The MILF Project (the fifth title I've settled on)

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Dien
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Re: The MILF Project (the fifth title I've settled on)

Post by Dien »

How's this project coming?
Sabin
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Re: The MILF Project (the fifth title I've settled on)

Post by Sabin »

...I'm going to do some reviews here of the films that I watch:

The Banger Sisters (Bob Dolman) - 5.5/10

...rewrite it. Just rewrite it. New director. New script. So much positive going on with it. But just rewrite it.

The glut of mistakes is almost never-ending:

...I see that Hayden Christensen "won" the Razzie in 2002 for his supporting performance in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. This is a truly loathsome performance, and yet just as horrific (and not nominated) is Geoffrey Rush's turn as basically Woody Allen. This is as fingernails on the chalkboard bad as a performance can get. It's not really his fault. He has as little business doing this kind of schtick as anybody alive, but Bob Dolman uses this character as a surrogate for himself and as contrast with Goldie Hawn who basically commandeers his all-too-willing depressed ass, but he also serves as gateway back into Livinia's life as Suzette first encounters Livinia's daughter at his hotel. There has to be a better way to reintroduce these two. Rush sets the tone for the first almost-ruinous first act, and it eats up a lot of time where we could be at the house. Horrible. And later on what should be a third act concerning these two women divorcing themselves from the men around them emotionally and finding their core becomes defined - yet again - by proxy to a man.

...for a film with clearly no insight into women, it has less insight into men. The family unit surrounding Sarandon's Livinia is beyond one dimensional. The men in this film are just horrible. The daughters are alternatingly shrieking and dull.

...both Sarandon and Hawn start off rather rough. I think the problem is that the great humanist filmmakers can have their cake and eat it too by introducing their characters as just that (characters) and then find a note of humanity within their behavior. Dolman thinks that he's given us a doorway into their souls but really he just gives us a doorway...and doorways that lead nowhere are just empty. Look at how specific Geoffrey Rush is and how unspecific Hawn and Sarandon are! What they gain is purely through their casting and what they bring, not through the script. The film's biggest mistake is a sense of direction. It takes place over such a constrained period of time that all the characters' changes feel totally forced. Goldie Hawn is very good in this film, but Susan Sarandon's reformation comes out of the blue. You couldn't ask for a funnier prospective arc than the wife of a Republican politician to groupie-reborn, and by pushing back their first encounter to past the 30 minute mark, they don't have enough time to really organically develop together. It's all very forced. When Livinia cradles a weeping Suzette and says that they're family again, it feels beautiful in the moment but within context it's ridiculous. All they've done is engage in an out of body evening that felt forced to begin with.

Sarandon is a wonderful actor who could have benefited from a lighter touch. I really want to see more of her. She's entered a rather blowsy period of her career that betrays the sexiness that has defined her career. An actor like Meryl Streep has only recently begun to reveal to us what Susan Sarandon has been doing for decades now: a little piece of herself.

...Rock Cocks or whatever it is is pretty funny.
"How's the despair?"
Sabin
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The MILF Project (the fifth title I've settled on)

Post by Sabin »

I'm writing a film and I need some recommendations. "The MILF Project" is the fifth title I settled on for this subject line. I miss those little lines underneath.

I want to be known as somebody who writes very good parts for women. And as you do research in life, so you must on netflix. I tend to avoid films about women because they have the tendency to make me break out in hives. For example, The Devil Wears Prada. Left me incredibly cold because I found its thesis (everything you do is fashion so you can't resist it, dahling!) to be incredibly forced. I couldn't really deal with it. Nor could I with Julie & Julia. These are only two examples of course. But this doesn't change the fact that something I desperately want to do is something I haven't done my research on in film. One of the most dreaded things you can do in a film is create a woman who exists for purely reactionary purposes, foil for the male. In retrospect, I should notch Bridesmaids up a notch or two for simply...being! This year so far, I have only seen a couple of films I could call any kind of forward thinking w/r/t women: Certified Copy, Hanna, Meek's Cutoff, Heartbeats, Kaboom, and Bridesmaids. Only the latter is going to help me on any level (maybe a little of Heartbeats & Kaboom).

(Keep in mind: WOMEN. Contemporary women. Nobody working in coffee shops waiting to get swept away by a man.)

So I'm changing my approach up a bit. And where else to go for help but here, right?

These are the categories I need recommendations in:

ROMANTIC COMEDIES
I think the number one thing I can ask for are great romantic comedies I might not have heard of. I think inside every great film is a little romantic comedy nestled in the center. A romantic comedy with a woman approaching middle-age is preferred or a woman going through a divorce, but really any kind of romantic comedy, ideally one that is at least studio-minded but certainly one can spin something from anything.

DIVORCE
I need to watch more films about women going through divorce or approaching divorce. Because I tend to work in comedy, anything comedically-minded would be preferable.

NOW AND THEN (not the movie, which I don't like)
I need to watch more movies that tackle the span of a woman's life. This could be the above category. For example, I just watched The Banger Sisters. This film is an ungodly mess but it has a charm to it when Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon transcend the terrible script. You get a sense of who they were [simplistically] back then and who they are now. Either with flashbacks or not, something that implies the span.


...yeah, I don't think this necessarily needs to be strictly in a category basis, but I thought it might help. Basically I'm looking for more films about women newly discovering themselves after divorce or pending. This is one part of a project I'm writing and I need to do my research. Anything that this sparks anything! I would be very happy to hear suggestions!
"How's the despair?"
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