Gretchen Mol to Compete for 'Tenure'
This is a piece of news that doesn't sound all that interesting, until I explain to you why it is. Keep reading! According to Variety, Gretchen "Bettie Page" Mol has signed up to star opposite Luke Wilson in Tenure, from first-time writer-director Mike Million. Wilson plays a college professor who finds himself having to compete for tenure with a new female academic determined to rise through the ranks.Why is this interesting? Well, first of all, Tenure is being filmed in Philadelphia, where I currently live. Philadelphia is an amazing, beautiful city, and you will get to see it without having to endure the unacceptably high chance of being shot! Aside from M. Night Shyamalan's projects, not too many productions come here, so this sort of news is always exciting.
What? You're not from Philadelphia, and you don't care? Fine then: Tenure is also interesting because it gives me another opportunity to plug Cinematical's favorite movie of the moment. Take a look at that plot description again. Doesn't it sound an awful lot like The Promotion, which is about an assistant grocery store manager competing for a full manager position against an ambitious newcomer from Canada? Several of us have been raving about Steve Conrad's brilliant comedy to anyone who will listen since its triumphant premiere at SXSW, and are currently praying that the Weinstein Company doesn't bury it or permanently shelve it. Nothing against Luke Wilson and Gretchen Mol, but if Tenure steals The Promotion's thunder, it may just face a Cinematical boycott...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2008 @ 11:33PM
Michelle said...
Sigh. Non-academics writing a movie about academia. Doomed. To. Fail.
As someone who has just been awarded tenure, I can tell you that you do not COMPETE with PEOPLE for tenure, you compete with (might be unattainable) STANDARDS. You submit a dossier based on your work (teaching, research, service) to show that you should be allowed to stay in your position. If you are denied tenure, it is because your colleagues/administrators did not like your body of work, and not because they chose someone over you -- each person would have his/her own faculty line. With different specializations. Ridiculous.
The tenure process is mysterious to those who don't have to go through it (my parents still don't understand it, despite 1000 attempts at explanation), but it is not a reality show.
PS -- Ross? on Friends? would never have gotten tenure in the real world. I was always hoping that he would end up working at the Central Perk with Gunther because the man dated his students and never seemed to go to any conferences. But that's just me.
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4-04-2008 @ 12:54PM
Eugene Novikov said...
Ha! Well, from my limited exposure to academia, I can say that there's certainly a lot of insecurity and neurosis surrounding the process. So even if it gets the details wrong, maybe the movie can at least tap into that.