romantic comedy

The most annoying way in which this film tries to encapsulate 2011 is by making its characters as media-saturated as possible. In the twenty-first century, we have apparently transcended platitudes simply by becoming conscious of their presence in our lives. These hip young New Yorkers with their telephone cameras and their rainbow parties are too self-aware to internalize movie cliches without repeatedly making self-deprecating verbal references to said cliches in casual conversation, preferably while incorporating pop psychology terms like "emotionally damaged," "intimacy issues" and "coping mechanism." Their banter is wholly unsatisfying because it's not actually witty, it's just a bunch of semi-tactless observations and mashed-together pop culture references delivered as if they were jokes (I haven't heard Third Eye Blind mentioned this many times since... ever).

I hate to break it to you, but we have a sell-by date. We're perishable, dude. Highly perishable.

I spoke these words to a friend as we meandered down the street engaged in another one of our snarky, rapid-fire dialogues about how we ended up here. Here being the waning years of our twenties without being firmly established on solid career paths and without appropriate grown-up milestones (marriage, kids, home ownership) in our cross-hairs. We've known each other forever, so it felt almost as if we were 17 again (but we're both so much cooler now) and wondering what we were actually going to do with our whole lives in front of us. Except we're not 17 and our grace period for a To Be Determined future is rapidly running out. Comforting, non?

A week prior to the film's release, the marketing team for He's Just Not That Into You has released a video of three of film's male stars - Justin Long, Bradley Cooper, and Kevin Connolly - trying to persuade men to see the film. The reason they think men might actually like the film? Because, they claim, He's Just Not That Into You avoids the top 10 cliches of chick flicks.

Video and more after the jump!

I almost passed on blogging about Bride Wars, which opens this weekend, because it seemed, well, almost a little too easy to call it out for its shabby, mean-spirited treatment of women.  After all, this is a film about two lifelong pals who abandon their friendship in favor of an epic, demeaning catfight over their unbelievably lavish and costly dream weddings.  Bridezilla, thy name is woman...  But Anne Hathaway wants me to set aside my preconceptions about Bride Wars because, she claims, there's actually an empowering narrative about women in the film!

More after the jump!

This post has been delayed due to a series of Midwestern airport misadventures, but here's the round-up of last week's trailers: Beyonce in Obsessed, Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man, and Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine... after the jump!

Greetings, everyone! My name is Tammy Oler, and I've been a contributor to Bitch for about five years. I'm thrilled to be joining the blogging team here. With "The Female Gaze," I'll be focusing a feminist eye on what's new and making news in film, including new releases, trends and industry buzz.

There's already a bunch of romantic comedies slated for release early in 2009. I'd like to kick off this blog by taking a look at trailers for two of them that hit the Web over the Thanksgiving holiday.