Beauty and the Briefcase - Joanne

This week I am reviewing Beauty and the Briefcase, an ABC Family TV movie starring Hilary Duff.  Based on the novel Diary of a Working Girl by Daniella Brodsky, this movie is the very worst kind of chick flick - an unapologetic story of a young woman in search of a man.  Our main character is striving for a career at Cosmopolitan, and her best friend and roommate Joanne (Amanda Walsh) is a freelance fashion photographer who gets her in the door at Cosmo.  Lane doesn't do well in her pitch meeting, until she starts griping about her state of manlessness (ugh!) to the editor who is also currently single.  The two act as though this is the most horrible thing in the world, and this inspires an undercover story for Lane to take on, an unlikely opportunity for an unproven freelance style writer.  Her mission: infiltrate the "business world" and date only "men in suits".  So, she outright lies on her resume, fakes her way through an interview and sabotages the electrical system in order to get into an investment banking firm.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Lynne

This week's analysis is thanks to Newbury Comics, for supplying such a great collection of used DVDs.  I'd never seen Girls Just Want to Have Fun until this weekend, and I love it for all it's campy, predictable teen-dance-movie glory.  Starring a young Sarah Jessica Parker (Janey) and Helen Hunt (Lynne), this movie very well could have set the stage for many of the teen movies in the 90's.  Watching it, I drew parallels to Save the Last Dance, Step Up, Mean Girls, She's All That and Clueless.  Here's a brief summary:


 Janey has just moved to Chicago, where a popular show called Dance TV is filmed.  Janey "loves to dance," as evidenced by her inability to not fidget and demi-plié  whenever she's standing.  At her newest Catholic school, she meets Lynne, and the two are instant friends.  Then they find out about a contest being held to bring two new dancers onto Dance TV.  The two try out, despite Janey's being forbidden to do so by her strict Army dad.  There, she meets her dance partner for the contest, Jeff, a public school boy who is expected to go to trade school.  The two doubt each other but then they fall in love, but then he is threatened by one mean girl's powerful father, and he decides it's not worth competing anymore.  They fall out, but then they are brought back together on the night of the final contest, and of course, they win, but not until after a dance-off after a tie score between them and the mean girl.  It's all very epic, and the dancing is all very 80's.  I kind of wish people still danced like that.  It seems so much more fun than the bump and grind seen at high school dances and night clubs all over.  Throughout the movie, the song that inspired the movie's title is played to a very nice effect - it gives the movie a bit more levity and giddiness that suits the teenage frame of mind.  It also helps to mitigate the effect of the cheesy synth score that swells around the characters at every significant glance or passionate kiss.  Speaking of kisses, Janey is the one to initiate the first kiss with Jeff, which is rather cool - she's a shy, inexperienced good girl, and she is the one to take control of the physical relationship.  I dig it.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days - Jeannie and Michelle

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is the very archetype of a chick flick. Our two unlikely lovers meet, thrown together in unlikely circumstances - they have chemistry, but their conflicting interests threaten to derail both of their careers. Through it all, they reconcile for an implied happily ever after. Our main character Andie (Kate Hudson) is the "how to girl" for Composure magazine. Her love interest is Ben (Matthew McConaughey) "beer and sports guy" at a top ad agency. The two begin dating under equally deceptive circumstances, orchestrated by two ladies with questionable ethics: she is writing an article about the things not to do in a relationship; he has been set up on a bet to make a woman fall in love with him in order to land a large ad account. She drives him batty with clingy, obsessive behavior while he astounds her expectations by sticking with her through the teddy bear invasion, and the nick-naming of his penis, among other things. And while their lies and deceptions set up their courtship for disaster, we all know it will end well for these two pretty people.

Never Been Kissed - Anita

Never Been Kissed is an adult nerd's fantasy - Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) is a clever, socially awkward copy editor at a leading newspaper in Chicago. At 25 she is still scarred from the bullying and humiliation she suffered in high school, so when she is assigned to go undercover to get the inside scoop on teenagers, she is thrilled to get a second chance to be one of the cool kids. Naturally, she struggles with this, and with the help of her brother eventually does 'transition' into the popular crowd... (what's up Jessica Alba, James Franco). I'm sure most of you have seen it. Josie finds herself crushing on her English teacher (Michael Vartan) who is drawn to her as well - uh oh! She's supposed to be 17! And here is the main conflict in this cookie-cutter fantasy. It's a coming-of-age story, only she's not a teenager, but still it culminates at prom where Josie is crowned Prom Queen, and everyone learns a valuable lesson about bullying.