comment #1

knightrider76 says ...

Waiting to Exhale is probably the worst of them all
Or was it How Stella Got Her Groove Back?

comment #2

thebuddha says ...

How is Steel Magnolias not known as the Rosetta Stone of this unbearable type of movie?

comment #3

Monument says ...

I read the book and I thought it could be a decent film, especially when David Gordon Greene was supposed to direct it. Now it just looks unbearable.

comment #4

Edward says ...

Fried Green Tomatoes is pretty good. Steel Magnolias is anything but.

comment #5

Josh Massey says ...

Well, I liked Fried Green Tomatoes...

comment #6

Abbey Normal says ...

I've always been annoyed particularly by "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"...How does she get her "groove"? By bedding a hung young stud. OK, fine, but what if they made the same movie with the roles reversed? Some divorced guy nails a hot 20-year-old and all is well? Can you imagine the screeching objections from all those same women that cheered on Angela Bassett? "He's living out a pathetic adolescent fantasy!" they'd say.

comment #7

berkguru says ...

Queen Latifah looks like she is at a buffet eyeing all that hot young black snatch

comment #8

lipranzer says ...

One element Russell missed: In many of these films(though, to be fair, not all of them), there's the idea men are bastards, but it's a woman's duty to love them anyway. That's right; movies that actresses claim are pro-women because they celebrate "sisterhood" and give actresses roles they don't get to play in regular mainstream movies (and no, I'm not denying the lack of decent roles for many actresses) are actually quite reactionary. WAITING TO EXHALE was pretty bad in this regard, but far worse was HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT.

As far as HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK goes, I actually enjoyed it when it was just a female fantasy (you have to admit BAssett and Taye Diggs had sizzling chemistry). It's when the film got all moralistic in the second half that I lost interest.

comment #9

dukedog says ...

Yeah, this looks bad. I second all that the reviewer said about southern chick movies. As a southern chick myself, I absolutely hate these movies. Except "Fried Green Tomatoes", that was just excellent.

comment #10

shawn says ...

Classic Letterman:

Top Ten Things Overheard Outside 'How Stella Got Her Groove Back'

10) "I hope I never lose my groove."
9) "I knew she'd get her groove back, but I couldn't believe *how* she got her groove back."
8) "I've seen movies with groove back getting, but that was the groove back gettingest movie I've ever seen."
7) "Robin Williams was so funny as the voice of the groove!"
6) "She got her groove back, but I want my nine dollars back."
5) "This is the exact reason I always write my name inside my groove."
4) "What do you mean 'Saving Private Ryan' is sold out?"
3) "Turns out her groove was under the sofa cushion the whole time."
2) "Hey, Stella! I got your groove right here!"
1) "Am I the only white guy here?"

comment #11

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Well, I do declare, I just'n might have to sit a spell I had such a rush of dizziness over the supposition that Yankee Mister Wells would not be gracing these here pages with his musings on this here particular moving picture show.

Every woman I know who reads has read that book, but because they don't give me shit that I read every John le Carré and Elmore Leonard novel that comes down the pike I feel courtesy bound to extend them the same.

This seems more like a FRIED GREEN TOMATOES type film and should the wife want to see it or rent the DVD I will do so without complaint. Sometimes, Jeff, your elitism (in the pejorative sense) is just as bad as the provincialism of the "bumpkins" you take such glee in skewering.

comment #12

tmurry says ...

Forgotten elements include:
1. Musial (Motown or other female vocal-ed Big Chill soundtrack selection) sequence of female bonding and dancing - archetypical exaomple: ain't no moauntain high enough from Hope Floats.
2. Polarized view of men (lipranzer hit part of this), with suggested vector being away from from mentally abusive, materially successful, cheating asshole towards the naturalistic, prettyboy with nothing better to do with most of his time but pay a woman attention - archetypical example:: Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

comment #13

Movie Watcher says ...

How about a movie like this, only better, for hispanics? All we have now is Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Does hollywood know that hispanics are the biggest minority in the counrty?

comment #14

scooterzz says ...

moviewatcher -- 'tortilla soup'...... better than 'soul food' but not enough attendance to justify 'tortilla main course'........

comment #15

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Classic, indeed. Thanks for sharing that, Shawn.

That has to be around the time those Top Ten Lists just stopped being funny. As a matter of fact, by '98, I remember them being pretty consistently lame. Perhaps that was a last gasp of greatness.

comment #16

dukedog says ...

I can testify that none of the chicks I know, including me, NEVER dance to Motown in kitchens while throwing food at one another. That crap in movies is so insulting, but women go for it every time.

comment #17

JBM... says ...

Is there a scene where Fanning is stung by a bee and curses at them or something and is then gently chided by Latifah since "it's the bees' nature to fight back, dawlin'" or some shit like that?

(Haven't read the book or seen the trailer/film. Just curious about the mundane levels this kind of film would stoop to.)

comment #18

charles says ...

What annoys me is the typical movie that has the saintly "magical Negro" whose only reason for existence is to teach some white person life lessons-because all black people will drop everything instantly to do that-as we all know, black people's lives revolve around white people.

And I think the actresses (esp. Okonedo who should have a *much* bigger career) are all actually talented (well, save Alicia Keys, who is doing this for the first time so I will reserve judgement) and it's a shame that this is what Hollywood has to offer black actresses. Yes, I think Queen Latifah is talented.

I think they should do a sequel to 'Stella' and follow up on what actually happened-Terry McMillan (the author) married her much younger Jamaican stud and brought him back to the States, he came out of the closet and sued her for financial support. I would pay to see that movie-comedy gold.

comment #19

/3rtfu11 says ...

"Fried Green Tomatoes" was the first "serious" movie I ever feel in love with. Now that I'm older and wiser it doesn't play with the same impact it once had.

comment #20

Zimmergirl says ...

FGT most certainly does. And this condescending, idiotic post and the "review" it refers to is no less than ignorant, sexist bullshit. Why waste your valuable time on films aimed at women anyway? Just so that you can write pathetic ramblings with dumbass quotes like: "These movies tend to be based on the sorts of books Oprah likes to endorse"

Oh you mean like Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Elie Wiesel's Night? Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez, The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying by Faulkner, The House of Sand and Fog by by Dubus?

Gee, I never knew you had so little regard for someone who's done a hell of a lot more than you'll ever do to promote a love of reading to those females you have such disdain for. Get a fucking life.

comment #21

thatmovieguy says ...

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is much better than YA-YA SISTERHOOD or HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK or most of the other movies you've slammed here. The movie doesn't always go in the predictable direction (and no, Dakota does not get stung by a bee so that someone can deliver a sermonette about nature). It's a story about trying to put together your fragmented family history by becoming part of a completely different kind of family. The movie opens with a flashback scene in which the then-4-year-old Lily (the Fanning character) witnesses a fight between her parents in which a gun is pulled out. The gun is dropped, the little girl picks it up and a few seconds later the mother is dead. Surprise: This is not some sunshine-y fantasy about how beautiful life can be.
As for delivering "a condescending Hollywood interpretation of life in the South, in which people are either abusive racists full of hate or quirky saints full of hospitality," there are only a couple of white characters that you could classify as straight-up racists. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is that the Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Okonedo and Keys) are successful businesswoman who make premium-quality honey and are well-respected in their community. This is not cross-burning, white sheets and "y'all best learn yo' place!" The only tensions come out when an African-American teenager tries to take Lily out on a date to the movies; yes, I do believe there are members of the white community in 1964 North Carolina who might have voiced objections to that, so I felt the scene was valid.
"Hollywood stars putting on Southern accents like they're doing dinner-theater Tennessee Williams?" Well, Latifah's family is from Virginia and Maryland, so I think she can handle the accent. Nobody sounds as comically out of place as, say, Olympia Dukakis in STEEL MAGNOLIAS.
"A fetishy relationship with lovingly photographed food": There's a couple of scenes in the kitchen and some shots of the dinner table, but this isn't THE SECRET LIFE OF CORNBREAD.
"A magazine-spread approach to agrarian labor, which is much nastier and more tedious in real life than the movie makes it out to be" -- yeah, the early scenes in that peach orchard sure made me want to drop everything and become a migrant laborer.
"At least one moment in which a character lays out a really obvious metaphor about Real Life while describing a cooking or farming technique or the behavior of a plant, animal, or insect." Gina Prince-Bythewood's screenplay is a bit more sophisticated than that.
"Tragic deaths or marriages that Teach Us Something About Ourselves." So we should instead look for stories in which people are randomly killed or fall in love and nobody else bothers to notice? If you're any sort of a human being, when someone close to you dies or gets married, it tends to prompt some kind of emotional reaction. Although not perhaps on Planet Jaded, where the hipper-than-thou critics live.
"And, most importantly, a hug-filled affirmation of the power of sisterhood." Hey, if the "power of sisterhood" can help heal a distraught girl or give an uneducated woman some sense of self-esteem, who am I to knock it?
If you are hell-bent on slamming BEES, I suppose you can take in your little checklist and pull out this or that to try to make your argument. But the movie at least tries to do something different, instead of dishing up the usual "oh, the po' black folks" nonsense. I'd sure rather sit through BEES again than take a second look at something completely soulless and empty like MAX PAYNE, that's for certain.

comment #22

nemo says ...

". . . because they don't give me shit that I read every John le Carré and Elmore Leonard novel that comes down the pike I feel courtesy bound to extend them the same."

That's not a courtesy on their part. John le Carré and Elmore Leonard actually write good novels.

comment #23

Hal says ...

Rubbish, John Le Carre's output that does not feature George Smiley or a Graham Greene hommage represents a significant drop off in quality.

Whatever the denizens of this site believe, HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK and WAITING TO EXHALE are significant in their presentation and glamorization of black women as movie stars, as desirable, as sexually worthy of more than mere fetishization. This is not an unimportant factor, as black women are historically and socially presented as the very opposite of what the core market of movie-goers (young white men) find desirable. They are not films in the pantheon of Women's Pictures, but I find the amount of snide attitude thrown their way kind of disturbing.

comment #24

lipranzer says ...

So the way black women can gain equality with white women, as far as being shown as glamorous and desirable, is to star in movies that are just as shitty as the ones white women star in? Sorry, but I don't buy that. Yes, black actresses are criminally underused in Hollywood today, and I would love to see that change, but having them play parts, and appear in movies, that stereotype either their gender or their race, or both, isn't going to help matters.

comment #25

Hal says ...

No, it DOES help matters to put them in stories in which their characters are intended as thoughtful or independent or individually appealing, even if those films are not particularly good. It helps matters a lot more than casting Viola Davis or Naomie Harris or Joy Bryant or any number of actors as a third fiddle sassy-black-friend, black-female-judge or iron-willed-momma - those supporting roles provide an acting challege or product more interesting to watch just as rarely as the films that are used as punching bags in this thread.

comment #26

lipranzer says ...

They may be intended as thoughtful or independent or individually appealing, and if they were, they certainly would be better than the third fiddle sassy best friend, black female judge or iron will momma, there's no question. I'm just saying I don't think they are. I haven't seen SECRET LIFE OF BEES yet, so I don't know where that film fits in, but I'm sorry, WAITING TO EXHALE did not, in my opinion, give Angela Basset, Loretta Devine, or Lela Rochon, all of whom are talented actresses (I'm not a fan of Whitney Houston, singing or acting), roles that were thoughtful, independent, or individually appealing.

comment #27

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