Dick Flicks: guys' version of a genre we love

A scene from the film "Entourage" is ending next season, but Joaquin Phoenix has a message for its fans: "I'm Still Here". The new pseudo-documentary, directed by Phoenix's bro-in-law Casey Affleck, promises all the fame, stripper, and cocaine fantasies of the HBO series, but with a real-life celebrity in the lead.

The film, out this month, follows the melancholic plight of the famous actor at a point in his career when he can have all the money, sex and drugs he wants, to his own detriment. Like "Entourage", the film is chock full of celebrities guys want to be: Ben Stiller, Sean Combs. It's also packed with existential dude questions, "Now that I have it all, is it what I really want?" It's not a question ever tackled in chick flicks. From "The Romantics" to "Sex and the City", the female fantasy is about more more more. The friends, the job and the shoes are great, but we also want true love. A wedding too. Needless to say, that's not the goal in the male version of the genre.

Dick Flicks naturally evolved from a combination of chick flicks and bromances. With the rise of strictly female fantasy box-office blockbusters like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "10 Things I Hate About You", came an entertainment request from the male set. And Will Farrell, Adam Sandler and later Judd Apatow answered the call, with surrealist comedies about aging frat guys, and average schmoes who find themselves in heroic situations. They were funny and aspirational, but also self-deprecating. They didn't have the self-congratulatory nature of chick flicks where true fantasy was born.

The Kate Hudsons and Reese Witherspoons of the genre may be clumsy, self-involved or addicted to shopping, but they also had glistening hair, high-paying jobs and great apartments from the get-go. Unlike Seth Rogan in "Knocked Up" or Will Farrell in "Old School", their lives in the films start from a place of fabulous.

Enter Entourage. A not so funny or clever show about four friends who live like kings. Created as the male answer to "Sex and the City", the writing was second to the atmosphere of male indulgence. Turns out guys fantasize about very different lifestyles than women. Instead of New York, it was LA. Instead of writing, it was acting. Instead of Mr. Big, they had various strippers and Maxim archetypes-- Mandy Moore, Emmanuelle Chriqui.

In recent years, "The Hangover" brought the genre to the big screen. Good friends in Vegas--where everyone's a star--and a litany of adventures involving celebrities, drugs and one-night-stands. And now we've got Phoenix's addition, with "I'm Still Here." While critics are taking the actor's foray into hybrid reality filmmaking as a serious commentary on celebrity, that's not what's driving viewers to the theater. They'll want to see what it's like to be a famous guy who can have sex with anyone. And unlike in chick flicks, where the lead has one guy in mind, the Dick Flick model is all about racking up the numbers. Strippers welcome. Phoenix's film promises cocaine (possibly snorted off a boob), a publicist who goes down under for her star client, a chance to get all manly rapping on stage, various shots looking like Jim Morrison. And lots of time bro-ing out with the director, his partner in crime.

The real takeaway from the series and the upcoming film is the insight it offers into the male mind. What do guys actually fantasize about when they let their mind wander? The Dick Flick genre is a window into how different their dreams are from ours.

Characteristics of a Dick Flick:
-Love Interest: various strippers, a famous woman. (The woman he's supposed to be with is usually a shrew that only appears via phonecall)
-Dream Job: Famous actor, famous rapper, famous musician
-Wild night: While chick flicks usually have a night of too many lemon-drop shots, men dream of doing coke. Lots and lots of coke, off of body parts, glass tables, etc.
-Attire: Suits. It's the expensive shoes of the man movie; they feel like big shots in them.
-Crisis: Usually it's internal. Instead of crashing a wedding, losing the love interest or anything like that, it's more existential. Will anything ever be enough? Do they like what they've become? Are they nothing more than a puppet? Those kinds of questions make a guy feel like they're movie is substantial, it's not some indulgent fantasy. Which it is, but we won't tell them that.
-Best friend: Unlike in our fantasies, their best friends aren't just homely sidekicks for bouncing off romantic complications. They're orchestraters, cruise directors, arrangers of the impossible. From Ari Gold to Affleck, they're the ones that make all the plans, the way a girlfriend would, only less naggy.
-Location of outrageous event: Vegas is the wedding of Dick Flicks. You can't have a chick flick without a wedding scene. It's where our fantasy stops and starts. There's just something about the idea of forever with one person that makes us giddy. In contrast, the short-lived, revolving door of action, women and money is the stuff of male-minded dreams. Pleasure comes with the knowledge that things will end, and possibly badly. But back to now.