But why do woman like the romantic films that are so easily classified as 'another chick flick'? My thoughts is that it is due to the music and how it adds to the film that much more. I went to a boarding school during highschool so you can imagine the amount of 'woman movies' I have watched. While I enjoyed the odd few and some others were watched to fill up the time and boredom of weekends in boarding school my dorm mates lapped it up. I remember remarks such as "Ah, that movie was so good, the music was amazing!" and "Ah, does anyone know the song that played when Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher were starting to get along in What Happens In Vegas? " It's always the same, for every 'chick flick' that I have seen. Well that's my opinion anyway because when its over I'm always stuck thinking "...hmm, I'm going to Google the movie title and see if I can get the artist's name who sings that song".
Which brings me to the focus that maybe Indie music is the 'secret in the mix' when it comes to movies woman will enjoy. I can, roughly, have a leg to stand on here, because my Ipod is jam-packed with playlists from movies, covers songs and newly found appreciation for artists no one's probably heard of because I heard one of their songs from a movie and decided to download an album.
Chick Flicks have received constant and relentless upheaval from the male and more recently some of the female population. Some, okay most of it is perhaps deservedly dished out but I think sometimes that having that idea about a movie runs in danger of stereo typing movies woman enjoy altogether and people rolling their eyeballs before they've actually heard the plot of some of these movies. The movie "The Vow" was slandered for its "gooey, romantic-ey" stance on a story about a woman who survives a car crash and ends up forgetting the past 5 years of her life, including ever marrying her husband.
The first time watching this movie, while yes it was very much in the Romantic genre, so what? The story behind it I believe was relevant and is a reality that can happen, but that's not why I liked the movie. The reason I liked the movie was its music and the quirky interpretations it brought. In my last blog I mentioned how in the movie Romeo + Juliet the music often interpreted the situation before the actual words had been spoken, and that's what good music will do to a piece or scene.
The scene where Leo (Channing Tatum) is laughing so hard he by mistake farts ( haha fart) in the car alongside his wife Paige (Rachel Adams) and tries to deny it. With Paige's actions (closing the window and looking at Leo) incorporated with the 'cute' easy music it endears the audience to the couple and shows their likeability and realistic love.
I think that could possibly be the key to making chick flicks likeable to both woman AND men - making it awkward. By this I mean, showing the audience the embarrassing situations we often find ourselves in in everyday life. Nick and Norah's playlist was a running example of an 'Indie chick flick' that both woman and men found entertaining and wouldn't mind watching again. With Norah's extremely intoxicated and hazardous friend, Caroline (played by Ari Graynor) the movie is extremely funny and lets us reference to our own lives when we have been stuck looking after 'the always drunk friend'. The music is also quirky, entertaining and 'girly' yet it somehow fits for the 'chick flick'. Trailer
Other awkward movies include SuperBad, Bridesmaids, I Love You, Man and I believe they have found a never ending fountain of juicy magic that can be re-used and played over and over again. The pop audience, in my opinion, care not for the perfect and set story frame which sees the guy get the girl, and they all so pretty and things just work out. No. Because this is hardly realistic and audiences get tired of referencing a story to their own life and seeing no resemblance, often seeing their own life as plain, monotonous and does not include instances of a man standing in the rain calling out to the one he loves. Seeing men talk about farts and what happened when he ate a whole jar of mayonnaise is funny. Its awkward and an untapped angle that shows the audience cringing but then reveling and leaning in to the awkwardness because it is so unlike the usual story lines they are presented with.
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