Felicia Day

Ok, so “The Guild” has been out all weekend and I would say it’s getting generally good feedback. I’m going to ignore that right now. Because OBVIOUSLY I have to fixate on the negative comments of people. Here are some of my favorites.

“…film is not your milieu.”

“She didn’t do it for me. Had that Helen Hunt look about her.”

“wasn’t really funny but the girl was decent *or to put it in words the OT can comprehend* “I’d pee in her butt”.

What a pick-up line. Anyway, what does this mean to me? For one thing, it makes me feel bad about about my Transformers bashing before. In short, the whole experience has made me appreciate the effort of film making, and the stinging critique of our consumer culture. Yes, I’m going to use big words now.

Most of us have no appreciation for what goes into the things we consume every day. I certainly don’t. I’m sure if I studied the plastic cup, I’d be more reverential when I sipped out of it. Hell, one of my favorite movies on YouTube is this one on how aluminum foil is made. Fascinating. Anyway, our society is so sophisticated, we have become authorities on everything, or so we think. There’s no face to face with the actual makers of the products we consume, and therefore feel carte blanche to poop on things when we don’t like them. When the author of Acacia commented in my thread here on his book, I near had a heart attack, and I went back to scan my entry to see if it was insulting. Before, I could have given a hoot, he wasn’t a person to me, the book was there for me to consume and judge, end of story. Thank goodness I loved it

It might not be that articulate, but I guess I’m trying to say sorry for bashing your movie Mr. Bay. It may not be my favorite thing, but I feel I’ve experienced a tiny minuscule fraction of what you went through to make your movie, and although I didn’t love how your movie portrayed women, the movie was good fun, and to dismiss probably years of your life’s effort with a snarky blog entry probably didn’t give you the consideration you deserve. And I did like the robots smashing things.

There. I hope that cleanses my karma and someone doesn’t try to actually pee in my butt. :O

Ok, so today I have two things to talk about: deep politics, and celebrity stalking. First, I went to this new theater in LA call the Landmark today. It’s 11 bucks a ticket, poop my pants expensive, but it’s designed to be a “gourmet” experience. Arty art house. They sell 4 dollar fizzy water that’s kumquat or lavender flavored, and packs of New Zealand chocolate wafers for 6 or 7 bucks. It made me embarrassed to be a semi-affluent white person. I mean, I appreciate the broadening of the concessions mindset, the Peet’s coffee lattes were a nice option, but their popcorn was pretty crappy, very styrofoamish, stuck to my teeth. My opinion, you gotta get the basics down before you fly away with the special effects, my friend. I went back to the dude and told him in my frank, but ever charming manner, that his popcorn tasted like crap. He just started at me, ’cause I think he was stoned, then said “Cool T-shirt.” I agree, it was this one, but that’s beside the point. Annoying. I insisted on a new bag, and he refilled it with a slightly LESS chewy refill. I should have used my usual line “Oh, I’m diabetic and I have salt sensitivity, can you make me a new batch?” Works most the time, but I didn’t have time. The movie was starting.

Anyway, I saw Sicko. Now, Michael Moore is a great filmmaker in that, he makes quasi-documentary movies that make you think about an issue exactly the way he wants you to. Of course it can’t be classified as a documentary, it has no illusion of objectivity, but as a man with a point of view, he certainly gets what he wants across. And boy, does he. I don’t want to preach about politics, but I really do urge people to see this film, because it will at least make you consider the issue of healthcare and make you think about how you personally feel about how a society should treat it. Bottom line, it does not work the way it is now. I grew up in the military, and there was never any hesitation about going in to the doctor about anything, because there, it’s all taken care of for service members and their families. The fact that people die in this country because HMO’s deny people operations to save money is heinous. There are some things that government should be there to take care of, and health is one of them. They might as well privatize the police force or the fire fighters. Anyway, see the movie and think about it yourselves. At least it could start a national dialogue.

Next, celebrity stalking. I’m not much of a fan person, I never had a picture of N Synch or Justin Timberlake on my wall, but I had the weirdest, most vivid dream last night. I was in a hot tub with Reese Witherspoon and…ok, don’t go there, we were at a SPA and we were in bathing suits, jeez. But in my dream, we were total best friends, going to the spa together. BFF’s. Then we went to high tea afterwards and ate egg salad sandwiches. No joke. It was absolutely crazy. It was so vivid and real, like, our girlfriend relationship, if I ever see her in person I swear I might go ask her to have coffee. She’ll probably have a bodyguard attack me, but if I was on the A list, we’d be totally buds. I think. It must be weird being that famous, you never really meet anyone who’s not famous to be genuine friends with. Well, if you’re reading, I’m here for you Reese. I love making crafts and hate Hollywood parties. Call me.

I am not a movie snob. My favorite movies, in fact, are “Babe”, “Bringing Up Baby”, and “Big Trouble in Little China.” Hmm, all “B” movies, weird. Anyway, I love a great summer popcorn movie as much as anyone else, and my expectations are to have fun and not have to think. But when did aiming towards 14 year old boys =hiring the skankiest stripper girls for female leads?

I’m talking of course, about Transformers. I mean, let’s be honest, if you were at a dinner table with these girls they cast, would you drink after them and not think you risked catching hepatitis? Who’s idea of attractive is this?! And they MADE THEM look like that!
I try to think to myself, whenever I make a catty comment about another actress, if it’s just jealousy or some other personal reason. But, when I heard snickering in the theater when these girls tried to seem intelligent, I felt more justified. And it wasn’t entirely the actor’s fault; this was clearly someone’s VISION of what they though the audience wanted in their female characters: Tons of makeup, whorish clothing, and terrible extensions down to their waist. One scene, it seemed like they had a PA underneath the girl shoving her boobs up so the cleavage would JUST make the bottom of the frame. It was touches like that that really gave me a real eye roll.

I would argue that yes, if you’re aiming for women OR men, attractive is important. But there is a real difference between attractive and “hire me by the hour”. It’s a cartoon look at female reality some Hollywood filmmakers seem to have when all their women characters are either Whores or Mothers. It’s an infantile view, in my opinion. If you look at Buffy, and Alias and Lost, and even the latest Die Hard with the daughter(Not the best example, but my most recent and comparable , female characters, when conveyed as intelligent and capable, BECOME sexy, not the other way around.  I mean, who really wants to follow those girls into a sequel? If the women had been more relatable, would it have made a difference? Am I being crazy defensive feminist “bah humbug” actress girl?