Extra Salty: Jennifer's Body: Pop Classics #11

(Paperback)

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Jennifer's Body was a critical and box office failure. Bilchert makes a case for why it's so much more than B-grade trash, traces how it got short shrift, and chronicles its comeback in the wake of shifting attitudes toward women, abuse, queer love, and female friendship.

Megan Fox, a diabolic indie rock band, toxic friendship, fluid sexuality, feminist reckoning, and a literal man-eater in the body of a high school cheerleader: Jennifers Body has it all Featuring an original interview with director Karyn Kusama What would be an easy sell in 2021 women at the helm (screenwriter Diablo Cody, director Karyn Kusama), a bankable cast (Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried), and a deceptively complex skewering of gender politics was a box office flop in 2009.

In Extra Salty, Frederick Blichert flips the script on how Jennifers Body was labeled a failure to celebrate all that is scrumptious (as Jennifer would say) about it: supernatural horror, dark comedy, queer love, and a nuanced handling of gendered violence. The movie could have been to the aughts what Heathers was to the eighties, and its finally getting its due whether in the flood of tenth-anniversary praise, the parade of Jennifer Halloween costumes, or Halseys nod to it (Killing Boys) on her platinum-selling album. With insight into the genres cinematic tropes, our current cultural reckoning with misogyny, and an original interview with director Karyn Kusama, Extra Salty solidifies the status of Jennifers Body as a cult classic. Jennifers Body was a critical and box office failure. Bilchert makes a case for why its so much more than B-grade trash, traces how it got short shrift, and chronicles its comeback in the wake of shifting attitudes toward women, abuse, queer love, and female friendship.

Reviews

"Extra Salty is a smart and redemptive celebration of one of my favorite films of all time. Blichert breaks down every aspect of the film, from its portrayal of the 2000s pop-punk craze to its harrowing depiction of bodily trauma, in a way that is captivating, incisive, and deeply moving." -- Isa Mazzei, screenwriter and producer of Cam
"Blichert's breezy but insightful writing style makes for a quick read." -- Library Journal
"Frederick Blichert's Extra Salty: Jennifer's Body seeks to right the wrongs inflicted upon Jennifer's Body by clueless studio executives and a wildly sexist society, and offers a cogent, well-researched, and passionate argument that proves that Jennifer's Body should not be, in the words of the boy-eating cheerleader herself, 'crossed out' ... Accessibly written, whip-smart, and sympathetic, Extra Salty is a book about film and pop culture that will satisfy both cinastes and casual viewers alike." -- Anatomy of a Scream

Author Bio

Frederick Blichert is a communications specialist and freelance entertainment writer. His writing has appeared in VICE, Paste, Xtra, Senses of Cinema, The Tyee, and more. His first book, a monograph on Joss Whedon's Serenity, was published by Columbia University Press in 2017. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.