Post by StevePulaski on Dec 3, 2017 12:46:47 GMT -5
Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady (2017)
Directed by: Neal Brennan
Directed by: Neal Brennan
Michelle Wolf in her debut comedy special.
Rating: ★★★½
"I'm a feminist," Michelle Wolf claims very early in Nice Lady, her debut HBO special, "but not the 'buy my own drinks' kind of feminist." For the next sixty minutes, she capitalizes off of this cheeky claim with a barrage of humor centered around the easily discernible dichotomies in men and women.
The feminist-power in Wolf's comedy routine come from a place that's both critical and comical. She questions whether the decentralization of third-wave feminism has helped it: you have one group, she says, fighting for equal pay, and another fighting to "free the nipple" on Instagram. "Are both issues important?," she indirectly asks, to which the answer is "absolutely," but social media and contemporary feminism's inability to prioritize has made it a jack of all trades movement that has inadvertently stunted its own progress.
Michelle Wolf does an incredible job at showing her beliefs by making them the comic fuel for her special, and she adds to the list of comedians, such as Jerrod Carmichael, Louis C.K., and Robert Klein, who have made great strides in their comic-careers by using HBO as their platform. Best known as a writer and recurring contributor to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Wolf storms on the stage like a "passive-aggressive" hurricane brought on by a petty Mother Nature. She's a vivacious blend of Emma Stone youthfulness, Susan Sarandon facial features, and naturally permed hair, all capped off with an enthusiastically high-pitched voice (high enough that helium can't touch it, we're told).
Her topics of gender norms, gender politics, and self-deprecation comprise a routine you could believe was festering inside her head for months before she got the time to sit down and fine-tune it. The end result is one of the funniest comedy specials of the year, as it cheerfully mixes a lot of timely subject matter into digestible and humbly thought-provoking quips that I believe almost anyone could enjoy. There's such a hateful attitude and animosity towards feminism, primarily from male-dominated circles on the internet, yet there is also the aforementioned problem of decentralization that has proliferated other circles, such as social activism. Wolf recognizes this and delivers great monologues about the problems these pose and does so in a comically deft fashion.
She strays into territory that is more light-hearted, however, talking about things like the scrotum and how even the name suggests that it was God's worst aesthetic mistake, while touching on the fact that men, if they had a menstrual cycle, would not have settled for fluffs of cotton that come in various sizes as the primary solution. In addition, many women's rights activists will nod in affirmation when Wolf makes the claim that when a man walks a woman to her apartment that he, in a sense, is the most dangerous threat to her, especially if his motives are unclear. Following that is a joke involving "yeast" that you might have to call your mother for help in order to fully understand it, so she says.
Wolf is a brave new talent. On top of being quick on her feet and wonderfully brash in her delivery, she strikes me as the kind of person who will command the comic scene as well as be a part of organizations or activist groups intent on furthering important causes. She's the kind of quick-witted, multifaceted talent we need, with layers of moxie, off-color humor, and feminist power coming together like a Neapolitan treat. Nice Lady (and I won't ruin how or why the special gets its name) is as good as it is because it compliments Wolf's personality and approach to comedy ever-so-thoughtfully.
Directed by: Neal Brennan.