Monday, Mar 28, 2011 13:29 ET What would Sylvia think of Scott Adams?
What to make of Dilbert creator's comments about women and their, um, limitations?
After the Internet blew up trying to get around "Dilbert" creator Scott Adam's peculiar post about the Men's Rights movement (which he took down, but later defended), we reached out to one of our favorite cartoonists, Nicole Hollander, of "Sylvia" fame. She replied with a note to Adams himself, and a few pertinent strips from the Sylvia archives. (You can read Adams' deleted post here .)
A heartfelt letter from one cartoonist to another:
Oh, Scott, how I envy your upper-body strength, which allows you to open a pickle jar lid with ease instead of using my method of banging it against the kitchen counter and then eating around the broken glass. Scott, when you get pregnant, I'm sure you won't let family obligations interfere with your drive to succeed the way women do. And don't worry about breast milk unless you're some kind of a fanatic who insists on breast milk; formula will be fine.
But I'm curious, Scott, about those really important issues you're saving yourself for, the ones you might neglect if you were to spend time answering any fool thing women come up with. Is our whining about earning less than men for the same job preventing you from trying to curtail the right-wing juggernaut from taking this country back to some fantasy perfect 1950s time? Because if you're working on that, I'm completely fine with earning only 80 cents for every dollar you do, I'll let you order first at any restaurant and I'll even open the door for you. But I can't promise not to lose my grip and slam it on your fingers.
Monday, Mar 21, 2011 11:22 ET "Super" and the rise of the indie masked crusader
Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page star in this "Juno"-meets-"Kickass" hipster flick. Where's Batman when you need him?
Looking at the trailer for "Super," you might be confused into thinking you were watching Diablo Cody's attempt at an action movie. After all, she's already tackled the indie family flick ("Juno") and the indie horror flick ("Jennifer's Body), so an indie vigilante film featuring a lot of primary colors and sassy one-liners would fit into the Academy Award winner's oeuvre. But you'd be wrong.
"Super" is actually a film by James Gunn, who directed the funny horror flick "Slither." The reason it looks familiar might have less to do with the movie starring two of "Juno's" co-stars, Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page, and more to do with the fact that, well, we've seen this before. Or something like this.
Last year's "Kick-Ass" introduced the idea of hipster heroes with no discernible powers into the mainstream movie lexicon, and this winter's "Green Hornet" had Judd Apatow prodigy Seth Rogen slimmed down and killing off bad-guys with his usual stoner-quips. "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" took the meek Michael Cera and turned his life into a human video game in which he defeated his love's seven evil ex-girlfriends, while Joss Whedon's successful web-series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" introduced us to an even novel-er concept: a hipster supervillain. And while America is breathlessly awaiting the arrival of our new (British) Superman , an X-Men origins film , and the third " Dark Knight " sequel, maybe these unlikely, slovenly heroes are the necessary antidotes to the dark and gritty reboots of childhood comics.
But the problem with "Super" is that it looks too familiar: a mash-up of "Kick-Ass" and "Juno" that comes too soon after both these films to be nostalgic. How many movies can have the same premise of a dorky guy (or girl) with no powers to call their own deciding to clean up the streets and get the girl (or guy) of their dreams? (Wasn't "Spider-Man" enough?)
Though "Super" looks fun, and Gunn is a talented writer and director, the whole point of a non-super super hero was that its originality. Four or five films later, and this concept becomes as stale and annoying as hipsters themselves.
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