Word: hollywoodism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Vanna Cairns, dean of juniors and seniors at Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood, Calif., agreed that the change was for the better...
With the release of Crossroads, Hollywood joins MTV, radio stations and the magazine industry in surrendering to this pop-cultural juggernaut: all Britney, all the time. The image of the 20-year-old's faux-sexy, Barbiefied prettiness is as pervasive a presence in American homes as the Pope's used to be in Italian ones. Now Spears joins Mandy Moore, in the surprise hit A Walk to Remember, and Aaliyah, in Queen of the Damned--the film the R.-and-B. star made just before her death--in a trifecta of teen queens turned screen queens. Girl power...
Three movies with pop-star leads could give some fizz to the current lackluster release schedule. On Hollywood's calendar, January and February are the Dumpster months; it's where to put films that are not for critics, Academy members or people over 15. Or, in this case of the Britney and Mandy movies, guys. Crossroads and A Walk to Remember are old-fashioned chick flicks: one a gal-bonding movie, the other a love story very much like Love Story. Way back, these were prominent genres, giving juicy roles to a galaxy of female stars. Now women's pictures...
Girl movies go against the grain of the recent Hollywood norm, which is that guys rule. To synopsize the prevailing wisdom: movies are about revenge; TV is about reconciliation. Reconciliation is also the theme of the typical girl movie; it traces parallel paths of self-discovery and fence mending. (A Walk to Remember and Crossroads have about a dozen of these I-forgive-you-oh-no-let-me-forgive-you-first scenes.) Audiences trained to expect a climax of bloody or comic revenge have to settle for hugs and smiles and maybe a tear. To enjoy these films...
...inevitable big kiss is remarkably chaste; no one has sex with a dessert. But not every teen film has to be American Pie; now and then Hollywood can serve puff pastry, and this one is on the tasty side. Moore, who went attractively brunet for the role, delicately shows Jamie's roiling emotions. When pop-star status deserts her, she might become a movie star, or something more precious: a fine actress...