Word: villainizing
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...Still, over the fortnight certain favorites have emerged among the critics. Few would be surprised if awards went to the Coen brothers' crime drama No Country for Old Men or the Romanian 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. Either Josh Brolin or Javier Bardem, the hero and villain of No Country, would be a fine choice for Best Actor. Jeon Do-yeon, the addled widow in the Korean Secret Sunshine, and Asia Argento, in An Old Mistress, give just the sort of passionate, showy performances that win Best Actress awards. And there are other films, esteemed by the critics, that...
...indelible villain to give you the nightmare creeps, and a kind of hero - the kind the mass movie audience can root for, to get away with a $2 million satchel, and do it against Everest odds. Joel Coen says this is "about as close as we'll ever get to an action movie." On that count, and for most of the film, No Country delivers, with suspense scenes as taut as they are acutely observed. Moss spends most of his sorry time being chased and shot at: as he tries to ford a river pursued by a varmint posse...
...decades; R ratings for movies with smoking scenes would prevent minors from viewing such classics as Good Night and Good Luck; Casablanca, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s–to name a few–as well as animated movies like 101 Dalmatians in which the villain, Cruella DeVil, smokes incessantly...
...ahead. It goes hand in hand with a vast genre of empowered-princess books (Princess Smartypants, The Princess Knight) for parents who'd rather their daughters dream of soccer balls than royal balls. As for the boys? Jocks have a rough time of it (a handsome prince is the villain of Shrek the Third and the buffoon in N'Ever After), supplanted by gangly emo types--fairyland Adam Brodys. "Charming" is redefined rather than repealed--Justin Timberlake voices Third's cute-boy hero Arthur--but at least that's some progress...
Tweaking fairy tales also allows moviemakers to tell stories about themselves without boring us. The Shrek movies are full of inside jokes (the kingdom of Far Far Away is essentially Beverly Hills; the first villain was widely seen as a stand-in for then Disney chief Michael Eisner). Fairy-tale parodies are safe rebellions, spoofing formulas and feel-good endings while still providing the ride into the sunset that pays the bills. In Happily N'Ever After, a wizard runs a "Department of Fairy-tale-land Security," seeing to it that each story--Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, etc.--hews to the book...