randompersonsposts:

Melissa McCarthy’s SPY (2015)

Here are some thoughts from a random person who just saw the movie Spy. I loved the movie so much. I’m giving it cookies for everything it did right and for everything it didn’t do wrong. (SPOILERS!)

It didn’t go there:

• Ha ha, fat people are fat trope - Susan is a fat person and the movie was okay with that. Her size was never the point of the jokes. She never talked about her size; no one called her fat (even the villain who constantly insulted her); the words diet, weight, or figure never came up.
• Fat people are always eating trope - She ate exactly twice, both times for a joke that would have played the same way if she had been thin. She didn’t eat for comfort when she was grieving, or angry, or frustrated. She didn’t talk about food. There was even an office cake joke that happened in the background while she did other things.
• Fat people are out of shape trope - She had chase scenes and fight scenes and tons of activity without the typical stopping to wheeze and gasp for air bit. She didn’t talk about having a heart attack from exertion. She just did stuff.
• Fat people bump you around with their fat bodies when they fight trope - She had some awesome fight scenes and never once belly bumped anyone, used her boobs as weapons, smothered anyone with her body, or sat on anyone. She fought like a regular person, and one that actually knew how to fight, at that! I shouldn’t have to give a cookie for this but it still happens in today’s media, so cookie.
• Fat women are always desperate for men trope - She was in unrequited love with one man. When he was gone, other men tried to repeatedly hit on her and she didn’t swoon at the first sign of interest. She wasn’t like, “Who, me? You want me?” She just said no thank you like anyone else.
• Fat people are gross trope - The main objections people seemed to have were about her clothing. And once she got a hold of some nice threads people were impressed and complimented her. Like no one acted like there was anything inherently wrong with her body, just her style.
• Sparse use of the B-word and other slurs against women - Movies were always littered with it, but TV shows nowadays act like they get bonus revenue for each time they can shoehorn the B-word into the script. So cookies for having a female villain and a hardass female boss and resisting the seemingly uncontrollable urge to rattle off every gendered insult in the book. Even during some serious trash talk. When one loudmouth went there, he got called out on it.
• Gratuitous nudity trope - With so many women in the cast it would be simple to throw in a random swimming pool scene to get that iconic spy movie bikini shot. We didn’t even watch any of the women get dressed or undressed. It’s like when they cast a bunch of men, and they all walk around fully clothed, but you somehow manage to enjoy the movie anyway. But with women.
• No male gaze - There was no slow pan up or down a woman’s body as some sort of means of character introduction. There was no let’s hide in a closet, oh guess we’re stuck watching her undress. We just let hot chicks not have to get ogled for once.
  
• “I’ll take it from here, honey” trope - Women in action movies are often shown with false empowerment. Like, yeah they get a few punches in, and yeah they won that cat fight with the female side villain, but when it comes time to kill the big boss, there’s a man there to take the shot or deal the killing blow. She did almost all the heavy lifting for the violent/action stuff. She didn’t even fight in tandem with the other male spies. She was truly badass all on her own.
• A female villain needs to be vanquished/humiliated trope - Hollywood loves to punish women. Along this widespread theme almost no female villain gets killed/arrested without someone telling her off, or at least a parting shot. Most often using the B-word or C-word. There’s a close up to cherish her outrage and/or fury and then she’s taken out. In this movie she just got arrested. We even acknowledged that she sort of bonded with Susan without being sappy. This trope is not mandatory, people.

They finally went there:

• Women were allowed to have ugly personality traits - The villain was an ass to everyone and that’s just her personality, and she respected mouthiness in others. Susan was very polite, but when she started cursing like a sailor, no one was shocked or tried to shush her, they didn’t even comment on it. The CIA boss was allowed to be a hardass boss without any of the men grumbling or joking about it.
• They fridged a man for HER motivation - So often there is a dead woman and/or kids fueling the male action hero. A man’s death spurring a woman into action, vengeance, even. It’s almost like these are human emotions, not just male emotions.
  
• She knew her stuff - We honored the fact that Susan spent ten years doing all the detail work that supports spy missions, and we got to watch her use that wealth of knowledge to be an awesome spy.
• Susan to the rescue - She rescued the other male spies multiple times. It wasn’t to prove her worthiness or anything, it was just her getting things done.
• Boys on the side - Some major big name male actors took a back seat to Susan and her storyline and we solidly kept the focus on her. The guys were often extra comic relief.
• Susan is deaf to your mansplaining - One loudmouth kept showing up trying to tell her that he should be handling things and how she was just going to ruin stuff, but she always stood up to him, never doubted herself because of him, and told him he was talking nonsense.
• It’s not because girls can’t espionage - When people expressed doubts about Susan handling the mission they focused on her lack of field experience or her mild personality. Even the loudmouth. They didn’t act like women can’t do it. The most badass spy at the agency was a woman. 
• Susan is hot stuff - Multiple guys tried to get with her and, while often unwarranted in other movies, it served a bigger purpose here. In action movies where there are supermodel looking chicks trying to contribute and help blow stuff up while the dude bros keep hitting on her, or worse she’s offered up as the man’s reward for winning the day, that mess is just so extra. Here it serves to remind us that being fat doesn’t automatically make you unsexy or unlovable.
• Nude pix - Oh yeah, there was a flash of gratuitous nudity. No girl ass, no boobs, no bush glimpse. There were unexpected dick pics. I repeat, no barenaked ladies, but dude parts! What? I love it.
• Friendship is magic - She had a close friendship with another woman and they stayed friends. No frenemies, no betrayals, just another woman that she could talk to about stuff and things. Someone who understood her and enjoyed her for herself, not just to be close to the action or something. She even chose friendship over romance in the end. Two cookies for that.

Ok, so they did go here:

• Fifty shades of white - One Asian spy in one scene does not constitute racial diversity. This one’s a no-brainer, people. Do better.
• Girly men suck  - Susan had some choice rants, some of which berated men for effeminate traits. They were cringe-worthy and I’m hoping Melissa McCarthy can grow out of this at some point. Her movies include so many unscripted riffs that I have to point at her on this one.
• Watch the hands, pal - I thought they were excessive with the Pepe Le Pew guy’s handsiness.

TL;DR Everyone should see this movie for all the reasons. They manage not to screw up the little stuff.