As a middle-aged guy from Germany, I’m really not part of this film’s core audience of woke teenage girls, so take what I have to say about it with a grain of salt, if you are. Having uttered that warning, I have to say that I found the film to be a frustrating experience, not because of the age and gender gap, but because of structural concerns that weaken the film decidedly.
On the one hand, Zoe Lister-Jones’s film has a much better idea of what it thinks about feminism and the life of young women today than the original The Craft (of which it turns out to be one of those weird sequels that want to work as a remake at the same time) ever had. It has a good grip on how to say it too, turning these ideas into a narrative well enough (and certainly well supported by the young lead actresses around Cailee Spaeny).
However, while doing this, the film does little to nothing to really set up the stakes for its final act, vaguely hand-waving important motivations and connections between characters in favour of the most superficial thing it can come up with, never even seeming to attempt to suggest that anyone is actually in danger of losing the fight against David Duchovny’s evil magic-stealing patriarch (or is he supposed to be an actual demon?), or even having to fight very hard. That’s not terribly helpful for the film’s metaphorical level, either, suggesting you can resolve huge societal problems in two or three minutes without anyone having to pay any price for it (dudes writing books about “hallowed masculinity” who are possibly demons really don’t count here). There’s something bloodless and bland about too much of the film too, magic never actually feeling dangerous or difficult to control, or a terribly interesting thing, frankly. Witches would have it easy if not for the easily dispatched David Duchovnys of this world, apparently, which is a nice thought, but not one that makes for a particularly gripping movie.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment