It finally hit me what the argument against Silver Linings Playbook might be and why certain female critics and columnists (i.e., those who don’t necessarily see movies and roles and performances as creative expressions in and of themselves but elements that may or may not advance a certain forward-march, proactively feminist agenda) might have an issue with it.

If it manifests (and I’m saying “if”), their argument might be that Jennifer Lawrence‘s Tiffany character, an emotionally fragile nutter of sorts but mainly a spirited, tough-talking, no-b.s. woman who doesn’t take any shit, is basically a male fuck fantasy, and the story itself is too male-centric because Tiffany is basically used by director-writer David O. Russell to support and complete Bradley Cooper‘s Pat Solitano character by (a) shaking him out of his “I need to get back with my wife” obsession and (b) falling in love with him and gradually inspiring reciprocity.

In short, the Silver Linings milieu is too male, too blue-collar, too football-fanatic and not positive enough in terms of pushing strong, independent-minded, take-charge, stand-their-own-ground female characters. Tiffany, in short, is too emotionally vulnerable and isn’t Katniss Everdeen enough.

Just listen to Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone, who’s something of a we-go-girls essayist when it comes assessing the worth of this or that film by way of positive or not-so-positive aspects of its female characters:

“Lawrence knocks it out of the park in the Silver Linings Playbook, and the one-two punch of that and The Hunger Games puts her at the top of the list,” Sasha writes. “She’s more Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets than Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball in Playbook. If she weren’t such a rising star she would be in the supporting category for her work here, as her function in the film is mainly to support Bradley Cooper’s character arc.

“What makes this an award-worthy performance is that Lawrence elevates it beyond what’s written on the page. She makes it deeper, richer, more compelling than it otherwise would be — it’s a male fantasy, yet Lawrence finds the truth in who the character is and that makes the difference.”

Got it? Stone is a Lawrence fan, but a cornerstone of her support is due to Lawrence having managed to overcome the inherent sexism and fuck-fantasy material installed in the script and pushed by the manner of the film. If a less-willful, more malleable actress had been cast, Silver Linings Playbook would have been even more of a vaguely sexist, woman-marginalizing, football juju comedy. So thank God for Lawrence having bolted through the door and knocked over the living-room furniture and re-ordered the sexist universe of David O. Russell!

I suspect that one of the things that Paul Thomas Anderson whispered into Joaquin Phoenix‘s ear when they began working on The Master was “don’t be overly literal or derivative but think of Dwight Frye‘s Fritz character in the 1931 Frankenstein…think of his grovelling manner, those gleeful little giggles, the little serpent with the tongue flicking in and out.”

Everybody and his cousin has re-posted the announcement about Sascha Gervasi‘s Hitchcock being the opening-night attraction at the 2012 AFI Fest, on Thursday, 11.1. So where’s the teaser? If Fox Searchlight is smart they’ll re-shoot this longish black-and-white trailer that Hitchcock himself acted in and/or narrated. Just for fun. And why, incidentally, can’t I get the AFI publicists to write me back about press credentials?

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I’ve been flipping through the Universal Classic Monster Bluray collection (10.2), and am once again reminded of the Bride of Frankenstein weight problem. The face of Boris Karloff‘s monster was almost skeletal in the original Frankenstein (’31) but Karloff had bulked up with hundreds of roast beef and mashed potato dinners and was a good 15 or 20 pounds heavier in Bride, which was filmed four years after the original. Plus the dark under-eye makeup was gone on top of the little bangs.

Yesterday author Richard Crouse posted a chat with Guillermo del Toro about Ken Russell‘s The Devils and particularly Crouse’s “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils,” which has just been become available.

“I also wonder whether people will look back on this campaign and say it all boiled down to that 47% video. It is the smoking gun. That it was filmed by a catering staff member, one of the workers of the event, makes it all the more poignant. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like at the end of The Dead Zone when Martin Sheen holds up a baby to protect him from a bullet and that is what brings down his bid to be President.” — Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone in a Facebook remark posted two or three hours ago.

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The vision and the details are fine — certainly better than Romney’s — but they’ve been repeated so often that they don’t sink in. But the presentation does. Obama is good at addressing hundreds in the standard booming oratorical style, but his speaking-quietly-and-earnestly-at-the-kitchen table patter is perfect. One thing: why did we keep on in Afghanistan for four years, knowing we’d change nothing and defeat no one?

The current idea isn’t just to beat Romney. The idea is to humiliate him and remove as many of the Tea Party radicals from the House as possible.

The Einstein who cut this Hitchcock Collection trailer together uses clips of Rope (’48) and Saboteur (’42), which were shot in 1.37, with a horizontal taffy-pull effect so they fill out the 1.85 frame. The nameless technician obviously wanted all the clips to be the same a.r. and didn’t think it would matter. Brilliant.

We all know that Chan-wook Park (Old Boy) is a superior filmmaker, and as nasty as Stoker seems to be the trailer tells you right away it’s going to be a class act with killer, precisely composed cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung. It’s obviously a vague homage to Alfred Hitchcock‘s Shadow of a Doubt with Matthew Goode playing “Uncle Charlie,” although Mia Wasikowska is clearly not playing Teresa Wright — her India character is guilty, gothy and apparently taken with Goode on some perverse level.

I don’t know why they’ve called it Stoker — I thought it was going to be a vampire film (i.e., alluding to Bram Stoker) when I first read the title. The screenplay is by Wentworth Miller and Erin Cressida Wilson. The release date is sometime in March 2013.

Boilerplate synopsis: “After India’s father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.”

I identified no one in my description of last night’s sputtering rage parking-lot argument about The Silver Linings Playbook, but Gold Derby‘s Tom O’Neil has copped to being one of my opponents by posting an explanation and a response. Good on Tom for his manly candor. Here’s a portion of his article and a closing response from me:

The Silver Linings Playbook is “one of those awkward love stories about two social misfits who find salvation in each other’s arms. Arguably, you could say that Silver Linings is thus in the tradition of Slumdog Millionaire or, even better, Annie Hall (both have comedic qualities), but Oscar voters aren’t often smitten with love stories in this race, especially comedic ones. Usually, they believe Best Picture = Big Serious Picture.

“However, the most important quality a winner must have is The Rooting Factor and The Silver Linings Playbook has more passionate fans than the Philadelphia Eagles on David O. Russell‘s silver screen. We saw evidence of that earlier this month during its screenings to critics and industry chiefs at the Toronto International Film Festival, and in a parking garage last night after a screening in Beverly Hills. That’s where Jeff Wells had a pop-eyed meltdown when some of us mentioned the film’s predictable plotting (it’s obvious as hell how the film’s big dance competition will end — and, for that matter, how the love story will play out too).

“But such criticism is quibbling. Overall, The Silver Linings Playbook is extremely well made, deeply felt. It delivers. Of course, it will be nominated for Best Picture, director, screenplay. Twenty of the 23 Oscarologists polled by Gold Derby say Jennifer Lawrence will win Best Actress. With 17 to 10 odds, she’s a virtual shoo-in. Robert De Niro is in second place to win Best Supporting Actor, (6 to 1 odds).

“What was behind Jeff Wells’ meltdown last night in that parking garage? Why does he adore this film so much? I have a cynical answer that will probably get Jeff mad again, but I think it’s pertinent to this film’s place in this Oscar derby. The Silver Linings Playbook is the ultimate masturbatory fantasy of mature str8 guys. They feel like they can have a failed marriage or two behind them, they can even be a bit loopy in the head and cast off by the world, but, hey, somewhere, on some back suburban street, there’s a hot chick chasing him relentlessly, begging for sex.

“Now consider all of the loopy str8 geezers who dominate the membership of the motion picture academy. Hmmm…maybe The Silver Linings Playbook really is out front…and unbeatable?”

Wells to O’Neil: I honestly felt no horndog feelings for Jennifer Lawrence in this thing. But I felt enormous liking for her character’s cut-through the bullshit, straight-talking manner. She is dead solid real and steady and uncompromised every second she’s on-screen. So for me it wasn’t some fuck-fantasy thing — it’s the “I would love to meet a girl who loves me, sure, but I’d really love to connect with a woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t play games or beat around the bush and calls people on their bullshit” fantasy. Big difference.