Game: Blouses!

Happy New Year!!!

fleegull — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 01:05:17 GMT

As always, I mean every word!

For those of you who are looking for love - I wish it for you in every shape, gender and size you desire.

For those of you who are hoping for children - I wish the stork to deliver bouncing, sweet smelling cherubs to you with easy deliveries.

For those of you looking to change and or find new jobs - may you find the perfect fit for your skills and aspirations which will pay you gobs of money with heaps of vacation time.

For those of you who are sick - speedy recoveries with no repercussions.

For those of you who are feeling blue - happy days right around the corner.

For those of you starting or going back to school - may all the courses you take be taught by interesting professors who challenge you and help you achieve whatever it is you want to do in life.

For everyone - I wish health, happiness and everything you ever wished on a star.

May the road rise to meet you - and may it be made of Nerf so it's soft and spongy.

Happy New Year!!!!

fleegull — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 22:15:02 GMT

For those of you who are looking for love - I wish it for you in every shape, gender and size you desire.

For those of you who are hoping for children - I wish the stork to deliver bouncing, sweet smelling cherubs to you with easy deliveries.

For those of you looking to change and or find new jobs - may you find the perfect fit for your skills and aspirations which will pay you gobs of money with heaps of vacation time.

For those of you who are sick - speedy recoveries with no repercussions.

For those of you who are feeling blue - happy days right around the corner.

For those of you starting or going back to school - may all the courses you take be taught by interesting professors who challenge you and help you achieve whatever it is you want to do in life.

For everyone - I wish health, happiness and everything you ever wished on a star.

May the road rise to meet you - and may it be made of Nerf so it's soft and spongy.

Happy New Year!!!!

fleegull — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:55:23 GMT

Happy New Year!!!!!

fleegull — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:36:55 GMT

I wish there was a special task force focused solely on "Nice Guys".

fleegull — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:30:26 GMT

You really need to read the whole thing because the author is one of those whiny “nice guys” who doesn’t understand why women don’t like him despite the fact that he went to Yale.

Article excerpts are in italics, my rant it regular text. Bolded text is for super special misogyny!

I was sitting on a fold-out couch, wearing only my boxers, when Daniel’s email popped up. There was no subject line, just a simple YouTube link. Over the next hour, I watched all seven videos on Simple Pickup’s channel, each three times over. I couldn’t quite explain my delirium until I read a comment posted by user SeaWeedBrain013: “You guys are my heroes. I don’t understand how your pants can withstand the weight of your balls.

Simple Pickup’s YouTube channel is devoted to picking up girls. The stars — Kong, Jesse and Jason — film themselves on the streets of Los Angeles, approaching random women, making them laugh, then getting their numbers. In their 16 videos, they’ve picked up 125 numbers. I counted.

Like all red-blooded males, I’d heard of “The Game,” the New York Times bestseller that introduced America to the art of seduction. I’d even read it. Mediocre shows like VHI’s “The Pickup Artist” went further in exposing the “secrets” of the pickup community — for instance, that a “neg” is a backhanded compliment to a pretty girl to get her attention. But these Simple Pickup videos — these guys — were literally the first time I’d seen proof of pickup artists in real life. They weren’t ridiculous fops like Mystery, the dusty and irrelevant host of “The Pickup Artist,” with his feather boas and guyliner. They looked like the dudes who’d gone to Yale with me — normal-looking and nice, self-professed former nerds. Within a week, every guy I knew had either showed me the videos or been sent them by me. We were enamored with the even-keeled, irreverent way they approached women. More important, watching them had given us the deadly confidence that we could do it, too.

Their style is endearing, irreverent and brash. They frequently deal in sexual innuendo, zoom off on absurd tangents, and act out for the sake of acting out. And yet, unlike 99.5 percent of the male population, they get phone numbers, on the street, of girls they have just met. That’s the goal of Simple Pickup: to get numbers.

Note that these guys spend all day trying to get women’s numbers. There is no mention of whether they ever try calling these women or have ever had a date with them. They. Get. Phone. Numbers. That’s it. Who even knows if these numbers are real? I’d like to know what their success rate is with getting actual numbers, I have a feeling it’s not 50%.

There’s no universal applicability with regards to what they say. But that’s what’s inspiring. Jesse tells me, “When you’re having a conversation, you can literally say whatever you want. Girls are very forgiving that way.” Besides, what’s more important is the foundation: a pitch-perfect tone that’s challenging, nonchalant and always loud, clear and pithy. It also helps to have their body language: head held high, strong and confident — and at the same time, displaying an almost professional sort of disaffection as well, with a shadow of a slouch and laconic, measured smiles.

Ah yes, the stereotype of the “forgiving nature of women”. Telling men that they can go up to women and say whatever they want because women either don’t care or have been brought up to dote on anything that comes out of a man’s mouth is such a load of retro bullshit that I almost threw my computer off my desk when I read it but there were people around and I didn’t want anyone getting hurt.

Most weeks, they film their videos in less than two hours. Just a small fraction of the numbers they pick up in real life are interesting enough to make it into a video. And as for failures? “We’ve all gotten slapped,” Jesse says. “But honestly, we laugh about it and move on.”

That’s right ladies, your outward display of displeasure at being harassed is simply a source of amusement for them. They aren’t viewing women as people, just objects. Objects don’t have feelings so nothing that these women say is of any meaning to them, they just need the appearance of scoring a phone number.

Give fylothea credit: She actually watched the video. When Simple Pickup first went viral, I eagerly showed it to one of my female friends, thinking she’d be as hooked as I was to their street magic. A minute and a half in, she turned to me and said, “How can you watch this entire thing?” Of all the videos on YouTube, from NASCAR, to cock fighting, to Megan Fox at a car wash, picking up girls might be the most gender-polarizing.

Wow, you mean reducing women to objects that either will or won’t give a bunch of overgrown little boys their phone numbers doesn’t elicit “ooo’s and aah’s” from women? Kooky broads!

By telling these men that there’s a quantifiable path toward learning how to be good with women, it gives them a tangible action plan, where before there was blind meandering. Pickup discards external glory — fame, the money of a hot start-up CEO, the body of an NBA player — for the simple trappings of knowledge and inner confidence. It’s a call to possibility; it’s a pathway to attracting the impossible the girl of our dreams.

You don’t know how quantifiable it is, they claim a success rate of 50% but really, how many of those numbers are real? How many of those women agree to meet up with these guys? I’d be willing to bet that if you are judging success as an actual date, their success rate is nowhere near 50%. I’m sure that the real standard of success is getting laid, in which case I’m sure it’s much, much closer to 0 than 50. Anyone can be cute in a one minute interaction, given an actual sit down date that requires conversation and real charm I don’t see these guys running it to the end zone.

Think of Simple Pickup’s videos as the male equivalent of the Hollywood 48-hour miracle diet; after all, men gaining confidence may be the closest corollary to women losing weight. By capturing evidence that they can pick up a girl in any situation, Simple Pickup is essentially saying, “I lost 30 pounds in two days! Here’s the proof! And you can too!” They make picking up numbers look easy; when you watch it enough times, you’ll realize that it actually is.

There is so much wrong with this….equating confidence in men to a woman losing weight??!!! What the actual fuck? Women don’t need confidence, just a tight ass. This guy went to Yale, ya’ll!

Simple Pickup’s videos teach Three Big Lessons. The first is that it’s not what you say, but how you say it. “When I first tried talking to a girl, I kept telling Kong it wasn’t going to work,” Jason said. “Then I realized you can get away with a lot more than you think.” A devil-may-care attitude and the right tone obviate the need for “the perfect line.” Inexperienced college students and “Starcraft” geeks (not mutually exclusive) take note: If Simple Pickup can get a number after telling a girl she likes semen on her back, a normal conversation should be easy.

Do I even have to parse that?

Women are people, if you approach them acting like a dumb fuck they will respond in kind. A polite approach is always a man’s best option and if the woman refuses to engage you any further, know enough to leave her alone as you do not know her and have no business trying to insinuate yourself into her life if she does not want you there. No woman owes a man a response, no woman owes a man a smile. What these guys are doing is street harassment, and the fact that other men seem to think it’s great means that feminism is still necessary.

I would like to ask the media as a whole to please not book these guys on talk shows. Do not give them a television show. Do not do anything to encourage this type of behavior, it’s enough that women have to deal with this and are told that it’s harmless and we should be thankful that men are paying attention to us, we don’t need to see it glorified anymore than it already is.

First gay, Jewish wedding on City Island

fleegull — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:47:10 GMT

For someone who has been gay since he was a little kid, picked on, lost jobs, had trouble coming out and has been through health issues, the fact that I was able to look the man I love in the eye and legally get married and celebrate it in front of friends and family in this lifetime is incredible to me,” says Binder, (the couple legally married in New Canaan, CT, last Wednesday opting to rush the ceremony instead of waiting for the N.Y. state law to take effect this Sunday. “I have never encountered anything but support since I moved to this island. It’s a village, and it’s in New York.”

From The NY Daily News story about the first gay, Jewish wedding on City Island.

City Island is a small village that is technically part of the Bronx, thus making it part of NYC which means it's full of New Yorkers and therefore, awesome. Any trip to NYC demands a trip here for a day as it's full of great seafood restaurants and plenty of charm.

Alex Wong explains his injury,

fleegull — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:35:41 GMT

I've had a Tumblr for years, only recently started using it in earnest: http://benitah.tumblr.com/

How ridiculous that he hurt himself at a Step Up 4 audition, how ridiculous that there is going to be a Step Up 4....le sigh. It's pretty obvious that he has not interest in going back to ballet but if he had stayed at Miami City Ballet, he would be in Paris now getting standing ovations every night. Had he stayed in ballet, I'm sure that one day the guesting gods would have thrown him in with OSIPOVA and Vasiliev for a night of leaping magic.

Step U 4?! Never has one sacrificed so much for something so crappy. Paris you fool, PARIS!!!!!

SYTYCD Hits two out of the park.

fleegull — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:39:12 GMT

This is how you choreograph sexy, powerful women. This is what the Wilis would be, if I had my way.

After watching this number, Mitchell immediately became my favorite guy in the show. I cannot say enough about how gorgeous this piece is, absolute art. I'm not sure if Mandy Moore attached a story to this but, as in all great dance, the DANCE is the story. So very beautiful. Forgive my corniness, but after seeing this I said it looked like Romeo and Juliet being reunited in heaven.

SYTYCD: Yup there really was a village where the women poisoned a bunch of men!

fleegull — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:09:45 GMT

Typing this up super quick but last night's SYSYCD's final group dance was actually based on a true story from one of my favorite documentaries! It's called The Angel Makers of Nagyrév. Yup, in a village in Hungary a group of women took to poisoning men, the number varies from a believable 45 to a rather unbelievable 300. If you can track down the documentary, it's well worth seeing.

Posting because it was well done and I fell in lust with the song used, it's haunting and I immediately bought it.

I was disappointed to find out that the judges watch rehearsals, that can only serve to prejudice their take on the actual performances. It seemed like Kristen Chenoweth was hell bent on saying the Foxtrot was her favorite dance going back to when she saw it in the rehearsals. Tyce Diorio continues to be an ass and taking every chance he can to reduce the female dancers to little more than on stage sex objects. The number he choreographed for Miranda and Robert had Tyce gleefully saying that Miranda was playing the role of a hooker for no good reason because the dance worked without that piece of information. I don't know what Lil C was saying about isolations needing to be performed with the whole body, isolations by definition, are all about isolating the movement of one part of the body.

My favorite, after sleeping on it, was Melanie and Marko's sweet lyrical hip hop, followed by the mattress routine so it was a Nappy Tabs sweep. Still, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the samba was easily THE BEST SAMBA EVER! The hip action both dancers showed was off the charts great. I just can't with the level of talent on the show this year, THESE KIDS ARE SO GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Summer Tv Girlfriend Express is leaving on Track 24/See Sarah Lane dance for a change

fleegull — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:52:43 GMT

I do not have deep thoughts about True Blood, that would be a waste of depth and thought but I do thank the tv gods for blessing me with one hell of a new Summer TV Girlfriend in the form of Vedette Lim. She's a Moon Bloodgood/Phoebe Cates mashup with a little Kristin Kreuk around the mouth and her bod is banging!

There are some lovely clips here of Sarah dancing the lead in Giselle from when she guested with LakeCities Ballet. She has never danced the lead with ABT, as a matter of fact, she has barely danced at ABT at all this season. Some people have been speculating that she is being "punished" for being so outspoken about her role in Black Swan because she was all over ABT's roster last year.

Something I noticed in this video, Sarah's profile is a dead ringer for a young Lynda Carter who, incidentally, always show up for ABT's Opening Night Gala.

SYTYCD Plucks "Cry Baby" off the discount shelf and gives it new life.

fleegull — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:06:05 GMT

As you can see from the inspiration the underrated classic Cry Baby, SYTYCD took it pretty literally.

What the hell happened to Amy Locane? Such a pretty girl, she got kicked off the original Melrose Place and apparently out of Hollywood.

I'm not going to talk about all of them because I need to sleep eventually.

The Cha Cha: I don't know what Nigel was talking about, there was little hip action from either dancer so it wasn't really a Cha Cha. Missy's costume looked like the unfortunate remnants of Karina Smirnoff's awful "pussy" costume from her salsa dance with Ralph Macchio. I've said it before and I'll probably die with these words on my lips, "ANIMAL PRINT ONLY LOOKS GOOD ON THE ANIMALS ON WHICH IT EVOLVED! STOP WEARING IT! STOP MAKING IT!".

The Bollywood: They are going to beat this genre to death, aren't they? All it made me think of was that this was the dance that broke Alex Wong. On the plus side, Iveta looks like she's reverse aging which means she might look 30 by the finale.

The less I say about woodpeckers, the better.

The Prince and Princess: nice dress, Clarice is very pretty and she has lovely lines, they are going to make sure that Jess does that pirouette until he's kicked off aren't they?

Melanie and Marko Jazz: the performance of the night. I'm sure that Jess was kicking himself that he didn't get this one but I don't think he could have out danced Marko. I can't front, Melanie is my favorite and her little shimmy was the move of the night for me.

Sasha and Alexander: Sit down, because they SYTYCD costume division has this one coming. No woman, who is about to greet her husband home from a long tour in Afghanistan, has ever shown up dressed like she just finished caulking the bathroom. My mother was about to throw the tv out the window so we had to watch this one twice because she kept going on about how she dressed up to nines when my father got back from Vietnam and how she remembers everything she wore that day and how all the other women looked so beautiful because that's WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOUR LOVER COMES HOME AND YOU ARE SO HAPPY TO SEE HIM ALIVE YOU DRESS THE FUCK UP!!!!! The dancing though, was lovely and the two of them were beautiful together. Get it together costume department.

Ashley and Chris: it seems like ladies don't dress up for soldiers but they do for prisoners. I kid, I kid! Since this song is from a movie set in the 1950's the dress is totally appropriate. I really liked this piece, there was sense of tension and fun running through it. Ashley's balletic technique was utilized well and I could sense Chris's frustration from behind those bars.

The guest judges seem to afraid to offer any real critique so then other than the novelty of having Debbie Reynolds or Lady Gaga sitting there I don't see the point. It's far better to bring back the rotation of choreographers and dancers who know the dancers better and can actually help them instead of blowing smoke up their asses.

Count your blessings girl!

fleegull — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:55:16 GMT

In the next few weeks I will be seeing Ballet Nacional de Cuba, The Royal Danish Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet (aka: The Kirov Ballet) along with ABT's premier of Ratmanky's The Bright Stream with OSIPOVA and soon to be Mr. OSIPOVA, Ivan Vasiliev (he's here because Herman Cornejo (aka: The Rabbit) is injured)!!!!!!! Then OSIPOVA again in Coppélia and The Queen of Balance, Alina Cojocaru in (unfortunately in ABT's version and not The Royal Ballet's version) of The Sleeping Beauty. One must count one's blessings and to be in NYC this summer is like getting your ballet passport stamped many times!

The incomparable Ms. Viegnsay Valdes of Ballet Nacional de Cuba

To add to our ballet riches.....next summer The Australian Ballet is coming to perform Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake!!!!!! I have been dying to see this Swan Lake since I saw bits of it in Mao's Last Dancer!

How gorgeous is this?????? The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake:

X-Men Review totally spoiler free cuz all I really want to do now is shop.

fleegull — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:54:38 GMT

Ya'll can keep McAvoy and Fassbender (even though they were excellent in their respective roles), I'm all about the hot ass Spaniard who doesn't say a word. Mmmmmm Álex González!

What else did I learn?

Miniskirts are always proper attire. Ditto for all of Rose Byrne's close cut blazers.

The mirrored paillette dress that Zoe Kravitz wears once she's all evil needs to be mine.

The importance of great lingerie at all times.

Jennifer Lawrence is luminous, she absolutely glows from within. Her hair deserves its own credit.

Betty Draper needs to embrace the 60's jumpsuit immediately on Mad Men as January Jones pulls it off flawlessly.

I really need to learn how to do a proper cat eye with eyeliner.

The short boots that Fassbender wears....guys need to adopt that look ASAP.

James McAvoy runs like a lady. I'm still laughing.

Just because, Álex González.

fleegull — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:37:24 GMT

It sucks that this devolves into a stupid flash mob because Sir werkin it in his platform heels is all I want to see.

Meeting S for drinks, what are the odds that I can convince her to see The Book of Mormon with me? She traditionally hates musicals but she loved Avenue Q so that means she'll love BoM, right?

Vogue. Joan Smalls. Old San Juan. What more do you need?

fleegull — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:17:31 GMT

This is where I've been fortunate enough to spend the worst part of the winter for the past few years: Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. The streets are cobblestone and the homes are brightly colored....it's like Candyland came to life. Joan Smalls is a Puerto Rican native as well as one of the biggest high fashion models on the scene and it's abundantly clear why: SHE"S GORGEOUS!

SV farm for sale/Jasika Nicole Essay/Cooper Nielson is off the market.

fleegull — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:31:37 GMT

Life imitates tv, the house used as the Kent Farm on SV is really up for sale. Pa Kent platitudes not included, years of gawking fans angling for pictures are.

Jasika Nicole from Fringe wrote a kickass essay on the differences in how her and her partner are treated in the US versus how they are treated in Canada.

The dead as a doornail Wonder Woman show released a picture of Adrienne in the so called classic costume. They fucked that up too.

ABT's Ethan Stiefel proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Gillian Murphy after she performed in ABT's opening night gala. She looks genuinely surprised, I hope wedding photos make it online.

If they do have dancing kids, I hope they inherit Gillian's constitution because for the past seven or eight years, Ethan has spent more time injured than he has spent actually dancing. That woman is a fucking warrior, I don't think she has ever missed a performance.

A heart so big, he needed all the Muppets to carry it.

fleegull — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:44:02 GMT

Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of Jim Henson's death, here's my hands down favorite Muppet Show performance. It's so joyful that even and Waldorf had no choice but to join in.

Harry Belafone sang this song at Jim Henson's memorial service and he gave a beautiful elegy about Henson's legacy of humanity. You can watch it here.

fleegull — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:51:24 GMT

There are many things to love about commercial with NYCB's Principal dancer, Ashley Bouder and SYTYCD's Twitch but the best is that it doesn't force the ballet to become hip hop or the hip hop to become ballet. They exist as their own disciplines and *that's perfect*.

She's just a girl, Take care of it.

fleegull — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:46:34 GMT

Zoe Saldana in Colombiana making all of my dreams come true.

PS: I need an icon of her sucking the lollipop now!!!

The Royal Wedding Was Severely Lacking in Little Blue Yetis

fleegull — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:29:24 GMT

Herman Dune "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" from Jon Hamm

Go ahead and "aw" when he/she/it hugs the little kid.

Johnny Weir's Dress Collection: I can't unsee it, so I might as well judge it.

fleegull — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:17:11 GMT

The best thing I can say about it is that it's inoffensive which is also the worst thing about it. It's not creative, it's not interesting and it looks really cheap. I feel talkative today so let's go through the looks which you can see here.

Yeah, this one the best and that's with a shrug and a "so what?". It's cute but you can find the same thing everywhere from Forever 21 to Macy's and a Johnny Weir original should be original.

What hurts this one is the juxtaposition of a pretty skirt and a very cheap looking bodice. Had it not been satin, it might have worked better.

This is essentially a practice dance dress with the embellishments that H&M was selling last year added on. You could have this look for forty bucks.

Again, the bodice looks incredibly cheap and poorly made. It also looks like it would only work for a perfect B cup, anything under that and you're going to be swimming around and having nip slips left and right. Anything over that and little ridge on the top is going to produce unfortunate boob indents.

You know how last week J-Lo wore that pretty Georges Chakras dress in Idol and you, me and Tom and Lorenzo went "but why is that poof there?". This is that sans the pretty garment under the poof. There is nothing distinctive about this dress which makes the poof even uglier.

I HATE this. Does it look cheap? Hell yes. Does it make the model look like she has a pot belly? Hell yes. Do I care what's going on with that black thing that probably extends from the shoulder all the way down the back? Hell no.

I love you Johnny and if you want to be a designer you need to go to school for it. You aren't Victoria Beckham who has a team of actual designers working for her, you are going to have to do this the hard way. Good luck kid.

Big Planet on the Horizon, what do you do?

fleegull — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:19:36 GMT

I've long been enchanted by the idea of being able to look into the sky and see a planet big and full, hanging there. I understand that a view like that would mean big trouble for our own planet but I enjoy seeing in movies and there are two films with that very sight on the near horizon. The odd coincidence is that these are both independent films where the planets are catalysts for small, personal stories.

Lars von Trier's Melancholia in which Kirsten Dunst decides that if a planet is going to hit Earth, one might as well get married.

The slightly more introspective Another Earth.

The Ballad of the Polar Bear Sweater

fleegull — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:55:17 GMT

Back in October (or whenever Urban Outfitters sends out its winter catalog) I noticed an adorable polar bear sweater within the pages of the UO catalog. It wasn't festooned with polar bears, no it was the face of the bear on a fitted, cream colored, lightweight sweater with black claws right at the wrists. Not too hipstery, not too cutesy, in a word it was perfect. Since it was holiday time, I was trying to save cash so I figured I would wait until after Christmas to see if it went on sale, if it did I would buy it, if not, hey, I have a lot of clothes. One time, while shopping with my mother, we saw it at Urban Outfitters and she offered to buy it for me but I told I was waiting until after the holidays to see if the price dropped.

So...after Christmas I checked the website and the sweater was gone, same deal in the store. Fuck.

A few days after the ridiculous storm we had after Christmas, we went to party at my cousin S's home. We exchanged gifts and lo and behold, she got me the sweater. I started to sputter the story to her and she thought that I already had the sweater until I could explain that it was pretty much the only sweater I wanted that season. This is a roundabout way of saying that my cousin buys the best gifts in the world, my birthday gift was a sexy trench coat with a ruffled hem. As today was a sort of lovely day, I wore them both and I was thankful to have fashion wise family members who can read my wardrobe like an open book.

Cute, aint' it?

My childhood tv rocked hard.

fleegull — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:31:54 GMT

Sid and Marty Krofft have always been personal heroes of mine. One of their many fantastic children's shows was H.R. Puf n Stuff. Like all kids' shows, there is an underlying message of self acceptance (no, Lady Gaga didn't invent that shit) but unlike most kids' shows, this one is delivered by the bad guys and the bad guy singing this little ditty is Mamma Cass.

In case you can't tell that these are villains, the rat is wearing a Nazi uniform. So glad that I had this back in my day and not Yo Gabba, Gabba.

If there is a beast in men, it meets its match in women too.

fleegull — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:35:39 GMT

Considering how that Red Riding Hood film bombed at the box office, perhaps this means the end to the out of nowhere fairy tale craze that has gripped Hollywood. There was absolutely no need for that movie since the DEFINITIVE take on Red Riding Hood was made 27 years ago and it's called The Company of Wolves based upon the story by Angela Carter. It speaks to all the scary/magical things about going from girlhood to womanhood and does so beautifully that it looks like the most gorgeous high fashion editorial that has ever been shot. This movie embraces it's studio location and makes it work for the atmosphere of the movie, which is a feeling that is simultaneously boundless and claustrophobic. There is a scene where Rosaleen climbs a tree and finds a bird's nest filled with more symbolism of a young woman's adolescence than you can shake a stick at.

If you know a young girl, you must show her this film. It's got a feminist streak a mile wide, girls are expected to save themselves (imagine that in this whiny, Twilight obsessed age). There is gore and it's lovely in its own way. All of the effects are practical, no CGI trickery. This movie is about stories, the telling of them and the need we all have, to hear them told to us. Like all fairy tales, there is sex all over this movie but it's never salacious. There is horror and not all of it is perpetrated by the so called monsters. The wolves are mesmerizing, terrifying and sympathetic. My absolute favorite story is the one about a female wolf who comes up to the surface world, to meet the best and worst that humanity has to offer in one night. It contains the single most beautiful shot in all of cinema.

One of the actors in this movie, Micha Bergese, is a noted modern dancer and it shows in his performance. His menace is all physical grace and coiled power, you could never teach that to a non-dancing actor.