Saturday, July 16, 2016

Ghostbusters (2016, PG-13)

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so relieved to love a movie.  I’ve been following the news on the rampant hate surrounding this film for the past year, and I badly wanted it to be amazing – because the idea seemed fun and cool, yes, but also because a) I know how Hollywood works, and one poorly-received female-driven movie can poison the well in producers’ already-limited views, and b) it would be such a satisfying answer to the misogynists who’ve been dumping on it sight unseen.  The trailer for the movie seemed so-so at best, and I had my fingers crossed that it was a film whose humor works best in context (after all, there lots of successful, well-reviewed comedies whose trailers didn’t appeal to me in the slight.)  Well, I saw the film opening night, and for me, anyway, it was fantastic.

Erin, a physics professor on the verge of getting tenure, is horrified when an old professional embarrassment – a scientific book on ghosts that she wrote years ago with Abby, her former best friend and colleague – turns up online.  Scared that the book resurfacing will tank her career, she goes to confront Abby about it but gets swept up in Abby and new partner Holtzmann’s ghost-hunting research.  The three women get honest-to-god evidence of ghosts’ existence and immediately band together to further study the spectral phenomenon.  They’re soon joined by Patty, an MTA worker who’s had her own brush with the supernatural, and with the “aid” of their handsome-but-dopey receptionist Kevin, the fledgling Ghostbusters investigate the sharp rise in apparitional activity in New York City.

What can I say?  Fast, funny, some decent comic-horror scares.  Fun dialogue, great interplay between characters, cool gadgets, and terrific acting.  The film finds a good balance between action comedy, horror comedy, and straight-up silliness, with a few more serious character moments woven in just often enough.  The effects, for the most part, look good, although the real-world production design – the uniforms, the car, and the high-tech ghostbusting equipment – generally looks way cooler than the CGI.  The story lays good groundwork for the (hopeful) franchise.  Some of the specific plot elements are a little rough in execution, but the major characters and the dynamic between them is introduced beautifully.  I also like that, for the most part, it’s about “Ghostbusters who are women” rather than “lady Ghostbusters.”  Although portions of the outside world vehemently disagree, within the movie itself, it’s not a big deal that these characters are women; they just are.

All the main actors are excellent.  Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, both playing surprisingly subtle, bring smarts, heart, and laughs to Erin and Abby, and Leslie Jones is great as Patty, who’s both enthused and freaked out about her career change (her work here is more varied than I’ve seen from her on SNL, and I like it a lot.)  MVP, though, is Kate McKinnon’s Holtzmann, the wonderfully-weird techie with a passion for tinkering and a penchant for letting her freak flag fly.  As much as I enjoy all four characters, she’s the number-one scene stealer, with Chris Hemsworth as the goofy, oblivious Kevin coming in second.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids, suggestive humor, a little drinking, language, and gross-out humor.

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