Half Magic Review
Apr. 30th, 2019 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseHalf Magic is very much a women's movie. Written and directed by and starring Heather Graham, it focuses on three women's attempts to improve their lives and relationships with a little help from each other and some magical candles.
I rarely watch romances and this was in the romance section of Sky Movies but I'd seen wonderful gifs featuring Luke Arnold (Black Sails) and I knew it starred Stepanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) so I gave it a shot.
Gif from: http://significanceofmoths.tumblr.com/post/171215086687
Sexism, Friendship, Sensuality, Sexuality and Self-Acceptance
Honey (Graham) is working as a development assistant with her asshole boyfriend (Chris D'Elia) who uses her for his sexual gratification over making sure she's enjoying it and puts her and her ideas down at every opportunity. She wants to make his movies less sexist, wants to write and direct her own screenplays. Supported by fellow office worker and a female sponsor, Honey keeps pitching to make the scripts featuring her boyfriend feature more women with sexual agency.
Most of Honey's concerns involve "why do the women who have sex have to die?" and the movie gets a little heavy on women wanting lots of sex, more on that in a moment. Honey has issues stemming from childhood with lots of flashbacks to a bible thumping priest (Johnny Knoxville) telling the congregation that any sex other than for reproduction will send them to hell.
At a meeting for female empowerment, Honey meets Candy (Beatriz) and Eva (Angela Kinsey). After the group, which talks about honouring your body amongst other things, the three talk further. Candy is in a relationship with a guy who refuses to be monogamous even though she is; he thinks they're being modern yet wants her to do his laundry! Eva's husband left her for a much young woman and she still wants him back - she didn't have children because of their careers and has a bit of angst about that, not quite enough for me to nope out. Eva is older than the others (in the movie at least, Graham is actually 45, around the age Eva is supposed to be!) and a successful fashion designer with her own store.
The women adopt a habit of accepting compliments with "Thank you, it's true," to offset years of brushing off their accomplishments which is a nice moment.
Candy works at a new age type store which sells "magical candles" and the women light some, asking for better relationships. Soon after, Honey meets self-named Freedom (Arnold) who is nice to her as she asked for, and at first partying with him and having sex is enough; but the relationship later sours.
Eva hooks up with an old friend of her husband's (Jason Lewis from Sex and the City and more recently Midnight, Texas) who is now divorced and has two young daughters that Eva will later see as surrogate children but it's not all smooth sailing. The ex-husband becomes jealous while Eva struggles with issues about her body now she feels she's aging.
Candy (a unicorn loving woman who is delightfully different from her B99 persona) tries to get her man to respect her more, later resorting to dressing as a dominatrix which proves to be an effective if temporary fix for her relationship woes.
The women light further candles to clarify their desires when things don't quite work out as anticipated. Honey gets closure on the religious front when she sees the ex-priest in a whole new light. Candy gets fired from her job but also dumps her boyfriend because she won't compromise on who she is. Eva overcomes her body issues.
I was on the verge of nopeing out mid-way at the constant sexual narrative - and Eva's assertion that a man isn't "heterosexual enough" if he won't give oral is just more sexism and sex policing, it doesn't make it better coming from a woman to demand particular kinds of sex.
However the movie began to shift to show a different side to this. Eva gets unexpected oral sex and confesses how she felt about not having "groomed" first and how he didn't care; that's rare, to acknowledge that women naturally have body hair and it is not gross! It's just a pity this led her to state that oral is somehow necessary.
Furthermore in the latter third of the movie Honey gets a copy of "Sex For One: The Joy of Self-Loving" by Betty Dodson and has a sensual and solo sexual experience that's amazing. Again, female masturbation onscreen is incredibly rare.
Near the end of the movie the women call on all the elements and ask for their heart's desires, "this or something better", Candy says, which fits with modern neopaganism and law of attraction. She begins selling candles at Eva's store while Honey turns to directing her own movies.
Honey also meets up with ex-co-worker who's been a consistently supportive male presence without pushing her into romance, though they now agree to go to dinner. Honey knows what she wants and won't settle.
I find a lot of romance movies and novels tedious because of the focus on sex and children, how it's not a "real" relationship without sex, how you have zero family until you have a biological child. This movie however addressed other ways of mothering and the importance of being respected within relationships, as well female sensuality and sexuality in and of itself. I own a copy of that aforementioned book and it helped me a lot, long before I realised I was asexual, to own sensuality and sexuality for myself.*
So this isn't a truly romantic movie, it's more about finding and being true to yourself, and not compromising on that for the sake of romance - the right man is one you can form a relationship with that has mutual respect and shared goals.
It's not a great movie but it's worth a watch.
Other reviews - the movie rates distinctly average
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/magic-1087554
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/half-magic/
https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/half-magic-review-1202704631/
info at IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4738776/
Trailer:
* On which note I'll remind everyone that![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
mmom is open all next month, the merry month of masturbation.
You can also check out my previous posts discussing the history of why Merry Month of Masturbation began, before the fic comm started, and more about the intersection between my asexuality and masturbation, by using the tag though all my mmmom are also included in that.
I rarely watch romances and this was in the romance section of Sky Movies but I'd seen wonderful gifs featuring Luke Arnold (Black Sails) and I knew it starred Stepanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) so I gave it a shot.
Gif from: http://significanceofmoths.tumblr.com/post/171215086687
Sexism, Friendship, Sensuality, Sexuality and Self-Acceptance
Honey (Graham) is working as a development assistant with her asshole boyfriend (Chris D'Elia) who uses her for his sexual gratification over making sure she's enjoying it and puts her and her ideas down at every opportunity. She wants to make his movies less sexist, wants to write and direct her own screenplays. Supported by fellow office worker and a female sponsor, Honey keeps pitching to make the scripts featuring her boyfriend feature more women with sexual agency.
Most of Honey's concerns involve "why do the women who have sex have to die?" and the movie gets a little heavy on women wanting lots of sex, more on that in a moment. Honey has issues stemming from childhood with lots of flashbacks to a bible thumping priest (Johnny Knoxville) telling the congregation that any sex other than for reproduction will send them to hell.
At a meeting for female empowerment, Honey meets Candy (Beatriz) and Eva (Angela Kinsey). After the group, which talks about honouring your body amongst other things, the three talk further. Candy is in a relationship with a guy who refuses to be monogamous even though she is; he thinks they're being modern yet wants her to do his laundry! Eva's husband left her for a much young woman and she still wants him back - she didn't have children because of their careers and has a bit of angst about that, not quite enough for me to nope out. Eva is older than the others (in the movie at least, Graham is actually 45, around the age Eva is supposed to be!) and a successful fashion designer with her own store.
The women adopt a habit of accepting compliments with "Thank you, it's true," to offset years of brushing off their accomplishments which is a nice moment.
Candy works at a new age type store which sells "magical candles" and the women light some, asking for better relationships. Soon after, Honey meets self-named Freedom (Arnold) who is nice to her as she asked for, and at first partying with him and having sex is enough; but the relationship later sours.
Eva hooks up with an old friend of her husband's (Jason Lewis from Sex and the City and more recently Midnight, Texas) who is now divorced and has two young daughters that Eva will later see as surrogate children but it's not all smooth sailing. The ex-husband becomes jealous while Eva struggles with issues about her body now she feels she's aging.
Candy (a unicorn loving woman who is delightfully different from her B99 persona) tries to get her man to respect her more, later resorting to dressing as a dominatrix which proves to be an effective if temporary fix for her relationship woes.
The women light further candles to clarify their desires when things don't quite work out as anticipated. Honey gets closure on the religious front when she sees the ex-priest in a whole new light. Candy gets fired from her job but also dumps her boyfriend because she won't compromise on who she is. Eva overcomes her body issues.
I was on the verge of nopeing out mid-way at the constant sexual narrative - and Eva's assertion that a man isn't "heterosexual enough" if he won't give oral is just more sexism and sex policing, it doesn't make it better coming from a woman to demand particular kinds of sex.
However the movie began to shift to show a different side to this. Eva gets unexpected oral sex and confesses how she felt about not having "groomed" first and how he didn't care; that's rare, to acknowledge that women naturally have body hair and it is not gross! It's just a pity this led her to state that oral is somehow necessary.
Furthermore in the latter third of the movie Honey gets a copy of "Sex For One: The Joy of Self-Loving" by Betty Dodson and has a sensual and solo sexual experience that's amazing. Again, female masturbation onscreen is incredibly rare.
Near the end of the movie the women call on all the elements and ask for their heart's desires, "this or something better", Candy says, which fits with modern neopaganism and law of attraction. She begins selling candles at Eva's store while Honey turns to directing her own movies.
Honey also meets up with ex-co-worker who's been a consistently supportive male presence without pushing her into romance, though they now agree to go to dinner. Honey knows what she wants and won't settle.
I find a lot of romance movies and novels tedious because of the focus on sex and children, how it's not a "real" relationship without sex, how you have zero family until you have a biological child. This movie however addressed other ways of mothering and the importance of being respected within relationships, as well female sensuality and sexuality in and of itself. I own a copy of that aforementioned book and it helped me a lot, long before I realised I was asexual, to own sensuality and sexuality for myself.*
So this isn't a truly romantic movie, it's more about finding and being true to yourself, and not compromising on that for the sake of romance - the right man is one you can form a relationship with that has mutual respect and shared goals.
It's not a great movie but it's worth a watch.
Other reviews - the movie rates distinctly average
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/magic-1087554
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/half-magic/
https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/half-magic-review-1202704631/
info at IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4738776/
Trailer:
* On which note I'll remind everyone that
mmom is open all next month, the merry month of masturbation.You can also check out my previous posts discussing the history of why Merry Month of Masturbation began, before the fic comm started, and more about the intersection between my asexuality and masturbation, by using the tag though all my mmmom are also included in that.
