MCF hosted a blog party with a fun topic... but who can limit themselves to Five Formidable Females OR Five Femme Fatales? I can’t. Gotta do five of each.

	05) Gogo Yubari: So many characters in both Kill Bill movies to pick from… but Gogo from Volume 1 sticks in my head as the one I found genuinely scary. I had no trouble believing that this girl could kill somebody, and would enjoy doing it.
	04) Mallory Knox: Not so much a Femme Fatale, really just a basic Femme Maniac. Natural Born Killers is a great film, and really summed up the state of TV culture in the mid ‘90’s. Mickey and Mallory really scared me. The whole Victim/Villain thing is rolled up neatly in that character. To what extent should we feel sorry for the bad guys if they were abused as children? And to what extent are we playing into their hands by doing so? NBK made me ponder those questions seriously, and Mallory made me squirm in my seat.
	03) DeDe Truitt: This character is different from Gogo and Mallory. She’s not extreme to the point of being like a cartoon. She is, instead, a believably cold, manipulative, calculated user and liar with no regard for the lives or well beings of others. It’s amazing that this main character from The Opposite of Sex is still as funny and enjoyable as she is. The ultimate anti-hero Femme Fatale.
	02) Grace McKenna: I’m not a J. Lo fan. I don’t HATE her, but I’m mostly indifferent about her work. Still, I can’t deny that she’s great as Grace, the roller coaster of a woman in U Turn, who gleefully wrecks Sean Penn’s life. It’s impossible to take your eyes off of her, she steals every scene she’s in, and trying to figure out the real deal with her character is one of the most enjoyable cinema puzzles of the last several years. (Sidenote: This is Oliver Stone’s second entry on my list.)
	01) Mona Demarkov: My FAVORITE Femme Fatale, in a movie that far too few people have seen. I’ll never figure out why the critics savaged this film like they did. I maintain that they just didn’t get it. Until Sin City, Romeo is Bleeding was the most Frank Miller-like experience that a movie fan could enjoy. If you’ve seen the movie and read Miller’s work, you know what I mean. Mona Demarkov is the most sadistic, brutal, evil female character I think I’ve ever seen in a film. In the course of this movie, she lies, cheats, steals, murders, buries her crime-boss rival alive, and even cuts off her own arm in order to fake her own death. All the while, coming off as sexy and mysterious. Mona is NOT an admirable character in any way... but she's such a pure character, if you get my drift, that she's impossible to forget. It’s a heck of a performance by Lena Olin, and a heck of a fun film. Granted, it’s not at all realistic, and the dialogue and narrative are heavily stylized… but, if you take it for what it is, it’s a blast. More Frank Miller fans should see this movie.

	05) Aurora Greenway: Like J. Lo, I’m not a huge Shirley MacLaine fan, but I love her performance in Terms of Endearment. It’s hard not to get attached to, and root for, this neurotic, loving, possessive, obsessive mother. In spite of all her flaws, she’s a lot of fun, and totally real, totally believable. Yeah, it’s a chick flick, but one of the good ones. I think I’d seen it six times before I could sit through it without choking up.
	04) Chris MacNeil: I AM an Ellen Burstyn fan, and her performance in this movie is exhibit number one. Yeah, it’s a horror film, but it is NOT gratuitous or exploitive. The Exorcist is an honest, raw look at the way that evil can creep into our lives and take them over if we give it the chance. Ellen Burstyn plays this role totally straight, never once giving in to “horror movie” conventions. Instead, in her performance, we see a mother desperate to save her daughter from something she doesn’t understand. It’s one of the most shockingly open performances by any actor, male or female, that I’ve seen.
	03) Loretta Lynn: The sole character on either of my lists to be based on a real person, Sissy Spacek’s performance as Loretta Lynn is amazing. If you’ve seen Loretta interviewed or know much about her, you know that Spacek absolutely nailed the role. Both in the film Coal Miner's Daugher, and in real life, Loretta’s determination to succeed and to protect her family along the way is an inspiration. Again, some guys might consider this a “chick flick,” and be unwilling to watch it. Oh, well. It’s their loss. This is an outstanding film, and the best performance of Sissy Spacek’s own formidable career.
	02) Sofia: The Color Purple is Whoopie Goldberg’s movie, there’s no getting around it. I consider Goldberg’s performance in the film to be the best breakthrough performance I’ve ever seen in a movie. But it’s also impossible to deny the astounding work of Oprah Winfrey as Sofia, another breakthrough performance to cherish. A character that is at turns clownish, intimidating, and heartbreakingly sad, Sofia is a role that a lot of actors couldn’t have pulled off. Oprah got it right here, and did it beautifully.
	01) Ellen Ripley: Forget that Alien 3 and Alien ever existed. Based on the strength of the character in Alien… and most assuredly in Aliens, the amazing sequel… Ellen Ripley is the ultimate formidable female in movie history. There’s just no competition. Most guys I know… most people in general… wouldn’t have survived the alien encounter in the first film with their minds in tact… but Ripley not only survived it, she faced down a whole slew of the monsters in the second film, and KICKED THEIR BUTTS. Period. Ellen Ripley is the ultimate formidable female, and nothing else need be said, for that which is obvious need not be overstated.

And there you have it!

¶ 11:49 PM