Words by: Lauren Duncan
Graphic by: Kerry Fleming
Barbie, Poor Things, and Priscilla all portrayed the story of young women in extremely different capacities and narratives. Though they differ in worlds, they all take on a similar structure, beginning in a childlike state and proceeding to develop into a young woman. They each embody an enlightened insight on the grappling issues that plague society while accepting it anyway. It comes off as though this is the only way to display a woman's autonomy through this repeated formulaic plot. From movies like Promising Young Women, Clueless, The Color Purple, this pattern is endless. Even in a fictional world like Barbie or Poor Things, women have to prove that they have suffered enough to be deemed as deserving of knowledge, acceptance, or even viewed as a being with complexities. Is this the only way that feminism can be palatable for men? Is this just a money grab that they can say has heart and depth? Or is this truly how feminism can be portrayed in the film industry?
Barbie takes the more trite route as they show that women are complex characters, men should be educated in feminism, to take down the patriarchal system, but does not challenge the greater idea of breaking away from the mold built for women by men for men. Despite this formulaic plot being repeated it does encourage young girls or feminine identifying people everywhere that they are capable to be whoever they want to be.
On the contrary, Bella Baxter from Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things takes on the patriarchal system and instead uses it to her own advantage. Bella Baxter, in need of money and enjoying her new found interest in sex, becomes a sex worker in Paris. She is able to explore her own sexuality and pleasure, but at the same time she is disgusted with the men who she must work for. She is a woman without shame and forces the men she comes in contact with to look within themselves and question their need for control over women.
As refreshing or played out as this may be, it is relatively shallow in most of its attempts made. This idea that a film led by a woman with an infant brain is directed from the perspective of a man feels awfully familiar and connects back to the message of the movie itself. Lanthimos, a man himself, does not dig deeper into such narratives but rather brings them up and moves forward. It could be argued that he did right by not diving into subjects he is not educated on, but that is an excuse as he could have brought on a woman with insight to co-direct with him.
Sofia Coppola's Priscilla is based upon the memoir of Priscilla Presely and her relationship to her abusive ex husband Elvis Presely. A young 14 year old Priscilla meets a 24 year old Elvis and the picture-esque relationship that follows. Priscilla becomes Elvis’s own personal living doll as every aspect of her life is controlled by him, to the point of making her only wear what is approved by him. As controlled as she was, she was also extremely lonely with no friends, prevented from exploring her likes and dislikes and discovering her own identity. Priscilla breaks down from constantly dealing with Elvis’s drug abuse and her perpetual loneliness and divorces him. Coppola does a great job giving us a window into Priscilla’s story, but gets cut short right as she leaves Elvis. The movie is about Priscilla and her story not Elvis, yet she fails to show her flourish in her new found freedom.
Each movie is worth a watch as they push forward in giving their audiences a complex woman not an object. However, they are not perfect as they dance around the issue behind it, the patriarchy. The failure behind these films is that they continuously point out the issue and then pat themselves on the back for doing so, and that is only the tip of the iceberg when tackling such subjects. Whether an audience is prepared to come face to face with issues that plague women and feminine identifying people can no longer be pondered. It is time to rip off the Band-aid and talk about these subjects earnestly, dancing around these topics only perpetuates the issue. I can only hope that these movies are laying the groundwork for future women to spearhead the film industry.