Friends With Benefits

[rsadelle]

I loved Friends With Benefits. It's a movie about people who have sex and then fall in love, which is totally a story I love. It's also by the guy who made Easy A, and like Easy A, I laughed all the way through it, except for the parts where I cried.

There are two things that make it very, very interesting as a mainstream movie:

First, the sex. There's a lot of it, and for the characters, part of what just sex means is that they don't have to engage in their usual patterns. Specifically, they can give directions to get what they want - and that goes for both of them. Yes, that's right, a woman in a mainstream movie gets to direct her own sex life for her own pleasure without ever being slut shamed for it. How often do you see that?

Secondly, one of the themes of the movie is that love should be a partnership, that happily ever after isn't being swept off your feet - although that can be fun - but walking through life together. In case you haven't figured it out from reading my LJ, that is exactly my belief, and you don't see it enough in the standard romance narrative.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes to the first part--and can I just say, whenever I see men performing oral sex on women in movies, it makes me happy, because it is so damn uncommon. Though I did think it was a little sad that it was suggested that only because they weren't trying to impress each other that they were able to ask for exactly what they wanted in bed.

I didn't remember it was by the guy who did Easy A, which is definitely my other recent favorite romcom, though maybe I should have guessed that given the cameo by Emma Stone and the bigger role of Patricia Clarkson. But now that he's two for two, I'm definitely going to be seeing all his movies. (It's Will Gluck, since I just looked him up on imdb).

[rsadelle]

I think it's a sad commentary on the world when the only way they could be honest was when they weren't trying to impress each other, but I liked the way the movie handled it - the sex worked for them, and part of that was that they were honest about it.

He also made the Danneel cheerleading movie I'm now really sorry we never saw. I'm hoping that if he's jumping age groups with his movies about women and sex, the next one actually stars Patricia Clarkson as the woman.

[idahophoenix.livejournal.com]

Totally agree. Lived it. Plus bonus JTs ass ;)

[idahophoenix.livejournal.com]

Make that "loved" it--definitely haven't lived it. I especially agree with your comments about, whoa, actual communication during sex. What a fuckin' radical concept (or radical fucking concept.) The only other place I've seen that at all is in The Kids Are All Right--but that was played for laughs and really kind of perpetrated that whole lesbian bed-death myth. As you and I have discussed before, the negotiation aroud sex can be really erotic and interesting--and it's part of what's interesting in a long term relationship. There is so much room for exploration of this in movies. Actually, QAF played a bit with this--but you know, it's kind of inevitable because men are actually allowed to ask for what they want--unlike women, who are generally portrayed as overly demanding if they ask for what they want (you know, all those scenes of poor exhausted men actually having to take time to get her off....what a bother....and oh how generous of them....)

[rsadelle]

It was so startling to see! I loved it.

Also, I find your thing for JT's ass really amusing.