This is an interesting twist. “Cocaine Bear” auteur Elizabeth Banks is trying to save face by telling Rolling Stone that the media was behind the “gendered agenda” of her 2019 “Charlie’s Angels,”
The 2019 movie, starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska, flopped at the box office, but Banks tells Rolling Stone that she got shafted by the media who kept trying to associate her movie with the feminist movement:
“So much of the story that the media wanted to tell about ‘Charlie’s Angels’ was that it was some feminist manifesto. People kept saying, ‘You’re the first female director of ‘Charlie’s Angels!” And I was like, ‘They’ve only done a TV show and McG’s movies … what are you talking about? There’s not this long legacy.’ I just loved the franchise. There was not this gendered agenda from me. That was very much laid on top of the work, and it was a little bit of a bummer. It felt like it pigeonholed me and the audience for the movie.”
“To lose control of the narrative like that was a real bummer,” Banks added. “You realize how the media can frame something regardless of how you’ve framed it. I happen to be a woman who directed a ‘Charlie’s Angels’ movie that happened to star three incredible women. You can’t control the media saying, ‘You’re a lady director, and that’s special!’ — which it is, but it’s not the only thing.”
“Charlie’s Angels” grossed a paltry $73 million worldwide. It was a disaster for Sony, but I’m calling bullshit on Banks’ assertion that she’s completely innocent of this debacle. Maybe it was marketed as a female empowerment kinda thing, but she was also spreading the narrative:
Her 2019 interviews speak for themselves:
The 2019 “Charlie’s Angels” was a bad movie and, make no mistake about it, most definitely wanted to take advantage of the social media zeitgeist at the time. It was a post-male gaze “Charlie’s Angels,” which kind of defeated the purpose of the source material.
“They are NOT walking around in swimsuits anymore, okay? But they're REALLY smart and they can kick male ass!”That’s what Banks’ movie was saying, but it all came off as superficially motivated.
Banks made a movie that nobody asked for. Also, could anyone actually suspend disbelief and believe that K-Stew had the chops to beat superimposing deep state assassins? Not a chance.