We Failed Charlie’s Angels
Charlie's Angels debuted as an American crime drama television series that aired in 1976 and ended in 1981. It starred the three 'it' girls of that time - I am of course talking about Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and the original 'Becky with the good hair' Farrah Fawcett. Charlie is a mysterious boss who directs the crime-fighting operations of his angels - never revealing his identity. This original iteration has been criticised for catering only to the male gaze. Think about it, these three women were at the beck and call of some mystery man, and no matter what they were doing, the focus was on emphasising their sex appeal. It's a little yikes but expected for the time it was created in. The criticism didn't stop the show from being hugely successful in it's first few seasons. Sadly, its popularity fizzled out and the show came to an end after 110 episodes. But it's status as an iconic show lived, and the original show's notoriety inspired a production company and a reboot in the form of the 2000's film series.
The ever-iconic Charlie's Angels film series starred Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu as our leading ladies. Now, keeping in mind that I haven't watched more than 30 minutes total of the original TV series, it's fair to say that these movies are the reason I fell in love with the series and the concept as a whole. These women were fun and intelligent and living out the international spy dream I've had since my childhood. The movie series also took some steps away from catering to the male gaze; focusing more on these women just being bad*sses on the field. I loved it. Much like the original series, however, it was still lacking something and it doesn't quite hit the same if you watch it now. And if we're being honest with ourselves, the plot for the sequel was very much lacking.
A writer from 'Slate' who went in expecting to hate the film hailed it, "A charming, hyper-energetic, and wittily self-aware action comedy about gorgeous girls".
I think that sums it up perfectly, it's a fun movie about female friendship with some action-y and humorous side plots. Sounds like a good time if you ask me. This brings us to the latest instalment in the Charlies Angels series – the 2019 movie that was directed and produced by the one and only Elizabeth Banks. It stars Naomi Scott, Kristen Stewart and Ella Balinska as the new trio of angels working for the now international Townsend agency [named after Charlie Townsend of course]. Banks plays Bosley – now a rank in the agency, as opposed to the last name of the angels' primary carer.
Let's talk details. Banks was the movie's producer, director and writer – not to mention a key member of the supporting cast. The movie's soundtrack was executive produced by Ariana Grande – plus its theme song is sung by Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey. The other, less hyped but still fantastic songs from the soundtrack were all written and sung by women. Unlike the original series and to some degree the original movie series, this Charlie's Angels reboot was all about catering to women and showcasing female excellence. It was made by women and for women which I am absolutely here for. Sadly, it didn't do that well in the box-office. It was ranked by multiple publications as 'one of the biggest box-office disappointments of the year'.
In an interview for The Playlist about if she was gutted over the movie's performance, Kristen Stewart said:
"Well, to be honest with you, I think if I had made a movie that wasn't good and one that I wasn't proud of and a lot of people saw it, I would be devastated," Stewart said. "Luckily I'm not feeling gutted because I really am proud of the movie. And I think that the kind of climate that we're living in right now is polarizing and it's weird and it's kind of hard to promote a movie like that. And I think trying to have a really complicated, overly politicized feminist conversation in a five minute TV interview about 'Charlie's Angels' … I'm like, 'Dude, we just wanted to have a good time.'"
THAT right there is my point. People have complained about the plot, and the concept and the directing and literally everything – saying that it was quote-unquote stale. I personally enjoyed this movie. Obviously, every movie I like can't be a hit but I'm not sure that this movie flopped for any justifiable reasons.
Historically, most media that women like or that was catered to women either didn't perform well or its success was disregarded. Think about it, how are 5 Seconds of Summer a boy band but Maroon 5 is just a band?
I'll give you the answer, it's about their fan base. 5SOS became famous because teenage and young adult girls loved their sound – rightfully so might I add. Maroon 5 has a more even spread of male to female fans and is therefore seen as just a band. You may think I'm making this up but it even happened to the Beatles. Early on in their careers, they were regarded as a boy band – that is until their songs became a little less pop and the male:female ratio of their fans evened out a little bit. There's nothing inherently wrong with the term 'boy band', but ait's use tends to come with some element of writing-off from the general public or the media at large.
We live in a society that was built to cater to men – like yes, aspects of that are changing but we're not quite there yet. The simple fact of the matter is, Charlie's Angels failed because of how our society views or essentially disregards femininity. In comedy, in entertainment and in the broader media, it's believed that if something was written by women, it can only be for women. This project was made for women, in the sense that it was meant to empower, but it's not something that can only be enjoyed by women. It's almost always assumed that male is the default and that woman is the specific i.e. something made by men can be enjoyed by all but something made by women is for women only. That's a pretty harmful assumption to make.
There's also the impossible standard that women or things made by women are held to. It's very similar to the standard for talented BIPOC.
Here's a little mental exercise: think of 5 successful white male actors. Chances are most if not all of the ones you thought of are good at their craft, and just that. They have the freedom to just be good actors because there are plenty of seats at that table. Now think about 5 successful actors of colour. The large majority of actors who fit this description are also incredibly good looking, can sing and have more side-talents than their white counterparts. Why you might ask? Because they're fighting for fewer and therefore have to outperform many more people to prove themselves. The same applies to movies and other projects made by women. Charlie's Angels, Ocean's Eight, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman – I could keep going. The majority of criticism these movies faced was about how they weren't blank enough. Not funny enough, not witty enough, not inspiring enough. Anything really. These projects aren't allowed to be just good i.e. not fantastic but not bad. They have to be revolutionary or they're apparently not worth it.
Charlie's Angels was fun, and adventurous and so incredibly empowering – legitimately every time I watch it, I gain levels of confidence matched only by mediocre rich white men. It's wonderful. Even if it wasn't the best movie you've ever seen, why can't movies made by women be allowed to be mediocre the same way other movies are? Quentin Tarantino is worshipped by men everywhere even though few of his movies even hold a candle to the Barbie cinematic universe. Don't come for me, but you know I'm right.
This blog post won't change the world [not immediately anyway] but I hope that at least some of these thoughts made some sense. Charlie's Angels did exactly what it sought out to do and it is without a doubt the movie that the girls needed. It not performing well means many things – firstly, we're not going to get a sequel, and the Charlie's Angels franchise won't be releasing much in the years to come. Whether or not we want to think about it, this movie's performance will set a precedent for all of the female made and female centred movies to be released soon. This is now the new standard or at least the new expectation. If a male-directed movie didn't perform well, that would only affect that movie. It wouldn't even mean anything for the director. Think about it, M Night Shyamalan still gets booked after the atrocity that was 'The Last Airbender'. Tell me that's not disrespectful? Sadly, how one woman behaves is how people assume all women behave. And in the same way, the female-directed or female-targeted movies of the future will be expected to flop simply because we failed Charlie's Angels. As the audience [and as a lot of us are the target audience], the movie's premiere was the time to show up and show out. A lot of us didn't even give the movie a chance to fail, we just wrote it off completely.
Rant over. I would now like to take some moments to discuss all the things this movie did achieve. Starting with the representation. We got our first black angel in Ella Balinska's character Jane and Naomi Scott's Elena was our first South Asian angel. The majority of the ensemble team was women of colour, something that would have been an impossibility during the original television series. Furthermore, Sabina (Kristin Stewart's character) was a member of the LGBTQ+ community, not for tokenism or to tick some box but just because that was the truth for that character. That's huge. And then there are the clips that make up Elena's training montage, Elizabeth Banks had the idea to showcase some real-life incredible women teaching the new angels their special skills. In the 2019 Charlie's Angels, the angels became less of a distant concept and more of a symbol for women doing great things. I love that for us. Furthermore, We got redemption for Kristen Stewart. Intentional or not, a few, carefully seconds disproved many targeted headlines from Stewart's past. That's huge. Not just for her, but for all of us. Elizabeth Banks is an example of a woman who is FOR supporting and empowering other women. That's what Charlie's Angels means to me.
GOOD MORNING CHARLIE,
The Original Television Series
Rotten Tomatoes | Charlie’s Angels
Indie Wire | Kristen Stewart on Charlie’s Angels