Charlie's Angels (2019)

“An underlying ‘mean girls’ streak contradicts the feminist ideals that Charlie’s Angels tries to convey.”

Title: Charlie’s Angels (2019)
Director: Elizabeth Banks 👩🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Story by Evan Spiliotopoulos 👨🏼🇬🇷🇺🇸 and David Auburn 👨🏼🇺🇸 and screenplay by Elizabeth Banks 👩🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Carla Hay 👩🏾🇺🇸

Technical: 2/5

Despite its good intentions, this latest attempt to resurrect the Charlie’s Angels franchise falls flat in its overall goal to be a neo-feminist, comedic action flick. Written and directed by Elizabeth Banks, who also produced and co-stars in the movie, this latest rendition was obviously made for the #MeToo era...but feminism deserves better.

The plot is as razor-thin as the chemistry between the three main characters of wild child Sabina Wilson (Kristen Stewart), brittle ice queen Jane Kano (Ella Balinska), and wide-eyed newbie Elena Houghlin (Naomi Scott), a corporate whistleblower who spends most of the movie trying to convince the other two that she’s worthy of joining their team. Together, they work for the Townsend Agency, a U.S.-based private investigation firm that employs female detectives/spies nicknamed Angels. Banks plays the role of Boz, also known as Bosley, the Angels’ no-nonsense supervisor.

Banks’ clunky screenplay makes a futuristic, sci-fi revision to Charlie’s Angels that’s neither necessary nor effective. Elena, a brainy scientist/engineer at a hi-tech company, has invented a powerful, sustainable energy source called Calisto that’s small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand. However, the visual effects look low-budget and basic.

The plot jumps off when Elena’s condescending and sexist boss, Peter Fleming (Nat Faxon), ignores her warning that Calisto shouldn’t be rushed to market. When she refuses to back down, the company’s greedy founder/CEO (and one-dimensional villain) Alexander Brok (Sam Clafin) then orders one of his murderous henchmen to go after Elena. She enlists the help of the Townsend Agency, which is how she meets Sabina and Jane.

Audiences globe-trot with the Angels to glamorous and gorgeously shot locations in Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, and Istanbul. The cinematography at these locales would make any travel junkie drool, but it’s not enough to make up for the weak storyline. Likewise, the movie’s pop soundtrack—including theme song “Don’t Call Me Angel,” performed by Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey—is enjoyable if you like that kind of music, but ultimately serves as filler that fails to elevate the movie.

At its worst, Charlie’s Angels oozes cheesiness. At one point, in the middle of chasing bad guys through a lavish mansion party, the three heroines pause in the middle of the dance floor to break into a choreographed routine. The display feels like a cutesy appeal to Step Up audiences, but it doesn’t work. Rather, it breaks momentum and ruins the suspense, along with it any notion that we could avoid insipid “chick flick” clichés.

That said, it isn’t all bad. The movie’s best scene takes place near the beginning of the film, when Sabina, Jane, and Elena are all dressed identically and wearing the same blonde wigs, as they play a cat-and-mouse game to fool the security guards who are trying to hunt down Elena. This exemplary scene shows a great blend of action and well-coordinated teamwork between the three women. But even among gestures of unity, Kristen Stewart stands out as the best in the cast. She’s the most experienced out of the three lead actresses—and it shows.

Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
GradeMyMovie.com Assessment: 50% of key cast and crew members were women.

Charlie’s Angels is told from a female point of view, the leading actors are all women, and ultimately, a message of female empowerment can be found in there somewhere, so the movie automatically earns a high score in this category. However, an underlying “mean girls” streak contradicts the feminist ideals that this movie tries to convey.

In the original Charlie’s Angels TV show and McG-directed movies, the three Angels treated each other as equals. Their interpersonal dynamic of being close friends as well as co-workers combine for one of the most compelling attributes of the franchise. But in the Banks-directed movie, the power dynamic leans off-kilter. An inexperienced Elena spends most of the movie desperately trying to impress the other two, as if pledging an elite sorority. Sabina and Jane are sometimes patronizing and impatient with Elena, as if they expect this nerdy scientist to suddenly have all the years of experience and training they themselves have had as adventurous investigators.

And although it might seem great to finally see a female Bosley within the Charlie’s Angels universe, Banks mistakenly crafts Boz as someone who wants to outshine the Angels. She harbors some off-putting hangups about her age, making snide comments that imply that she, as a Gen X’er, is culturally superior to her millennial underlings. In fact, Boz’s ego is so huge that she sometimes competes with the Angels instead of being the supportive boss that the character is supposed to be.

The Angels make it clear that they’re not about to blur any lines by mixing business with pleasure. It’s a bold statement against the clichés within the spy genre, where the lead characters, especially if they’re women, get romantically involved with someone who’s a suspect. But Banks overcorrects to the point where sexuality is so toned-down, no one even seems to have a love life. Jane’s mild flirting with Elena’s awkward co-worker Langston (Noah Centineo) makes Disney Channel romances look edgy. A sensitive “jack of all trades” named Saint (Luis Gerardo Méndez), whose job is to cater to the Angels’ needs, is portrayed as an ideal man who keeps his relationship with the Angels strictly professional and platonic—the screenplay’s way of telling the audience that he won’t be pushing any #MeToo boundaries.

Unfortunately, except for Sabina (who has an interesting, briefly mentioned backstory as a rich girl with an arrest record), the women in the movie are oversimplified and predictable. On top of that, Banks also misses an opportunity to cast with more body diversity: Unchanged since the franchise’s 1970s roots, all prominent women in Charlie’s Angels continue to be thin.

Race: 4/5
GradeMyMovie.com Assessment: 14% of key cast and crew members were POC.

The three Angels have gone from an all-white trio in the original TV series, to two white women and one Asian woman in the McG-directed Charlie’s Angels movies, and now includes one white woman and two women of color in Banks’ version. The progressive change reflects an accurate world view, especially given the film’s international audience that has earned it more than double its domestic gross—$52 million to $18 million, respectively, at this time of review.

Banks’ version of Charlie’s Angels should also be praised for not shoehorning in topics of race in a movie that doesn’t really need it. Some filmmakers might use the characters’ racial diversity for identity politics or as a source of tension in the story—but that’s a tricky tactic to pull off if the screenwriter, director, and producers of the movie are all white.

Almost every race is represented in this movie. However, a concern worth mentioning involves the rare moments when big-budget Hollywood movies with predominantly white casts appoint Black and brown women into leading roles: Colorism comes into play, with the result being biracial or light-skinned actors overrepresenting those with darker skin. In the case of Charlie’s Angels, both Jane and Elena are played by biracial talent—Balinska’s mother is of Black Caribbean descent, and Scott’s mother is of Indian descent.

Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.75

Kristen Stewart’s Sabina is an out lesbian, making her the first LGBTQ Angel. Although none of the three Angels experiences a full-blown romance in the movie, during one scene, Sabina makes it known that she’s sexually attracted to women when she checks out nearby lady.

Bonus for Age: +0.75

Patrick Stewart’s supporting character of John Bosley is quick-witted and energetic, which defies the stereotype of seniors portrayed with slower mental and physical capacities.

Mediaversity Grade: B 3.83/5

Charlie’s Angels checks a lot of diversity boxes, but the diversity is wasted on a poorly written story and underdeveloped characters.

Like Charlie’s Angels? Try these other displays of “girl power” (with varying degrees of success).

Grade: BLiJanuary 22, 2020Great for: Age, Female/Nonbinary Creator