Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Directors: Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
Context:
Archie Comics have existed in some form since 1939 and typically portray the lives of teenagers who live in the fictional town of Riverdale. Although the humor has typically been depicted as bland and harmless, they have remained popular to this day, representing an idealized version of small town America. As with any long running comic book series, many characters have spun off into their own brands, one of them being Josie and the Pussycats.
Although the Josie comics started in 1963 as a female alternative to Archie, it wasn't until 1969 that Josie and her friends formed the Pussycats band, completely changing the focus of the series. Now, these teen girls head to deal with their average high school problems while also traveling the country performing gigs dressed in leopard print outfits with ears and tails. The popularity of this series spawned a cartoon (as well as a series where they went to outer space) that lasted throughout the '70s and '80s. Like its predecessor, the humor was very tepid and accessible to a wide audience. By the '90s, Josie and the Pussycats lost their audience and were on the path to obscurity.
Yet someone thought that in 2001, we needed a Josie and the Pussycats movie.
Maybe it was due to nostalgia, but this franchise was given new life, thanks to the writing-directing team of Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan. They had recently made an impact in the film world with the 1998 teen comedy Can't Hardly Wait which, despite negative criticism, marked the renaissance of the teen comedy genre, supplying many tropes that would last throughout the early 2000s. While the duo would write many more films together (none that were very spectacular and also based on dated franchises), Josie and the Pussycats would be their second (and seemingly final) directorial effort.
The film was hit with middling reviews and there was a severe lack of an audience. Josie and the Pussycats wasn't recognizable enough to draw big crowds, and it certainly wasn't a film I wanted to see as a young teenage boy. But a few years later, I watched it for my Psychology class in high school, and I learned it was a hidden gem of a film.
Mind you, it's not the greatest film in the world, but it's unique and funny enough that I constantly recommend it to friends. Whatever you think you'd be getting from a Josie and the Pussycats movie, you're in for something much, much more.
Plot:
Riverdale teens Josie, Valerie, and Melody sudden find themselves on the fast track to stardom when a hit music producer discovers them and makes them an overnight success. But there is something sinister lurking underneath all the fortune and fame.
Analysis:
It's hard to discuss the film without giving away the twist that makes it so good, so I'll just say that there will be SPOILERS throughout this review.
Josie and the Pussycats is no Archie Comics. It is a highly-satirical, sexual-innuendo-laden, surprisingly-grisly, dark comedy disguised as an innocent teen movie about romance and friendship.
The opening sequence sets up everything you need to know about the film. The latest boy band craze Du Jour (played by the likes of Seth Green, Donald Faison, and Breckin Meyer) have noticed something odd on their latest mix while they fly on their private jet to their next concert in Riverdale. They inform their producer (Alan Cummings) about it and he immediately goes into the cockpit, tells the pilot to "take the Chevy to the levy" and both parachute out of the plane, letting the band perish in a fiery plane crash. This is the OPENING SEQUENCE OF JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS.
Oh wait! I forgot to mention that Du Jour first sings a song to their teenage fans called "Backdoor Lover" which, if I need to explain to you what that song is really about, you're too young for this movie.
OH! And I ALSO forgot to mention that their jet is obnoxiously riddled with product placement. Not just in an annoying, "this movie is a corporate sellout" way, but in a "ridiculous to the point of absurdism" way. Target store logos are plastered all over the decor, bottles of Ivory dish soap are just sitting around, and boxes of Bounce laundry sheets are just glued to the walls. The entire movie is like this. It never lets up on how many ads and name brands are visually represented. Every shot is selling you a new item. It's never commented upon by any of the characters. No one finds it strange. Even the buildings in NYC are recreated to look like giant logos.
Josie and the Pussycats is literally "Product Placement: The Movie."
Yet, that is part of the intention of the theme of the film. (For the record, only a couple of brands actually paid to be featured in the film. The other 95% were just put in by the directors for fun.) See, the main story of the film is that the Mega Records production label that owns Du Jour (and eventually Josie and the Pussycats) are secretly brainwashing the minds of teens to purchase name brand items to stimulate the economy, with fads changing with every new CD release. The musicians are just interchangeable puppets controlled by the system and once they catch on to the subliminal advertising in their music, they are disposed of and replaced.
We have a film that rips into consumerism culture and pop stardom. While the film is obviously dated with late '90s references (Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, TRL, etc.), the message remains relevant to this day and it serves as a time capsule of one such moment in our lives.
Using this as the main story, the fact that this is based on Josie and the Pussycats seems almost pointless, as this story could have been told with any fictional band made up for the film. But using Josie as its source material allows for a solid structure to hang the film on. The six main characters from the comic are the only ones who appear in the film, which keeps things nice and simple. Josie (Rachel Leigh Cook) is the level-headed lead singer who has a crush on her folk-guitar-playing friend Alan M. who gets left in the dust as she gains more fame. Valerie (Rosario Dawson) just wants to make sure the friendship of the band stays intact, and finds it difficult as the producers actively alienate her from the group. Melody (Tara Reid) is the stereotypical dumb, happy-go-lucky airhead who keeps the group lively and it's really upsetting when Josie breaks her heart during the film's climax (even this is played to an absurd extreme). And finally, we have the greedy Cabot twins, Alexander and Alexandra who manage the band and are purely brought along just for comic relief. (Alexandra even states that she's only present because she was in the comic book.)
The film adds two villains to the universe as the hot shot producers Wyatt and Fiona (Alan Cumming and Parker Posey in some great casting). Because they drive the plot, we get to know them the most, and even they get their own, fourth-wall breaking, ironic scenes as well. I particularly enjoy the exchange where Fiona meets with the head of the Pentagon and keeps muttering threats to him under her breath and keeps getting caught by everyone within earshot. And I didn't even mention Eugene Levy's scene because it's just wonderful on its own.
The "Josie" storyline is fairly typical teen romance fare, but since it's bolstered by this crazy government conspiracy plot, it provides a nice balance to the overall film.
The Ending:
The movie keeps up its reversal of expectations all the way to the very end. Every typical movie moment with this kind of plot plays out as you'd expect it to, but there's always a clever presentation or element that makes it feel fresh. And it definitely gets into "this is so unrealistic" territory with its dramatic beats, but by this point, you should know what kind of film this is.
I will say that the reveals of Wyatt and Fiona's "true" appearances are weird but...whatever, this whole movie is weird.
Final Thoughts:
Josie and the Pussycats was made to trick the audience. I found myself laughing every 5 minutes because I couldn't believe where this film went. Every element was crafted for the ultimate punchine. The fact that the film even exists seems like part of the joke. Especially in today's swarth of nostalgic cashgrabs that are just terrible pieces of art, this film recognized that people are willing to pay money towards anything they vaguely recognize. For anyone going to see Josie and the Pusycats that they remember from their childhood, the joke is on them. And it is truly one jerkin' movie.
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