The manic pixie dream girl can get a bad rap. The film trope was coined by critic Nathan Rabin in an analysis of Kirsten Dunst’s hollow Elizabethtown character, but has since been used to pejoratively describe such a number of women (female characters and real human beings alike) that, years later, Rabin felt the need to apologise to pop culture: “I’m sorry for creating this unstoppable monster. Seven years after I typed that fateful phrase, I’d like to join [Zoe] Kazan and [John] Green in calling for the death of the “Patriarchal Lie” of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. I would welcome its erasure from public discourse.”
Be that as it may, the character clearly resonated with something in the culture: after all, the trope is really about how women’s romantic partners will often try to project onto them. The MPDG is, on an essential level, just a chill, attractive person trying to live her life. She’s kind of based, actually. Frances Halladay AKA Frances Ha is one such woman, dancing her way between jobs in New York City for her allotted quarter-life crisis. With Greta Gerwig’s R-rated classic turning 10, here are six funny, brilliant movies featuring manic pixie dream girls.
Frances Ha (2013)
Let’s begin with the blueprint. Greta Gerwig is a phenomenon as 27-year-old Frances Halladay, a dancer working for the knife, doing her level best to pay the bills and maintain her close relationships. Pushed into a kind of free-fall when her roommate and bestie Sophie decides to move out, Frances starts sharing an apartment with her friends Lev (baby Adam Driver!) and Benji (Michael Zegen), but things become more complicated when she loses her only source of income, and tries to figure out what she really wants from her life.
Reality Bites (1994)
Underemployed and perennially sipping a Big Gulp, Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) is a proto-MPDG: an aspiring filmmaker trying to figure it all out post-graduation with her friends Vickie (Janeane Garofalo), Sammy (Steve Zahn) and Troy (Ethan Hawke) – her down-and-out coffee shop guitarist roommate who has evidently loved her for years. Described as “a comedy about love in the 90s”, the Houston-set story is a perfect, grungy 99 minutes of slacker cinema.
500 Days of Summer (2009)
Sundresses. An office romance. Regina Spektor. Marc Webb’s coming-of-age dramedy is a timeless dissection of romantic situations that come down to a difference in perception. We watch Zooey Deschanel’s Summer Finn through the heart-shaped, lovesick gaze of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt): “In Tom’s eyes, Summer is perfection, but perfection has no depth,” the director has famously said. “Summer’s not a girl, she’s a phase.”
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Upon its release in 2010, Edgar Wright’s kinetic cinematic masterpiece – starring Michael Cera as its eponymous hero – became an instant cult classic. And with her bright dyed hair, extensive tea collection and penchant for rollerblading everywhere she goes, Ramona Flowers (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) was immediately inducted into the manic pixie dream girl hall of fame. Definitely read the excellent graphic novel series too, but there’s no shame in not doing it before you watch the movie.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Michel Gondry’s genius anti-romance sci-fi poses a simple question: what if you could erase all memory of your ex? Featuring performances by Jim Carrey, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and Elijah Wood, the film is a true noughties treat. As Clementine Kruczynski, Kate Winslet sets the record straight on the MPDG, once and for all: “I’m not a concept. Too many guys think I’m a concept or I complete them or I’m going to ‘make them alive’ – but I’m just a fucked up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.”
Her (2013)
Less of a manic pixie dream girl movie than a manic pixie AI movie, this Joaquin Phoenix spectacular is set in Los Angeles in a not-at-all-distant future. Theodore Twombly is a lonely man working at a letter-writing agency who falls in love with his operating system’s virtual assistant, voiced by none other than Scarlett Johansson. Come for the unconventional romance and uncanny pastel aesthetics, stay for the beautiful cover of Karen O’s “The Moon Song”.