Yeah, I Watched Riding The Bus With My Sister
Firstly, I'd like to say that blogging about this movie in no way lessens my guilt and shame at having watched it, okay? First-and-a-half-ly, I would like to reaffirm my stated and deeply-felt opinion that those with developmental disabilities and those who work with them are deserving of the utmost respect.
Secondly, I know full well that it's wrong to refer to persons with developmental disabilties as retarded. However, I think it not only acceptable but mandatory to apply this term to every character, fictional and non-, involved with this particular production.
SOME BITTER IRONIES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TV MOVIE
1. Anjelica Huston directed this piece of crap! Oh, Anjelica. I can only hope they paid you in gold bars and precious rubies and a Himalayan baby dolphin preserve of your very own to helm this ridiculous...or, no, wait. I hope, instead, that you now have a persistent rash. Not for the rest of your life, but for up to six weeks. A rash on you, Anjelica Huston!
2. For all her presumed good intentions, Ms O'Donnell portrays the retarded lady in the style of a vicious junior-high bully taunting the special ed kids, with Pee-Wee Herman laugh and Punky Brewster shoes added for extra dimension. Except when she's a-cryin,' and then all hell breaks loose. Total Methody apeshit histrionics! Except even her retardo-tantrums have a kind of retro-80's flava to them. To wit: she blatantly steals a physical bit from a 1984 Tarzan movie, wiping her whimpering face with her dead father's hand, a la Christopher Lambert in Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan. And speaking of the cast of Greystoke...
3. Andie MacDowell, oh my God, you are really not a good actress at all. Please, please, Andie MacDowell, do not do a New York accent, or a movie, ever again. Don't they feed you at the haircolor-commercial place they keep you at?
4. But back to Rosie O'Donnell as the empowered retard with the fetching underbite. Why couldn't the retard have been a lesbian? But oh, no. She had to be a str8 retard. They had to go and give her a retarded boyfriend named Jesse, who in addition to being male is also black...and hot...and, incidentally, um, an expert martial artist who beats up criminals. Okay, so this movie is slightly awesome. *
5. Except that, no, it isn't awesome at all. Because for one thing, the title is hideously insensitive. I cannot have been the only viewer who mentally amended the title to Riding the Short Bus With My Sister.
*My roommates and I tried to think of which actress we would cast in the role of Rosie's character's retarded girlfriend, and decided Mary Stuart Masterson might be able to pull it off.
Secondly, I know full well that it's wrong to refer to persons with developmental disabilties as retarded. However, I think it not only acceptable but mandatory to apply this term to every character, fictional and non-, involved with this particular production.
SOME BITTER IRONIES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TV MOVIE
1. Anjelica Huston directed this piece of crap! Oh, Anjelica. I can only hope they paid you in gold bars and precious rubies and a Himalayan baby dolphin preserve of your very own to helm this ridiculous...or, no, wait. I hope, instead, that you now have a persistent rash. Not for the rest of your life, but for up to six weeks. A rash on you, Anjelica Huston!
2. For all her presumed good intentions, Ms O'Donnell portrays the retarded lady in the style of a vicious junior-high bully taunting the special ed kids, with Pee-Wee Herman laugh and Punky Brewster shoes added for extra dimension. Except when she's a-cryin,' and then all hell breaks loose. Total Methody apeshit histrionics! Except even her retardo-tantrums have a kind of retro-80's flava to them. To wit: she blatantly steals a physical bit from a 1984 Tarzan movie, wiping her whimpering face with her dead father's hand, a la Christopher Lambert in Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan. And speaking of the cast of Greystoke...
3. Andie MacDowell, oh my God, you are really not a good actress at all. Please, please, Andie MacDowell, do not do a New York accent, or a movie, ever again. Don't they feed you at the haircolor-commercial place they keep you at?
4. But back to Rosie O'Donnell as the empowered retard with the fetching underbite. Why couldn't the retard have been a lesbian? But oh, no. She had to be a str8 retard. They had to go and give her a retarded boyfriend named Jesse, who in addition to being male is also black...and hot...and, incidentally, um, an expert martial artist who beats up criminals. Okay, so this movie is slightly awesome. *
5. Except that, no, it isn't awesome at all. Because for one thing, the title is hideously insensitive. I cannot have been the only viewer who mentally amended the title to Riding the Short Bus With My Sister.
*My roommates and I tried to think of which actress we would cast in the role of Rosie's character's retarded girlfriend, and decided Mary Stuart Masterson might be able to pull it off.
posted by sarahfisch at
1:38 AM
1 Comments:
thanks for this; i knew i wldnt have to watch it if you did.
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