Extra Salty

A fantastic celebration of a forgotten feminist classic film, with great insights from the director, writers, and actresses involved. A quick read and I'd love to read more in the Pop Classics series!

I love the movie Jennifer's Body, and it's one that I enjoy watching over and over again. When I saw Extra Salty: Jennifer's Body by Frederick Blichert, I knew I needed to read this examination into the film, its reception when it released, and its status as a cult classic.

This book was a compelling look at the movie and the characters. I really enjoyed learning more about the backgrounds of Megan Fox, Diablo Cody, and Karyn Kusama. The book is written in an engaging and interesting way while providing so many resources and a deep look at the underlying meanings of the film. I loved Blichert's evaluation of the misogyny and gender politics and the failure of the marketing of the movie to highlight the depth of the film. I finished reading this and immediately wanted to go watch Jennifer's Body again to appreciate some of the layers that Blichert highlighted that I hadn't considered when previously watching the film. I would definitely recommend this for any fans of Jennifer's Body, Megan Fox, and film lovers in general.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for the ARC of this title, which did not affect the contents of my voluntary review. All opinions are honest and my own.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher ECW Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Movies, like all art, ebb and flow on the tide of public perception and opinion. Sometimes a film can be to far ahead in its thinking and presentation, sometimes the burden laded on a movies stars or creators can cause a public shunning. Maybe its the questions raised, or even for being to honest. Extra Salty by Frederick Blichert, is a study and biography on Jennifer's Body, a film that was ahead of its time in representation, its portrayal of female rage, and sharing too much about women's experiences and what they have to put up with in the real world.

I won't ruin the plot of the movie. If you haven't seen it, do so, the performances are all great, the story is moving where you don't expect it, scary in ways you expect, sad and loving. Even years later the movie holds up well, much better that many horror movies of the time, and still has that capacity to surprise the viewer with a large range of emotions. And blood. Why the movie was ignored at the box office makes up a good part of the book.

Mr. Blichert dives into studio politics, the star Megan Fox was deemed difficult and ungrateful for her role in Transformers, and the screenwriter Diablo Cody was getting backlash for winning an Oscar. Mr. Blichert also covers gender politics and misogyny in Hollywood. As in see previous sentence. The author is a fan that's apparant, but it does not stop him from being objective and honest when he needs to be. So many subjects are written about that it is amazing the book isn't longer. The narrative never lags, and you can tell the research he has done, and the book offers additional interviews with key people.

A great book for fans of the movie, students of Hollywood will also enjoy the backstage view of how the movie was made and how little it has changed over the years. A very compact but fulfilling book.