Barbie Girls

by Lani

In honor of the new Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie as the iconic blonde doll, I’ve gathered a list of some classic films featuring strong women who embody the spirit of Barbie. And since you can’t invoke Barbie without acknowledging her relationship to fashion, the costumes are, of course, impeccable across the board.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Barbie the movie takes clear inspiration from the Technicolor musicals of classic Hollywood like this highly entertaining comedy starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as showgirls on a transatlantic cruise. Some gentlemen may prefer blondes, but what men want hardly matters in this movie. Monroe’s Lorelei wants to marry a millionaire, while Russell’s Dorothy is just looking to have some fun and keep her friend out of trouble. Rarely do we get to enjoy two women on screen being incredibly funny while also looking so drop-dead glamorous. While this film predates the debut of the Barbie doll in 1959, the fashion silhouettes are very similar to the early Barbies, and the iconic pink dress worn by Monroe while performing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” looks like something straight out of Barbie’s dream closet.

Funny Face (1957)

When a fashion photographer (Fred Astaire) and a magazine editor (Kay Thompson) set out to find models “who think as well as they look,” they stumble upon a bookshop beatnik (Audrey Hepburn) with the makings of a cover girl. Barbie, the doll with beauty and brains, is a fashion icon on par with Hepburn herself. And this is a film in love with fashion, showcasing a couture collection by Hepburn’s favorite designer Hubert de Givenchy. The opening number “Think Pink!” - performed like a boss by Thompson, it must be said - could be the Barbie-core anthem, calling for everyone to bury the beige and color their world pink.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

The Barbie filmmakers listed among their influences Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a beautiful film with saturated colors, dreamy cinematography, and a very sad story of lost love. Made three years after Umbrellas, Demy’s light and airy musical about two sisters (Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac) looking for romance and a little excitement, feels much more in line with the upbeat energy of Barbie the doll. The color palette, all soft pastels and bright whites, makes the whole city look like ice cream. There’s even a Gentlemen Prefer Blondes homage when the sisters take the stage at a traveling carnival in red-sequined dresses.

Troop Beverly Hills (1989)

Right from the beginning, as colorful animated opening credits play out over The Beach Boys singing about being “larger than life,” this film embodies the Barbie ethos. Our heroine, Phyllis Nefler (Shelley Long) lives in a California dream house with a wardrobe that would be the envy of any 80s Barbie. While many people write off Phyllis as a shallow flake, after taking on the duties of Wilderness Girl troop leader she proves herself to be resourceful, kind, creative, and a valuable role model for her adolescent troop members. Anyone who rocks a jaunty cap adorned with 4-foot long pheasant feathers is not afraid to take up space – Barbie would be proud!

Clueless (1995)

In this mid-90s, SoCal adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, protagonist Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone in a miracle of a performance) is a teen Barbie come to life. She knows how to have fun, whether she’s partying or just vegging out, and understands the importance of a capable-looking outfit properly-deployed. Cher and Barbie would totally be friends because they both know what it’s like to have people be jealous of them. But Cher also proves to be empathetic, loyal, and a formidable captain of the Pismo Beach disaster relief effort.

Legally Blonde (2001)

Reese’s Witherspoon is perfection as “law student Barbie” Elle Woods, who goes from California sorority girl to unlikely star of Harvard Law. She’s following her ex-boyfriend Warner Huntington III, a legacy admission who thinks Elle is too extra for the Ivy League. But she soon proves that if you’ve judged a tighty-whitey contest for Lambda Kappa Pi, you can handle anything. Elle knows her worth, fights for justice, lifts others up, and keeps her dignity, even while wearing a pink bunny costume. And, like Barbie, Elle understands the power of pink, her signature color (whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed). To paraphrase the Barbie movie poster, Elle Woods is everything and he’s just…Warner.

Best Pictures #33: 2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, La La Land

by A.J.

Best Pictures #33: 2016 (89^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
La La Land

La La Land is one of best reviewed, most lauded, and most loved movies of 2016. It has already won several awards and is very likely to win more. It received 14 Oscar nominations, tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), though All About Eve’s 14 nominations was done with fewer categories, which seems slightly more impressive. La La Land is the front runner to take home the Best Picture Oscar. Let’s get one thing straight: I like La La Land. I might even really like it, but I did not love it, at least not the way everyone else did. 

The plot is simple enough: Struggling jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) meets and falls for aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone). Together they sing and dance through some of the loveliest scenes of Los Angeles on film. This is a side of L.A. not often seen movies. The center of American filmmaking is most often the setting of action and crime movies or it is meant to be a nonintrusive background. In La La Land, Los Angeles is stylized and romanticized. It is a city of purple sunsets, cool, blue nights, and hills and canyons and highways for song and dance numbers. I would not say that Los Angeles is a character because sets aren’t characters, but it is at the forefront of La La Land.

It’s no surprise that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have good chemistry; this is their third movie together after all. Each does a fine job in their respective roles. They sing and dance well enough, though they sing and dance like nonprofessionals that have been taught specific, not too challenging choreography. Each has a signature song: Sebastian has the melancholy “City of Stars” and Mia’s “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” serves as the film’s climax. Both songs have been nominated for the Original Song Oscar.

La La Land takes place in a daydream world and writer-director Damien Chazelle seeks to transport the audience to this wonderful musical world. He succeeds, to a point. La La Land is meant to be a loving, enthusiastic tribute to the musicals of the 1950’s and 40’s. The misstep it makes is this: instead of taking inspiration from the great musicals of the past to create a new, fresh take, it simply lifts from and imitates those films instead. Action and science fiction are the genres most often criticized for being derivative, but musicals can be derivative too. There are numerous visual references to other musicals (enough for a side by side video comparison). Some are indirect: the bold, bright color pallet of costumes and sets is reminiscent of the musicals of Jacques Demy. Others are more direct: Gosling jumps up on a lamppost just like Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. Unfortunately, since I’ve already seen most of the movies La La Land references (Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherourg, Young Girls of Rochefort; Fred Astaire musicals: Shall We Dance, The Band Wagon, Funny Face; and, most of all, Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, and every other Gene Kelly musical), subtly and not so subtly, it comes off less as a tribute and more as a hollow imitation.

There’s a lot to like in La La Land. It’s a nice story about aspiring performers falling in love and trying to achieve their dreams. From the pink and purple sunsets to Stone’s bright, yellow dress, La La Land is filled with bold and vibrant solid colors that cannot help but catch the eye. The songs are pleasant and enjoyable, even if you don’t like jazz (and I don’t). Some of the musicals numbers are very visually appealing—I’m thinking of Sebastian and Mia’s dance at the observatory specifically—but others never open up to be as grand as I was expecting. The opening number plays like generic tableau of what someone that hasn’t seen a musical thinks a musical is like. I suppose I just can’t help but be reminded of the classic musicals with undeniably better performers and songs and wonder why I’m not just watching one of those again. I didn’t get the feeling of unabashed joy and love and wonder that I get whenever I watch Truffaut’s Day For Night, Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain, or even Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (all about performers in the entertainment business). But still, I enjoyed this movie.

Nominees: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, producers

Director: Damien Chazelle

Screenplay: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend

Production Companies: Black Label Media, TIK Films Limited, Impostor Pictures, Gilbert Films, Marc Platt Productions

Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Release Date: December 9^th, 2016

Total Nominations: 14, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Damien Chazelle, Screenplay-Damien Chazelle, Actor-Ryan Gosling, Actress-Emma Stone, Cinematography-Linus Sandgren, Editing-Tom Cross, Costume Design-Mary Zophres, Production Design- David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (set decoration), Sound Editing- Ai Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou, Sound Mixing- Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, Steven Morrow, Original Score-Justin Hurwitz, Original Song-Audition (The Fools Who Dream): music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Original Song-City of Stars: music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul

Classic Movie Picks: April 2014

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings orTCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Happy 20th Anniversary TCM! 
On April 14, 1994, the channel was launched with a ceremony in Times Square and it has been the saving grace of many a cable line-up ever since. It’s certainly the default channel in my house (no surprise there), in fact it’s on right now as I type!

4/7-11: Fan Takeover!

The daytime schedule this week features films requested by viewers. It’s a bit of a mixed bag; however, by virtue of their making it on the schedule, these films are considered worth a view by somebody out there in TV land. During primetime and late night we’ll get films handpicked by Fan Programmers. The Fans’ picks include some of my favorites like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Philadelphia Story (1940), as well as some I’ve never seen, such as Went the Day Well? (1942) and A Man Called Adam (1966) — it’s no coincidence that both of those are TCM premieres. Check out the full schedule here, and be sure to tune in on the dot to hear each fan introduce their film.

BONUS PICK: 4/14, 7 PM - TCM: Twenty Classic Moments (2014)

Take a look back at some of the most memorable moments from the past twenty years.

4/10, 4:15 AM - Lola (1961)

This first feature by French director Jacques Demy stars Anouk Aimee as the title character, a cabaret entertainer in Nantes caught in a love triangle. Demy dedicated this film to director Max Ophuls, whose influence is apparent not only in the swirling camera work, but also in the title character who was surely named for Ophuls’ masterpiece Lola Montes (airing on 4/20, 2:00 AM). I really enjoy Demy’s bittersweet valentines to the Technicolor musical — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort — so I’m interested to see what came before those films.

4/16: A Proper Butling

8 PM - The Remains of the Day (1993)

3:30 AM - English Without Tears (1944)

If you are experiencing Downtown Abbey withdrawal, here are two films featuring Brits with stiff upper lips to help you cope. Tonight’s schedule is devoted to butlers on screen, but I think these two in particular make a nice double feature because they are both about people adapting to societal changes in England following WWII, as well as love that crosses lines of duty and class.

4/20, 12 AM - Spione/Spies (1928)

This silent film from German director Fritz Lang is a pulpy thriller about super-spy Haghi, who oversees an international spy network from his headquarters beneath a bank. Like many imports of the era, including Lang’s Metropolis, Spione was edited severely for the U.S. market. The original cut was unavailable until 2004; I believe TCM is showing the restored version.

¿Quien es mas macho? Heston vs. Wayne

This month TCM spotlights two of Hollywood’s all-time macho men: Charlton Heston and John Wayne. It’s the Duke’s low drawl versus Heston’s clenched growl. Six guns versus frequent shirtlessness. April will be cloaked in a manly musk; breathe in at your own risk!

4/4, 9:30 PM - The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)

4/4, 4:45 PM - Skyjacked (1972)

Heston is being honored this month with his own U.S. stamp and in celebration TCM will show 5 of his films on April 4. His wide range as an actor is represented by my two picks from the primetime lineup; however, one constant through all his films is that he’s very entertaining when squaring off against an adversary. In the epic drama Agony, Heston is Michelangelo, locked in a tug of war with Rex Harrison’s Pope Julius II over the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In disaster-thriller Skyjacked, he’s the captain of an airliner terrorized by a hijacker bound for Moscow.

4/22, 8 PM - Stagecoach (1939)

4/23, 12:30 PM - The Quiet Man (1952)

Wayne is the official Star of the Month and his films will take over the schedule April 21-25. The mini-festival was programmed by Robert Osborne -- 58 movies in total. There is a lot to choose from here, but I’ve selected two films directed by Wayne’s great collaborator John Ford. Stagecoach is Wayne in classic cowboy mode aboard the eponymous coach on a perilous ride through Apache country. In The Quiet Man, Wayne tries to be more of a lover than a fighter as a former boxer with a hidden past, but when playing opposite the fiery Maureen O’Hara he finds it difficult to keep his cool.