(Note: This review will be spoiler free. If you’d like to chat about it – email or dm me and I’ll be happy to chop it up)
“Don’t read the comments!” – Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy)
While McCarthy was talking about a recording she made and uploaded to Youtube to prove ghosts exist, it really could also serve as a warning to anyone wanting to watch this film. In the months leading to the release, “Not My Ghostbusters” “Chicks can’t be Ghostbusters” and far more vile versions of that permeated the ‘net, particularly in the aforementioned comments sections. Feig and the other writers do a great job playing with this sentiment throughout the movie, sliding in meta references that work in the world of the film and outside about the film, which I appreciated whole-heartedly. If you’ve enjoyed Feig’s collaboration in the past with McCarthy and Wiig, it is more of the same – which is a great thing for me. If anything adding in McKinnon and Jones to his actor “club” makes the film a step ahead of those efforts in terms of humor and style in my opinion.
McCarthy and Wiig are the lynch pins of the new movie – friends as teens that shared a moment with the paranormal and as adults one has embraced it fully (McCarthy) while the other has focused on the natural world and buried it deep (Wiig). The story of the movie is its own animal – the ladies aren’t going down a shot for shot remake of the original movies, which makes it in many ways easier to watch because you’re not waiting for cues or plot points from the originals to pop in as if to say “remember when this happened?” to the viewer. Instead, you get to follow the story of a sad guy named Rowan, who wants revenge for being bullied by way of bringing the world to an end. The asymmetrical level of retribution is right out of the #madonline mansplainers who troll women on twitter because it’s a day that ends in ‘y’, so this seemed like a good fit to me.
While stopping ghosts and getting press, the Ghostbusters have back at their base a receptionist by the name of Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth. I cannot understate how funny this man is in the movie. Every “dumb blonde” trope film has gifted to us over the history of comedy is embodied by Kevin, which I am sure will lead to more hurt feelings by some of the dude bros. Kevin’s explanation why he wears glasses but not the lenses (“so I don’t have to clean them”) is responsible for 10% of my coke winding up in my popcorn. Finding out after the fact that Hemsworth improvised that makes me think he could have a C-Tates run in him on the comedy side of Hollywood once the whole god of thunder thing stops working for him.
If not for Kate McKinnon, I would have said Hemsworth is the funniest person in the group. I need Kate McKinnon to get more work in film after watching this movie. She steals this movie. There were several times in the movie I felt like I was going to embarrass myself with how much she made me laugh, but it was well earned. I just saw this tweet as I was writing this:
The new Ghostbusters ruined my childhood. Because OH MY GOD I AM SO ANGRY THAT I DIDN'T HAVE HOLTZMANN TO CRUSH ON BACK THEN.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) July 18, 2016
Don’t misunderstand – this isn’t in the “hurr hurr she’s so hot”, because Ghostbusters is devoid of overly sexualizing any character – male or female. This is because Holtzmann is the data, the Q, the gadget queen of the Ghostbusters. If you can imagine it as a method to catch and/or jack up a ghost, Dr. Holtzmann will build it. Will it be legal according to Geneva conventions? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s gonna look cool, work (most of the time) and potentially lead to you glowing in the dark from prolonged use. She’s just the best.
Finally, I want to talk about Leslie Jones’ character of Patty Tolan, a station agent that gets pulled into the fold because of an incident near her booth. Before the movie came out, there were numerous articles about “not my Ghostbusters” and all that fun stuff, but when the first trailer came out the narrative shifted to Jones. Many sites began to frame that since she’s the only non scientist and only person of color on the squad she was “less than” enough; to have her portray a “loud over the top” woman was too much.
Wrong and wrong again. When you see this movie not only is Patty integral to the team, she is also as smart as the doctors on the squad in terms of books and literal street smarts – because she knows the grid of the city and its history in ways none of the other three do.
This is also where I hit the pause button and give a little insight as to why I enjoyed Patty in particular for that – as soon as I saw her and her interaction with people in her booth I said to myself, “she’s my dad”. For almost 12 years, my dad was a station agent for NYCTA and did her job. Because he worked the overnight shift, there weren’t that many people that would need tokens or change – this was the 80s / 90s, so the pass system hadn’t taken complete control yet – so he would fill his shift in the booth watching shows or reading books. In that time, over twelve years, with someone that’s naturally inquisitive you have the makings of one of the smartest men I’ve ever known. Part of the backlash over Jones to me was over her job as a “toll booth operator” as much as her natural bombastic demeanor, to which I say to those people – go to New York, talk with a station agent and get your mind blown. The guy I know that did that job not only was super-smart, but he paid for 3 kids’ college while dealing with you thinking it was a “nothing” gig. So, try harder next time guys.
Some reviewers (and viewers) won’t have that sort of knowledge, but you won’t need it because Patty shows you not only how intelligent she is during the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and thought it was a must-watch on its own merit. For this review, as I mention above, I’m spoiler-free. It’s no fun if I ruin some of the cameos that occur in the film for a non-viewer. I will say, stay past the credits as I think you’ll enjoy what you see.
My rating: 9.5 out of 10
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