Manic Pixie Dream Girls

Posted from npr.com:

Who's just as cute as a button? Who's the most deliciously delirious young woman, always up to her false eyelashes in madcap romps?

It's the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, of course.

Film critic Nathan Rabin coined the term after seeing actress Kirsten Dunst in the 2005 movie "Elizabethtown." The Manic Pixie is, in his words, "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures."

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl isn't a recent creation: You've seen her in plenty of movies, including some real classics. (Rabin and his colleagues at the Onion A.V. Club came up with a list of the Top 16.) That list, not surprisingly, triggered cranky responses from various corners of the Internet — notably the feminist Web site Jezebel, which called the MPDG "the scourge of modern cinema." But then Manic Pixie Dream Girls are nothing if not provocative. Comment boards seethe with heated debate: Does Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" count as an MPDG, or does she evince signs of an inner life? What about Maggie Gyllenhaal, in "Stranger Than Fiction"? Is Ruth Gordon, in "Harold and Maude," too old to be an MPDG? And is there such a thing as a Manic Pixie Dream Guy?
.....

Wow. I am so glad they put a name to this archetypal character in cinema history, a character that I happen to always be drawn to in movies (but I never even knew the reason why!). Some of my favorite movies-- Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bringing Up Baby, Annie Hall-- contain MPDGs!



I think the reason that I am drawn to movies that feature MPDGs is because... I am a little of one myself. Or at least have subconsciously strove to be one since an early age. I can admit that I am a little more than zany, I get myself into predicaments, I have odd quirks, I enjoy life despite the ups and downs, and I am altogether lovely and charming in my own special way. And I don't mind saying so (Wink).

Do you have a favorite MPDG? Here is a list of some of the best and most famous:

1. Natalie Portman in Garden State
2. Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
3. Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby
4. Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
5. Babra Streisand in What's Up, Doc?
6. Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown
7. Kate Hudson in Almost Famous
8. Ruth Gordon in Harold & Maude
9. Amy Adams in Enchanted
10. Jennifer Aniston in Along Came Polly



Can you think of more? Let me know! And let me know who your fave/least fave MPDG is.