*Note: This article will also serve as a film review for Barbie, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and The Little Mermaid*
Within the span of a week, I watched three female-dominant movies that took the world by storm. Barbie, The Little Mermaid, and Everything Everywhere All at Once shows feminity in a different light. Also, all three films' leads are women... and each one looks different. This is proof that female leads are starting to diversify in the cinema industry. The recognition of these films is exceptional as well. Whether it's box office performance, acting performances, or cultural impact. These different films share the same similarity... feminine energy.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
One of the best moments of award season this year was Michelle Yeoh receiving the Oscar for Best Actress. Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis were also nominated for their supporting roles, with Curtis winning. Yeoh is now the FIRST actress of Asian descent to receive this honor. But, before I get into the acting performances, the subject of the film needs to be discussed.
My experience with EEAAO (the acronym for the film's title) was very interesting. The film centered on the relationship between Evelyn Wang (Yeoh) and her daughter Joy Wang (Hsu). But, it's much more than that. Evelyn goes through a multiversal war in which she discovers all the other lives that she could have lived. With a plot like that, it seems very complex, but it was very eye-opening.
A.O Scott of the New York Times puts it best in his review of the film, "The movie is a metaphysical multiverse galaxy-brain head trip, but deep down — and also right on the surface — it’s a bittersweet domestic drama, a marital comedy, a story of immigrant striving and a hurt-filled ballad of mother-daughter love."
EEAAO was keeping up with modern cinema with the multiverse. The multiverse is heavy in superhero movies so I think that this existing in a movie like EEAAO shows its use in a more deeper way. Evelyn was fighting versions of herself without knowing which one she truly is. In all universes, she knew one thing, that she loved her daughter Joy and that she was willing to do anything to keep her. That's a really powerful theme. The relationship between the mother and daughter of an immigrant Chinese family was so interesting to explore. One critique that I have about this film is the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar over her costar Stephanie Hsu. Curtis's performance wasn't nearly as powerful as Hsu and Curtis's appearance wasn't even prominent in the film. I think that this is just another example of how women of color have to work even harder just to get the same, or even some, recognition as white women. Ke Huy Quan even received an Oscar for his role as Waymond, and he had just as much screen time as Curtis. Hsu showed her talents in her role as Joy and her chemistry with Yeoh was something that Curtis did not have. A second critique I have of the film is the editing. While I think it was impressive that the film was edited so beautifully, I think some parts were too heavily edited. But, that was a parallel to Evelyn's relationship with her family. Evelyn's husband was about to divorce her, the laundromat that she owned was declining, and Evelyn viewed her daughter differently because of her sexuality. Everything was literally going on at once for her. Evelyn did not know which aspect of her life she needed to fix first. Therefore, as she fixed her relationship with her daughter, she realized HER universe was wherever her daughter was, no matter what timeline she ended up choosing.
Everything Everywhere All At Once ended up being a box office success. The gross revenue of the film is $141 million. According to Deadline, the film became A24's highest-grossing film and is now an Oscar-winning movie.
Barbie
The color of Summer 2023 is obviously pink! That is due to the box office hit... Barbie!
When it was announced that Barbie was coming to the big screens, it was established that this film was going to put up big numbers. With Greta Gerwig directing this film, the Mattel toy beautifully came to life. Gerwig directed films such as Lady Bird and Little Women (both female-led films). The marketing for this film was top-notch. The Barbie Dreamhouse in California was genius. The outfits at the Barbie premiere were a fashion hit. Even the Barbie Cafe in Chicago was booked until September. The cherry on top was the #Barbieheimer memes and videos due to the films coming out on the same weekend. If anyone needs an example of how to market a film, they need to look at the Barbie era.
The film follows Barbie played by Margot Robbie as she goes on a journey to find herself in terms of her existence. There are a lot of great things about this film in terms of feminity. One main thing is that BarbieLand is female-dominant. The president is a Barbie, and there are Barbies with Noble Peace Prizes and Barbie doctors. Meanwhile, the Kens (who are played by various actors such as Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Kingsley Bel Adir, etc.) are more of the support systems and have almost no power in Barbie land. Barbieland runs on a feminist agenda. Barbie thinks that she is living in a perfect world.. that is until she stumbles upon a crisis. Barbie starts her morning routine, as usual, and finds herself not being as perky as he usually is. She starts to have more human-like thoughts and her regular routine deteriorates. She instantly thinks something is up. This is showing how women always have to be perfect ALL the time and if they are not then they think their self-worth is lessened. The second Barbie started having a bad day she started to feel like she wasn't good enough and she saw how different she was from the other Barbies. She was comparing herself to other women... such a toxic trait.
Barbie has to travel to the real world and find out who was playing with her that made her cause such negative thoughts. Barbie quickly found out that the real world was not as perfect as Barbie Land. Barbie, along with Ken, found themselves in California. Within the first five minutes, Barbie was stared at, catcalled, and even received an unsolicited slap on the butt. Meanwhile, Ken learned the definition of patriarchy. The patriarchy which he brings back to Barbieland and ruins. Barbie meets Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), another mother and daughter. It turns out that Gloria was playing with Barbie when the crisis started. Gloria was depressed about her relationship with her daughter so she basically took her anger out on Barbie. Gloria and Shash have become distant and Gloria needed to find a way to reconnect with her daughter.
Barbie also learns that Sasha no longer likes Barbie and hasn't played with a Barbie doll in years for the reason that she upholds stereotypical beauty standards. Barbie is a white woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Sasha is a young girl of color with brown hair and brown eyes. I am glad that this fact was brought up in this film because even though they say 'Barbies can be anything', they are also implying that Barbies can be anything if they look like the stereotypical 'beautiful women'. This brings me to my critiques of the film. I know that the Barbies in Barbie Land were diverse, but I wish the humans that they meet were diverse as well. It was nice seeing a Black Barbie president, but it would have been nice to see a little black girl meet said president. I think it would have been a cute moment in the film. Other than that, I think the film was fun and energetic. All things that you would expect a Barbie movie to be. Barbie was figuring herself out in the real world while Ken was figuring out his role in Barbie Land, which quickly became Kendom (which is very short-lived). Barbie not only found herself, but she also saved Barbieland from toxic masculinity. Barbie is a good film that displays the transition from girlhood to womanhood perfectly. I guess that is one of the treats about having a female director for this film.
The film tackles women's roles in the world. Perception of womanhood at a young age is also discussed in the film. The main theme that this film depicted perfectly was girlhood in all its glory. The film was a hit and records were broken. Records include:
Barely three weeks into its run, writer-director Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster has raked in an astounding $1.03 billion at the global box office, according to official Warner Bros. estimates. This makes Gerwig the first solo female director with a billion-dollar movie (CNN.com)
Barbie grossed over $162M during its first weekend, which is currently the biggest domestic opening weekend for a movie released in 2023. (Buzzfeed.com)
It's also the biggest opening weekend domestically for a female-directed film ever. It surpassed Captain Marvel (co-directed by Anna Boden) with $153.4M and Wonder Woman (directed by Patty Jenkins) with $103 million. (Buzzfeed.com)
This movie marks the biggest weekend for Greta Gerwig as a director and has already surpassed the domestic grosses for her previous films Little Women ($108.1M) and Lady Bird ($49M). (Buzzfeed.com)
It's Warner Bros. largest opening that's a non-sequel or non-DC franchise movie, previously It held the record with $123.4M. (Buzzfeed.com)
And it doesn't stop there! Talk about female empowerment!
The Little Mermaid
Halle Bailey transcends into the iconic princess, Ariel (Halle Bailey). The remake of the Disney classic came to life this year and will be just as sentimental as the original. If you do not know the original tale nor watched the original film, the story follows the sea princess Ariel as she longs to be on the surface.
One night Ariel saves Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck and sings to him as he wakes up. Ariel's eagerness leads her to Ursale The Sea Witch (Melissa McCarthy). Ursala makes a deal with Ariel, giving up her voice for her chance to meet Prince Eric in the human world. Ariel has only three days for Eric to kiss her or else Ursala will claim Ariel as her own. Luckily, Ariel defeats Ursala and is able to live on land with her love Prince Eric. And as usual, they lived happily ever after. The film kept elements from the original movie and that is what made it so good. Ariel was able to explore the world and even herself. Ariel learned how to control her own destiny as a young woman. She did not want her father to control her and is the only one out of her sisters to have her own voice.
Another thing that I liked about this film is how Eric wasn't too controlling of Aeriel as well. When Eric met Ariel he was gentle with her and even willing to help her explore the world. This is another example of the man being the support system for the woman. Eric allowed Ariel to mess up because he was willing to fix her mistakes. Ariel's voice is taken, but she was able to communicate through actions. Secondly, let's not forget the most important improvement in the film... Ariel is played by a Black woman.
When it was announced that Ariel will be black, there was ALOT of backlash. That backlash was heavily rooted in racism. Even though there are many films out there with white leads, this is the film that has racial criticism. There was even a point where black actors/actresses weren't even allowed on screen. This resulted in Blackface. Therefore, I LOVED the fact that Ariel was black. And not only was Ariel black, but so was the queen. Halle Bailey has an absolutely beautiful voice so so I think that was a great addition to the film. At the 2022 Oscars, Bailey was formally inducted into the Hall of Fame of live-action Disney Princesses. Sabrina Weiss of People Magazine reports the memory of that day,
"Lily James, Halle Bailey, and Naomi Scott looked like the belles of the ball while presenting the Best Animated Feature category at the 94th Academy Awards. "The three of us have all had the privilege of bringing a beloved animated character to the live screen," said James, 32, at the presentation's start. James played Cinderella, Scott played Princess Jasmine, and Bailey will play Ariel in the upcoming live-action Little Mermaid movie. The Cinderella actress and Aladdin star excitedly welcomed the Grammy-nominated singer to the Disney princess club during the trio's time onstage at the Oscars."Soon, Halle will join the club as Ariel in The Little Mermaid," said Scott, 28, while presenting. "Welcome babe."
This was such a beautiful moment! The little girl in me is so giddy because all my favorite princesses are coming to life. Such a full-circle moment. The only critique that I have for the film is the interaction between Arieal and the other merpeople. For instance, at the end of the film when Ariel was leaving, her father was saying goodbye to her. Once his goodbyes were over the camera panned to the other merpeople of the sea and it was a lot of them. I didn't even realize how many mermaids were in this film. I think as the princess, maybe Aeriel should have interacted with her people more or there should have been more scenes of the underwater city. Even Ariel sister's appearances were brief. Overall, I liked how the film stuck with the original. The film didn't outshine the film, yet it was still so special in its own way.
The box office for the film was great. According to BoxOfficeMojo, the film numbers came out to be, Domestic: $297,124,688, International: $269,468,038, Worldwide: $566,592,726. Despite the film having racist comments, it still performed well at the box office. The film deserved its run and Halle Bailey handled herself with such grace and care. I believe that this may be her breakout role and hopefully, her beautiful smile continues to grace the screens.
Did you like this week's article? Did you see any of these films? Let me know in the comments!
Sources
Alessandro, Anthony. “‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Crosses $70m U.S., $103m Worldwide, Adding to Totals of A24’s Highest-Grossing Movie Ever – Update.” Deadline, 30 Sept. 2022, deadline.com/2022/09/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-a24-box-office-record-2-1235042399/.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3861218049/. Accessed 10 Aug. 2023.
Garafano, Lauren. “Every Record ‘Barbie’ Has Broken at the Box Office so Far.” BuzzFeed, 26 July 2023, www.buzzfeed.com/laurengarafano/barbie-box-office-records.
Scott, A. O. “‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Review: It’s Messy, and Glorious.” The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/movies/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review.html.
“The Little Mermaid.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt5971474/#:~:text=Domestic%20%2852.4%25%29%20%24297%2C124%2C688%20International%20%2847.6%25%29%20%24269%2C468%2C038%20Worldwide,%24566%2C592%2C726%20Domestic%20Distributor%20Walt%20Disney%20Studios%20Motion%20Pictures. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.
Weiss, Sabrina. “Three Disney Princess Actresses Gather Onstage at 2022 Oscars.” Peoplemag, 28 Mar. 2022, people.com/movies/disney-princess-actresses-gather-onstage-at-2022-oscars-and-celebrate-a-new-princess-welcome-babe/.
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