Recently, in response to StinkyLu's introduction of CBQ (Cute Boy Quotient, see archives for Stinky's January 14 blog), criticlasm suggested that another rubric be considered, one that acknowledged how the presence of an exceedingly enjoyable female performer in a supporting role can occasionally redeem an otherwise unwatchable film.
StinkyLulu gave this a ponder. And, acknowledging another of criticlasm's pithy insights ("math is hard"), StinkyLu feels it best to keep this rubric of film assessment simple.
Henceforth, StinkyLulu will refer to the phenomenon of a supporting actress' performance making an unwatchable film nearly enjoyable as The Kathy Bates Effect, named in honor of a woman whose very presence in a film transforms it utterly. Recent examples of "The Kathy Bates Effect" can be seen via Joan Cusack (a veteran Bates Effect actress) in Raising Helen or Holly Hunter's voice performance in The Incredibles. Occasionally, the Kathy Bates Effect is a mixed blessing as in the recent debacle Little Black Book where the combined presence of Kathy Bates & Holly Hunter convinced both Criticlasm and MrStinky to see that disaster of a film...
So, StinkyLu respectfully submits The Kathy Bates Effect as another addition to the emerging critical tools available to those in the StinkyLulu Screening School...
Ponders the myriad pathologies of pop culture.
Obsesses about actressing at the edges.
Loves grilled cheese.
ARCHIVE OF SUPPORTING ACTRESS SUNDAYS & THE SMACKDOWN
1 comment:
Just to be even, I think you should follow your impulse (or seeming impulse) and have a Jack Nicholson effect--people who are so annoying that they have to be counterbalanced by some reason to see the film. It's Michael Caine for me. And Jack Nicholson, too--but I think that wouldln't work for straight men--he's a demi-god.
Post a Comment