Withnail with Girls – Girls on Tops

A piece I pitched and wrote for feminist film site Girls on Tops on female hedonism in cinema, analysing Sophie Hyde's 'Animals'. An excerpt: “Baby, I’ve got work at seven tomorrow every day for the rest of my life, serving mochafuckingchickenlattes to people counting off the days in little coffee stamps. What gives? Only the fact that there are nights in between…” Every generation needs a film about getting fucked up. Withnail & I (1987), Trainspotting (1996) The Hangover (2009). Each of these plays out a primal, Bacchanalian urge to get wasted and exist outside of our consciousness – but from the safe position of cinema-going spectator. With a healthy glug of celebration and just a dash of admonition, such films follow their inebriated anti-heroes as they stumble into scrapes and lick the last of the (metaphorical and literal) whisky bottle.