Expression of the day: Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
I can't recall whether I have ever heard this expression before, but I doubt I'll forget it now. 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl', a term coined by Nathan Rabin a few years ago after seeing Natalie Portman in Garden State (2004) and Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown (2005), popped up twice in my news feed this morning. First, Christopher Campbell looked at how Zooey Deschanel, who I adore, has come to embody this character type; he then listed ten MPDGs who were not played by Deschanel but, in his opinion, should have been (including, yes, the Portman character in Garden State and the Dunst character in Elizabethtown). And then, Glenn Kenny praised the Kristen Stewart character in Adventureland for not being the MPDG that she could oh-so-easily have been. If a third person had used the term this morning, we'd officially have a trend on our hands, but for now, these two citations will have to do.
posted by Peter T Chattaway at 6:16 PM
1 Comments:
I meant to post on this a long time ago, but forgot. I love the expression Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I've been noticing this trend in Indie films. Have you seen "Flakes?" I think that's what it is called. About a guy who owns a restaurant that sells cereal. Zooey plays yet another MPDG. But she's so cute as one.
Here's a question for you(you don't have to answer, I'm just wondering aloud). Why is it always teeny tiny girls that get to play this role. Why can I not imagine a more "robust" person successfully carrying off this type of personality. Why is it cute when a skinny person looks artsy and dares to be different and kind of sad when a not skinny person wears the same thing-like they are trying to be an MPDG, but they're really trying too hard. Or is it just me? I think I should go to bed now. Thanks for letting me ramble.
Post a Comment
<< Home