Sunday, January 3, 2010

Sexy People, according to yourself

According to a fresh post at Salon.com (great site with great writers), James Franco is their choice for the Sexiest man of the decade. Form his offbeat appearance recently on the soap General Hospital (which most serious actors would turn a nose to) to his underrated performance as Tristant in "Tristan and Isolde", he is definitely a good choice, if not slightly surprising due to his young age and so many years yet to prove himself a leading man. But, I realized from this article and other lists like it, that the past decade was a drastic change from the 90's as far as leading men go.
Case in point- in the 90's, almost every big action movie had Tom Cruise (Mr. Shorty I like to call him), Mel Gibson or Arnold Scharnnn...sss..zzz.rrr.. that guy. While the Arnold ones, faded, men like George Clooney, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Leonardo DeCaprio, Colin Ferrell, Matt Damon etc rose up the ranks into more popular movies as the 2000's began. Movies like "Troy", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Alexander", and "Gladiator" were all muscle, bronzey stories of the will of Man over unGodly forces in battle. Stories like "Men in Black" and "I, Robot" starring Smith were more fun and brainy action sci-fi genres that cemented him as another lead man studios could count on.
And then....there's Johnny Depp. He's done everything from a strung out hero in "From Hell", the puppy dog eyed lead in "Edward Scissorhands" to the wonderful remake of Willy Wonka. He has been very popular in the Disney "Pirates" trilogy, and will be the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Don't forget "Blow", "The Ninth Gate", "The Secret Window", and about a dozen other movies made where men like his ironic, witty personality and women love his lanky long hair. I loved him in "21 Jump Street." I'm old.
So, who is considered a "sexy" man as far as movies go, is being redefined by more subtle, less muscular men, I would suggest. Look to the popularity of Judd Apatow movies where all his men are either scrawny brainics with Jew-fros or pudgy pot smokers like Seth Rogen. These men are approachable, they are men that women know, our brothers, our friends, our college boyfriends. we'll see what new men come out on top in the box office the next few years...as with most things pop culture, who we watch or listen to reflects greatly on our current state of mind.
Hmmm.....So if I find that crazy killer guy in "No Country for Old Men" attractive, what could that say about me? Without the Dutch boy hair cut, of course.

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