This video by Be Kind Rewind collects film recommendations from 11 YouTubers (a few who I watch) who are mostly film essayists and nerds, a mix of women, queer people, and BIPOC, with really great selections for movies featuring stellar actresses to celebrate. I already watched La Ceremonie based on BKR’s recommendation, and I’ll share my thoughts on their other choices.
Movies I’ve Seen: Batman Returns, West Side Story, Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird (known by all three titles), Jackie Brown, Eve’s Bayou, Scream, La Ceremonie.
Movies I Haven’t Seen: What’s Up, Doc?, Suspiria (either version), Summer Interlude, The Lion in Winter, Deathtrap.
As a little kid, I had randomly seen Batman Returns on TV and was struck by Michelle Pfeiffer’s beauty and performance, she was the first female celebrity I could think of as “sexy” (Elias Koteas was the first male one I felt that way about). I just found her so fascinating, and on a couple rewatches as an adult, I found I really didn’t like the movie except when she was onscreen, and kept skipping around to just watch her scenes. It’s not even finding her attractive as Catwoman, I liked her much more as Selina Kyle. I liked that even as a “mousy” secretary prior to her rebirth, she didn’t play her as a pathetic sad sack loser. She was still funny and self-deprecating and charming, and I absolutely love the sequence of her post-rebirth, just wrecking her apartment, looking rough, and getting into a feverish state of creating her costume. Pfeiffer was amazing in that film, full stop.
Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird is a mid-90s direct to video teen film that I knew of because one of my cousins had a very brief part as a prep school girl, she’s onscreen for a second in a close-up. It’s known by three titles, but it’s an underrated teen girl movie starring a who’s who of 90s teen girl actresses, headlined by Kirsten Dunst, about a 1960s all-girl prep school going co-ed, and Dunst and some of the other girls fighting back with a strike. I don’t recall a lot about it, but I liked it, and felt it should be better known. Besides Dunst, it costarred Gaby Hoffmann, Heather Matatazzo, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Monica Keena.
I heard of Pam Grier through Jackie Brown, reading a long profile on her in SPIN magazine at the time it came out, and thought she was incredible. Not just being cool and stunningly beautiful, but had been through the wringer with rough relationships (Richard Pryor being one of them), and being underrated for years (by mainstream Hollywood, not by Black audiences) before Jackie Brown gave her career a resurgence. I’ve seen the movie twice, and I love how composed and tough and methodical she is throughout the film, yet still showing vulnerability and being frustrated. She plans out complicated cons and heists, while building a quiet slow burn romance with Robert Forster’s character. She just rides through the film with a sense of inner elegance, and it’s a masterpiece for her.
I only just saw Eve’s Bayou last year, having known of it since the 90s but never being able to see it. I loved it. It’s a Southern Gothic tale with incredible actresses ranging from then-child Jurnee Smollett to veteran Diahann Carroll, and the film felt so haunting and eerie, with this undercurrent of tragedy. It really felt unlike a lot of other films I’ve seen, and I’m happy that at that time, Kasi Lemmons got the chance to direct it after playing less memorable friend parts in Hollywood movies, and still has a thriving career directing in films and television. And that while I knew of Jurnee Smollet as a child actress way back from her recurring role on Full House, today she’s way more acclaimed and recognized for her roles in Lovecraft Country and Birds of Prey.
No comments:
Post a Comment