Maybe I’ve mentioned this before — I am prone to repeating myself — but something seems off with Jennifer Lawrence. She seems a bit forlorn, a bit…sad. She doesn’t seem to come across as the happy-go-lucky, chipper person that she was back in the day.
JLaw
I suppose you could rack it up to her being older, more mature and a mom now. But, just on casual examination, it seems like it might be deeper and more existential than that.
The Alison Brie vehicle “Somebody I Used To Know” once was just the type of movie that I would really love. It’s the type of movie that would have been a Blockbuster staple. It’s got one of my favorite actresses in it and, apparently, enough T&A to placate my inner horndog. (I only say that because I’ve just begun to struggle to watch the movie and don’t know much about what actually goes on.)
Several things are at play.
One is, I’m older and my standards have gone up to the point that I struggle, I STRUGGLE to watch ANY movie all the way through. I did manage to watch Barbie and Oppenheimer all the way through, but that is the exception to the rule.
Also, as someone who has been fixated on storytelling for much of my life and especially now after years of developing and writing a novel….I just grow restless at a movie that obviously was produced by Brie and as, such, she is willing to be a bit more provocative to try to draw in viewers.
This is the same dynamic as Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings. Both of these movies would have been HUGE in the 1980s or 1990s. People are so dumb and horny that just the idea of either one of these babes showing some skin would have been enough to get people renting. They wouldn’t know, of course, that as producers of these movies, both women had some skin in the game — no pun intended — to make sure that happened by doing some gratuitous T&A.
It is a testament to how The World Really Works that the older women get in Hollywood, the more likely they are to become producers and, as such, whatever concerns they may have had about showing skin in the past seem rather quaint.
Of course there are some women, like Jessica Alba, who remain too modest to show ANY skin to the point that they would rather use a body double or have their clothes digitally removed. Sigh. Ugh. Maybe I’m a dirty old man, but I find something about them being so coy on that front a bit grating. Hollywood is a biz-ness and “double dees, double dees” as the old SNL skit says.
But, whatever, I’m just a lowly middle age man. I don’t have any right to have any qualms on that front.
Anyway. Back to smoking hot Alison Brie. At the moment, I’ve not even gotten to the inciting incident of the movie yet and I pretty much know everything that is going to happen. The thing about Brie is she is so funny in how she toys with the audience in the roles that she takes. One moment she’s a demure yet coquettish community school student, the next she’s a 60s housewife.
I’ve vowed that I’m going to read more and watch more in 2024. As such, I hope to watch Somebody I Used To Know all the
I’m a long-term fan of Jennifer Lawrence. She continues to be a very interesting person. One thing I’ve noticed about JLaw is she is your stereotypical hot girl who has female friends who are less attractive but are funny. If it’s not Amy Schumer, then JLaw is hanging out with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. (Though I do think Waller-Bridge is hot, in her own way.)
I suspect when JLaw was younger and single, dudes had to engage in Game Theory to figure out how to get her number while keeping her more homely friend occupied.
Another thing about JLaw is what the fuck was up with her and Harvey Weinstein back in the day. Though she denies it now, it definitely SEEMS as though she slept with that ogre in a quest to help her career. He certainly wanted everyone to think it happened.
The only reason why I even bring it up is if we knew one way or another what happened between the two of them, then we would have a far better sense of who JLaw is as person. Which, of course, is why we’ll probably never know. At least, not for a few decades.
But I really do like JLaw. She’s got a great personality and she seems to be settling into having something akin to a Meryl Streep career where she wins the occasional Oscar now and again.
The thing about Hollywood is there’s what REALLY goes on and then what we Poor rubes project onto the dynamics of the industry. Way too many woke people are aghast that there is any nudity or sex in a movie when for some Hollywood starlets a little T&A is thought of as a great way to further their career.
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 01: Jennifer Lawrence attends a photocall for “Passengers” at Claridge’s Hotel on December 1, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
Not all, but some.
It gets a lot more complicated when you factor in how gross and creepy way too many major players in Hollywood are.
Anyway, this bring us to Jennifer Lawrence. I really like her a lot and I am looking forward to her new movie No Hard Feelings. And, yet, there are some people — especially on Tik-Tok — who think the movie is “cringe.” But it does make you wonder why she’s veered from making high profile “prestige” movies to raunchy 80s style comedies.
It’s very curious.
I say more power to her, but the proof is in the pudding. If she only did the movie because her career is in the dumps, that’s a lot different than if she did it of her own volition. She is — relative to Hollywood standards — getting “older” and she’s a new mom so, I dunno.
I really need to shut up about any potential movie adaptation of a novel that’s not even finish yet. But, lulz, I’m a nobody and the only people who read this blog are stalkers or people who stumble across it for this or that reason.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
It’s the murder of a Fleabag-type character that ultimately serves as the catalyst for the dramatic transformation of small Southern town I’ve come up with. I’ve mentioned that Bella Thorne would be ideal to play the character in any movie potential movie adaptation, but I have a huge ego and, as such, I realize what I really what is Jennifer Lawrence to play a person that Bella Thorne could play just by being herself.
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 01: Jennifer Lawrence attends a photocall for “Passengers” at Claridge’s Hotel on December 1, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
The character is inspired — even based on — the late Annie Shapiro who was, in her own way, at least somewhat like Fleabag. (This is really stretching it, but Fleabag is a character everyone understands when you invoke it and as such, that’s why I’m using it.)
The late Annie Shapiro. RIP.
Annie Shapiro was a very, very unique person. And I’ve been trying to tell our story in the context of ROKon Magazine in Seoul for the better part of 20 years now. But I’ve finally accepted that it’s just not going to happen. So, instead, I’m using things I know to be true and pouring them into a five novel series set around something else I know to be true — what it’s like to live in a small Southern town.
So, I guess what I’m saying is, in my mind, the character whose murder changes everything is a mixture of Annie Shapiro fused with Fleabag as played by Jennifer Lawrence if she was channeling Bella Thorne.
For some reason, I find myself getting pushed videos on Tik-Tok that seem to think that America’s Sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence is either A Girl Boss or some sort of evil, power hungry woman who, in the past, was willing to bang anyone necessary to get what she wanted.
This is one of those times when I roll my eyes and think, “Why is everything so dumb?”
One of the things frequently brought up about JLaw is it’s rumored that she fooled around with Harvey Weinstein in some capacity. I dunno. Given what a complete fucking asshole he is, he would be just the type of guy who bang someone as smoking hot as JLaw then blab about it.
I find this whole thing dumb because the people talking about all of this seem oblivious to how Hollywood really works. You have a bunch of damaged hot people with huge amounts of money and ambition in one community who are paid to be fake. What else do you expect is going to happen?
I really like JLaw, or at least want to like JLaw, and given all she’s gone through, she is a very empathetic figure. If she feels as though, in the past, there was a very specific way to get what she wanted, then, lulz. Remember, even Grace Kelly was a freak back in the 1950s. (That one still rattles my cage.)
Anyway, I hope married life suits you well, JLaw. You’ll make a great mom.
The thing about the Escape From movies is they are much beloved, but they’re also ripe for a reboot. As I recall, at the end of Escape From LA, the world came to an end, so, lulz.
So, I would take the general conceit of the movies and make the first movie in a new franchise — staring Jennifer Lawrence as a female Snake Plissken, natch — would be Escape From America. In this movie, Trump finally got his fucking wall — a real wall, not the dumb fence he wanted to call a wall — and our intrepid protagonist has to escape from the United States by getting over the wall.
It would be so cool!
You could have all the guards and maintenance crew of the wall be Mexican. You could root around in the practical implications of such a fucking dumb idea becoming reality.
The thing about Hollywood types is they both live in the aether and also (probably) are obsessed with what people say about them online. I’m a nobody living in the middle of nowhere…but I am writing a novel. And (I think) it’s a good one.
I sometimes for shits and giggles find myself thinking about who might play this or that character in the move adaptation of the novel if somehow, someway miraculously sell it. I really like Jennifer Lawrence, so I mull which character she could play. Honestly, I can’t really think of any character off the top of my head, but given the point of the novel I could definitely see her wanting to, like, uhhhh, produce it.
I’m not going to say I’m any type of “feminist ally” because, well, I’m of the opinion that if a dude says that about himself he’s just looking to get laid. But I have been inspired by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements to write a novel that pretty much roots around in those concepts as part of its DNA. It also has sex and tech stuff that goes boom so dudes will like it, too. (Hopefully.)
But absolutely no one listens to me. No one. But if someone, somewhere, would listen to me — Jennifer Lawrence? — they would realize there is a great, great sci-fi franchise just waiting to be exploited by Hollywood: Dr. Susan Calvin.
It kind of blows my mind that no one has noticed what a great character she is — and there are all these short stories to be adapted into movies! She appears briefly in the dumb I, Robot movie with Will Smith, but that’s not the character in the short stories at all.
In the short stories, she’s a tough as nails robot psychologist who goes through a series of adventures. All Hollywood would have to do is dust these adventures off, update them, do cool stuff with them and, there you go.
And, yet, again let me say — no one listens to me. Ever.
I’m using Alexa Chung’s appearance, public persona (and style) as something of a cheatsheet for my novel’s female romantic lead. In fact, whenever I can’t think of an aspect of the character off the top of my head, I pull up Wikipedia or YouTube and see what Alexa Chung does.
It really helps to have a public figure to inspire you when it comes to such an important character. The character, though, isn’t NOT “based” on her, so much as it is simply influenced and inspired by her. The character is an amalgam of several women I’m fond of, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jennifer Lawrence, Liz Plank, Erin Ryan, Jodi Kantor and the odd woman I’ve dated here and there.
I finally understand what an author means when they say one of their characters is “an amalgam.” I really need to do a formal personality profile of several characters, but I find actually writing the character out in the copy is more in line with my personal needs as a writer.
I will note, however, that my general fondness for developing female characters is making me self-conscious about not having enough MALE characters. But I think I’ve fixed that. I’m going to have to break the rule about only six POV characters to do it, but lulz.
Let me be clear — I really fucking hate it when people preen about who they think should play this or that character in their “WIP.” I just want to scream at them to shut up and actually write the novel. But, here I am, doing that very same thing.
My only excuse, I guess, is I’m 100% extroverted and I can’t help myself. And, also, I’m not really being aggressive about it. It’s just something to write about while in thinking in the back of my mind about an important first draft scene I’m working on at the moment.
Chris Pratt is who I imagine my hero looking like right now. He’s the right age and fits the phenotype of the inspiration for the hero. It is interesting how men who are in the 40 to 60 age range can play just “the Hero” while the female romantic lead usually has to be played by a far younger woman. I think that says more about Hollywood as an industry and the power male actors accrue as they grow older. (And the fact that the more powerful an actor becomes, the more he seeks out all the younger hot actress to play against so he can bang them.)
What’s interesting is I could see Chris Pratt play my Hero and Jennifer Lawrence play the Female Romantic Lead. (Or maybe Phoebe Waller-Bridge.) Those two have worked together in a movie. I really need to get back to writing the first draft of the novel. But, for some reason, I just feel the need to mention that on this blog that no one reads.
Anyway, like I said, I really fucking hate when other aspiring novelists do exactly what I’m doing. It’s so cloy and preening. It fucking drives me up the wall.
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