Book Club Cinema or: How I Learned to appreciate a new wave of Women on screen
Book Club Cinema is not a genre but a movement. For those yearning to describe your 80 for Brady, Calendar Girls, Book Club, or Poms, I find this made-up category, Book Club Cinema, the best fit. . Or as my friend from back home would say, “if it has Jane Fonda, produced by Jane Fonda, or if it looks like one of the recent films, it must be Book Club Cinema.”
Jane Fonda does not need to be tied to a project to certify a movie as Book Club Cinema, it just puts older women in the center of a movie rather than on the sidelines. Fonda has been a purveyor for this new trend we have been seeing on screen. The films primarily focus on an ensemble cast of older women and their relationships with each other, and put men or their romantic partners on the sidelines. These films give a view into long term friendship and portray aging in a lighthearted fashion, rather than leaving these great actors to play the forgotten, coldhearted, or kooky maternal figures. It reminds the audience that their lives and stories don’t end once they receive an AARP card.
I understand that this subgenre is not for everyone, but if you also found yourself watching the trailer for The Exotic Marigold Hotel around the age of 9 and thought “Oh this looks fun,” you have reached a goldmine. Or if many of your favorite actors happen to be in their early 70’s to late 80’s, you might find they happen to appear in these films.
Book Club Cinema does not always create perfect movies, dare I say they often seem like a vehicle for actors to hang out with one another, but I’m okay with that. Yes, they are predictable and cheesy but that is why so many people go out to watch them. Even if these movies are formulaic, they put forward these leading ladies and show that they still have life for themselves.
We have been lucky enough to see the progression of age reflected in the media, and how age doesn’t mean devoiding ourselves of joy or moving away from what we once loved. Instead, it serves as a reminder that there is beauty at any stage of life, whether life is full of cliches and bad jokes. As my friend said it best as we were leaving the empty showing of Book Club: The Next Chapter, the only two in the movie theater, “Let these ladies go on whatever vacations they want, and make silly little movies.”