There’s been a recent trend in mainstream cinema that thrusts schlub guys into the spotlight. They’re normal, everyday dudes who drink, smoke pot, look like your neighbor and have lame jobs, if they have jobs at all.
The fad can be traced mostly to one Judd Apatow, a writer turned director turned producer turned famous name who gives away his credibility for free to his friends. His movies have ranged from well-written comedies to directionless, gross-out films (and that’s depending on who you talk to). Apatow has led this trend that has continued all the way up to the recent film “She’s Out of My League.”
Now, Apatow’s loser-hero would be fine to watch if he didn’t remind us every time that, although men can now be overweight and not-so-handsome, they still have to date beautiful, sexy, skinny women.
How many times have we seen this film in the past five years: A loser is the star, and he gets a girl who would be way too hot for him in real life? “Knocked Up,” “Superbad” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” are just some of Apatow’s credits with this phenomenon. And, believe us, it didn’t end with Apatow. It’s actually becoming the mainstream comedy of our generation, or so we’ve been told. Dozens of movies have come out with the same premise.
And the weird thing is, it seems that it took this year’s “She’s Out of My League” for anyone to say, “Hey, maybe we need to discuss exactly how unlikely it would be that a guy who’s a two would end up with a woman who’s a nine.” The only problem here is that’s only one movie that would even admit the unlikelihood.
We know Hollywood has always been sexist, and we understand that, back in the day, even Michelle Pfeiffer was paired with Jack Nicholson. But this recent phenomenon is boggling to us because no one really seems to notice it. Young people have been known to call “Superbad” the “high-school movie of our generation.”
Well, when we went to high school, the cheerleaders didn’t get snuggly with the guys in the A.V. club.
If the standard for attractive men in cinema is changing, then why is the one for women standing still? Don’t get us wrong; if people want to make a movie about the average guy or the sub-average guy, fine. Brad Pitt doesn’t need to grace every screen, and the lack of him wouldn’t tank every film. But don’t cast the anti-Brad with Jessica Alba. The film we’re watching is just the lame fantasy of the average guy, not a movie about him. In our opinion, the fantasy has been filmed so many times now, we’d rather be allowed to see the truth. The Apatow formula attracts a small number of people, and we’re sick of being told these films are for everyone.
We’re not saying only people who look alike should be together. We just want to see changing standards for men reflected in changing standards for women. Enough films with an Amazon being paired with our hero, the manager of a Dairy Queen. Enough movies where romance blossoms between a guy described as a “loveable loser” and a girl called a “bombshell.” Please make us a movie that fights the idea that a guy can be anything, but a woman has to be perfect.
Apatow said in a recent interview, “[The movies] may be my way of saying to every girl who broke up with me, ‘Why’d you do it?’” Truthfully, we don’t really care.
Julia Tilford is an English junior.
