I was inspired by this to go read the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" page on TV Tropes. There are dozens of examples, but not a single one of them is a theatrical-release motion picture. With no more evidence than that, I am going to suggest that Rabin was already familiar with the trope before Elizabethtown came out but only when it was used in a film did he, as a film critic, have an excuse to write about it.
The thing is, this is an archetype I was drawn to, decades before the term was coined, as a sort of cover for my social ineptitude. Yeah, I wasn't doing inappropriate things because I was clueless and couldn't read a room to save my life; no, it was because I was quirky! and creative! and a free spirit!
Then at some point after Rabin's coinage, I ran across an essay arguing that behind the trope of the MPDG there was the reality of the autistic woman and I kind of went, oh.
The experiences of women who identify with these characters are something that I really want to touch on, but that I don't feel qualified to. Thank you for sharing this. It really does help add perspective.
Well said, lad. Quite the deconstruction. Thanks for watching some of those movies so that I never had to.
Never , for one moment, felt the need to watch Elizabethtown. But Career Opportunities will forever be a classic ….because of reasons.
Also, Roman Holiday is likely the best (or at least top 3) on your list. Fell in love with Hepburn the same way that I fell in love with Portman during Garden State.
I was inspired by this to go read the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" page on TV Tropes. There are dozens of examples, but not a single one of them is a theatrical-release motion picture. With no more evidence than that, I am going to suggest that Rabin was already familiar with the trope before Elizabethtown came out but only when it was used in a film did he, as a film critic, have an excuse to write about it.
The thing is, this is an archetype I was drawn to, decades before the term was coined, as a sort of cover for my social ineptitude. Yeah, I wasn't doing inappropriate things because I was clueless and couldn't read a room to save my life; no, it was because I was quirky! and creative! and a free spirit!
Then at some point after Rabin's coinage, I ran across an essay arguing that behind the trope of the MPDG there was the reality of the autistic woman and I kind of went, oh.
The experiences of women who identify with these characters are something that I really want to touch on, but that I don't feel qualified to. Thank you for sharing this. It really does help add perspective.
Well said, lad. Quite the deconstruction. Thanks for watching some of those movies so that I never had to.
Never , for one moment, felt the need to watch Elizabethtown. But Career Opportunities will forever be a classic ….because of reasons.
Also, Roman Holiday is likely the best (or at least top 3) on your list. Fell in love with Hepburn the same way that I fell in love with Portman during Garden State.
I actually did make a tier list of movies, because it helped keep me sane. And yes, Roman Holiday was in the top tier.
Leave the '-isms' at home.
From a friend:
https://substack.com/profile/303506119-a-voice-for-men/note/c-205773431