(Anthem Art and Culture), by Gary Morris (Editor), Bert Cardullo (Introduction), Jonathan Rosenbaum (Foreword). London and New York: Anthem Press, 2009.
— David Hudson, IFC.com
Gains Without Pains,
Love Without Tears
The idea, I suppose, is that if we were tossed into a citadel of privilege like Wellesley, our funky, laid-back, refreshingly unpretentious, totally cool personae would teach those New England ice queens to do the funky chicken in less than a semester. In fact, the odds are about a thousand to one that they'd convert us, and we'd end up about as unpretentious as George Bush.
6
1. What in hell was, or is, the "Junior League"? Apparently, some sort of clubhouse where minor league society babes could put on pearls and blow smoke at each other for charity.
2. "Mona Lisa Smile" is just a bit of an in-joke here. What we're really talking about is Julia Roberts' smile, one of the great money shots in all of cinema, on a par with Chaplin's skid, Marilyn's boobs, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh. When Julia smiles, icecaps melt, the earth grows green, and the very air is scented with violets.
3. I should probably say "you Americans." My hands are clean on this one.
4. The New York Times ran an article featuring interviews with actual Class of '53 alumnae, who insisted that they weren't stuck-up and snobbish like the girls in the film. In fact, I'm betting that they were a thousand times more stuck-up and snobbish than the girls in the film, who make Wellesley look like a Bonwit Teller version of Beverly Hills 90210. If there's one thing you won't find in this film, it's reality.
5. Or is it Labor Day? No wonder I never got laid!
6. I'd settle for Neil Bush. There's a man who knows how to party.
7. Of course, if you're chubby, it probably wouldn't hurt to marry that cute Harvard nerd who keeps throwing himself at you.
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