I lost a bit of my soul this morning – and no, I’m not trying to talk cute about the severity of my Australia Day hangover. I was poking around the internet when I discovered
The Big Miracle, a romantic drama slated for release in May. The log line: a Greenpeace volunteer (played by Drew Barrymore) launches a campaign to free a family of grey whales trapped by a growing ice block in the Arctic Circle. Yes: Drew Barrymore, saving whales, inside a cinema near you. Gag me.
Yes, it’s a bit…cruel to make light of endangered species, not to mention dissing the perkiest film star on the planet. Thing is, Drew Barrymore’s been kicking around for three-plus decades, and it bothers me that she’s still playing silly roles like this one.
Which brings me to a larger point. I love cheesy movies as much as the next, erm – well, most guys probably wouldn’t admit to knowing all the words to
Dirty Dancing, or having seen Beaches at least 50 times, or claiming Rizzo and the Pink Ladies as high-school role models. But that’s all fluff; as a movie lover, it’s the batshit-crazy, totally unhinged female characters who have my heart. Here are three badly behaved women making delightful waves on screens big and small right now:
* The Oscar nominations were unveiled earlier this week, and while I’m bummed that former winner Charlize Theron did not make the cut, I’m happy to report her pitch-perfect performance as pissy alcoholic author Mavis Gary in
Young Adult is now screening nationwide. Mavis is sort of like Juno gone horribly wrong (director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody are behind both films) and she’s a fascinating trainwreck to behold, a misanthropic, over-it-all bitch who can’t be bothered to care about anyone else.
Of course, she’s terribly wounded, even if she’s not ready to admit it: she hightailed it out of her small rural hometown, found success in the city and has now returned to reclaim her well-meaning high school boyfriend. As you might expect, her best laid plans go horribly awry, and their unravelling is the crux of the film’s painful appeal.
Young Adult is for anybody who felt cast out in high school (e.g., 99 per cent of us) – go see it with your best friend. Afterward, go out for drinks (like Mavis would) and share a delicious, conspiratorial cackle as you hash over those long-forgotten high school slights you thought would matter someday – and so completely don’t.
* Channel Ten just debuted
Homeland (airs Sundays at 8:30 p.m.), one of the most acclaimed US TV dramas of the past year, about Carrie Mathison, a tightly wound, bipolar CIA agent investigating Nicholas Brody, a liberated American POW who may or may be a sleeper agent for a Muslim terrorist. Carrie is a pill with a short fuse, her face always a contortion of frustration, panic and exhaustion. She has no discernible friends or family, her cupboards and refrigerator are bare, and she falls asleep in front of TV monitors that broadcast from the hidden cameras inside Nicholas’ home. She’s too devoted to her job by half –her desire to crack the case is so ferocious that she’s all but given up on having a life. It all makes for an engrossing grown-up drama, and because Carrie’s mental state always seems to be on the verge of cracking, a nerve-wracking one at that. She’s the enticingly flawed kick-ass action heroine those dorks from the recently failed
Charlie’s Angels and
Prime Suspect remakes only dreamt of being. Watch this show and keep quality TV afloat.
* Laura Dern headlines the Showtime comedy
Enlightened (airs Wednesdays), a smart comedy that sends up the smug superiority of the self-help movement. Dern plays Amy Jellicoe, a self-destructive career woman (are you sensing a pattern here?) whose spectacular crackup – think Jerry Maguire with mascara running down his face – compels her to enter rehab, where she achieves Zen. Problem is, the outside world doesn’t care about Amy’s new outlook – and that’s where the fun begins. Amy’s attempts at “connecting” with other people are often met with total confusion – if not utter disdain – making for a TV comedy unlike any other on the air right now. You’ll squirm, you’ll sigh, you’ll probably want to smack Amy upside the head a few times. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll be grateful that Amy isn’t easy – no real woman is. And that’s the glorious, messy point here. Here’s to being difficult!
Nicholas Fonseca is madison’s features and news editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @NFonseca78 Related content:
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