Muffin Top Reviews The Oscars

All of us on Team Muffin Top could barely contain our excitement about how much of this years Oscars seemed SO on one of the themes of our wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, namely to PUT CHICKS BACK IN FLICKS!  

We swooned when Best Actress winner Cate Blanchett challenged Hollywood to create films for and about the 51% of theater ticket buyers worldwide who happen to be women. Because we also have a racially diverse cast, we were excited to see winners of color as actors, writers and filmmakers.  

Cate Blanchett

Bruce and I named our production company Surprise Hit Films because we will ALWAYS make movies that have a racially diverse cast, and that have a gender split that is the same as the world.  

As Miss Blanchett noted, "The world is round, people."  

Ellen Degeneres

But another issue came up, partly because of the witty observation of the female host (yay!) Ellen Degeneres on the emphasis in Hollywood on youth.  There were many snarky and downright cruel articles critiquing the plastic surgery of Kim Novak.

Kim Novak

As our film deals with a woman who is afraid of aging, and undertakes a plastic surgery that has...well, let's just say, "consequences," this topic is very much on our radar as filmmakers.  

Many people were praising Sally Field and Meryl Streep for aging, "naturally."  I would say to that, I guess it depends on what your definition of natural is. I would guess that Sally and Meryl have had work, just tasteful (in my opinion). All actors must deal with their appearance, it is part of our jobs. There is an enormous double standard. Men of middle age are still sexy with grey hair and no "work." Women are held to a different standard. 

Sally Field

Meryl Streep

As someone who had a reconstructive plastic surgery on my eyes at age 19 due to damage from the auto-immune disorder Graves disease, I know how plastic surgery can change how someone approaches the world, for the better. I see how rhinoplasty changed the confidence level of a young woman who is very dear to me. 

My dear friend Marcia Wallace, who stars in  Muffin Top plays herself in the film  (it was her last role, sadly) and talks about her actual real life neck lift, which made her very, very happy. She was excited to talk about her real life enthusiasm for having had the procedure. Do I wish the world didn't judge on appearances, oh yes, my yes. I think that when people say, "plastic surgery isn't feminist," they are creating a new way of trying to control women's choices around their bodies. To me, feminism means I get to decide what happens to my body, period. 

But fashion choices (permanent or impermanent) are going to be judged, and even more so if you make your living having people film you. I color my hair, I devote an enormous amount of time to fitness, partly because of where I live and what I do, but partly because I like it. I genuinely like makeup and clothes and hairdos.

I think the key is to hope that every woman gets to make her own choices and be happy about it, as it's her visual statement. I think that those who make a living shaming others for their looks, whether it's advertisers who create images no one can live up to, or critics who get followers for being cruel, need to face up to the consequences of their content. I used to write for the Fashion Police in US Magazine, and I quit because I realized I felt terrible about it. It's part of why I so wanted to make this film. 

But being a public figure means you are going to be...public. What I wish is that Kim Novak would say to them, "I love my looks and anyone who doesn't can suck it." That's what Jennifer Lawrence has said to those her criticize her 23 year old figure as "fat." No lie. She has rather famously said, "In Hollywood, I'm obese." And she says that if people don't like her looks, she doesn't care. The fact that she's a gorgeous 23 year old and needs to answer critics about her looks tells you all you need to know about how insanely out of balance the shaming beauty culture of perfection has become.