Done Right
By a standard set many years ago by Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, "the women in Sex and the City are little better than also-rans," writes the New Yorker's Anthony Lane, "and their gallops of conspicuous consumption seem oddly joyless, as displacement activities tend to be.
David Hughes' illustration for Lane's review; one of Fancis Bacon's Popes.
“'When Samantha couldn't get off, she got things,' Carrie says. Look at the beam in your own eye, sister. Mr. Big not only buys her a penthouse apartment ('I got it'), he offers to customize the space for her shoes and other fetishes. 'I can build you a better closet,' he says, as if that were a binding condition of their sexual harmony: if he builds it, she will come.
"The creepiest aspect of this sequence was the sound that rose from the audience as he displayed the finished closet: gasps, fluttering moans, and, beside me, two women applauding.
"The tactic here is basically pornographic -- arouse the viewer with image upon image of what lies just beyond her reach -- and the film makes feeble attempts to rein it in.
"When the wedding hits a bump (look out for Kristin Davis screaming 'No! No!' at Chris Noth like a ninth grader auditioning for The Crucible), and the bridegroom veers away, our heroine's reaction to the split is typical: 'How am I going to get my clothes?' What, honey, even the puffball skirt that you wear to the catwalk show -- the one that makes you look like a giant inverted mushroom?
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 29, 2008 at 9:30 PM
comment #1
hiviper
says ...
love that illustration. brutal
Posted by hiviper
at May 29, 2008 11:50 PM
comment #2
lazespud
says ...
Wow. That New Yorker image PERFECTLY captures my feelings about this movie and my desire to see it. Dargis is right: "Ick".
I went to the Pacific Place theater in Seattle this Tuesday to see Indiana Jones (which turned out to be a whole other form of hell). There was this giant line up of people outside of the theater, which always means one thing: Free screening. When I got to the ticket window I asked the gal "what movie is everyone in line for?" She said, "look at the crowd..." And it clicked with me, it was 95% white women aged about 28-40. I told the ticket taker "you could not pay me 50 bucks to sit through that movie. "You and me both..." she replied.
After the movie I saw them coming out of the theater; no one was particularly smiling or gabbing about what they saw...
I never understood why this thing garners so much press. The TV show was on HBO and at its height probably got no more than 3-4 million viewers. That's like a quarter of what two and a half men gets every week, and no one's clamorning for a film of that fuckin abomination.
Posted by lazespud
at May 29, 2008 11:51 PM
comment #3
Marty Melville
says ...
I've never seen Sex and the City but Wells' Bacon reference is startling and wonderful... could this movie, in its celebration of preening superficiality, be the Anti-Last Tango In Paris?
Posted by Marty Melville
at May 30, 2008 12:36 AM
comment #4
Heleno
says ...
I'm no SatC apologist, but isn't this exactly what Bond does for guys? Product porn is hardly an exclusively female thing, and I am not entirely convinced that SatC can be any worse than any number of male-oriented films. Oh, except this relates to women, which of course automatically makes it suspect in Wells' view.
That said, haven't seen it and not feeling any desire to.
Posted by Heleno
at May 30, 2008 2:10 AM
comment #5
Bocephus
says ...
James Bond might be a sleazy poonhound, but at least at the end of the day he saves the world.
Posted by Bocephus
at May 30, 2008 8:15 AM
comment #6
T. S. Idiot
says ...
Speaking of the Dargis review, notice that except for Montezuma's revenge, she never connects her objections to anything specifically in the movie. Once a month or so, she will write an intelligent review. Otherwise, she offers nothing but empty generalities. She's giving us her "feelings," not thoughtful analysis. And she condemns Carrie Bradshaw.
Posted by T. S. Idiot
at May 30, 2008 11:41 AM
comment #7
Mgmax, le Corbeau
says ...
"I'm no SatC apologist, but isn't this exactly what Bond does for guys?"
Sex and the City is like a Bond film that never leaves the scene where Q shows Bond all his new gadgets.
Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau
at May 30, 2008 5:43 PM
comment #8
jany
says ...
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at April 22, 2011 5:52 AM
comment #9
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