LIFE

Screen: Women are getting it done

Todd Hill
Reporter
Anna Kendrick as Beca, in a scene from the film “Pitch Perfect 2.”

For at least the second straight year, the alarming disparity between career opportunities for men and women in Hollywood dominated the discussions at the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France.

Talk, of course, is cheap, but if talking about something incessantly can eventually lead to concrete action on a problem that needs fixing, then talk away. Some of the most recent chatter about giving women a larger presence in film, however, has gotten a little weird.

In Cannes this month to promote her new film "Youth," a youthful Jane Fonda, 77 going on 57, said the movie industry needs to find a way to assure that women, who make up 51 percent of the population, are adequately represented in 51 percent of the movies that are made.

If quotas have ever worked then I must have missed it. Instituting them on the basis of gender in Hollywood would be laughably preposterous. Fonda makes a valid point, to be sure. I hope she wasn't actually suggesting quotas, but if she was it wouldn't be the first time she said something preposterous.

And then there was that business about high heels.

The hue and cry began after several middle-aged women were turned away from the Cannes premiere of "Carol," a lesbian romance, for wearing flats.

Actress Emily Blunt called the development "very disappointing, obviously," adding that "everyone should wear flats, to be honest, at the best of times."

I don't know, I guess so, but the fact is the Cannes Film Festival has a dress code when it comes to its red carpet, which it takes very seriously. Women are required to wear heels, men to wear black shoes and tuxedos that must be accompanied by bow ties.

So much for "Shoegate." On one, very basic level, what Cannes is doing is no different than the gas station by the interstate that puts a "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" sign on its door. It's just a whole lot classier.

But such is the sensitivity surrounding gender equality in film right now that misleading dust-ups like "Shoegate" are blown all out of proportion. The same goes for the attention being paid to the casting and storyline in the new movie "Mad Max: Fury Road."

For the record, I've seen the new "Mad Max" flick, a reboot of a post-apocalyptic, intensely nihilistic franchise that last graced theaters in 1985, when Tina Turner sang that "we don't need another hero" in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." Without question, "Fury Road" is one of the best films of this year so far.

I say that with the caveat that "Mad Max: Fury Road" is repeatedly gross, disgusting and repugnant. That's not to suggest that it isn't a quality motion picture, or not exceptionally well made, for it is both.

After sitting through countless superhero movies, and what's worse, Michael Bay's utterly nonsensical "Transformers" films, I found it a distinct pleasure to enjoy an action flick that's logical, easy to follow and an adherent to the laws of physics. "Mad Max: Fury Road" is that movie.

It also relegates the title character, played convincingly by Tom Hardy, to a co-starring role at best. Charlize Theron is arguably the star of the film, as her character, Imperator Furiosa, attempts to escort several female sex slaves to safety. Horror of horrors, there are fully as many prominent women as men in "Mad Max: Fury Road," which some detractors have taken to calling "Mad Maxine" or worse.

Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa in “Mad Max: Fury Road."

George Miller, who helmed the original "Mad Max" pictures and came back to direct and co-write "Fury Road," would appear to be a feminist if this latest effort is any indication. And yet, somehow, he still managed to make one of the most entertaining action movies to come along in a long time.

We may be at the point with this issue where the best thing to do is hail motion pictures that do feature strong women rather than bemoan the lack of them, because they are out there. Last weekend, "Mad Max: Fury Road" came in second at the box office to "Pitch Perfect 2," about a female singing group.

Gosh, what's a young man to do if he wants to go to the movies these days?

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ