Lolita's Fist

Bechdel-passed Collide (2016) because one women tells another that she is going to die if she doesn't get a kidney transplant. This sets in motion death and mayhem, car chases and shootouts, and multiple civilian deaths in a cocaine sale effort to save the woman's life. Her voice is then used to justify the whole lot. The women are literally used as plot device to set the film in motion and then used to manipulate morality. #Fuckit

As you know, I only really am interested in commercial movies. I like to see what messages are being delivered to people in the world. Obviously, series don't count, that would be too obvious to not have named women communicating with each other. So series are automatically on the Bechdel. So let's fling some math. I have watched 3400 films in four years. I watched all the movies I could remember watching. 600 or so passed the Bechdel - two named women speaking to each other about something other than a man. That's about 5500 hours of film, of which about 900 hours were films that contained at least a few words that were not about men and between two women. Now let's not get excited, because only a tiny amount of minutes in those 900 hours devoted themselves to conversations between women. And the word conversation is an extreme description. Most were more like ten word exchanges in the whole film. Most of those conversations were fights, accusations, or denigra...

You know I apply the Bechdel Test very strictly. Otherwise I wouldn't have 600 Bechdel-passers on my 3400 films list ( https://imdb.to/2L5HBS2 ), I would have far fewer passers. Even if the named women speak to each other with three words, and the words break each other down, the film passes.   Today I will reach a new low - two named women speaking to each other about something other than a man... with a man present and also conversing, and who gets the bulk of the attention from both women.  Other plus points of the film are - the beauty cult is ignored, and the lead female character is not white, and she also has a disability. And, cherry-ily, she doesn't speak in modulated tones.  Although the above ploy could be there to distract us because the beauty-cult-undermined can also be part of the new wave of films that portray women as harpies and the men as whipped. Which this film does. To its credit, it does make the woman into a Jesusy character, but it ma...

One of those Bechdel-passers that drives women mad. It passes because two named woman characters speak to each other about something other than a man - it's one word, but it counts. "Mama."

🍒 Yes, it’s beautiful. Yes, the 3D was done well. Yes, it’s worth seeing, especially for the threesome - I’ve not seen anything like that on film before. But… meh. Story is kinda thin. The meta narratives are emaciated. There are some things to be said about the sexism of the film. Female replicants.  2049 - Joi (home entertainment and cook), Luv (librarian and killing machine). 2019 - Pris (prostitute and gymnast), Zhora (sex performer with animals), Rachael (secretary and mother) Extended death scenes.  The deaths of the female replicants take many many seconds. The hologram, Joi, is erased and spends many seconds crying out for K at the window of his spinner crash site. Luv is drowned at length, almost erotic asphyxiation snuff-like by K in the womb-ish transport vehicle. Pris is shot by Deckard and has an epileptic seizure-like unreal writhing tongue-protruding death. Zhora is shot by Deckard and crashes through several, several many fashion-store windows in her se...

#Aargh. Passes the Bechdel because Emma Watson is told to shut up. And she is told she's dangerous because she's brainy. IMDB The Colony (2015) Actors: Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl Director: Florian Gallenberger

🍒 Passes the Bechdel because one woman tells another to make coffee. #SYK IMDB The Hateful Eight (2015)  Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell Director: Quentin Tarantino

Don't misunderstand the Bechdel. It's not there to tell you if a movie is feminist or not. It's there to show you there are no good feminist films. For the record, I have seen one. My Bechdel-passer list: Bechdel Test

Do I have to let it pass the Bechdel on a conversation where the child-Susanah-York plays with her mother's make-up and her mother has a Sybil-like meltdown re 'painted ladies'. Must I? Aren't discussions about 'painted ladies' actually about men obliquely? IMDB Freud (1962)  Actors: Montgomery Clift, Susannah York Director: John Huston

Yuck. And I had to pass it on the Bechdel because of a 2sec goodbye. IMDB Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)  Actors: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum Director: Roland Emmerich

A different take on slavery and the war to end it in America. Had to pass Bechdel because two women speak about a spindle. IMDB Free State of Jones (2016) Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw Director: Gary Ross

Black and white. Becomes color when she falls in love at first sight. Bechdel-passer because they like the top down in the convertible. Seriously. IMDB Dream for an Insomniac (1996)   Actors: Ione Skye, Jennifer Aniston Director: Tiffanie DeBartolo

Bechdel-pass because McAdams asks Stone to take a tray to the table. #Aargh. IMDB Aloha (2015) Actors: Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams Director: Cameron Crowe

Charming. The Bechdel-passing scene has a woman asking another woman to play the rape victim in a rape-evening game. IMDB The Onion Movie (2008) Actors: Len Cariou, Sarah McElligott Directors: Tom Kuntz, Mike Maguire

They speak about split ends, so it passes the Bechdel. Annoyingly, Faulkner is as genius a writer as he is sexist. IMDB The Long Hot Summer (1958) Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward Director: Martin Ritt

Bechdel passer. Barbra Streisand to named waitress, "You should never eat starch and fruit at the same time." Have to pass it on the test on this. Aargh! IMDB All Night Long (1981) Actors: Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand Director: Jean-Claude Tramont

Aargh. Frustrating to have to put these sorts of films on the Bechdel list when all the women talk about is how much food they made or if they can stay for tea or not. The rest of the film they demonstrate how they are NOT allies to each other. IMDB All That Heaven Allows (1955)  Actors: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson Director: Douglas Sirk

🍒 Bechdel-passer (with five words), and the lead is a woman (brains, character, ethics, wit, but she doesn't get her guy, she gets another different sporty non-news guy that we never get to 'read') and the men do battle over one of them being stupid but pretty and the other being brilliant, and funny, but 'ugly'. But seriously, MIND-blowing dialogue, by the same guy that did As Good As it Gets (1997) . Oooh! IMDB Broadcast News (1987) Actors: William Hurt, Albert Brooks Director: James L. Brooks

🍒 The love story of Pat and Tiffany is not clichéd, the dialogue is great, the acting is clear, the characters are quirky and real-ly flawed, but... (sigh) Bechdel Test. You might snort at the mention of the Bechdel Test. It's really less of a test and more of mental note that helps put you in the right, *cough*, feminist, frame of mind. It goes like this: 1. Are there two named female characters? 2. Do they speak to each other? 3. Do they speak to each other about something other than a man. This test establishes whether the action is about the man or about the woman. And it's always about the man. I've got a mere 31 Bechdel-passers on my list so far -  http://www.imdb.com/list/Z_tgoKChVPY/ . Feminist role models. I take my role models where I can get them. Tiffany (yes, that's her name) is a 3D-character. She doesn't do the girl-giggling thing. She's slutty and sloppy and dirty and likes that about herself. She can talk dirty. She'll indulge...