If you remember, a large number of people were outraged when “Little Women” was snubbed by the Golden Globes as well as SAG, just a few weeks ago. Now, the film’s defenders are implying that “Little Women” is not being nominated by these voting bodies because of gender biases towards it.
Just eleven days ago, Vanity Fair writer Anthony Breznican posted a piece titled “Little Women Has a Little Man Problem,” and, less than a week after that, former New York Times film critic Janet Maslin tweeted that “the Little Women problem with men is very real.” And now, just this morning, a New York Times piece on this same subject titled “Men Are Dismissing Little Women — What a Surprise.” The author is blogger-columnist-feminist Kristy Eldredge.
There are plenty more write-ups like these. One Google Search shows pages upon pages of think pieces on this topic.
Obviously, a discourse is being created right now to push “Little Women” and its Oscar chances — these writers are consciously trying to guilt-shame male voters into watching Gerwig’s film. Of course, this attempt will backfire on them because people just don’t like being told what to do.
At the very least, “Little Women” doesn’t seem to be having a “man problem” with male film critics, as they have unanimously raved about Gerwig’s movie. The film currently holds an impressive 95% fresh score on male-dominated Rotten Tomatoes. It is also the 8th most mentioned movie in film critics’ top ten lists for 2019.
I wouldn't call this film great — it stops short of that because of how neatly it resolves itself — but I'll give Rock his due here: this is much better than his previous directorial effort, "Top Five."