Men are mad, did you hear? “HOW DARE THESE WOMEN RUIN OUR CHILDHOODS?” they simultaneously yell-typed into the portals of the internet while wiping away their cheese dust-covered fingers on their sweatpants upon hearing the news of an all-female remake of Ghostbusters. Donald Trump’s toupee nearly slid off his sweaty red face when he made an Instagram video about it last year. A men’s rights movie vlogger (who looks exactly like… a men’s rights movie vlogger) had an entire segment on his YouTube channel explaining why he refuses to see or review the movie. (Because women are ruining his precious childhood!) The Ghostbusters trailer is the most disliked on YouTube of all time, and the pained comments and tweets are even more of a mess. Imagine being that mad about a MOVIE.
Of course, director Paul Feig and his co-writer Katie Dippold caught all of this outrage, but they were not deterred: their unnecessarily controversial Ghostbusters reboot is a glorious “Fuck You” to the men who have trolled them along the way. It’s too soon to say but the mad bros may have even inadvertently helped 1) the movie's box office performance and 2) the strength of the final script. If we lived in a world where female cast reboots were treated as a normal thing, I probably would not have even seen this new version, which stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. I’ve never been a big fan of the original Ghostbusters to start with, nor do I care much for blockbuster reboots. But with so many dudes being mad at it, I want to support the shit out of this film. So hey everyone: Go HAM on Ghostbusters this opening weekend.
But here’s the thing: unfortunately, the new Ghostbusters is not that great. Most big summer movies aren’t, though, and for what it’s worth, this is at least a ton of fun. Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones absolutely slay—the former kills every body gesture and one-liner and the latter is a master at amplifying a character that would otherwise fall flat with a different actor. The chemistry among the four women is even more fun to watch than the original Ghostbusters crew. In a funny ironic twist, their camaraderie is helped by the bonding that happens when they’re faced with troll men. Imagine if four hilarious ladies got together and came up with a bunch of fire subtweets—that's what Ghostbusters is. Now, if only those angry dudes would just go watch the movie and witness those subtweets in person.
There are many Easter eggs to be found in the film, but one of the best is Bill Murray’s cameo as a ghost debunker. He wears a large and ridiculous hat that Chris Hemsworth compliments (while also wearing a ridiculous hat of his own). Hats—especially of the fedora type—are such a trademark of men’s rights activist fashion that this quick exchange has got to be a jab at all the meninists yelling on the Internet. Murray's appearance seems to be the “original Ghostbuster’s stamp of approval” these Ghostbusters purists were looking for, but instead of pandering, Feig and Dippold use it to poke fun at those haters, using the person those trolls were protecting most against themselves. Meta and vengeful, baby.
The metaness also plays out when the women upload a video of themselves catching a ghost on YouTube and are met with the same kind of trolls that littered the movie trailer's comment page in real life. “Ain’t no bitches gonna bust some ghosts,” Wiig recites confusedly before they all decide to get off the internet (smart move, ladies) and do what they do best: bust some motherfuckin’ ghosts.
Not only is the new Ghostbusters led by four kickass women, but almost all its male characters are awful. Hemsworth’s Kevin is easily the most loveable, but he’s dumber than a sack of bricks. He’s constantly put in danger, needs a lot of saving (turning your damsel in distress trope on its head), and is totally incompetent. He’s only really there because he’s nice to look at. (Side note: This might be Hemsworth’s best role yet and he really should do more comedies.) His faux intellectualism—like him wearing lens-less glasses that makes him look smarter—is reminiscent of the “Well, actually” men who try to tell you why the new Ghostbusters isn’t cinema, et cetera, et cetera, as if the Teenage Mutant Ninja reboot is.
Then there’s the big bad guy, played by Neil Casey, who looks not like your typical villain, but rather like your typical Reddit user. He’s not physically intimidating, and it’s not hard to imagine him trolling forums in a basement somewhere all day. Coincidence? Probably not. There’s one last joke at the end, and it’s McKinnon joking about our future president. “It’s 2040 and our president is a plant!” she says. Could she possibly be referencing the star of that angry Instagram, Donald Trump?
Whether or not that joke had a second meaning, what I can confirm is this: The new Ghostbusters is a good time. You don’t get the action movie thrill of a possible apocalypse (even when New York City is being destroyed), but on a comedy level it works. And anyhow, the only thing that matters is these ghostbustin’ ladies went up against their true enemies, MRA-leaning, childhood-clutching man-babies, and resolutely won.
