ABSTRACT
In comparison with the more recent girly film, with its focus on fantasy, the “smart-chick” film as a twenty-first-century variation of the new woman’s film is much more closely related to the woman’s film of classical Hollywood and the independent woman’s film of the 1970s in terms of outlook, particularly with regard to the seriousness with which it approaches its topic and its explicit, or implicit, critical edge. As such, it clearly merits to be considered as a continuation of the new woman’s film of the 1970s. In addition to revolving around a central female protagonist, these films continue to explore formulas established by the girly film—for example, that of the wedding film, as in Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008), or the marriage plot, as in Holofcener’s Friends with Money (2006). At the same time, they borrow some of their characters from the independent woman’s film, which means that these movies might be appropriately called “smart-chick films” in terms of their thematic preoccupations. These films echo “the new woman’s film” of the 1970s in terms of structure, prominence, the mode through which they address viewers, and the scope of its distribution. Male directors, including established mandarins such as Woody Allen as well as relative newcomers such as Noah Baumbach, have also contributed to the smart-chick film as a genre, continuing the practice, promoted by John Stahl, Max Ophüls and Douglas Sirk, of directing movies for “femmes.” Notwithstanding their indie credentials as low-budget productions that do not enjoy wide release, these films are stereotyped as chick flicks, albeit for “smart” women, or smart-chick films! In consequence, they are likely to be the object of what film scholar Michael Newman calls “de-authenticating,” a process by which those whom he terms the “tastemakers” who evaluate independent cinema 27as “authentic” also assert “the values of indie culture … through the negation of unworthy films”—a category that often included films addressing women’s concerns, such as Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007). 1
