Flick Please, Without the Chick

I thought about writing on this a couple of weeks ago and got sidetracked. The New York Times (via HuffPost) touched on the Chick Flick phenomenon yesterday and gave me a reason to write.

I view the Chick Flick with equal parts dread and curiosity. I enjoy everything from action films to dramas (my only real film aversion being Horror), and from time to time, a "chick movie" will come out that I actually want to see. Whether it be the cast, the plot, or whatever else, something draws me to the film. Lately, it seems my more common reaction to a chick flick trailer is nausea. Every new movie that is made clearly to appeal to the widest possible female audience by feeding us the same drivel as usual (finding the perfect man in really cute shoes and in the same way as at least twenty years of female film characters) just does not hold my attention like it once did--when I was thirteen.

According to the article, studios are starting to sense this fatigue, especially among my demographic (twentysomething women). We are shelling out money for these rote comedies less and less frequently. What gives?

Honestly, it just seems the genre has been done to death. Though NYTimes claims that Knocked Up "probably does not" make the chick flick cut, I disagree and think that opinion only points out what's wrong with the idea of the chick flick in the first place. I love comedies, including the kind of bawdy humor, typically considered "for-the-boys," that Knocked Up made use of. I know a lot of women who loved the film. It blended the romantic story with a hilarious premise and some seriously funny bits, making it a film for everyone. Wedding Crashers created a similar balancing act in 2006 and scored some major box office moolah as a reward.

The time has come to cut the crap and stop expecting traditional chick flicks to really sell. If I see one more melodramatic Nicholas Sparks adaptation I might vomit. Trying to market these films undermines the multiplicity of female personalities and tastes, and also makes men feel embarrassed for enjoying a good romantic storyline. Men and women generally all want to laugh and fall in love, so why the need for films that only cash in on one want or the other? Let's get some more great films out there that appeal to everyone.