30 January 2006

Grrrls on Film

Rant of the Day: Foxfire - dir. Annette Haywood-Carter - 1996 - USA

A friend of mine told me that posting nudity would probably get more people to read my blog. So I seeked out a nice topless photo of Angelina Jolie for my rant of the day, Foxfire. While you may roll your eyes at her now, there was a point where Angelina held a captivating ferocity onscreen, a sexuality uncommon for your average leading-lady (though Foxfire was her first starring role). And while all of that appeal may be gone now, you can't ignore that her early persona was the only thing worth watching in this, Hackers, or Gia. Since you know what has become of Ms Jolie, now you can look at Foxfire for the burning bag of shit it truly is. Based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates (I can't get a visual of her sitting down and actually watching this), a gang of high school girls gather together to form some sort of sect after fucking with their perv science teacher. The group's lead by Legs (Jolie), a mysterious drifter who's ludicrously mistaken for a boy (no one would mistake Angelina Jolie for a boy). Her role is rather similar to Terence Stamp's in Pasolini's Teorema; her mysterious facade serves as the catalyst for the actions of the girls around her. When we find out her true origins, not only does the film lose any intellectual curiosity about her character but also allows for her to prove that her strong feminism is just that of a sociopath. I guess we were always right: girls can only stand up for themselves if they're crazy.

If you really care, the cast also includes Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, Jolie's ex-girlfriend Jenny Shimzu, Twin Peaks' Richard Beymer, and Kathleen Turner's doppelganger, Cathy Moriarity.

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