chris winters

With stereotypes so prevalent in movies, I was thinking of what I considered some of the most accurate and astute characters representing female and male psyches out there. Some I came up with would be.

WOMAN
Woman have a long tradition of sexism in Hollywood, but they also have a stronger unified voice that communicates many of the issues they face.
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1) Mean girls -a bit of a farce, but there is refreshing truth there as well.

2) The Good Girl -nice, nuanced portrayal of a woman stuck in a dead end life.

3) Sex and the City -a series, sometimes over the top and shrill, but very well done and astute.

4) Any series by Zwick and co...I.e. My So Called Life, and Once and Again, ThirtySomthing. All amazingly well written.

5) Thirteen -gritty and shocking portrayal of girls entering adolescent.

MEN
Men are difficult to portray accurately. We still suffer many societal stereotypes and social pressures, yet lack a consolidated modern social movement to communicate the prejudices. Men do Benefit from a history of largely monopolizing the main perspective in movies and art.
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1) In the company of men -touches on some very accurate aspects of the male psyche despite going a bit over the top. The frustration of the "nebish" man over the woman choosing the sociopathic bully over him, despite the bullies obvious misogynistic behavior, as well as some of the dialogue, rings very true.

2) Some aspects of Sideways, though it is a touch romanticized. About Schmidt is also solid, showing accurate ennui and listlessness from the male perspective.

3) Much of Woody Allen is very astute, but it can often sacrifice honesty for the sake of comedy.

4) perhaps Punch Drunk Love. A bit of a fairytale, but some nice subtle work there.

Movies are like books, except you can\'t set your\' drink on them, well.. unless its a DVD...oh nevermind

Ernest Rister

MEN
Billy Zane in Titanic
Chris Sarandon in The Princess Bride
Daffy Duck in Ali Baba Bunny


WOMEN
Shelley Winters in Pete's Dragon
Adrianne Barbeau in Creepshow ("The Crate")
Prince John in Disney's Robin Hood

chris winters

ah yes...sarcasm....

Movies are like books, except you can\'t set your\' drink on them, well.. unless its a DVD...oh nevermind

Stevan Lay

Chuck Mayer

In seriousness...anything by Cameron Crowe, for both.

Nails it,
Chuck

Holadem

Two can play that game

--
H

DeeF

Wait, you're asking for examples of the most nuanced stereotypes?

The mind... boggles.

chris winters

no, the most well written characters. Nuanced, well written, chracters that represent the subtleties of their gender....sigh...

Movies are like books, except you can\'t set your\' drink on them, well.. unless its a DVD...oh nevermind

Michael Elliott

I'd say various Woody Allen films.

IMDB Reviews

DeeF

Hamlet
Blanche Dubois

Patrick H.

In all seriousness, the strongest female character I can think of is Ripley from the first two Alien films (I'm not a fan of the other two and where they took her). One tough persona, but her motivations are always distinctly female. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum are the romantic, fanciful adventures of Amelie.

On the masculine side of things, Citizen Kane I think has a lot to say about the male persona. Some war movies also shine a lot of insight there, with perhaps Saving Private Ryan being the standout.

Lew Crippen

An interesting choice, especially as Ripley was written as a male. When the casting choice was made, the decision was made (wisely in my opinion) to not rewrite at all.

As far as realistic male and female roles go, there are many. Pick almost any film by Yasujiro Ozu or Abbas Kiarostami, the Apu Trilogy of Satyajit Ray, many of the films of Akira Kurosawa such as Ikiru and lots of the Italian neo-realism movies like The Bicycle Thief.

I was originally thinking of Citizen Kane, but since Patrick beat me to it, I chose some non-American films.

¡Time is not my master!