Melissa McCarthy

Will Melissa McCarthy Ever Find a Film Role as Complex as Her TV Characters?

By Isabella Biedenharn on Jul 14, 2014 3:45pm

Melissa McCarthy’s arms must hurt from being tugged back and forth all the time. She’s changing Hollywood! No, she’s “selling out” fat women! Her performances show total commitment and a lack of self-consciousness! No, she’s a “gimmick comedian”! … Read More

Film

Could the Low-Budget Comedy Save Hollywood?

By Jason Bailey on Jul 8, 2014 1:00pm

Twenty years ago, the highest-grossing movie of the summer wasn’t a budget-busting superhero movie, an explosion-driven sequel, a remake, a reboot, or (God help us) the fourth in a series of toy-based films about cars that turn into robots. The highest-grossing movie of the summer — of the year, in fact — was a mid-budget comedy/drama called Forrest Gump, which ended up winning six Oscars and grossing an astonishing $677 million worldwide, on a $55 million budget. Studios made mid-level movies like Gump back then (and not just in Oscar season); the following year, Universal’s Waterworld would make headlines and prompt giggles of derision when its budget zipped past $100 million. Such a thing was unheard of. Now, it’s impossible to imagine a major studio summer movie costing less than $100 million — unless, of course, it’s a film counter-programmed to make people laugh. … Read More

Film

Hollywood Is on Crack: What This Weekend’s Horrible Holiday Box Office Says About Cinema’s Blockbuster Fixation

By Jason Bailey on Jul 7, 2014 12:00pm

If you spend too much time reading the weekly movie box office reports, the headlines can all start to blur together: “SUPERHERO MOVIE OPENS BIG,” “SUPERHERO SEQUEL TOPS ORIGINAL,” “TRANSFORMERS MOVIE BREAKS RECORDS IN FIRST WEEK,” “TRANSFORMERS MOVIE BREAKS RECORDS FOR SECOND WEEK DROP-OFF,” etc. etc. But there’s nothing normal about the headlines this Fourth of July weekend. Variety: “SUMMER BOX OFFICE DOWN NEARLY 20% AFTER JULY 4TH FILMS FIZZLE.” Box Office Mojo: “’TRANSFORMERS’ REPEATS ON WEAK INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND.” The Hollywood Reporter: “WHAT’S BEHIND SUMMER’S FREE FALL AT THE BOX OFFICE?” And Gawker, as usual, is not afraid to put too fine a point on it: “NO ONE WENT TO THE MOVIES THIS FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND.” So, uh, what happened? … Read More

Film

‘Tammy’ Is Bland and Forgettable, and Melissa McCarthy’s Got No One to Blame But Herself

By Jason Bailey on Jul 2, 2014 11:46am

We haven’t really had a movie star like Melissa McCarthy before. This isn’t merely a carefully worded reference to her physical type, though that’s part of the package; more importantly, she’s a female comic actor with a gift for slapstick, an unimpeachable skill for improvisation, copious charisma, and a little bit of an edge. It’s easy to peg most movie stars these days to an earlier icon, but not McCarthy — the closest I can come up with is Bette Midler, but she couldn’t take a fall like McCarthy can (and, early on at least, Midler invested her persona with a Mae West-esque sexuality that McCarthy has thus far eschewed). We’re in uncharted waters here, is the point, which may be why no one (except Paul Feig, apparently) seems to know exactly how to make use of her on screen. And unfortunately, that seems to go for McCarthy herself, who co-writes (with her director and husband, Ben Falcone), co-produces, and stars in Tammy, which makes its utter blandness all the more befuddling. … Read More

Film

Watch Bill Murray Babysit Melissa McCarthy’s Child in ‘St. Vincent’ Trailer

By Isabella Biedenharn on Jul 1, 2014 6:37pm

In the new film St. Vincent, Melissa McCarthy stars as a regular mom, which might shock fans who are more familiar… Read More

Media

How Not to Write About Melissa McCarthy

By Jillian Mapes on Jul 1, 2014 3:45pm

Melissa McCarthy’s new starring role, in Tammy, and the fact that she’s more of a household name than ever mean she’s garnered quite a bit of press recently. While not purposefully malicious, some coverage can be insensitive about her weight in a particularly ignorant way. To call an actress whose last several films have earned over $100 million at the box office “America’s plus-size sweetheart” instead of merely “America’s sweetheart” fixates on her differences, despite the intended compliment. … Read More

Film

Why Do We Know So Little About Melissa McCarthy’s ‘Tammy’?

By Elisabeth Donnelly on Jun 25, 2014 9:45am

Tammy, a film starring, co-written by, and very nearly directed by Oscar-nominated A-list comedian Melissa McCarthy, is coming out next week, on July 2nd. For a movie that will be in theaters really soon, its pre-marketing has remained mysterious. Why is that? Is it a comedy with no jokes? Is it secretly a work of genius that’s impossible to advertise? What’s your truth, Tammy? … Read More

Film

Stop Saying the Movie Star Is Extinct

By Jason Bailey on Jun 13, 2014 12:15pm

I suppose one of the drawbacks of being the “editorial director” of a big site like Variety is that it might be hard to find an underling brave enough to give you proper editorial guidance. That’s the best explanation I can come up with for “Movies Stars are Endangered Species as Actors Struggle to Stay Relevant,” an aimless, toothless, and generally worthless op-ed from Peter Bart, the once-savvy Hollywood insider who these days pens the show-biz bible’s equivalent to those rambling, ellipsis-heavy nightmares Larry King used to write for USA Today. Bart, who was last heard weakly advising Jon Stewart not to direct movies because non-directors doing so never works out (Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, and Orson Welles be damned), mostly just uses the “death of the movie star” canard as a weak peg for his incoherent ramblings about which actors he does and doesn’t like. But even if he’d bothered to mount a strong argument about the death of the movie star, he’d be wrong, and here’s why: … Read More

Celebrity

Melissa McCarthy Is Just Like Every Other Plus-Size Woman: Searching for Cute Clothes

By Jillian Mapes on Jun 6, 2014 1:15pm

When you Google Melissa McCarthy, the top automated search suggestion is “Melissa McCarthy weight.” Sure, McCarthy stars on a popular TV show in which her plus-size status is central to the concept (Mike & Molly), but the fascination with her weight is voyeuristic at best, fat-shaming at worst.

This is nothing new, of course. The public is cruel when it comes to celebrity standards of beauty. But this week came another reminder that the problem extends beyond viewers. Despite being one of Hollywood’s most unanimous sweethearts in recent years — magazine editors, please try out a different tagline than “favorite funny gal” — McCarthy struggles to find designers to dress her on the red carpet. … Read More