Beginning in the 1970s as a television show, and carried forward in 2000 by the iconic film staring Lucy Liu, Drew Barrimore, and Cameron Diaz, Charlie's Angels is a household name at this point. I willingly add myself to the list of people who saw Liu, Barrimore and Diaz kicking absolute *ss when I was young and thought "Wow, I know what I want to be when I grow up". If you weren't one of these people, just think Lara Croft but add in a girl gang mentality and you're basically there.
Yesterday, on a slow Thursday afternoon, I decided on a whim to dive in a watch the new take on the old tropes to see how it faired now that I am (sadly) so aware that I will in fact not be becoming one of Charlie's Angels anytime soon. Starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska, the new film is definitely one to put under the "it's just quite trashy" label. BUT, having said that, I definitely have an affinity for trashy movies when the mood strikes.
I decided early on that I would absolutely not be comparing this movie to my old favourite, because it would obviously pale in comparison - I was right. There are lots of review articles all over the internet explaining why this film was so bad (The Guardian, The Telegraph, and the BBC are all pretty savage in theirs), so I'm going to ignore all of the numerous bad points and explain what I enjoyed about the movie. Don't expect high intellect, and a critical analysis of the good points that everybody else missed, that's not what I'm doing, and I'm not sure there are many.
Firstly, I genuinely thought Kristen Stewart's brash and outgoing character - while a bit questionaable in a lot of ways - was a really important role for her to play personally. We know Kristen as the quiet, shy, young girl of the Twilight era: full of self-depreciation and answerable only to her questionable infatuation with a vampire. She took a lot of heat for that role, and I found watching her play a character who really does not care less, who does what she wants and is just generally pretty bad*ss was really refreshing for her. Kristen is a bad*ss and it's nice to see that on screen for once!
Now, I know that the characters in this are very 2000s two-dimensional, and I know on a feminism front it is highly problematic for Charlie's Angels to be a group of young, attractive girls answerable to a mysterious male figure. There's a moment at the end where the question of Charlie's gender is posed, but to be honest most of the film is just filling the (upsettingly enjoyable but) tired trope that came straight from the early 2000s and the 'girl power' movement. Not everything is wrong with that. But in terms of this film trying to be a film about female empowerment, it just doesn't really hit the mark.
That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it though, this is the kind of film that takes me back to sleepovers when I was young with my friends - think Wild Child, Angus Thongs, all of that. It might not be the film to make anybody a feminist, and it should be said please don't show this to your kids to try and show them what feminism is... BUT, that doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable story to zone out of real life into. You won't be missing anything if you don't watch this version of Charlie's Angels but if you're looking for an easy watch then maybe give it a go. PS. Kristen, we love the hair. Like... A lot. PPS. Elizabeth Banks, we forgive you.
Until next time,
Alice x
[This post was written for a previous blog and has been re-uploaded to GBM]
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