the groundhog day project

Stephanie Abraham explains (specifically coming back to Wonder Woman but the same applies for any film labeled as "feminist") in blog at Ms. : Now that the female superhero has finally made it to the big screen, critics and audiences are asking whether Wonder Woman is a feminist film. But the question itself is problematic. For one, it makes "feminist" a subjective adjective. Also, it suggests there's a monolithic Feminism, when really [the] feminist movement encompasses numerous feminisms in motion. The more inciting questions are: How does this film represent Wonder Woman? What's missing from this representation? And, what does it say about this particular moment in time? I especially love that last question. It's why every film can be taken as political. Every film is of its time, regardless of its subject matter, regardless of its setting. Every film can tell you something about the particular moment in time in which is was made, in which is was...

"If you ever hang out with 30-something pagans, you will quickly learn that The Craft (1996) was a lightbulb moment for many of them," begins a piece by Ginnis Tonik at Women Write about Comics . Maybe--flashback to yesterday --the film isn't quite feminist, but it make sense that it would have drawn a lot of young girls looking to express themselves, express their power, to witchcraft. To something other than the usual patriarchal religions that have ruled so much of the world and its history. I mean, it's no accident that the film makes so many clear and deliberate references to Christianity. From the snake presented to Sarah (Robin Tunney) early in the film to Nancy (Fairuza Balk) walking on water. Hell, I could easily get a good Cinematic Christ-Figuring going with this film and Sarah would score seriously high. But, I'm interested in the film on both a far more superficial level and on a deeper level than cheap (and rather ironic) Christian symbolism. Des...

Michelle Lopes at Blumhouse calls The Craft a film that instead of having "feminism [as] a gimme... Internalizes its misogyny like a teenager collapsing around her own angst." But, think about the subjective/objective experience of the film that I was talking about yesterday . Like Lisa Lagace at Marie Claire points out: [F]or a teenager in 1996 who was unsure of her place in the world, it appealed on a deeply powerful level. The Craft celebrated the unconventional girl. It encouraged teens to shake off the non-stop, crippling fear of not fitting in, and embrace the power of being different. And it hit theaters during a time when cinema just wasn't advocating female outsiderdom. Nitpick: the very same May weekend that The Craft hit theaters, so did Barb Wire , which wasn't very good but absolutely positioned a woman in a position of power, and I Shot Andy Warhol , not exactly a very positive vision of a woman still centered on one. Of course, then. You also ha...