Going the Distance

It's no secret that I love romantic comedies. I'm pretty sure I've started other blog posts with that exact sentence, so it's also no secret that I know it's not a secret. Ever since I saw the trailer for Going the Distance, I knew I had to see it as soon as possible. Rarely do movies come out that are so made for me.

Firstly and most importantly, I LOVE Drew Barrymore. I love everything about her. Mostly I love that, no matter what movie she's in, it seems like she picked out her own wardrobe. Her clothes are so wacky! She dresses like a five year old whose mother is like, "I'm tired, wear what you want" and so she just piles on the sparkle and camo with stripes or whatever.
All of the other things I love about this movie are summed up really well in Owen Gleiberman's EW review, which you can read here if you so wish. I agreed wholeheartedly with the Gleibs (as I do about half the time) when he wrote this:

Going the Distance is a light and tasty morsel of a romantic comedy in which two smart, funny, and basically sweet people try to conduct a cross-country relationship. The movie, which sounds like it was spun out of an advice column, is very high-concept, except that it has a gently authentic tone, a flavor rooted in its affection for the shrewd innocence of the 1980s. For the first 15 minutes or so, I actually wondered if it was set in the '80s....After two love montages set to the Cure's ''Just Like Heaven'' and the Pretenders' ''Don't Get Me Wrong,'' I began to think: Between this feel-good '80s jukebox and the fact that no one in the film has yet sent a text message, which year is this?...As it turns out, Going the Distance is quite contemporary, but the wistful retro vibe is no accident. The director, Nanette Burstein, is...out to take us back to an earlier vibe — to a time when pop music was optimistic, and so were movie romances. Erin and Garrett don't just fall into glorified lust. They fall in love because they like each other's company.

He's right; this is VERY much like an 80's romantic comedy. The montages are so montage-y it's almost laughable (I mean, they are dancing on a beach!), which I really like. If you're going to do a montage, you might as well go whole-hog and just do it up right. There's no such thing as a subtle montage, anyway.
Going the Distance was also a lot more realistic than most romantic comedies, which is both a pro and a con. H did not like that the movie's humor skewed blue (this movie is like 95% made up of dick jokes) because he thought it seemed out of place in what he called a "chick flick." I didn't agree though, and not just because I don't use the term chick flick (barf, sorry). The characters talked to each other basically like real people talk to each other. My friends and I spend about 50% of our time talking about sex and the other 50% talking about our jobs, and I think that's pretty typical, so I found those relationships to be accurately depicted. The relationship between Justin Long and Drew Barrymore's characters was believable, too, and not just because Justin Long's character reminded me so much of H (without all the womanizing).
I loved this movie. It has some of my favorite romantic comedy conventions (including the whole "How can this person have their brilliant career AND the love of their life??" conundrum) while also being genuinely funny and believable. And I can't leave out the importance of Jason Sudekis, Charlie Day, Jim Gaffigan, and Mike Birbiglia, who all took the movie to the next level (the next level being the funnier one).
And MOST importantly, one of Drew Barrymore's New York friends is played by Natalie Morales, the girl who plays Aziz's girlfriend on Parks and Rec. H tried to tell me I was wrong but I knew I was right. Suck on that.

The Gleibs

The Talented Winfrey Family's favorite movie critic is and will always be Roger Ebert, but Owen Gleiberman is a close second (correct me if I'm wrong, Winfrey). He doesn't have the authority or the generosity of Ebert, nor does he have Ebert's near-lyrical descriptions. But he does know how to turn a phrase, that Gleiberman. As long as you're not asking him to review a horror film or any sort of physical comedy (he hates them, always), he gives every film a fair and thorough look. Including, apparently, music videos, specifically Lady Gaga's Telephone. It's an interesting article even if your interest in Lady Gaga is slight (as is mine). And did you know that The Gleibs was an English major? Strange but true.

I Have Some Problems With Entertainment Weekly

Alex and I have long had a love/hate relationship with Entertainment Weekly. Mostly we feel this ambivalence about head film writer Owen Gleiberman, a.k.a. The Gleibs. He is merciless. He hates everything we love (comedy, horror) and usually only gives As to children's films (except for that time he hated Beverly Hills Chihuahua because it needed "more interesting chihuahuas."). But we still care what he thinks. In that way, he's a lot like an abusive boyfriend. We just keep coming back to him.
But Entertainment Weekly really cheesed me off the last couple of weeks. First, they had an article about how there were so many female directors. Seriously. That was the whole article. Women be directin'! But then, oh then, they dared to publish an article called "Horror Films...(the title is okay so far, in case you were wondering)...and the Women who Love Them!" The article was about, you guessed it, how women like horror films, and how this is so shocking, and what we never expected this it's all so confusing I thought they liked Sex and the City whaaaat? I can't type any verbatim quotes from the article because I already barfed all over it, but I can tell you about it. Here were the people they chose to interview for this really well researched article:
1. Diablo Cody, because she wrote a Megan Fox movie that, honestly, looks a little more action-y than horror-y to me.
2. Vera Farmiga, because she's in the Orphan (ugh) and I guess that qualifies her?
3. Sam Raimi. I love Sam Raimi as much as the next girl (I mean, way more than the next girl), but why did they interview him for this? Because he cast a female lead in his last film? I don't know.

So Diablo Cody did her usual thing (talked about herself whenever she was asked a question), Vera Farmiga gave some psychobabble bullshit answer ("Women are just more visceral and they like the excitement of being scared") and Sam Raimi was like, "Sorry, I'm too busy for this, I have to go direct another good movie."
Here were Entertainment Weekly's two reasons why women go see horror films:
1. There are often female leads, and women like to see other women beat the odds and be the last one standing. And...
2. Because they like to cuddle! With their boyfriends!

No, Entertainment Weekly. Just no. Here's an idea. Stop treating women like they're some sort of alien species. Why are you so surprised that women like horror films? What SHOULD we like? Matthew McCounaghey (whatever) movies only come out so often, okay? Maybe, and I'm sure this is shocking, women like horror films for the same reasons men do. Maybe it's just because they're fun, and because people in general enjoy getting a little rush of adrenaline when they are actually in a completely safe environment. You can try to reason it away with Psych 101 level bullshit all you want, but I like watching scary movies because I LIKE THEM. And as far as the whole cuddling thing goes, H. won't watch scary movies with me so I watch them with Alex (and sometimes Chase). Not a lot of cuddling goes on.
I will continue hating Entertainment Weekly until tomorrow when we get a new issue. I love Entertainment Weekly!