The New Female Powerhouses of Hollywood?
“What we really look forward to is the day when a movie directed by a woman and telling a woman’s story is no longer news because it was successful — or even that it was produced at all — because such movies should be a matter of routine. We will grow our audiences by telling more stories that tell their stories” (John Fithian, National Association of Theater Owners CEO/President on the success of Wonder Woman).
As I watched the credits roll on the screen of a packed showing of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman this weekend I couldn’t help but think that the game had been changed. Several recent titles came to mind: Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled (2017), Atomic Blonde (2017), Miss Sloane (2016), and the popular Netflix television drama The Fall (2013–16). Taking into account the rapid, and for some, the unexpected success of Wonder Woman, what does this all mean for the female protagonist? Just this weekend alone the film made $103.1 million, compared to Iron Man (2008), $98.6 million, in opening weekend ticket sales. It’s also looking to surpass Spider-Man (2002) $114.8 million opening weekend gross very soon. While all these big numbers do mean a lot these days, I feel the universal love expressed for the film surpasses any financial achievement thus far. It’s been, arguably, a long time since the numbers and the reviews for a summer film have been in such universal positive agreement. Men, women, and children are flocking to the theater to see this film and they are loving it. I loved it. This is a reaction that I, personally, have not been blessed to witness in all my years of examining film. Time will tell if the male-dominated universe of the super hero film will be opened to more women in the future (Poison Ivy anyone?). But I would like to use this opportunity to discuss some other powerful female characters gracing our screens today (and what they mean for the future of female lead characters), more importantly one of the biggest box office crimes of the past year; the poor performance of John Madden’s Miss Sloane.
In an age where people are crying out for strong female protagonists, it truly shocked me when the numbers for Miss Sloane started slowly trickling in. A topical political drama led by the very popular Jessica Chastain, seemed to me, to be a sure fire winner. Breaking box office records? Well maybe not, but I did expect it to do better than its wide release opening of $1.8 million. Making a total world wide release of $3,500,605, landing something around $5 million once all was said and done.(http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=misssloane.htm). What happened here is anybodies guess, and I didn’t write this piece simply to analyze numbers and what ifs. I want to talk about Miss Sloane as a character, her powerful performance, and the potential impact she could make. Some reviewers called the film “chilly”, saying Chastain was “hard to root for”, while others sung its praises for “chewing up DC”. Variety’s Peter Debruge wrote a pretty fair review: http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/miss-sloane-review-jessica-chastain-1201914941/. I loved her precisely because she was hard to root for, the more ruthless she was the more I loved her. It’s about time we are given a female character that fits the “a character so good that you love to hate them” description, only this kind of woman graces our screens so infrequently that I couldn’t help feeling anything but love every malicious move she made. This was a character that truly did not need anyone to achieve her laser-focused agenda. Chastain plays Sloane with such an air of elegance, determination, and grit, that you hang on her every word. She is idealized, extreme, and over-exaggerated of course, but isn’t that the whole point? We are allowed to have so much fun with the likes of Francis Underwood and Gordon Gekko aren’t we? Well, Elizabeth Sloane is a modern combination of both of these equally ruthless and power hungry men. Hopefully with some distance from the election, which loomed over the film’s release date like a bad hangover, Miss Sloane will be seen for what it actually is: a film about nasty politics and a strong woman pulling all the strings behind the scenes. It didn’t surprise me that Wonder Woman became such a success, what shocked me is that Miss Sloane didn’t.
Gillian Anderson paved the way for women in investigative dramas dating back to her X Files days, and she continues to trail-blaze with her character of Stella Gibson in Netflix’s The Fall. Anderson plays a homicide investigator working on a series of brutal murders both violent and sexual in nature and execution. A fetish obsessed serial killer (Jamie Dornan) preying on women, what makes him so scary is that he is the unassuming family man, the ‘every man’. She is determined, chic, and throws all the stereotypes down the gutter. She does not play ‘the woman card’, she does her job and deals with all the personal and emotional effects of it with grace and great strength.
What I love most about The Fall is that Gibson is actually real in every sense of the word, there are no exaggerations for the sake of entertainment here. We see her exhausted, without make up, working out, eating a cheeseburger, having a one night stand. She is a real person and she is a career woman you can look up to, I know I do. The show utilizes her character and the subject matter of the murders as a strong platform for a conversation about assault and rape culture. But this too is accomplished with grace, there are no messages being shoved down your throat, only cold hard truths, simply stated. Just because a show deals with gender or political issues does not automatically make it its defining characteristic, The Fall is a shining example of this fact.
It might be too early to tell the impacts of Coppola’s latest achievement The Beguiled, just out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with Coppola taking the Best Director prize (being only the second women to win the award). Most early reviews are positive, Vanity Fair (http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/the-beguiled-sofia-coppola-cannes-review) and Indie Wire (http://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/the-beguiled-review-sofia-coppola-nicole-kidman-kirsten-dunst-colin-farrell-cannes-2017-1201831226/) provide two interesting reviews that I recommend if you’re interested in hearing more about the plot and its reception. Coppola is changing the male-gaze centered camera into a female gaze. An achievement that should not be underrated. The argument here is not as simple as male vs female, or whether this film is pushing a feminist agenda. It’s about that transfer of the cinematic gaze, a refreshing absence of the fetishized female body. This is an active choice on Coppola’s part, and in my opinion it’s one of the most powerful statements any director could make these days. I’m both excited and hesitant of the impact The Beguiled will make later this month, hesitant because this is not the kind of film that will get much traction or attention from the mass audience. This is probably the issue Miss Sloane had. If the ‘formula’ rings true (flashy action flick, summer release, with popular lead equals big box-office) and is sex-blind, we can expect Atomic Blonde to be very successful. What we cannot expect is for The Beguiled to reach mainstream audiences with as much vigor. But who knows, I could end up being very wrong here. But if there’s one thing I can be certain of is that films will continue to surprise me and audiences will continue to be painfully the same. I live for the day a film like this reaches the top of the box-office.
While Atomic Blonde has not been officially released yet, the early reviews that came out of SXSW are extremely mixed. Some are saying its all style and no substance and that Theron’s character is terribly underdeveloped. Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson wrote a promising review: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/atomic-blonde-movie-review-sxsw-charlize-theron. What brought this to my initial attention was its trailer that played before the showing of Wonder Woman this weekend. While this type of film is usually a text-book definition of everything I hate about Hollywood (too much action, heavy reliance on CGI, a camera that acts as if it’s high on speed, and too many hyper-sexualized females), I must admit I am (gasp) intrigued. This feels different from all the rest. In the trailer we see Theron bruised, taking just as hard a beating as she dishes out, and kissing another woman. I’ll be the first to admit that my initial attraction is based mostly off of superficial things (she beats someone with a stiletto in the trailer, need I say more?)
What we see here is the typical spy character in a much grittier light, a woman who has the moves to give James Bond and Jason Borne a run for their money. I haven’t seen the film, my opinion could easily change once I actually see it. My hopes for this lie in the genre that it operates; the action flick, a mostly male world with only a few exceptions. Even if it turns out to be all bells and whistles it could still make an impact. This film is not tied to any existing film series either (it is based off of a graphic novel however), it’s a stand alone action film. I’m not simply rooting for its success because I want to see a women wearing heels beating up men (that statement alone already downgrades what Theron is doing with this). I want it to succeed because films like this rake in millions all the time, by all definitions this one should not be much different. In the face of Wonder Woman’s great success Atomic Blonde should expect similar treatment, watch this one closely, its reception will determine a lot about the future of the action-female protagonist. Is the theater audience ready for Theron’s deadly Jane-Bond bad-ass fashionista hybrid? I know I am.
There are many other films and television shows I could have talked about here; Arrival (2016), Robin Wright’s powerful portrayal of Claire Underwood in House of Cards (2013-), Carol (2015), Ex Machina (2014), or one could even make an interesting argument for The Crown (2016-). I picked these titles because I felt they were diverse, topical, and relatively new. I also felt they dealt with their female lead characters in more direct and modern ways compared to some other titles I could have chosen.
Will Wonder Woman lead the charge for the female-power-protagonist? Only time will tell. With 2016 being considered a record year for female characters, up 7% from 2015, with a total of 29% of main characters being female in 2016. Could we hope for even better numbers in 2017? If Wonder Woman is any indication, then yes, numbers will soar. But if we dare branch out beyond the action hero blockbuster, into the real world, the powerful female protagonist might remain only surface deep in our entertainment culture.
Sources:
Imdb.com
Valerie Richardson, Gun-Control ‘propaganda’ Film ‘Miss Sloane’ a Historic Box-Office Bomb. The Washington Times, Wednesday, Dec 14, 2016,Web. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/14/gun-control-propaganda-film-miss-sloane-goes-down-/
Pollotta, Frank, Films in 2016 Saw Record Number of Female Lead Roles. Feb 21, 2017, money.cnn.com. Web, http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/21/media/female-film-protagonist-study/index.html
Kohn, Eric, Atomic Blonde’ Review: Charlize Theron Kicks Ass In Cold War Action-Thriller — SXSW 2017, Indiewire.com, Mar 13, 2017. http://www.indiewire.com/2017/03/atomic-blonde-review-charlize-theron-james-mcavoy-sxsw-2017-1201793156/
