Please Don't Put Seeing This Movie on Your To Do List
Aubrey Plaza is a very likeable actress but unfortunately, not every movie she is in is all that likeable. A classic example is the 2013 film The To Do List, an allegedly sex-positive comedy which asks Ms. Plaza to go above and beyond the duty of your typical actress yet can't resist delivering a very questionable message which almost makes me yearn for the good old days of the Hays Code.
The film started out with Ms. Plaza's character Brandy Klark giving a speech at her high school graduation only to be heckled by her own friends for being a virgin. What being a virgin had to do with her graduation speech, the film never really said. Like so many things in this movie, it was treated as just another item that your average movie-goer should just lie back and enjoy. (Apparently being sex-positive is the cinematic equivalent of being brain-dead.)
In any event, Ms. Klark was convinced by her friends -- and please note that it was her friends who did this and not her enemies --- that she had somehow missed out on something by not having sex in high school and thus Ms. Klark set out to remedy that by making a list of all the sexual things that others have done that she never got around to doing. The idea that she was not naturally curious about this stuff before she talked with her friends seemed odd but the movie chose not to explore that path. Nor did it bother with the many obvious reasons -- for example, fear of STDs or an unplanned pregnancy -- an otherwise healthy young woman would have for putting off sex. (After all, if it did bother with such reasons, Ms. Klark's position might seem sympathetic and writer-director Maggie Carey seemed uninterested in sympathizing with that position -- especially since it was so noncommercial.)
Movies like this are not usually meant to be taken seriously and indeed, I would probably drive myself crazy if I took seriously every such movie. But there was something about the cruel way this movie's script treated the main character that was hard to ignore. After all, Ms. Carey was not content to just put more than a few obstacles in Ms. Klark's path; she went out of her way to outright humiliate her. And she did not just humiliate her once but on multiple occasions. While I respect the commitment to her craft that allowed Ms. Plaza to get away with on-screen actions that would normally be considered above and beyond the call of duty by most actresses -- I do not believe, for example, that she really did put a certain disgusting object in her mouth but she did a great job of pretending that she did so -- I do not think it was nice of Ms. Carey to have Ms. Plaza perform actions that even the most misogynistic of directors rarely ask of their leading ladies. Indeed, the stunt I mentioned above involving a certain disgusting object seemed more stomach-turning than funny -- and yet we the audience were asked to go with it because to the director, it was funny. At least supposedly.
Even the sex-positive part of the movie seemed dubious. After all, Ms. Klark eventually got dissed as much for being sexually active as she did for being sexually inactive. Even Connie Britton -- who played Ms. Klark's mother -- had to perform some rather dubious sexual actions -- though thankfully, Ms. Britton was generally treated more respectfully than Ms. Plaza. (For example, Ms. Britton's character just didn't have sex with her husband, she had sex in the most outlandish fashion possible. Because nothing says "sex-positive" like making a married couple having sex with each other look weird.)
Granted, I am not exactly part of this movie's target audience. Indeed, if you still wax nostalgic over 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" and you thought that Caddyshack would have been a lot better with more gross-out humor, you will probably like this film far better than me.
But I would not recommend this film to anyone if I had a choice.
Aubrey Plaza is a very likeable actress but unfortunately, not every movie she is in is all that likeable. A classic example is the 2013 film The To Do List, an allegedly sex-positive comedy which asks Ms. Plaza to go above and beyond the duty of your typical actress yet can't resist delivering a very questionable message which almost makes me yearn for the good old days of the Hays Code.
The film started out with Ms. Plaza's character Brandy Klark giving a speech at her high school graduation only to be heckled by her own friends for being a virgin. What being a virgin had to do with her graduation speech, the film never really said. Like so many things in this movie, it was treated as just another item that your average movie-goer should just lie back and enjoy. (Apparently being sex-positive is the cinematic equivalent of being brain-dead.)
In any event, Ms. Klark was convinced by her friends -- and please note that it was her friends who did this and not her enemies --- that she had somehow missed out on something by not having sex in high school and thus Ms. Klark set out to remedy that by making a list of all the sexual things that others have done that she never got around to doing. The idea that she was not naturally curious about this stuff before she talked with her friends seemed odd but the movie chose not to explore that path. Nor did it bother with the many obvious reasons -- for example, fear of STDs or an unplanned pregnancy -- an otherwise healthy young woman would have for putting off sex. (After all, if it did bother with such reasons, Ms. Klark's position might seem sympathetic and writer-director Maggie Carey seemed uninterested in sympathizing with that position -- especially since it was so noncommercial.)
Movies like this are not usually meant to be taken seriously and indeed, I would probably drive myself crazy if I took seriously every such movie. But there was something about the cruel way this movie's script treated the main character that was hard to ignore. After all, Ms. Carey was not content to just put more than a few obstacles in Ms. Klark's path; she went out of her way to outright humiliate her. And she did not just humiliate her once but on multiple occasions. While I respect the commitment to her craft that allowed Ms. Plaza to get away with on-screen actions that would normally be considered above and beyond the call of duty by most actresses -- I do not believe, for example, that she really did put a certain disgusting object in her mouth but she did a great job of pretending that she did so -- I do not think it was nice of Ms. Carey to have Ms. Plaza perform actions that even the most misogynistic of directors rarely ask of their leading ladies. Indeed, the stunt I mentioned above involving a certain disgusting object seemed more stomach-turning than funny -- and yet we the audience were asked to go with it because to the director, it was funny. At least supposedly.
Even the sex-positive part of the movie seemed dubious. After all, Ms. Klark eventually got dissed as much for being sexually active as she did for being sexually inactive. Even Connie Britton -- who played Ms. Klark's mother -- had to perform some rather dubious sexual actions -- though thankfully, Ms. Britton was generally treated more respectfully than Ms. Plaza. (For example, Ms. Britton's character just didn't have sex with her husband, she had sex in the most outlandish fashion possible. Because nothing says "sex-positive" like making a married couple having sex with each other look weird.)
Granted, I am not exactly part of this movie's target audience. Indeed, if you still wax nostalgic over 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" and you thought that Caddyshack would have been a lot better with more gross-out humor, you will probably like this film far better than me.
But I would not recommend this film to anyone if I had a choice.
Labels: Aubrey Plaza, Bill Hader, Connie Britton, Donald Glover, La Lista de Verificación, Maggie Carey, Películas Nuevas IV, Sexo
posted by Tonio Kruger at 10:32 AM
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