This was the most recent book club entry in the Cannonball Book Club, where the theme was movie related non-fiction. It wasn’t the book I voted for, but book clubs are all about expanding ones horizons and reading things you wouldn’t necessarily pick yourself, so I downloaded it from the library and started reading. Sadly, on the day of the actual book club discussion, I was feeling unwell, and not really able to take part as much as I would have liked. Of course, now it’s been over a month since I finished the book, and while I kept thinking I should take notes to remember my opinions, that didn’t really happen. So this review is going to be rather rambling, as I try to articulate what I thought and felt while reading it.
The first essay, about Dirty Dancing and sexuality on film, especially that of women, was really fascinating to me. While I straight up disagree with Freeman on a lot of points she makes in the book, it was really interesting to read about this movie (a film I only saw when I was closer to twenty than in my teens, and therefore never really saw the swoon-worthiness of the film, unlike many of my contemporaries). Having read Freeman’s essay, I’d like to rewatch the movie, looking at its portrayal of female agency and the like. Freeman makes several points in the book in various essays about how “women’s movies” don’t really get made anymore, and I sadly think she’s right. Unless movies can appeal to a wide range of demographics, they are unlikely to be greenlit now.
Full review on my blog.
I also won’t be revisiting this one, but disagreeing with Freeman with other people who have read the book continues to be entertaining.
:)