Review of Ocean's Eight (2018) by Andrewburge — 04 Sep 2018

As lavish, opulent and stylish as 'Hereditary' is scary. Gary Ross's 'Ocean's Eight' might not be as feminist as you might think, but also not that different in personality despite having its heist crew composed of all women led by Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) and her friend and confidant Lou (Cate Blanchett).

So, another film, another heist. This time, the culprits attempt to rob a necklace worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Problem is, that is locked in a vault. Luckily, Debbie has many friends, how convenient. She hires fashion designer Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) to dress a celebrity, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), for the annual New York Met Gala and insists that she wears the necklace. At the ceremony, they will steal it. Neat! You can imagine a lot can go wrong but not much does, really. Sure, there are thrills, but this film harbors an idealistic and satisfactory cause. Also, there is a revenge plot which almost feels like a feminine angry release, but, perhaps, I am going a bit too far here.

Fortunately, what it lacks in shock, 'Ocean's Eight' makes up for in style. The pacing is great, apart from some awkward occasions where it attempts to make its side-characters relevant. Which brings us to a double-edged sword. The personalities of the crew which Debbie builds are definitely interesting from the Jamaican hacker Nine Ball, real name... Nine Ball (Rihanna) to the concerned mother Tammy (Sarah Paulson) and somewhere in between an Asian sleight-of-hand Constance (Awkwafina a.k.a. Nora Lum). Unfortunately, their personalities don't feel feminine or different from anything we've seen before. Anne Hathaway's performance though is really funny. You could say she plays a parody of herself and while she has a snob and ignorant celeb posse, is really fun to watch her.

As it is this film. Enjoyable and satisfactory, it kinda feels like a showcase ride. Many issues that rise along are solved at an idealistic pace, not to mention the way in which they scan the necklace using some sort of technological mumbo-jumbo in some glasses, loading screen included, of course. It is definitely flawed, but at least you feel cool watching it. I mean, come on, there are cameos from Heidi Klum, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Desiigner of all people.