Category Archives: SATC

"Bitchtar": Best Reviews of SATC

Since I am not planning to watch this gross disfigurement of a series I had real affection for, my only enjoyment out of its existence comes from creating a Bad Review Revue*:

Dodai at Jezebel starts us off right with an augmented montage of stills:

Salon gets its digs in twice-over:
1) “This movie might as well be set in Czarist Russia or on the Ice-Diamond Planet of K’Znorg, for all the realism it provides.” — Andrew O’Hehir
2) “It’s like the cinematic progeny of “Not Without My Daughter” and “Arabian Nights” with a makeover by Valentino.” — Wajahat Ali

“The film is an epic eyesore. It’s as if they set out to make a movie that said, ‘You’re right! We are hideous!'” — David Edelstein

“Sex And The City 2 panders to that audience to the point of self-destruction, squandering whatever goodwill the franchise had left after the first so-so movie by plopping its beloved characters into a series of garish vignettes that throw their shallowness into sharp relief. By the point where proud, menopausal jezebel Samantha stands shrieking in the middle of a Middle Eastern marketplace while waving magnum condoms and flipping off hijab-clad Muslims on their way to prayer, it’s inconceivable that anyone would want to even be in the presence of “a Samantha,” much less be one.” — Onion AV Club

“David: What did you think???
Neel: I thought it was perhaps the worst movie I’ve seen in the past three years.
Neel: Like, I am having a hard time thinking of something I hated more. You were sitting next to me. How many times do you think I checked my BlackBerry?
David: My cellphone battery was dead by the end of the movie.
Neel: The over/under would probably start at 50 times?
Neel: It was epically, cosmically, comically bad.
Neel: Actually not comically bad. There was nothing even remotely funny about its badness.”

the Awl

And finally:

“Bitchtar” — NYPost

God, this makes me sad. I have a feeling this one will resist even parody.

*Original credit for which must go to Matthew Baldwin.

Cosmo fever!

After a marketing blitz that began *months* ago and amped up to one weeklong, deafening SQUEEE!, Sex and the City made over $50 million in its first weekend, unseating Indiana Jones — and people are surprised. In fact, Hollywood is still sort of peeking between its fingers, trying to figure out what happened. A NY Mag blogger tries to explain the phenomenon in terms the studios might understand: the women are like superheroes! And doesn’t everyone like superheroes?

Choice quote:

No, not the kinds of female superheroes invented by men for men, vinyl-clad fantasies like Electra or Catwoman. The women of SATC don’t fly or have awesome weapons or even drive very often — but they do save each other from bad guys.

This post helpfully breaks down an opening-night audience with pie charts and quotes.

I may as well admit, I absolutely contributed to the SATC orgy this weekend. Two friends and I structured our Saturday around getting tickets and then seats. I felt rather proud of myself for planning it all out well. Then the movie started, a sentimental moment made my eyes prick, and I realized the one thing I had forgotten: I was PMSing. This means I cry–plentifully, hard, and at the drop of a hat.

I usually deal with this by milking the cow, watching tragic West Wing eps. But there I was, far from my laptop and confronted with four sweet, flawed, familiar characters I had come to care about after years of watching and rewatching them. The tears, they did not stop. The movie is two and a half hours long; I estimate that I cried through at least forty-five minutes of it.

As embarrassing as it is, the weeping did accomplish something: I was too busy emoting to get worked up about the film’s idiotic missteps, like Jennifer Hudson as Magical Negro, the one throwaway Charlotte subplot, and the last line. If you cry through something, you are almost guaranteed to come out feeling fond of it. Then, clearly drunk from dehydration, I bought Seasons 3 & 4 on DVD for a half zillion more femme points and $40. Je ne regrette rien.

chocolates in the bath

It’s Sex and the City weekend! I’ll bet NYT cover girl Emily Gould is thankful that Carrie Bradshaw has taken over to absorb the criticism of everyone who hates materialistic, solipsistic, oversexed women who have been liberated by feminism and the internets. (I did find it sort of ironic that when the worst of the shitstorm was bearing down on her, she was liveblogging a marathon viewing of the series.)

Meanwhile I’ve enjoyed rewatching some of the episodes, remembering both what I like about the series (Miranda!, Steve, latter-day yiddishe Charlotte) and what drives me crazy (Carrie, Big, Samantha when she’s flirting). David Edelstein sums up my ambivalence, as well as how I think I’ll feel about the movie. So does this video, starring and directed by one of my co-workers: