I was a bit slow to pick up on the controversy surrounding the new, all-female Ghostbusters. A couple of months ago, a male acquaintance of mine asked if he could join me at the critics’ screening. I assumed it was because he was actually looking forward to the film. (I was so young then.) Then he explained that he wanted to go to confirm how awful it would be. Awful? The film was directed by Paul Feig, I pointed out, whose Spy was one of the funniest films of 2015, and it featured a veritable fantasy league of funny ladies: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. What on earth made him think it would be anything other than totally rad? The all-female cast was a kind of pandering, he explained—political correctness run amok. (Huh, and here I thought they were just trying to make a funny film.)
Turns out, my friend had plenty of (bad) company. All across the internet, men—but #NotAllMen!—bemoaned the fact that this female iteration of Ghostbusters was ruining their childhood, messing with their nostalgia, tainting something gold and perfect and true. (Or something like that.) Funny how these same dudes didn’t seem to get all worked up when the umpteenth iteration of Spider Man or Batman rolled around. The secret message was clear: This is a boy’s club and girls are not allowed. The whole thing is honestly so asinine I don’t even want to discuss it anymore except to say, if you notice that the film has a suspiciously low imdb.com rating, it’s because these same whiners went to that site and pre-emptively gave the film a bad rating—imagine being that small.
Anyway, shocker: The new Ghostbusters is a blast, certainly as much fun and funny as the original. It isn’t isn’t a scene-by-scene remake but the bones are essentially the same: Three scientists, plus a street-smart layperson, combine forces to fight slime-oozing ghosts in Manhattan. Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and Abby Yates (McCarthy) were childhood friends who shared an interest in ghosts and later wrote a book together on paranormal activity. But they parted ways, as Erin pursued more mainstream academic pursuits, while Abby continued to explore the occult, along with her new colleague, the robotics and weapons engineer Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon). A haunted historic mansion brings them all together and re-stirs Erin’s passion for ghosthunting. Eventually, they team up with a savvy MTA employee named Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) who’s a bit surprised that this new gig is actually dangerous (she thought it was going to be more like a book club.) Rounding out the cast is Chris Hemsworth as the sublimely stupid Kevin, who’s technically hired as a receptionist, but is basically just providing Erin with man-candy.
All the leads are great. The fact that Wiig and McCarthy are not just skilled comedians but fine actresses helps to add poignancy to the lingering hurt feelings between Erin and Abby—the tentative rekindling of their friendship provides the film’s emotional core. SNL’s Leslie Jones proves that she can bring her outsized, wise-cracking, earthy humor to the big screen and Hemsworth, with a beatific smile across his beautiful, clueless face, has taken the himbo to new heights (sample idiocy: When asked why his glasses have no lenses, he replies, “Because they were always getting smudged.”)
But the breakout star of the film is clearly McKinnon. Indeed, she gives a performance so gloriously unhinged, so nuttily imaginative, so improbably sexy, she threatens to overwhelm the entire movie. (It’s a credit to her talented costars that they hold their own with her.) She’s equal parts Christopher Lloyd’s mad scientist in Back to the Future (another film I hope they do a girl-centric remake of, just to piss people off), Bill Murray at his id-raging best, and her own Justin Bieber impression. Everything she does—from insouciantly munching on Pringles during an encounter with a spirit to lustily licking her ghost zapper before she fires— is hilarious and note-perfect. (I predict she will be the single most GIFed character in the history of cinema.)
There are other funny bits, too, like a running gag where Abby can’t seem to get the right number of wontons in her wonton soup (rising star Karan Soni is amusing as the indifferent Chinese delivery guy) or the fact that Erin always manages to be in the eye of the green slime storm. And, of course, there are the requisite cameos from original castmembers(the way they incorporate the late Harold Ramis may actually bring a tear to your eye) and other knowing (dare I say, reverential?) nods to the original film. The film is funny and just a teensy bit scary and consistently entertaining and hell yeah, these female Ghostbusters kick ass. Suck it, haters.