Manic Pixie Dream Girls

David Tian

TL;DW, or rather what interested me about Tian's take:

"You have got this shy guy who actually, deep, down inside...thinks he is actually awesome, he's great...and when he's with that girl..she brings it out in him. And this is the flip side of codependency and narcissism.They're very closely related, two sides of the same coin...the shy, introverted, withdrawn guy...hidden in his shell [which harbors covert narcissism]...in fact he's not falling in love with her, he's falling in love with his own fucking reflection, which he sees reflected from her [Cluster B; bipolar, borderline, histrionic, etc., personality].

Nathan Rubin, coiner of "Manic Pixie Dream Girl," reflects on the popularity of the phrase.

A/V Club's proposed list of MPDG movies:

1. Elizabethtown (Kirsten Dunst)

2. I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (Leigh Taylor-Young)

3. Garden State (Natalie Portman)

4. Butterflies Are Free (Goldie Hawn)

5. Almost Famous (Kate Hudson)

6. Joe Versus The Volcano (Meg Ryan)

7. The Apartment (Shirley MacLaine)

8. Bringing Up Baby (Katharine Hepburn)

9. What's Up, Doc? (Barbra Streisand)

10. Annie Hall (Diane Keaton)

11. Breakfast At Tiffany's (Audrey Hepburn)

12. Something Wild (Melanie Griffith)

13. Sweet November (Charlize Theron)

14. Autumn In New York (Winona Ryder)

15. The Last Kiss (Rachel Bilson)

16. My Sassy Girl (Elisha Cuthbert)