You still cling to Sex and the City the way Carrie Bradshaw held on dearly to her brand-new $485 pair of Manolo Blahniks.
Therefore, you can’t possibly like — let alone understand — an American crime saga such as GoodFellas. Because No Boy Movies Allowed!!!!!!
That’s the idiotic conclusion made in a controversial June 11 New York Post article. Writer Kyle Smith argues that women “don’t get” the 1990 Martin Scorsese-directed classic because we’re just not wired to watch mobsters crack a few skulls and then crack a few jokes about it. Unlike the female friends in SATC, “guys hanging out together don’t really like to talk about the women in their lives, because that’s too real. We’d much rather keep the laughs coming — and to endlessly bust each other’s balls.”
There’s more. Smith lumped an entire gender’s opinion together because of an incident in 1991, when his then-girlfriend dismissed the film as a “boy movie.” But his opinions read like something from 1951, as he sniffs that females in the film get pushed to the side because “women are the sensitivity police. They get offended, protest that someone’s not being fair, refuse to laugh at vicious put-downs.” Offscreen, “Women sense that they are irrelevant to this fantasy, and it bothers them."
When it comes to men and women, why do some Dumbfellas resort to ugly stereotyping?
For those out of the cinematic loop, GoodFellas happens to be one of the best movies of all time. Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta, it’s the true tale of how Henry Hill, an ambitious Irish-Italian kid, worked his way up and then down through the New York Mafioso ranks from 1955 to 1980.
(In honor of its 25th anniversary, the film is getting re-released in NYC next week. Jon Stewart also recently interviewed the cast after a special screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. Several sources at said screening confirm that both genders applauded and laughed during Pesci’s Oscar-worthy “Do I Amuse You Like a Clown?” monologue. None of them were bothered.)
I was a smidge too young to see it in the theater back in 1990 (it’s rated-R for a reason), but my siblings and I wore out the VHS tape. As a teen, I wasn’t offended that Wiseguys did drugs or cheated on their wives or busted each other’s balls at the dinner table. Those scenes were — and remain — hilarious! Instead, I was intoxicated by how a man’s thirst for power could disintegrate into madness and despair. Henry’s family? Fuhgeddaboudit. He chose his family and prioritized them over his own. Ultimately, Henry was racked with guilt not from the blood on his hands, but because he betrayed the people closest to him. And for all the testosterone on display, it was Henry's headstrong wife (Lorraine Bracco), who ultimately controlled his fate.
The opus, which flies by at a dizzying breakneck pace, also features a killer rock 'n' roll soundtrack. Even back in the early ‘90s, I was Exhibit A that a teen could like Color Me Badd and Derek & The Dominoes. (Color Me Badd? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?)
I’ve seen GoodFellas dozens of time since the long-forgotten VHS era, and even occasionally grit my teeth and catch the sanitized version on basic cable. Why, the film has even aired on…could it be…Lifetime! It's timeless.
But let’s not make this just about GoodFellas. Why, all of one week ago, Entourage arrived into theaters. I saw every episode on HBO — even when Vince dated a porn star (ugh) — and the film was still derided for being too frat-tastic. As if women aren’t capable of watching Adrian Grenier and Kevin Connolly swear and drink and party. Because, you know, we like going to brunch and sharing and stuff. It’s insulting. Besides, those actors appeared in The Devil Wears Prada and He’s Just Not That Into You, respectively. They’re not exactly De Niro and Pesci, if you catch my drift.
The greatest films have the ability to transcend gender. And to declare that women can’t appreciate a great film is just as condescending as declaring that women can’t be funny. If men could smarten up and stop sending this misogynist message out to the masses…well, that would be just fabulous.
