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Screen/Society--"Jennifer's Body" (Karyn Kusama, 2009) [Halloween Week]

Megan Fox seems unphased while holding a burning lighter up to the tip of her tongue, in a scene from JENIFFER'S BODY
Saturday, October 30, 2021
7:00 pm - 8:45 pm
Repertory & New Restorations

"Jennifer's Body"
(Karyn Kusama, 2009, 102 min, USA, English, Color, DCP)

"When it was first released, JENNIFER'S BODY was heavily criticized and underperformed financially. Those who skipped it may not have fully known what they were dismissing: As director Karen Kusama and screenwriter Diablo Cody have since argued, the movie they made was misrepresented by a marketing campaign that catered to straight male fantasy. But JENNIFER'S BODY is really a story about anger - young women's anger. And in recent years, it's been reevaluated through a feminist lens, and steadily grown into a cult favorite. Online, its depictions of teenage girl characters experiencing the extremes of friendship, exploitation and revenge have become potent pop culture references." -- Chastity Hale, NPR.org.

"A wicked black comedy with unexpected emotional resonance, one of the most purely pleasurable movies of the year so far."
-- Dana Stevens, Slate.com.

"The story, written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, concerned a pair of best friends named Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried) who were navigating teenage bestie codependency and the small problem of Jennifer being turned into a boy-eating succubus. It was more revenge story than vampire thrill, intent on subverting horror heroine tropes, skewering the typical commodification of women onscreen, and showcasing a kind of intimacy between teen girls rarely seen in movies."
-- Jordan Crucchiola, Vulture.com

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC3tkheD5gc

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Contact: Hank Okazaki