"She-Devil" v. "Out of Africa"

Mercifully, after the last FOUR heavy-hitting rounds, we have the easiest fucking no-brainer. Do I even have to explain myself? 

"Out of Africa" was a thousand hours long, Meryl's accent was distracting, it was racist AF, and I fell asleep during it. Twice.

But I don't want to focus on the negative. "She-Devil" was A GODDAMN DELIGHT. Meryl could've easily looked at this role as a throwaway, as an easy chance to phone it in and make a few bucks by merely showing up and putting on the outfit (LIKE SHE DID IN "INTO THE WOODS").

But she DIDN'T. There is a *hint* of Smart Bitch that we will later see fleshed out more in "Devil Wears Prada," and there are some obvious strokes of Ruthless Bitch that will be perfected come "August: Osage County." But this is a particular combination loud, rich, smart, and ruthless that can only be surmised as: The Spoiled Bitch. 

I've discussed at length how "spoiled" can be negatively translated into "shrill," but this is only when the Meryl in question rolls over and lets herself be taken advantage of. In "She-Devil," she's putting up the fight of her life, and it's everything that Shannon Doherty's Heather and Rachel McAdam's Regina George could ever hope to become. AND I AM FUCKING HERE FOR IT. 

Also, do yourself a favor and read this excellent NY Times article that came out during the release of "She-Devil" (below). It is pre-Pro-Trump-Roseanne, making it deliciously outdated, and it truly encapsulates the spirit of why I'm doing this bracket at all: "Meryl is such a brilliant actress, she could have played [either role]."

And just as important, a Very Special Shout Out to Susan Seidelman, because THERE SHOULD BE MORE FEMALE DIRECTORS MAKING AMAZING MOVIES AND WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US. 

​Streep & Barr Grapple in "She-Devil"
by Jeannie Park

''This movie is about contrasts,'' says the director Susan Seidelman, and indeed it's hard to  imagine a more contrasting pair of stars. One is tall and sleek; the other is, well, fat. One is refined; the other, outrageous. One trained at Yale; the other, in biker bars. One does accents; the other, wisecracks. One is Streep, the other is Barr.

Yes, Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr - the queen of the movies and the empress of prime time - are together, improbably, in Ms. Seidelman's new film ''She-Devil,'' shot this summer in New York and scheduled to open in December. In the film, based on the 1983 Fay Weldon novel ''The Life and Loves of a She-Devil,'' Miss Barr plays the dumpy - and dumped on - housewife Ruth, whose husband, Bob, deserts her for the glamorous romance novelist Mary, played by Ms. Streep. To avenge this injustice, Ruth transforms herself into a ''she devil,'' who ruins the lovers and in the process discovers her self-worth.

On a day off from filming, in the SoHo loft she shares with the movie's producer Jonathan Brett, Ms. Seidelman discusses how the unusual - and enviable - cast (which includes Ed Begley Jr. as the philandering Bob, Sylvia Miles as Mary's troublesome mother and Linda Hunt as Ruth's friend) came about.

''Meryl is such a brilliant actress, she could have played Ruth,'' says Ms. Seidelman, but instead she signed on to play Mary. ''Then,'' says the director, ''we needed someone who was larger than your usual heroine - in some way larger than life. Roseanne's name kept popping up.'' Miss Barr, the star of ABC's phenomenally successful series ''Roseanne,'' had never acted in a film, but Ms. Seidelman decided she would be right.

Ms. Seidelman has shown a penchant for unorthodox casting, picking the then relatively unknown Madonna for a part in ''Desperately Seeking Susan'' (1985) and the British actress Emily Lloyd for the part of a Brooklyn teen-ager in ''Cookie,'' which opened Wednesday.

In the case of Madonna, at least, the director's instincts paid off in an unanticipated shower of publicity. Similarly, with the intriguing combination of Ms. Streep and Miss Barr, two of Hollywood's brightest lights, the production was hounded by fans begging for autographs, paparazzi stalking the locations and reporters clamoring to visit the set. Even Mr. Begley says of the two actresses, ''I would work as the [ food ] services person, do the slate, be the boom man. Anything, to work with them.'' What makes the casting even more unusual is the fact that Miss Barr has the serious role, while Ms. Streep, as the ultra-feminine, pretentious writer Mary, has the more comedic part. ''That's what I like about it,'' Ms. Seidelman says enthusiastically. ''I like casting that I haven't seen before. I love working with Meryl in the kind of movie that she doesn't normally do.''

During a lunch break on location in downtown New York, Ms. Streep says she was interested in the part of Mary because ''she's a real glamour puss. And I haven't played a lot of those. It's a real stretch.'' Draped in silk and pearls, her long blond hair curled around her shoulders, Ms. Streep looks the part. ''Mary is everybody's image of a movie star,'' the actress says. ''She's interviewed by 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' and by People magazine. These are the things I should be doing,'' she says wryly, slamming the table for emphasis.

She says she was drawn to the script partly because of ''the issues it deals with. The issues of the woman who's dumped because she's fat and the woman who's picked up because of the way she looks.'' Society's preoccupation with appearances is more pronounced now ''than 10 years ago,'' she says. ''Look at who's in Congress, who's running the studios. I see more people having plastic surgery. It's too bad.'' Her last film, ''A Cry in the Dark,'' in which she portrayed a woman wrongly accused of murdering her baby, ''was sort of about that,'' says Ms. Streep. ''It was about the truth packaged in an unappealing, unattractive wrapper. A triumph of form over substance.''

Working on this comedy - her first since ''Heartburn'' in 1986 - ''has been just a riot,'' she says. ''I just frankly wanted to do a film that didn't cost me 75 pounds of emotional weight.'' Of Miss Barr, with whom she actually shares only a handful of scenes, Ms. Streep says, ''She's smart and sassy.''

The admiration is mutual. ''Meryl is hysterical,'' Miss Barr says. ''She's a great comedienne.'' Miss Barr adds that she has tried to pick up some tips from the eight-time Oscar nominee. ''I asked her some well-chosen questions, although if I had my way, I'd be all over her 24 hours a day, asking, 'What about this? what about that?' "

Miss Barr's conversation is punctuated with bouts of singing, hooting, uncontrollable laughter and obscene jokes. Since her earliest stand-up routines, one of her pet topics has been the shortcomings of men, especially men like Ruth's husband, Bob. ''Our job,'' she says of women, ''is to raise the human race. Men have gotta catch up to us. And they've got about a million years to go.'' She took the role in ''She-Devil,'' she says, ''because it was a real positive woman's part, not a female impersonator or a drag queen. Ruth is Everywoman.'' Although she is irrepressibly funny, she says it is ''a fabulous relief'' not to play a comic role in the film, ''because I've known for a long time that I had more in me than that.''

Doing ''She-Devil,'' she says, is just one step in her ambitious plans. ''I want to make a series of films. I want to write them, I want to direct them and I want to star in them, too. They'll be about me in one way or another. I want to be Woody Allen.''

Later, she has a second thought. ''I want to be the girl Indiana Jones. I would love to do an adventure movie, where I was saving the world.'' Would she have a gimmick, like Indy's whip or hat? ''I think my entire being is gimmick enough.'' she says with a cackle, adding, ''It might be cool if I used a lot of kitchen tools to fight off the enemy.''

Miss Barr recently wrote her autobiography, ''Roseanne: My Life as a Woman,'' to be published by Harper & Row in October. And, of course, there is her television show, which was No. 1 at the end of last season. ''I'll do the show till people don't like it anymore,'' Miss Barr says emphatically. ''Or until we have to take a family trip to Hawaii or go to Russia,'' she says, referring to plot devices used by other sitcoms. ''Or when we have to start having guest stars. When Sammy Davis Jr. shows up, then I'll quit.''

On the rose-colored set of the Vesta Rose Employment Agency, created by the character Ruth - under the alias of Vesta Rose - in order to infiltrate Bob's business, Miss Barr has forsaken her bowling shirt and jeans for a pink suit and heels, and her tousled hair has been teased into a neat flip. While Ruth sits at her desk, plotting her husband's downfall, her cheerful assistants, dressed in rose-patterned blouses, help a dozen women of all ages and ethnicities fill out pink employment forms.

A highly progressive outfit, the Vesta Rose Agency provides day care in a toy-filled nursery, where the director, clad as usual in basic downtown black, can be found between shots tossing a beach ball with the producer, Mr. Brett. The job agency is one of the elements Ms. Seidelman liked most about Fay Weldon's novel when she happened to pick it up in a bookstore one day. ''Ruth does really nasty things, but in the wake of all the negative things, she does all these really wonderful things. She helps thousands of unemployed women. That's kind of the beauty and the irony of it.''

Although the film is faithful to the first half of the book, Ms. Seidelman says that the screenwriters Mark Burns and Barry Strugatz, who wrote ''Married to the Mob,'' have changed Ms. Weldon's controversial ending, in which Ruth literally turns into Mary and takes on her nemesis' life style. ''I wasn't sure what the ending meant, because she becomes the other,'' says the director. The message in the film will be clearer. ''It sounds corny, but it's about how the Ruths out there don't have to be powerless.''

Looking back on her films, Ms. Seidelman says, ''There is definitely a thread that runs through all the protagonists. Women who feel a little dissatisfied, outsiderlike, looking to change their lives in some way. Certainly that was true of the character in 'Smithereens,' and of Roberta in 'Desperately Seeking Susan.' Frankie Stone in 'Making Mr. Right' looked a lot more together than she really was. And 'Cookie' is this girl who's rebellious and trying to break out on her own. And now there's Ruth, the dumped housewife who changes her life.''

This thread reflects the director's perceptions of herself. ''I feel like an underdog. I have an affinity for losers. I never felt part of the mainstream. When I got out of film school, I didn't relate to the film industry because of the kinds of films I wanted to make. But now I am part of the film industry,'' she says with a shrug, indicating she is not entirely comfortable with this idea. ''Still, I'm sort of riding that line between independent and mainstream.''

Ms. Seidelman hesitates to discuss what her film says about men, because ''I've already gotten crucified for 'Making Mr. Right.' People said that it's really anti-male, that I was saying the only good man was one that women could create themselves, or a robot or a dildo. But I'm in no way anti-male.

''The great thing about 'She-Devil,' '' she says, ''is that it's not a female thing. Everyone dreams revenge plots. Whether it's a boyfriend who dumped you, a boss who fired you. Or,'' - her eyes light with mischief - ''a critic who hated your movie.''

So without any further ado, #3 of THE GREAT EIGHT is...
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"SHE-DEVIL"
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Literally me, writing this blog