Day 7: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Adorable Isla Fisher has my heart! And she’s telling my life story (accept mine isn’t a huge debt due to clothes but experiences – which is even harder to sell back, so I’m just stuck with my debt unlike her). I heard the book is even better but I think that might be too painful for me to endure. Seriously, I started having a mild panic attack once this movie began because at the bottom of my office drawer is a huge pile of bills I can’t pay this month and like the girl in the green scarf it is ALL MY FAULT. Or maybe its not: as a friend once told me “Credit Cards aren’t REAL money!” And besides as John Goodman points out in the movie, “If the country can be billions in debt, why can’t my daughter”. Oh who am I kidding, I’m in trouble and this movie just pointed it out to me all over again!

But we’re not here to talk about my many flaws; we’re here to talk about the wonderful world of escapism through Romantic Comedies! And escape I do! In luscious colors of clothes and settings, sexy male leads with British Accents (good God I just get weak in the knees when I hear a brit man speak- my best gal friend Swoose is damn lucky she gets to wake up to that accent every morning), and something that I have debated putting on the check list: Great Embarrassing Moments. As a girl who is no stranger to embarrassing moments having inherited a foot in mouth disease from her mother, been attacked by a tree, and locked herself in her own trunk, I take a certain comfort in seeing a female lead in a film go through a few of her own. And this movie, for all its uncomfortable feelings it gives me also gives me great comfort. Here is how Confessions of a Shopaholic add up to my list:

• Giddy: We have Giddy! Yummy Hugh Dancy is enough alone, but you also have some great lines like “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s not you” and “Nothing defines me except you and your mother”. And all those lovely embarrassing moments! But the quintessential Giddy moment comes from the SLOW CLAP! Ahhhh, the slow clap, used across the board to enhance a moment of achievement in lots of great films. I didn’t put this on my check list because sometimes it really irritates me, it is not always a winner in my book. But here, in this movie, I like it – maybe because it is done with mannequins
• Lie: The big lie in this movie is that she is in the worst personal financial situation and she is working for a money magazine giving advice on finances. She is also trying to work her way up to work for a fashion magazine. Not to mention all the many lies she tells her debt collector. We have lots in this movie! Yay!
• Big Emotional Outburst: Yes, we have a bunch of those too!
• Dance Sequence: YES! YES! YES! And it is awesome! The fan is hilarious and so is her dancing.
• Wedding: We have one of the tackiest weddings here, the ugliest dresses, the made of honor doesn’t show up till the last minute and they leave right after the ceremony which means there wasn’t a reception? Wha? But we have a wedding and that’s what counts!
• Rewatchable: Yes! I will be watching this one again – perhaps after I win the lottery and can sit back and laugh laugh laugh at the days when I used to worry about money too.
• Love: Oh that wonderfully inappropriate I’m-in–love-with-my-boss kind of love. Of course I still haven’t figured out why he was bidding with himself over the green scarf.
• Fantasy: The apartment isn’t one of the fantasies in this NYC RC surprisingly… but the love life, the ease of a job, the shopping, the mannequins, the male lead, the fashion, and the great embarrassing moments are.
• Journey of the Main Character: She does what I fear to do- takes that hard look at her life, how it spun out of control and grabs the courage to set it straight. She also discovers that the relationship high far outweighs the shopping high.
• Body Count: erg… no.
• Music Montages: Yes! We have some nice ones, and I like the songs.
• Strong Female: Yes, I’d say so – see journey of the main character checked above.

Day 6: Down With Love

Day 6: Down With Love

YAY! Down With Love! I love this movie! It’s witty, it’s funny, it’s tongue and cheek, it’s feminist, and it’s cheesy romantic at its best! I don’t think you can watch a Ewan McGreggor without getting a little weak in the knees and Renee Zellwegger is delightful in almost all the RC’s she’s in (maybe I love her a bit too much, she really reminds me of myself – especially in the Bridget Jones movies)! Here is just how very much Down With Love checks off on my list:

• Giddy: Oh Yes! Ewan smarmy and adorable, Renee trying so hard to be strong, those hilarious split screen scenes and the over the top non stop sexual innuendos! I’m doing my happy dance!
• Lie: Oh hell yes – so I’ve never really got this straight but I think it turns out that Barbara Novak is really some girl named Nancy who was one of Catcher Block’s secretaries and the whole movie is an elaborate ruse to get him to fall in love with her.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Well, yes several- classic one is Barbara’s editor punching Catcher in the face.
• Dance Sequence: Oh yes! We have a lovely montage of dates and dancing is in this as well as during the credits! BONUS!
• Wedding: Hmmm.. well as that is the ONLY fashion missing from this movie, I forgive them. We have women in so many different outfits that I hardly noticed we were missing a wedding dress.
• Rewatchable: I have this movie on my dvr- I dvr’d it when I first moved in to my apartment and watch it all the time. Before that, I had it on VHS- oh yes- it’s another one of those- ones I wore out. And unlike most of my RC’s, this one I can actually get my husband to watch with me. I think it is because it’s a callback to the Cary Grant days and he (like most men) want to be Cary Grant. I’m glad to now finally have it on DVD so I can delete it on my DVR and make room for future Mad Men and Glee episodes. Thanks Jason!
• Love: Yes! Yes! And I’d also like to praise the WONDERFUL side characters of this film: Sara Paulson and David Hyde Pierce. Priceless, hysterical, and doubling the whammy of gooey love! And hilarious lines from them like “At the risk of sounding like my mother, just keep perfectly still and let him get it over with”.
• Fantasy: Again- NYC apartments, fantastic careers, beautiful costumes, endless nights out on the town, I could go on but I think you catch my drift
• Journey of the Main Character: Ah my favorite kind – they fall in love and it changes everything about them. Classic line from Catcher Block: I don’t want to have sex, I just want to be married!
• Body Count: ok- I am well aware that this is the one part of the check list I am constantly not checking but still keep on here. But when you have such great classics as Princess Bride, The Mexican, A Life Less Ordinary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral how can I not love a little death in my RC?
• Music Montage: Yes! Mmm lovely!
• Strong Female: Yes! I’m doing another feminist flip for this great comedy that is all about the battle of the sexes. This film actually makes fun of one of my main theories about why girls these days are stupidly trying to deny being feminists. They are afraid that men won’t love them if they come out and say they are feminists and deserve equality. But let me catch myself now from getting onto my soap box about the virtues of feminism, equality and the need for self love and come back to the point: This movie sweetly shows us how we can have it all- career, love and self respect. It just does so in a very funny way.

Day 4: 13 Going on 30

And here we are: 13 Going on 30. I feel like this most days. Awkward, unsure and quite confused how I got here so fast. But the 30s are fabulous and I wouldn't wish to go back to 13 ever! This is a perfect cleaning the house film. One you don't have to sit and watch all the way through, just stop the vacuum cleaner in time to watch the Thriller dance sequence and come back for the final kiss. Its comforting to have all those mistakes we've all made being played out by cuter, thinner people on in the background while you do the daily grind. Today I have a cold and so in between cleaning for the friend who is coming in town, sneezing, and stocking up on vitamins I watched this sweet movie.

This film isn't one I'd pay to rent, usually I catch it on TV and will watch it while I do something else. The good thing about that is, every time you see it, there is a scene you missed the time before so it is like getting to watch a slightly used, slightly new movie. Yay! And here is how Jennifer Garner in 13 going on 30 stacks up to my list:

• Giddy: The dance sequence does it for me. I'm actually jealous I never really learned that dance!
  
• Lies: She actually doesn't lie too much, she's trying to tell people she's only 13, just no one believes her.
  
• Big emotional outburst: Jennifer does try and stop a wedding and shes quite passionate on the remaking of the magazine. Those count in my book. Its no Harry telling Sally on New Years Eve that he can't live without her but it'll do for today.
  
• Dance Sequence: Oh hell yes! Best scene in the movie - THRILLER - THRILLER NIGHT. Is this even more nostalgic for me because MJ is dead? Hmmm?
  
• Wedding: We have 2 folks! His prep to marry a pretty sweet hottie and then the end him marrying his best friend. AAWWWWWWWWW! So yes- as no RC is complete without a wedding dress this one lives up nicely!
  
• Rewatchable: Now that I know I'm going to have a lovely collection of great RC's when I'm done with this project, I may have this put at the back of the pile. Something I'll pop in a couple years down the road when I've forgotten what its all about. And I will forget. Hell I forget what I ate for breakfast and have a 2nd breakfast (which explains a lot about my weight).
  
• Love: This is the best friend love kind and its slow to come in the film. Though I admire the best friend love - I always feel a little let down on the passion side.
  
• Fantasy: Well she uses wishing dust to turn herself to 30 and be everything she imagined: rich, skinny, head of a magazine and popular. So yeah, I'd say we've got one hell of a fantasy going on. I got to get me some of that dust! I want to win the lottery!
  
• Journey of the Main Character: Okay so because she is still 13 in her mind, the journey here is only of realizing she has it pretty great at 13 and realizing that the man she loves was her best friend.
  
• Body Count: None. Dammit! Somebody really should have killed that blond bitch "friend"
  
• Music Montage: Yes and the music in this film is like a warm blanket of memories. I love the music. I being a soundtrack queen will probably go buy this one on Itunes next time I get some extra cash.
  
• Strong Female: Mmm.. are any of us strong at 13? She makes some bold choices and she has spunk and passion - 2 things I wish didn't fall off as you get older but they just do. But she's not the strongest I've seen. And she took his last name! That is a check in the box of anti-strong female in my book!