Jackie + Lucy = Jucy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Jucy<\/em> is a film that celebrates female friendship. The title comes from the names of the two main characters, Jackie and Lucy, whose (we are told frequently enough to almost be homophobic) platonic<\/em> friendship is so deep that they are almost one person.Female friendship is an admirable topic, and one I am actually somewhat interested in, never having had a BFF myself. I\u2019m a little suspicious, though, about people who make films about their own friendships. They seem to be like people who make art about their own love relationships\u2013always falling prey to the affective fallacy and thinking that if their conversations are so darn interesting to have that must be because they are such interesting people.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not that Jackie and Lucy aren\u2019t interesting or nice people. They are, insofar as twenty-six year old\u2019s working at a video store, putting on plays, and wishing the rest of the world would just \u201cfuck off\u201d can be. If I find them (or the film, which director Louise Alston admitted was autobiographically inspired) a bit pretentious, it is not because their lives are so banal and they don\u2019t know it, but rather because there seems to be an implicit message that their being female elevates their love, work, and family trials to the level of high seriousness. There is lots of easy rapport and witty repartee in the film, and it\u2019s pleasant in a Gilmore Girls<\/em> sort of way, but it doesn\u2019t have much of a perspective beyond \u201cfriendship is good\u201d and \u201cour very special friendship is so very special because it is ours and we are such good friends in the way that only two special lady friends can be.\u201d<\/p>\nSee, I\u2019m two paragraphs into a review, and I\u2019m already annoyed at myself for being more catty towards the film than I actually felt. I like that the film focused on two interesting and normal female characters. I wish there were more films about women and their relationships with each other. Maybe a little more showing and a little less telling?<\/p>\n
Truth is, Jucy<\/em>, probably caught me on the wrong day. There have been periods of my life that I\u2019ve been interested in and argued in a fem theory kind of way about the ways women are marginalized in art and culture and for a recognition about the distinct qualities of their relationships with each other. But there are other periods (days) in which I think, \u201cWell, every relationship has some distinctive qualities, and I am more engrossed by the works of art that will draw on experience or imagination to draw me in to a really interesting or engaging relationship, whether it be between two males, two females, or a horse and his boy, then I am by works of art that draw on social generalizations.\u201d Stereotypes may have seeds of truth in them, but generalization is a form of abstraction and can also be a form of laziness.<\/p>\nThe most interesting character in Jucy<\/em>, for my money, is Lucy\u2019s sister, Fleur, who admirably takes on the role of responsible sibling whom Lucy (and the audience) can simultaneously envy and resent. To Lucy\u2019s (and the film\u2019s) credit, when Fleur finally does speak her mind, she (and it) recognize some validity in Fleur\u2019s point of view. I would point out that none of the very, very superficially painted men in the film get anything remotely resembling a perspective or a personality if I thought that doing so wouldn\u2019t automatically make the film\u2019s advocates pounce and say, \u201cWe knew it! Another guy who wants even our movies to be about them.\u201d<\/p>\nNot really. I just want it to be about something.<\/p>\n
There will be people (yeah, most of them women) who love this film, and\u2026you know what? I don\u2019t feel much inclined to talk them out of it. I want them to have something that celebrates the unique problems and\u00a0perseverance\u00a0of women while I am re-reading Jane Eyre<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’m a little suspicious, though, about people who make films about their own friendships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1555,"featured_media":12477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,441],"tags":[445,446],"class_list":["post-2417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-festivals","category-toronto-international-film-festival-2010-film-festivals","tag-jucy","tag-louise-alston"],"yoast_head":"\n
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