cool.
And you have a good point about movies being about pictures and visuals. If they were just about words - we'd call them 'books'.
So, you get the right combination of the visual, aural - story, character-- and voila! Dosn't matter if it's exploding trucks and motorcyles or imploding relationships - is all good, yes?
11 - Miss Templeton
So there's this Robert Rodriguez movie with Antonio Banderas that starts out with this great scene in a bar. Antonio is onstage playing some fantastic adrenaline-driving piece of Mexican music -- stuff the guys down in the Mission finally get around to playing once the supply of Añejo is exhausted and the bartender has broken into the Reserva -- and he's all dressed in black with lovely long, black hair and dark eyes and the scene could have just stopped right there and still have been worth it. But over at the far end of the bar, there's some scumbag cowboy mistreating a lady. And Antonio sees this, climbs up on the bar, strides the length of the bar over to the altercation and just slams the offending pig of a pinche cabron cowboy up the side of the head with his guitar. And then Antonio goes back to performing the song!
Now there's a chick flick.
12 - Mary K. Williams
Miss Templeton -
Gotta love Rodriguez - though I've not seen the first two in this 'El Mariachi' trilogy - only Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Which I ABsolutely loved like crazy. The scene you describe sounds awesome - you going to see Banderas' new one - Take the Lead? Now, that seems very chick-flick-ery
Speaking of Rodriguez - I'm looking forward to seeing Sin City 2
13 - Miss Templeton
Hello Mary K-After this thread, I ended up seeing Desparado again via the On Demand Free Movie channel. Paying attention to credits, I learned that the music is Los Lobos, which makes it all the better.
I haven't seen every Banderas movie, but I did think he was adorable as Puss in Shrek2!
14 - nepaymbombody
One of the biggest problems with Wikipedia is that you never know for sure if the person that wrote the entry you are looking at really knew what they were talking about. Still, Wikipedia is one of the most used sources of information on the internet.
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that Wikipedia Mobile is now available for the iPhone and is on the app store for download now. The app is free and is a 1.6MB download so you can grab it over-the-air.
The app focuses on speed and simplicity and the app is described as more than a wrapper for the Wikipedia site that you can already view from Safari. Exactly what the advantages of the app compared to looking directly at the site is unknown. This is the first official Wikipedia app on the App Store.
15 - SoundJohn
Hey! Thanx for this beautiful place of the Inet!!
16 - attainoda
Cao ,
Im new here and just wanted to stop by and say hi :)