Recommended film: The Heat

[firecat]

The Heat is a buddy cop movie set in Boston starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. I thought it was really funny, and the humor does not rely on fat jokes (McCarthy is fat), fat stereotypes, sexual assault or harrassment.[1] There are some jokes based on appearance, and a lot of jokes based on class.

Normally I wouldn't see this type of movie in the theater but I did because wanted to reward the producers for making a film of this type that stars women.

There are spoilers in the comments.

[1]ETA: Add "against women". There were jokes about sexual harrassment of men.

Comments

Lack of fat stereotyping

[firecat]

There is one fat joke early in the film, where McCarthy's character can't get out of her car because it's hemmed in by other cars.

McCarthy's character is shown eating once early in the film. I started to get annoyed until I saw that she was eating a bell pepper.

She brushes off a couple of guys she slept with who are sad that she didn't call them afterward. She kisses one of them.

[firecat]

I am pissed off at the Salon reviewer Andrew O'Hehir for opening his review with "Nothing quite says female empowerment like violating the civil rights of criminal suspects, am I right?" and "What is the point of making a movie that’s just like the dopiest, broadest and most reductive grade of guy-oriented comedy, except with women?"

Because of course movies starring women need to be held to a higher moral standard. Only guys should get to play foul-mouthed vigilante cops. Am I right?

Guessing that O'Hehir is white, I'm also guessing that he never felt the lack of seeing people like himself on the movie screen.

[julian]

Overall, it was a weirdly paced movie and was basically a bunch of vignettes, but I loved McCarthy, liked Bullock OK, and some of the supporting cast were fun.

And I went to see it to support female buddy movies, too.

[zeborah]

Every now and then I turn to the movies page in the newspaper, count the number of identifiably female characters vs identifiably male characters in the blurbs, and go away to read a book.

(It often approaches parity for romance, but *two* identifiably female characters? Unheard of!)

I'm going to see if my sister wants to go with me for this. (So far I'm betting yes.)

[ironed_orchid]

I saw a poster and thought it looked awful until I realised it was Melissa McCarthy, and then I kinda wanted to see it. So thanks for the endorsement.

Lack of fat stereotyping

[firecat]

There is one fat joke early in the film, where McCarthy's character can't get out of her car because it's hemmed in by other cars.

McCarthy's character is shown eating once early in the film. I started to get annoyed until I saw that she was eating a bell pepper.

She brushes off a couple of guys she slept with who are sad that she didn't call them afterward. She kisses one of them.

[firecat]

I am pissed off at the Salon reviewer Andrew O'Hehir for opening his review with "Nothing quite says female empowerment like violating the civil rights of criminal suspects, am I right?" and "What is the point of making a movie that’s just like the dopiest, broadest and most reductive grade of guy-oriented comedy, except with women?"

Because of course movies starring women need to be held to a higher moral standard. Only guys should get to play foul-mouthed vigilante cops. Am I right?

Guessing that O'Hehir is white, I'm also guessing that he never felt the lack of seeing people like himself on the movie screen.

[bunnybutt.livejournal.com]

I saw this in the theater for the same reasons you did. Loved. It.

[selki.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review! Now I'm more interested in seeing this.