Being a film buff isn’t easy, so we people that watch many movies tend to be more or less organized about our watching habits – or at least act like it. We create list after list of movies we ‘have to watch’ and at the same time know that we will never truly reach the bottom. Which isn’t a bad thing. But sometimes, it’s nice to just watch something completely by chance – just let an algorithm of some sort decide your movie of the day. For example, do a random search at Netflix and watch the movie that pops up. Since I have to be organized about it at least a little, I will do a search for each color of the rainbow at Netflix every month. And in the end, maybe Kermit will write a song about it.
Most of you have probably seen this DVD cover a dozen times since it tends to lay around in places where women live. And, you know, there are a lot of women. It’s not the most inviting cover ever made. In fact, it looks like a rather soapy, melodramatic, manipulative sort of film that a certain kind of women tend to like. You know what I’m referring to. And then there’s that title – Fried Green Tomatoes. So desperately trying to be funny, poignant.
If you did choose to watch this movie on the many occasions that presented themselves to you, you’ll know that this movie is much better than what it appears to be on the outside. The story follows southern housewife Evelyn (Kathy Bates); a tad overweight and repressed by her husband, she is suffering from a genuine midlife-crisis. In the midst of this, she meets Ninny, an old woman who tells her an inspiring story about two fascinating women she knew in the 1920s.
Fried Green Tomatoes is a very feminist film – and blatantly so. It doesn’t try to be subtle about its intentions and message, but spells it out in neon letters and celebrates it with confetti. Usually, I’m not a fan of this sort of approach to a sensible topic – but in this film, it just works. Perhaps it’s that f*ck-you sort of humor or the likable, realistic characters. All actresses in the movie are great (the men are fine too), although Kathy Bates definitely is the center of it all. Her presence can be felt throughout the whole movie, even in the long flashbacks. It’s great to follow her character’s slow evolution and emancipation.
The movie is timeless in that it will probably continue to entertain audiences (especially women) for the rest of all time. Unless transcendence happens and we all become equal robots. However, Fried Green Tomatoes is also as early 90s as an early 90s film gets. From the editing to the cinematography to the score, everything captures the essence of that time period perfectly. Which doesn’t mean that it’s an adult, 90s Breakfast Club – most of it is set in the 1920s anyway. But it will definitely make you feel nostalgic in some way.
After having watched Fried Green Tomatoes, my advice to you readers is pretty obvious: don’t judge a film by it’s DVD cover. Because after I’d seen this movie, that generic ‘feel-good’ picture and the “boring” tomato font put a smile on my face and made my insides warm and gooey.
