It’s “Ghostbusters” week here at Women and Hollywood, and we’ll be celebrating the film all week up until its official release on Friday, July 15.
After all of the misogynist backlash, the attacks from online trolls, and the tedious criticism, the film will finally hit theaters this weekend, and folks are responding positively. We can't applaud Sony enough for standing by this film, and the four female stars, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, and their director Paul Feig, deserve accolades for having to put up with everything they faced getting this movie in front of audiences.
So as we kick off our celebration week, here are five reasons why we’re super excited for “Ghostbusters.”
It’s Getting Good Reviews
The Guardian didn’t skip around the point and started off its review by declaring, “Rejoice! The new ‘Ghostbusters’ is good. Very good, in fact. It had to be.” The review closes with, “Fun oozes from almost every frame; likewise the energy of a team excited to be revolutionizing the blockbuster landscape.” In The New York Times, female critic Manohla Dargis wrote, “Girls rule, women are funny, get over it.” And Time’s Stephanie Zacharek wrote, “Feig’s Ghostbusters is its own definitive creature, an affable, inventive riff on Ivan Reitman’s proton-packing caper that exists not to score points, but only to make us laugh. For a summer comedy, there’s no nobler purpose.”
It’s Another Big-Budget Film Starring Women This Year
With a reported budget of about $150 million, “Ghostbusters” is building on the trend of big budget films with female protagonists that began late last year with the $160 million “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” and the $200 million “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.” It’s great to finally see movies with women at the forefront getting the dollars they deserve. 2016 has seen a number of big-budget films starring women this year, including the $170 million “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” the $115 million “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” the $200 million “Finding Dory,” and the upcoming Felicity Jones-led “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which will no doubt reach those heights as well.
It’s a Rare Story About Women Scientists
Stacy L. Smith, director of the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, told Variety, “We see a dearth of women in these roles in films.” She cited a study that reviewed more than 200 films and found none with women in the STEM fields. “I wanted to be here to support them when they got it right.” The more women we see in film and TV in STEM careers the better.
Kate McKinnon is a Break Out Star
As the creator of all of the cool devices, Kate McKinnon’s character Dr. Jillian “Holtz” Holztmann is the one getting the most attention.
Manohla Dargis: “No one performance dominates the new ‘Ghostbusters,’ which is for the most part democratically comic (a Paul Feig signature), although Kate McKinnon’s magnificent, eccentric turn comes close. She plays the in-house mad-hatter who whips up the ghost-busting hardware (proton packs included) with a crazy leer and page after script page of playful-sounding gobbledygook. Ms. McKinnon makes for a sublime nerd goddess…and, in an earlier age, would probably have been sidelined as a sexy, ditsy secretary. Here, she embodies the new ‘Ghostbusters’ at its best.”
Caroline Framke at Vox wrote that McKinnon, “not only steals every scene she’s in but chews it up with a liquid smirk and spits it out for parts.”
It’s the Start of Another Female Franchise, Which is Great News
At the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Saturday night, producer Amy Pascal told the Hollywood Reporter that we can expect much more from this female-led franchise. “It’s going to be endless. People are going to love this movie so much that’s they’re going to demand more and more.” Not only will the continuation of the franchise give audiences more big-budget female led films, but it will give little girls around the world a set of smart, tough, and funny women to look up to. Take a look at this red carpet photo from the premiere, look into this little girl’s eyes, and just try to make the argument that this doesn't matter. You will fail.
THIS IS WHY FEMALE LED FILMS ARE IMPORTANTpic.twitter.com/DsCj0NlHvg
