My koan for the day:  Is it possible to film a comedy riffing on women in exploitation films without exploiting women?

I have no idea.

 Women in Trouble, a low-budget indie satire opening in limited release today, gives it a pretty good go.  Writer and director Sebastian Gutierrez presents one day in the intersecting lives of a collage of ten archetypal Hollywood-scripted women in trouble--a flight attendant, sex workers, exotic dancers, therapist, mother, daughter, bartender.  I saw Women in Trouble at its March premiere at SXSW, where the audience seemed to appreciate it both as a funny experience and as a skillful film.  Reviews since then haven't raved though, which in large part is because Gutierrez ambitiously cites Pedro Almodóvar as his influence.  No one is going to fair well in comparison to the body of Almodóvar's work. Including Almodóvar.

Still, there is plenty to love about Women in Trouble. The strong female cast is only marginally supported by male characters, and the script is sharp.  The plotlines are Lifetime generic, making fun of the entertainment women are supposed to like (a problem pregnancy! a bizarre childhood trauma that leads to sexual dysfunction!).  But that is balanced by an equally reductive satire of the entertainment men are supposed to crave (women in bras! sex on airplanes! porn star vagina replicas!). The movie shows us that women are fine, but Hollywood's pandering to our base and banal appetites means that we're in trouble, my fellow popcorn eaters.

But there's the rub.  It takes tremendous finesse to tear into all of those themes without basically making a movie exploiting pretty women stripping in lovely lingerie and talking dirty?  And as empowering as triumph against (and campy celebration of) pulp themes can be, wouldn't it be more interesting to see women as writers and directors on the film, too?

Bitch Magazine ran an interesting post by Kjerstin Johnson about how even the marketing for the film ended up slamming female audiences as it was trying too hard to distance itself from being a "chick flick" by reveling in its sexy approach to girl troubles:

It's obvious this movie isn't your average "Lonely successful career girl doesn't even know she's falling in love--and it's the best thing to ever happen to her!" That being said, I do suspect there is some female bonding and heart-to-hearts (to say nothing of Josh Brolin and Jospeh Gordon-Levitt's presence for chrissake!) But you guys, this is NOT A CHICK FLICK. ... Is the fact that the movie is about women (and has the W-word in the title!) really going to automatically ensure box office catastrophe? Why is any film about women that doesn't fit the cliche mold best described as NOT A CHICK FLICK?

 
Gutierrez himself posted in the comment stream, asking critics to give the film a chance to address things that are hard to describe in a trailer or marketing poster.  He asserted that:

...it's a celebration of both the really cool actresses in it (who are mostly stuck playing the "girl" part in mainstream stuff) and female characters that are smart, confident, sexy, confused, vulnerable, strong -- in short: human. ... It's hard to express that in a preview because women are so used to being objectified and condescended to that any sexiness is immediately suspect (understandably so) and any heartstring-tugging stuff can immediately be misconstrued as sappy manipulation."

Jette Kernion also encourages audiences to look beyond the lacy surface.  She blogged about Women in Trouble at Cinematical:

The female characters in this film might seem at first to be right out of an exploitation film, lurid comic book, or Sin City -- you automatically wonder if this will be a man's perception of what women are like, especially since the writer-director is male. But the actresses grab these roles and give them depth and personality and more humanity than you'd expect from their dialogue and costumes. And quite frankly, I'm not going to turn up my nose at a movie stocked full of strong and powerful women, even if they're scantily clad and tend to be focused on sex-related issues. There's a certain pleasure in seeing a movie where the men are relegated to the Supportive Spouse and Lust Interest roles, after I've seen so many films where those are the only roles for women.

After Ellen's Trish Bendix plans to give "Women in Trouble" a chance.

OK, it definitely doesn't sound like a typical chick flick. In fact, it sounds like the perfect anti-chick flick, and I'm psyched to see how these 10 women interact with one another and how it ends with sequel potential, as there is already one (Elektra Luxx) in the works.

It's true, Electra Luxx is in post-production, and Gutierrez has promised a trilogy in all. 

Are you interested in going, or throwing it in your Netflix queue? I feel inspired to spend some time this weekend with real Almodóvar films, and maybe with 8 Femme too, for good measure, but I'm also going to watch Women in Trouble once more.

If nothing else, I might walk away from it determined to make my own low-budget indie pulp fiction comedy.  I'm a woman! I have troubles! I have a video camera!  I wonder how hard it could it be to round up other troubled women who have Victoria Secret wardrobes and something to say?  Maybe even women with pants, shirts, sweaters, yoga pants and nubby-wool socks, too. Wouldn't that be crazy!?!

Contributing Editor Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks.  Follow her on Twitter to learn of casting calls in case this movie idea pans out.