John August

Genres

From Captain Trips to Bowden’s Malady

Genres, Resources

In the spirit of the season, let us say thanks to Wikipedia for this comprehensive [list of fictional diseases](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_diseases).

> This article is a list of fictional diseases — nonexistent, named medical conditions which appear in fiction where they have a major plot or thematic importance. They may be fictional psychological disorders, magical, from mythological or fantasy settings, have evolved naturally, been engineered artificially (most often created as biological weapons), or be any illness that came forth from the (ab)use of technology.

It’s remarkable how many of these are variants on biological-zombie tropes. I particularly liked how Max Brooks set up the pathogen at the heart of his two [zombie books](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307888681/?tag=johnaugustcom-20), which the wiki article summarizes nicely:

> Upon infection, the victim succumbs to bouts of high fevers, hallucinations, headaches, and vomiting spasms, before being officially declared dead a few hours later as the virus replicates through the brain. Approximately twenty-two hours later, the victim’s corpse reanimates as a zombie.

And no, as of this writing I haven’t seen Contagion yet, or the Walking Dead season finale.

(link via [BoingBoing](http://boingboing.net/2011/11/24/fictional-disease.html))

Stay away from this girl

Genres, Rant

Wait, how did I not know the [Manic Pixie Dream Girl](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl) existed as a trope? Nathan Rabin gets credit for first [calling her out](http://origin.avclub.com/articles/the-bataan-death-march-of-whimsy-case-file-1-eliza,15577/):

> [Elizabethtown’s Kirsten] Dunst embodies a character type I like to call The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (see Natalie Portman in Garden State for another prime example).

> The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.

The OnionA.V. Club lists [sixteen examples](http://www.avclub.com/articles/wild-things-16-films-featuring-manic-pixie-dream-g,2407/) and further clarifies just what’s wrong with this archetype:

> Like the Magical Negro, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype is largely defined by secondary status and lack of an inner life. She’s on hand to lift a gloomy male protagonist out of the doldrums, not to pursue her own happiness. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, MPDGs often took the comely form of spacey hippie chicks burdened with getting grim establishment types to kick back and smell the flowers.

She’s simply awful. She’s the [navigable air duct](http://johnaugust.com/2006/air-vents-are-for-air) of female antagonists, something that exists only for cinematic convenience. Let’s stop using her.

Like villains, love interests need to have a plausible reason for why they’re there and what they want. Always ask yourself, “What would this character be doing if the hero never showed up?”

If you can’t answer — or if the answer is boring — you need to go back to the drawing board.

There’s nothing wrong with kooky females, by the way. Anna Faris has made a career of them. But in films like The House Bunny, it’s always clear what she’s after — and it’s never about getting a nice guy to loosen up.

Aline Brosh McKenna and the BlackBerry 3

Genres

NY Times has a nice piece on Aline Brosh McKenna, screenwriter of [“the BlackBerry 3”](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/magazine/if-cinderella-had-a-blackberry.html?_r=1&ref=susandominus&pagewanted=all):

> McKenna’s solution to romantic-comedy fatigue is not to ironize the genre or make fun of its characters’ (and therefore its audience’s) quests for fulfillment, but to give them what they want: a great guy and a great job, a happy family and professional success. In “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” Pierce Brosnan may seem like a straightforward object of desire; in fact, as McKenna sees it, his character is especially seductive in that he alone recognizes the heroine’s talent. “He embodies the work recognition she hasn’t gotten until then,” McKenna said.

Because movie stars and directors are more visible, we rarely look at a screenwriter’s credits as being part of an overall package. It’s nice to see an article paying attention to more than just the movie headed to theaters next month.

McKenna’s produced films are thematically unified in much the way Kevin Smith’s or Woody Allen’s are — with the same type of protagonist answering the same category of question. Regardless of the director, her movies feel like her movies.

In failure, screenwriters are pigeon-holed. In success, they’re branded.

R-rated comedies to the rescue

Film Industry, Genres

Pamela McClintock points out that this summer, R-rated comedies edged out the usually dominant [superhero genre](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-shocker-r-rated-215730):

> Combined, the summer’s five R-rated comedies have grossed $1.05 billion to date, an astounding total for a genre of movies that was considered second-rate only a few years ago.

> That number is slightly ahead of the $1.01 billion earned so far by the usual parade of summer superhero pics — Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger.

True, she’s comparing the totals of five movies against four, but the comedies also cost much less than their superhero brethren. And the usual knock against American comedies — that they don’t travel well overseas — appears to be lessening:

> Bad Teacher and Bridesmaids also are doing well overseas, grossing $71 million and $70.4 million to date (both are still rolling out). Likewise, Horrible Bosses got off to a strong start at the international box office over the weekend of July 22-24, grossing $3.4 million in the U.K.

Now if we can just get some big hit dramas.