Bridesmaids

  Bridesmaids

The movie Bridesmaids by Paul Fieg scored a B (7 points) on the Rep Test. This was no surprise, as the movies title informs us that it will be a movie that has something to do with a woman, as only women can be bridesmaids. We meet our protagonist, Annie, a young woman struggling to get her life together. She has alot going on, her bakery is failing, she has little to no money and is basically the side chick of her boyfriend Ted. The movies plot is based around Annie and her best friend Lillian who is getting married. Annie is asked to be a bridesmaid and even the maid of honor at Lillians wedding, something she was very happy to be apart of, but theres a catch. Lillian has a new best friend named Helen, Helen seems to be a perfect person who does it all, smart, caring (for Lillian) and beautiful. Annie and Helen dont get along, Annie envies Lillian and Helen's friendship and they begin fighting over who will be Lillians best friend. They undermine eachother and do what ever they can to one up eachother. My favorite example of them trying to out due eachotheris at Lillians engagement party when they were giving Lillian a toast. There was an epic and hilarious battle between Annie and Helen on who would have the last word, they went back and forth multiple times and finally ended with an awkward song they sang to Lillian. This scene at the engagement party proved that there are scenes that revolve around something other than a man. Another scene that checks posoive for the bechdel test is when Annie and Helen meet for the first time. They meet through Lillian and share their backgrounds on how they met Lillian. This scene involved not two but three women, who are represented for something other than a males gaze, but for their friend Lillians gaze. One area that was questionable when analyzing for the rep test was its involvement with men. We do see a character named officer Rhodes interact with Annie in a non care giving or spousal matter. This was when he was trying to cheer Annie up after she had been struggling with her efforts to win over Lillian and get her life in control. We see him being a friend and looking out for her, without making a move. Where this gets sticky in concerns to the Rep Test is when we see later in the movie that their relationship becomes more flirtatious and eventually they hook up, with would go as a no for the Rep test concerns. Another area where this movie passes for the Rep test is in the area of Women with speaking roles, with diverse body types. As we do see characters such as Annie and Helen who are your typical skinny, colorful, red carpet esque looking women. We also see characters like Lillian who has a darker skin complexion and Megan who is more curved in her physique. The film was written by two women, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. This passes for the Rep test even though it was oddly enough directed by a male, in Paul Fieg. In my opinion I do believe the Rep Test is a fair and successful way to grade Movies by their representation of diversity on screen and behind the scenes. The grading format covers all types of diverse checkmarks. From Women involvement and motives, Male involvement and motives, Race, Ethnicity and culture, LGBT community and even people with disabilities, which is very rare in Hollywood. I would also give this movie a B on the Rep Test for a few reasons. #1 is its emphasis on women and dominance of Women in the film. Its stars are all Women and they have many speaking parts with each other, which also are not revolving around men. Reason #2 is its lack of involvement with men in the movie. The movie only has a handful of men in the movie and none of them are really main characters, the only debatable one would be officer Rhodes. My thirds reason for why this movie deserves a B for the Rep test is the fact that the film was written by a woman. This serves a huge role in the authenticity and inner workings of relationships and feelings women may have for each other, that only a woman writer would be able to compose, in my opinion. The only place where I feel the rep test could improve is its checkpoint for glorifying violent men. By no means to I see innocence in violent men, but I do believe that it is unfair to grade movies on this category. I believe this is unfair because there is so much of a market and demand for violence in Hollywood, and we must remember that these are movies, not real life and it is up to the viewer to see it as that or not.