So this is a bit late as this movie’s been out for quite a while already, but I get to the movies when I can!

Overall Score: A-

What’s it About?:
A recent Oberlin lit grad (and virgin) has to take a job at a crummy amusement park in his hometown after his plans to visit Europe fall through. Grimy suburban summer sulking ensues.

MPAA Rating:
R, apparently. There’s lots of drugs and off-screen sex but it didn’t actually strike me as R-material, but what do I know.

What’s it’s Bechdel Test Score:
99%! Almost a pass. I am not going to give it the full 100% because the one or two times when women are talking to each other (about something other than a man, which is what a film needs to get 100%), are incredibly brief. And it’s not like this film has groundbreaking female characters or anything – it’s pretty much more of the same.

What about minorities?:
Basically all the speaking characters are white (or Jewish) – I thought Margarita Levieva’s character Lisa P looked sort of “ethnic” the way they sometimes make characters look “ethnic” (whatever that actually is), and she herself is a Russian-born Jew, which is pretty interesting. But  her character’s ethnicity was never brought up, and she had a black friend who was seen a lot but never said anything, which annoyed me. At this point in my life I find silent tokens worse than nothing at all. There was a smattering of colour in the background, but I find it hard to believe that a Pittsburgh amusement park in the 1980s would be predominantly staffed by overqualified white kids. (But maybe I am just ignorant about Pittsburgh. I am told that this portrayal is accurate.) But still, F for failure because tokens aren’t cutting it.

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Went to a free screening of the new Seth Rogen movie Observe and Report this fine evening.

Overall Score: C.

What’s it about?:

A mall security guard tries to catch a flasher, attempts to become a real cop and get his life together.

MPAA Rating: R. This probably won’t help it. A lot of the stuff that made it R-rated was unnecessary.

What’s it’s Bechdel Test score?:

33.3%. Failure. There are several women with speaking roles, two of which are pretty prominent characters (three if you count the mother/Mentor), but they only speak to Ronnie.

What about minorities?:

There are several non-white speaking roles, about three which are pretty important to the story. The background mall population is as diverse as you would expect the mall of Anytown, USA to be, and one of the non-white characters gets what I thought was the funniest scene in the movie. Not great, but an unexpected pleasantry.

So…

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