Foxes

    Today we’re going to take up an especially pleasant topic: women in films–in particular, gorgeous and appealing and sexy women in films. In Shakespeare’s day, females weren’t permitted to enter the acting profession at all. These days, of course, not only are there loads and loads of female actors but there are female screenwriters and female directors and female producers. And there have even been female heads-of-studios (Sherry Lansing, Dawn Steel). And, as any even moderately observant person knows perfectly well, the presence of she-babes in a production can increase its pleasure content a hundredfold. It was the esteemed motion-picture director Bruce Beresford, during a preface to a compilation of a well-known critic’s film reviews, who asserted: “I know it isn’t politically correct to say it…but…watching beautiful girls can do a lot to relieve tedium.” Indeed, eyeing she-hotties can be quite enlivening–and can greatly wipe out the damage that the Roseanne Barrs and the Rosie O’Donnells and the Janeane Garafolos do.   

    For illustration, let’s look at the cases of two separate women in two separate pictures.   

    First, TV’s Ali Larter in Obsession. From the minute we see her in that elevator with the film’s hero (Idris Elba), she has us, with her stylish blonde hair, her alabaster skin, and her rich, inviting lips. And when she bends down to help him pick up some material he dropped, just one look at those long, shapely legs is enough to positively mesmerize us. And she keeps us in her spell throughout the picture, whether she’s walking along the hall (giving us another look at Those Legs) or freely dispensing her charm at her company’s Christmas party (to Elba’s homosexual assistant: “Patrick, you silly old queen. Dance with me”) or expressing her anger when Elba puts her, she all decked out in a skimpy set of bra-and-panties and black fishnet stockings, out of his car (she hisses at him: “Maybe you are an asshole”). And when she has her climactic battle with Beyonce Knowles, her clad in a football jersey with Those Legs fully in view, our panting and our lusting reach fever pitch. In sum, Ali in this film may be the insane stalker–Obsession being, in effect, an interracial Fatal Attraction–but she’s the kind of girl whom we’d love to have on our tails any day.   

    Next, Lia Johnson in I’m Through With White Girls. As esteemed “Afri-Canadian” writer Catherine Williamson (when questioned concerning her Canadian background, she replies: “Where do you think all those runaway slaves were headed?”), she makes a definite–and quite favorable–impression upon her first appearance, with her voluptuous build, her caramel-colored skin, and her plentiful dreadlocks done up with alternatively blue and green strands, all of which painting her as a younger, sexy Whoopi Goldberg. When she first meets Girls‘ s hero, Jay Brooks (Anthony Montgomery), and embarks upon conversation with him (one of the first things she does is to ask him: “Who’s the Prime Minister of Canada?”), we root for him to get to know her better. And as their relationship progresses and they do indeed get into courtship, we see, as Lia’s exuberant charm, her boundless energy, and her lively intelligence become more and more apparent, why Jay is drawn to her and why he wants to continue with her. Finally, when Girls concludes with Jay and Catherine fervently dancing together at a wedding–the clear inference is that they’re going to be a couple for good–we’re warmed that Jay has hooked up with such a gorgeous and likable and vibrant partner.   

    To see first Ali Larter in Obsession and then to see Lia Johnson in I’m Through With White Girls (she’s also one of the picture’s producers)–and, come to think of it, to, before seeing them, see Robin Givens in Boomerang–is to get a heaping helping of God’s greatest creation: the beautiful and charming and sexy woman.    Duane Brooks    www.yahoo.com