Funny Girl(s): Truly funny female movie characters

Actually, putting this together was harder than I anticipated, and certainly not because I don't find women funny or because there aren't a lot of very funny women in Hollywood.

That's not the problem. Instead, it's that when you browse any list of the truly great comedic roles, the sad fact is that most of them are played by men (the reverse, at least right now, is true on TV, but that's a different subject for a different day). It's just a fact, and one that we (or at least I) can't change, so instead of lingering on it, in honor of the funny women of "Bridesmaids," here are six very funny female roles from my movie shelf that I go back to often:

Tracy Flick, "Election"
Not exactly the cute Reese Witherspoon we know now, but her role in this high school battle of wits with the outmatched but game Matthew Broderick is her funniest one, and every time Tracy scrunches up her face in righteous anger, I still laugh out loud.

Marge Gunderson, "Fargo"
Not surprising, I suppose, that Joel Coen would write (along with his brother, of course) the best female character he's ever come up with for his wife, Frances McDormand. Marge, the very pregnant and just as clever police chief played by McDormand, gives the movie much of its sense of place, its strongest suit, and is just extremely funny along the way.

Annie Hall, "Annie Hall"
You can argue that even when he played opposite women his own age, Woody Allen didn't necessarily think much of them, because he made Annie Hall as hippie and dippy as possible, but thanks to Diane Keaton, hilarious, too.

Patricia Franchini, "Breathless"
Her French was truly atrocious (which provided much of the humor), but Jean Seberg goes toe to toe with Jean Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's lighter-than-air gangster flick of sorts, and their flirting is just pure comedic bliss.

Poppy, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
The real charm of Sally Hawkins in this infectious Mike Leigh movie is that her Poppy is so thoroughly upbeat throughout that you want to either cheer for or choke her, depending on your outlook. In the end, it's a role so great it can melt even the most cynical of hearts, even mine.

Enid, "Ghost World"
Whatever happened to Thora Birch? Before she seemingly disappeared completely, she played Enid in this movie based on the comic book by Daniel Clowes, a character who savagely skewers everything that's wrong in her world even as she searches for her own place in it.

And there you have it. A brief list, I know, but please feel free to add any I may have snubbed (there are many, many I'm sure) and go see "Bridesmaids" this weekend if you like to laugh with truly funny women.

Veryfunnyman Michael Cera in five "Youth in Revolt" vignettes

I was worried that "Youth in Revolt" was somehow going to be an "arthouse" release and therefore not available immediately in my little corner of the world, but thankfully, I once again appear to be wrong.

And besides, what could be "arthouse" about C.D. Payne's extremely crude - but also very funny - novel about Nick Twisp a 14-year-old who creates an alter ego based on Jean Paul Belmondo just so he can score with the love of his young life? I really hope they leave the Belmondo infatuation in the movie somehow, because it's one of the best things in the book.

Anyways, courtesy of Comingsoon.net, here are five short Michael Cera vignettes that will begin airing soon (or already are) on Comedy Central to promote the movie. And if you somehow happen to be working on Saturday, Jan. 2, you have my condolences and this word of warning: Even though these clips are for basic-cable consumption, they're still rather crude, so wear your headphones! Also, only on the last clip, you'll have to sit through a short plug for the DVD release of the single worst movie I saw in all of 2009, Diablo Cody's "Jennifer's Body," before you get to the clip. Peace out.

All hail Criterion: Demko's DVD shelf

The big news if, like me, you happen to live in Macon, is that Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling Limited" is coming to The Grand (formerly known as the AmStar) this weekend. I've been back to the site three times already to check it, but it seems a slow movie weekend means the answer to "how far will I have to drive to watch the new Wes Anderson movie?" is, well, about 10 miles. Huzzah to that.

For the rest of the world, thanks to Criterion (who are at work on a special edition of Anderson's "Bottle Rocket"), it's a banner week on DVD with two genuine classics getting grand treatment.

First up comes "A Bout de Souffle," or as Criterion has chosen to call it by its English title, "Breathless," or as I like to call it each time I finish watching it, "quite possibly the coolest movie ever made."

An exaggeration? I don't think so. If you've never seen Jean Paul Belmondo riffing on Bogie and pitching woo at the very funny Jean Seberg, watch this immediately. There was also an American version of this starring Richard Gere, but i couldn't possibly give you an opinion on that since I could never bring myself to watch it.

For the new Criterion edition of Jean Luc Godard's original Frenchy flick, the extras include: Archival interviews with Godard, Belmondo, Seberg and co-star Jean-Pierre Melville; new video interviews with director of photography Raoul Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker; New video essays: filmmaker and critic Mark Rappaport's "Jean Seberg" and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Breathless as Film Criticism"; "Chambre 12, Hotel de Suede," an 80-minute French documentary about the making of "A Bout de Souffle," with members of the cast and crew; "Charlotte et son Jules," a 1959 short film by Godard, starring Belmondo; and a booklet featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut's original film treatment and Godard's scenario. With all that included, I just can't recommend this one highly enough.

In making "Days of Heaven," American director Terrence Malick clearly took note of the French New Wave to make some ripples of his own. His increasing abhorrence of anything resembling a structured plot has, for me at least, made his recent movies like "The New World" almost unwatchable, but with this '70s flick he was clearly on top of his game.

As visually stunning as it is all-around entertaining, "Days of Heaven" stars Gere as a Chicago steel worker who accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and little sister (Linda Manz) to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer (Sam Shepard). What they find there develops into a love triangle and much more.

For the Criterion edition you won't get a commentary from the very camera-shy Mr. Malick, so instead there's one from art director Jack Fisk, editor Billy Weber, costume designer Patricia Norris and casting director Dianne Crittenden, who all apparently provide insight into just how hard it was to work for the demanding Malick.

There's also an audio interview with Gere that plays over footage from the film, in which he also vents some frustrations with Malick. Rounding out the set are interviews with Shepard and with camera operators John Bailey and Haskell Wexler. If you have a few shekels lying around, you can pick up these two genuine classics for $53 from Amazon, which sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

"Fido" - a zombie movie I somehow managed to miss

I've seen the poster for "Fido" several times now, but it never hit me that that was the very funny Billy Connolly all zombied out in the picture. If that's not enough to make this at least worth a rental, well, you and I clearly just have different tastes in movies. As far as I can tell, this is basically a boy-and-his-dog movie in which the dog just happens to be a zombie. I'm there already.

Two great TV series come to an end

I'm about to watch Kristen Bell's "Heroes" debut on the DVR (as soon as I can wrap this up, in fact), and seeing her again will be nice, but not as nice as the oft-rumored but ultimately failed revival of "Veronica Mars" would have been. The series had already lost its way a bit in the third and final season, out on DVD today, as it substituted mini-cases for a single, season-long puzzle to solve. Even in its lesser form, however, it was funnier and smarter than just about anything else on TV, and well worth buying on DVD. If you spring for it, you'll even get "Pitching Season 4": An in-depth interview with creator Rob Thomas discussing the new direction for the series he tried to pitch to network executives that picks up years later, with Veronica as a rookie FBI agent.

"The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 2" famously wrapped up the mob series with an up-in-the-air ending that infuriated many fans but just worked for me. I've never been one that demands closure, and from what I hear the ending of the new Coen bros. flick "No Country for Old Men" will put this further to the test, assuming I ever get to see it. Along with the final nine episodes, you get the promising featurette "Making Cleaver": A behind-the-scenes look at Christopher's horror film, and "The Music of The Sopranos," in which creator David Chase, cast, and crew discuss the songs from the show.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I am indeed going to cut this short and go watch "Heroes" now. Peace out.