I wonder when, or if, I ever was in a target audience demographic, particularly for movies.
First of all, I am female, and we all know that women are not as important as men when you are marketing a movie. After all, women will go along with their boyfriends to see a movie the boyfriend wants to see, but men won’t go along with their girlfriends to see some damn chick-headlining movie, unless it involves Uma Thurman brandishing a sword. (Hollywood people really do think like this, I am sorry to say. And they are worse about children’s movies, which is why so few children’s movies star girls. Look at the trailers for The Incredibles, in which the little boy takes center stage, and tell me I lie.)
When I was in high school, the teen market became very desirable. Studios were falling all over themselves to make movies that would appeal to teenagers (especially teenage boys, as I mentioned above). But I wasn’t allowed to see any of the teen sex comedies, so I was limited to John Hughes. I wasn’t even old enough to get into The Breakfast Club, which was rated R, because Lakeside Theaters was enforcing the under-17 rule. So I never did get any benefit from that.
I don’t remember quite when I started getting all film geeky, but I know that the teen movie fad was still going on when I was in college, only I was too old and too film snobby to want to see any of that fare.
And now I am in an age group (let’s just say “over 30″) where Hollywood and marketers assume that I don’t go to the movies at all, despite the fact that I would love to see a movie in a theater every week if I could. I am sure we average at least two movies per month in theaters, especially if you count revival and art films.
I’ve been thinking about this because this week’s crop of movies opening in Austin all seem to be designed to appeal to some particular demographic group, but those groups don’t include me. Too old and jaded for Because of Winn Dixie. Too smart for Son of the Mask. Too allergic to black trenchcoats for Constantine. (I had some nice zingers here for Man of the House, but it doesn’t open until next week. Darn.)
But wait, there is one movie that does seem to appeal to me as a film geek: Inside Deep Throat. There’s nothing like an NC-17 rated documentary to lure me to a theater. So maybe there is something for everyone in theaters right now. Isn’t that lovely? (But what demographic group does that put me in, and should I be ashamed to admit it?)
Category: film rants
movies this week: houseguests and all
My sister and her boyfriend are visiting us this weekend. As I’ve mentioned, her boyfriend is a big film geek. I tried to interest them in seeing that most underrated of 2004 films, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but they are oddly uninterested. He wants to rent something by Atom Egoyan. She wants to see romantic comedies.
But we’re all agreed: none of us want to see any of the movies opening in Austin this weekend. For one reason or another, these films offer no temptation to go to a theater. I wanted to take them to Dobie to see a movie in one of the amusingly decorated theaters, but I’ve already seen Sideways and The Life Aquatic, so I may have to send them off by themselves to see one of those films (both of which I liked, but not enough to want to see again soon).
I wish I could persuade all three of them (sister, her boyfriend, my boyfriend) to watch The Palm Beach Story with me. I just bought the DVD last week, a few days after it was released. It’s a delightful movie. I mean, who can resist The Ale and Quail Club? The Princess Centimillia? And of course, The Wienie King. Yeah, I know. I’ll enjoy that particular movie alone.
movies this week: bad boogie
Austin is just about caught up now on all those acclaimed movies that y’all on the Left and Right coasts got to see last year. Like the rest of the country, we’re also getting the doggy films of winter, which no one quite knows what to do with, but which might appeal to some people as an alternative to all those highbrow Oscar flicks. Bad Education or Boogeyman … the choice is yours.
If you’re not planning to watch football or football-related advertising this weekend, there are still plenty of good movies out in theaters for you to catch.
(Personally, I like to go to a nice restaurant during the Superbowl, somewhere with no TV sets. Those places are usually pretty empty while everyone is crowded around the TV at parties. It’s a great time to enjoy the places I normally like but usually find a bit noisy and/or crowded.)
chatting with Columbine
Back when we lived in the same city, or at least in driving distance of one another, a friend and I had great conversations about movies, and musicals, and related weird stuff. From Victor/Victoria to Billy Wilder to the suffragette song in Mary Poppins and usually Ethel Merman or Tim Curry somehow got mentioned along the way.
That friend is now known online as Columbine, and we live clear across the country from one another. But the other day at lunchtime, we managed to find each other on IM. I’d like to share this conversation with y’all. I cleaned it up a little because I often find it very difficult to read people’s IM transcripts. I added some capitalization and punctuation, and I changed our IM usernames to the names we use on our own Web sites. I also added the occasional clarifying phrase in brackets. (I was tempted to assume everyone knew the plays of Kaufman and Hart and the entire filmography of John Barrymore, but I decided to add explanation where I thought it would help.)
movies this week: snubbed!
Oscar nominations were announced this week, which means that the major contenders are in wider release or in re-release. So Austin finally gets a chance to see Million Dollar Baby, like it or not, and Sideways is popping out all over. (I would rather see Eternal Sunshine again, but no one asked me.)
I don’t have much to say about the nominations, except to mention the movies that were overlooked entirely. I am thinking in particular about one movie. You know which one, don’t you? So entertaining and enlightening. Perhaps a bit controversial (conservatives have been ranting against one of the main characters), but I felt it had so much to offer every one of us. A sincere and sweet tale about Triumph of the Human Spirit, which is just what the Academy seems to like, and yet it did not receive a single nomination. Perhaps that’s because it wasn’t about the triumph of the human spirit exactly, but still I cannot understand why it was snubbed so entirely.
Of course, I am talking about my boyfriend’s favorite movie of 2004 and in his opinion, possibly the best movie ever made, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
The Academy Awards do include a category for animated film, and while I can understand that The Incredibles were something extra-special (in fact, I think it should have been nominated in the general Best Picture category), and that a lot of people did seem to like Shrek 2, it is sad to see that Shark Tale is in there but our absorbent and yellow and porous friend is not. I suspect political conspiracy, perhaps due to the influence of these alleged “family” groups that are currently accusing SpongeBob of being a gay icon who promotes such shocking values as tolerance.
Or maybe the Academy is full of humorless Philistines. You be the judge.
Alamo Drafthouse, however, is undaunted by the lack of industry awards bestowed on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and is showing this masterpiece of silliness next month. You can go on Saturday morning and enjoy lots of sugary cereal with your movie, or you can go at night and have a beer.
In the meantime, there are other movies opening in Austin this week, but none of them have singing pirates in them. A shame, really.
movies this week: cat vs. cinema
The problem I am encountering with Rufus, our newly adopted cat, is that he is often more entertaining to watch in action than certain movies or TV shows. All I have to do is dangle the turtle/bird on a string (actually more turtle-like now since most of his feathers have been ripped out) around the scratching post, and I am treated to wild and crazy kitty antics. I had a lot of fun watching him leap into what he thought was an empty bathtub earlier this week. His reaction when he realized the tub still had an inch or so of water in it was priceless.
While there are still plenty of movies playing in theaters that I want to see, such as The Life Aquatic and now The Big Red One, it is difficult to muster much enthusiasm for mediocre offerings on film when I can stay home and watch the cat discover the joys of shoelaces. Looking at some of the new releases in theaters, I can’t help but realize that it might be more entertaining to hang out with Rufus.
top ten best … meaning?
I have been reading lots of Top 10 Movies of 2004 lists, from critics and bloggers and friends, and following the nominations and prizes for various film-related awards, and reading a lot of blogs that analyze the films from 2004.
And I am so lost in a sea of films about which I know very little.
Looking at the Golden Globe and BAFTRA nominations, I realize how many of the generally critically acclaimed and/or commercially successful movies I haven’t seen. (Not that I saw a lot of the obscure lil indies, either.)
But people are arguing about Vera Drake and I am not sure it ever played in Austin, or if it did I missed it, but I missed so many movies. I also missed I [Heart] Huckabees, which I’m sorry about, and Birth and Closer, which I’m not.
I have seen Sideways, which seems to be the film to watch out for on Oscar night. I don’t want to see The Aviator or even Ray. Million Dollar Baby hasn’t come to Austin yet, and I think I would like it, but that’s because I used to belong to a boxing gym and I like movies with boxing chicks in them. It’s not because I am looking forward to fine performances or any of that.
movies this week: late and unmotivated
Yeah, I know, I’m supposed to post these on Thursday night or Friday. And here it is, Saturday night. What’s even more shameful is that there are finally lots of movies opening in Austin this weekend, and here I am ignoring them.
I have to say, most of the movies opening this weekend aren’t as exciting to me as some of the revivals coming up in the next couple of weeks. A friend of mine chided me for not seeing a movie in a theater every week, and I pointed out that I often do … it’s just not a recently released movie. So many choices, so little time.
2004 films in review
Lots of people have been compiling Top Ten 2004 Movie lists lately. I thought about doing one myself, but I hate being such a copycatter. First of all, it’s difficult for me to pick one or two of the Best Movies of 2004. Second of all, being in Austin, I saw a lot of late 2003 movies in 2004 and I will probably see some of the more critically acclaimed 2004 movies in 2005 so my list would be all weird anyway.
Besides, I can’t do a Top Ten Movies of 2004 because, this is embarrassing to admit, I’ve only seen a couple dozen movies released in 2004. (I’m not done yet, though.) I guess I could do a Top Five, but still, that’s 20 percent of the movies I saw. However, thanks to the wonderful convenience of mail-order movie rentals and the number of Austin arthouse/revival theaters, I saw 60 non-2004 movies for the first time this year.
So instead of a list, I would like to give special recognition in various areas for the movies I saw in 2004. I will divide these into two major categories: movies released in 2004, and “previous”—movies released in other years that I saw for the first time in 2004.
movies this week: catching up again
Most local movie theaters are still offering the same fare that they did at Christmas. A few of the prestige films from 2004 still haven’t hit Austin yet, but they’re not appearing this weekend, either. We’ll just have to keep waiting for Million Dollar Baby and Hotel Rwanda.
Personally, I am thankful of the opportunity to catch up. I mean, I am embarrassed that I haven’t seen certain recent releases. My sister, who hardly ever goes to movies, and usually only for routine romantic comedies, has seen A Very Long Engagement and Sideways and I have not. When my film-apathetic sister is seeing more new movies than I am, it is time to take action. (It’s a weird world when she’s the one who saw arthouse movies and I’m the one who saw the mainstream George Clooney flick.)
So I am hoping that this weekend maybe I finally can see Sideways or Kinsey or something else new in a theater that I’ve forgotten was there, but that I particularly wanted to see when it appeared a month ago. I hope that the good stuff is still there waiting for me to catch up to it.