Why I'm going to see The Marvels despite initial reviews
Diversity matters for film critics and they don't have it.
I haven’t seen The Marvels yet.
If I was listening solely to film critics, I probably wouldn’t bother. The New York Times headline states ingloriously, “You’ve seen this movie 32 times before.” The AP gave it 2 stars out of 4, suggesting it is a “largely forgettable stepping stone”. The Guardian calls it “tepid” and only gives it 2 starts out of 5. Then, of course, there is the less than brilliant Rotten Tomatoes rating.
But I’m going to for two reasons.
I loved the Marvel miniseries Ms. Marvel. I lived with a UK immigrant family from Pakistan while I was researching my dissertation (way back in 2001). In exchange for 65£ a week they gave me a comfortable place to sleep and fed me homemade Indian food for dinner and warm chapati with fruit for breakfast. We watched Bollywood movies and the syndicated Ramayana after we cleaned up dinner each night. I met their Muslim and Hindi neighbors; I learned to make chapati, lemon pickle, and biryani chicken; and I listened to their stories about growing up on the border between India and Pakistan. Ms. Marvel reminded me, in the best possible way, about my time with this family.
I am not going to argue that every movie directed by a woman and starring a female cast is automatically a “good” movie. But I also know that we need to go out of our way to give female-centered movies a chance. I mean, here we have a movie directed by a Black woman and featuring as the main characters three women (one white and two of color). Do you know how few mainstream movies showcase women like this? Just check out this August 2023 assessment of the Hollywood box office diversity report from Time magazine (see quote below).
While women and people of color have made progress in Hollywood, there is still a long way to go even in television (just check out the 2023 television diversity report). The Marvels is fighting an uphill battle not only against Hollywood trends but also against the most successful Marvel movies (which are mostly directed by men and highlighting white male characters) at a time when public commitment to Marvel is significantly diminished. (See quote from NYT below)
And it is fighting against the demographics of film critics who are still mostly white middle-aged men. Have you seen the data by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film?
I love my husband (who fits the demographic of most film critics), but we often disagree about the movies and shows we like. Indeed, as I read the negative movie reviews, I couldn’t help but think about how hard it is for women, especially women of color, to break into white, male dominated spaces. Movies are mostly made by white men; mostly white men star in the most successful movies; and mostly white men are judging the quality of movies. Y’all, are we surprised by which movies are deemed most successful? I mean, we wonder why Hollywood hasn’t made much progress in diversity during the last ten years—could it be because the people judging the success of those films hasn’t made much progress either?
Maybe The Marvels isn’t the most brilliant movie out there (although I suspect it is better, perhaps a lot better, than critics are saying). But a Black woman has directed a film starring a diverse female cast within one of the most successful masculine (in regards to the central characters and directors) movie series of all-time, and that alone is worth celebrating.