Manic Pixie Dream Girls

[Zot!]

Only issue I have with Zooey Deschanel's typecasting is that The Good Girl indicates, to me at least, that she's funniest and most interesting in a very different type of role.

I've only seen this show once, but you're telling me she's playing against type in this? I think her cotton commercial might have been more of a stretch. This thing is tailor made to her. She produces, she wears adorable hand-me-downs, and she sings the theme song.

[swo17]

You're thinking of the TV show New Girl. The Good Girl does probably feature her best performance, and it's a shade darker than her usual roles.

[Zot!]

Sorry! I didn't know that existed. Ignore.

[Kirkinson]

Zooey Deschanel started out playing something more like the type of persona Aubrey Plaza exemplifies today. You can see this in Mumford, The Good Girl, and to some extent in Big Trouble, too. But she was also great in a totally non-comedic setting in Manic and it makes me wish she would try her hand at a couple more dramatic roles in movies that are not The Happening. I do wonder how many scenes of hers ended up getting cut from that last, terribly rushed act of The Assassination of Jesse James....

[manicsounds]

Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic

Seems like a good call for an example of a 'guy' equivalent. I guess the precursor to Jack would be Tramp from "Lady And The Tramp".

[manicsounds]

Keira Knightley in "Seeking A Friend At The End Of The World" seems to fit the bill as well.

[JamesF]

Top marks to Digital Spy's Simon Reynolds for somewhat accurately describing Olga Kurylenko in To The Wonder as a "Malick Pixie Dream Girl"

(FYI I'm very much a defender of the film and her performance!)

[jbeall]

Manic Pixie Prostitute

[Matt]

Cupcakes McKenzie: Manic Pixie Dream Girl

[warren oates]

Manic Punk Dream Girls, an authentic subspecies? You decide!

[karmajuice]

Nathan Rabin, who originated the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl, reacts to the term's widespread usage.

[colinr0380]

While it is great that Mr Rabin is a bit shocked at what he has wrought with the proliferation of the term (potentially becoming his "two thumbs up!"), surely the issue here isn't just that misogynists are throwing the term around with wild abandon, but that there have been just far too many films around to which the term was able to be applied? Films that do treat their female protagonists as little more than dream-like facilitators for the male heroes with no other purpose than to improve him. If that term did not capture something even slighty relevant to works it was being applied to then it would have died a death a long time ago.

Of course that doesn't take into account the way that people can pick up on terms and use them with their own agendas, or even take a phrase like that and build upon it in a way not originally intended (i.e. the spin-off books, theatres programming film seasons, or perhaps other critics not using it in the manner originally intended) that can potentially twist or corrupt the original intent into something else, for other motivations. But I think that kind of thing happens everywhere, not just in film criticism!

Perhaps the bigger issue is that, by the very nature of how it was created, it is a perjorative term acting as a j'accuse to specific identified tropes. From the article it seems that Rabin and some of those interviewed are worried that it has become far too easy to see the trope and just dismiss the work with a cry of "manic pixie dream girl!" to warn others off. That might be a problem, especially as often whether a film is 'good' or 'bad' usually comes down not to a particular trope itself (although we can all have our personal feelings about whether we are interested in a trope or not. e.g. the giant robot trope!) but what particular pieces of work are doing with that trope. Whether they are adding something new or different to it, or approaching something hackneyed from a different perspective to illuminate a new dimension of the subject, and so on. Or alternatively are they just using it as familar shorthand easily within reach, in which case there probably would be grounds for criticism, or at least finding out what makes that particular idea retain currency among filmmakers and/or audiences to the extent that we see it brought out again and again. In a filmic world which is full of remakes or one success breeding dozens of similarly themed films, often these slight differences in nuance or handling can provide a small glimmer of interest in almost any film! Maybe the only one!

[Andre Jurieu]

I can understand that Rabin has become frustrated by the fact that the term has perhaps become applied too broadly, but in most cases I think the label is appropriate, simply because there are very few "nuanced and multidimensional female characters: women with rich inner lives and complicated emotions and total autonomy" within movies that concentrate their narrative on the young, creative, comfortable, male protagonist who is adrift within his modern-urban life.

[Shrew]

I agree that it's still a useful term, but its origin as a pejorative limits its use in describing a neutral trope. Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby is an example of this. She fits the definition of an MPDG in that she's zany and unreasonably obsessed with Cary Grant's milquetoast, but it's hard to call out the role as some misogynist fantasy. Unlike Elizabethtown and Garden State, Bringing Up Baby isn't "about" a mopey man opening up and learning to love life--it's "about" two opposing character types bouncing off each other and creating as much zany chaos as they can in the process. So even though Hepburn, Dunst, and Portman share similar characteristics and even their function vis-a-vis the male protagonist, they're deployed in completely different ways.

The other problem is that people tend to zoom in on the "Manic Pixie" part and don't really think about the "Dream Girl" part, which can be misogynist in how it stigmatizes "quirky" women. For example, I'd argue that Zooey Deschenel has only played a MPDG once (Gigantic), yet she's become the go-to example for the trope because she always plays quirky characters. Likewise people throw that label at Happy-Go-Lucky, despite the film being fully devoted to exploring the life and headspace of the female protagonist. All these ignore the central problem of the MPDG, in that she needs to mainly exist to draw out a male protagonist.

[Andre Jurieu]

I agree that it's still a useful term, but its origin as a pejorative limits its use in describing a neutral trope.

I believe we're on the same side of this argument. I don't really think the term is as useful in situations where the narrative is not centered entirely around a mopey (modern) male protagonist.

The other problem is that people tend to zoom in on the "Manic Pixie" part and don't really think about the "Dream Girl" part, which can be misogynist in how it stigmatizes "quirky" women. For example, I'd argue that Zooey Deschenel has only played a MPDG once (Gigantic), yet she's become the go-to example for the trope because she always plays quirky characters.

I think the default example that people use for proving that Deschanel is a MPDG would be 500 Days of Summer, which I often think is odd since her character actually sends the protagonist into a deeper depression because she calls him out on the fact that he has a misconception of the dynamics within their relationship. Basically, she's frustrated that he perceives her as his MPDG and not as a multidimensional personality.

[colinr0380]

And I think you could throw in the recent Her into this as an interesting subversion of the MPDG trope. Although it could be argued that Jonze already subverted it pretty well years before the term was coined with the thoroughly disinterested character played by Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich, who nonetheless gets focused on relentlessly by the hero as his 'motivator'.

[Andre Jurieu]

Although it could be argued that Jonze already subverted it pretty well years before the term was coined with the thoroughly disinterested character played by Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich, who nonetheless gets focused on relentlessly by the hero as his 'motivator'.

I'm in agreement with you on Jonze subverting the trope in Her, but as far as the application of the trope in Being john Malkovich, I think Keener's character seemed far too grounded and cold to qualify for the "Manic Pixie" portion of the trope. In that case, I think the only way you could apply the trope is if the implication is that Craig (my lord what has happened to Cusack's career?) misguidedly believes her to be his dream-girl and that attaining her will solve all his problems.

[domino harvey]

I haven't seen Deschenel in much besides the more obvious films, but Winter Passing disproved the theory that she only plays one kind of role pretty swiftly: even though the advertising materials make it seem like an indie romp, within ten minutes or so, Zooey Deschenel has blown her coke dealer in a barroom bathroom and drowned a kitten on-screen

[Shrew]

The other problem is that people tend to zoom in on the "Manic Pixie" part and don't really think about the "Dream Girl" part, which can be misogynist in how it stigmatizes "quirky" women. For example, I'd argue that Zooey Deschenel has only played a MPDG once (Gigantic), yet she's become the go-to example for the trope because she always plays quirky characters.

I think the default example that people use for proving that Deschanel is a MPDG would be 500 Days of Summer, which I often think is odd since her character actually sends the protagonist into a deeper depression because she calls him out on the fact that he has a misconception of the dynamics within their relationship. Basically, she's frustrated that he perceives her as his MPDG and not as a multidimensional personality.

Which is basically my point in how the term in abused. Deschenel really isn't an MPDG in 500 Days of Summer, but because her character likes to do things like listen to the Smiths or run through a furniture store, people call her one even though she clearly has a full life outside the male protagonist. Winslet in Eternal Sunshine has the same issue. The result is that perfectly fine but quirky female characters get labeled as mere male fantasy, which in term limits the kinds of female characters writers and actors can create.

The use of "quirk" as a character trait can also be a symptom of lazy writing, but it shouldn't be conflated with the MPDG, and shouldn't carry the same degree of male-gaze pejorativeness. Unfortunately that seems to be how the term is most often applied.

[domino harvey]

Is there such a thing as a Manic Pixie Dream Guy?

Gotta add Gerard Depardieu in Tenue de soirée to this smaller list (Manic Pedale Dream Guy?)