Ocean's Eight (2018)
Directed by Gary Ross
Debbie Ocean, a criminal mastermind, gathers a crew of female thieves to pull off the heist of the century at New York's annual Met Gala.
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Ocean’s Eight retains a paper-thin connection to Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels by linking Danny Ocean (R.I.P.) with this movie’s lead, his sister, Debbie (Sandra Bullock).
Ross and co-writer Olivia Milch stick to the template of Ocean's Eleven, Soderbergh's first and best overhaul of the 1960 Rat Pack vehicle.
An “Ocean’s” movie is all about the heist, to be sure, but the exhilarating beauty of “Ocean’s Eleven” is that it was a screwball buddy comedy, as well as a romantic comedy, all vibrating through the tossed-off intricacy of the robbery.
You could talk about what’s missing in Ocean’s 8 as compared to Ocean’s Eleven , the 2001 caper remake that this gender swaps.
From the funky, jazzy soundtrack to sliding, fragmenting cuts to whole swaths of the story — there’s even a “please tell me this isn’t about your ex” fight between Debbie and Lou that mirror’s Rusty and Danny’s conversation in Ocean’s Eleven, almost to the letter — Ocean’s 8 desperately wants you to be remembering the films that came before it every step of the way.
The film’s patronizing nod to diversity — token thieves of assorted ethnic types — are insulting enough to make one nostalgic for the ghetto vulgarity of Set It Off (1996), a black feminist heist film in which Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett belonged to a quartet of inner-city black chicks who committed robbery because of each one’s deprivation.
(Of the very few all-female heist movies in existence, none has aimed for this sort of gloss and glamour: they’ve been rougher, like “Set It Off,” or teen camp, like “Sugar & Spice.”)
A crew of women teaming up to boldly go where so many male-dominated heist teams, from “Rififi” to “The Italian Job” to the “Ocean’s” films, from “The Asphalt Jungle” to “The Town” to “Logan Lucky,” have gone before?
The great American director Jules Dassin ( Topkapi ; Rififi ) was a genius at putting audiences on the edge of their seats during a heist sequence.
Aparte de escribirla junto a Olivia Milch, Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) dirige Ocean’s 8 con la agilidad y flexibilidad que uno espera de esta propiedad, manteniendo el espíritu juguetón de la trilogía mientras practica su propio estilo – mayormente dejando que las actrices hagan su trabajo – manteniendo buen ritmo sin perder el hilo.
Director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) has said that this movie is “about camaraderie, not antagonism.”
Very rarely does this Ocean's director (Gary Ross of Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and Hunger Games) seem like he'd buy what he's working to sell, on either the genre or the star-power count.
The director of “Ocean’s 8” is the talented veteran Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit,” “Pleasantville,” “The Hunger Games”), who co-wrote the screenplay with Olivia Milch, and they have delivered a solid if somewhat underwhelming caper similar in tone and style to the “Ocean’s” trilogy of the early 2000s.
Directed by Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games), it is divided into your typical three acts: 1) plan the heist; 2) perform the heist; 3) aftermath of the heist.
This is a light, well-oiled bit of frippery directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Free State of Jones), written by him and Olivia Milch (who wrote and directed the Netflix film Dude).
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Not even the surprises are quite surprises here, since Ocean’s Eight recycles a formula now very familiar from not only these films but the 1960s legacy that spawned them (cross-reference Topkapi and TV’s Mission: Impossible ) and the modern TV knockoffs ( Leverage , Hustle ).
The great American director Jules Dassin ( Topkapi ; Rififi ) was a genius at putting audiences on the edge of their seats during a heist sequence.
(See the original-original Sinatra-starring “Ocean’s 11” from 1960.)
Frank Sinatra didn’t have to worry about computerized vault locks and high-definition surveillance cameras when he played master conman Danny Ocean in the original Ocean’s 11 in 1960.
While Debbie and Lou stand in a Subway waiting for Constance (a scene-stealing Awkwafina) to get a sandwich, you can hear Sammy Davis Jr. singing “Love is All Around” — a nod to the Rat Packer who starred in the franchise original, 1960’s “Ocean’s 11,” and TV’s feminist icon Mary Tyler Moore.
More importantly, a lot of the film mirrors Soderbergh’s 2001 remake of the original Ocean’s 11.
It’s a totally satisfying movie that combines the felonious delights of Ocean's 11 with the girl-power wish fulfillment of Sex and the City (only better written, by the writer of Big and The Hunger Games).
Director Gary Ross’s choice of site follows a Sex and the City template; his attempted glamorization of avarice and theft displays the slackened principles of a particular social elite.
It's like a Sex and the City movie with thievery.
Half the time it seems to be veering into grotesque “Sex and the City” worship of brands and celebrity.
With the influx of coverage for the twentieth anniversary of “Sex and the City” coinciding with our ongoing grifter season —recently extended by the release of “Ocean’s 8” and the news of an upcoming Netflix series based on Anna Delvey —I’ve found myself wondering not whether I’m a Miranda or a Carrie but rather which role I would play on a team planning a heist.
The Met Gala, an event so posh that it’s pronounced gah-la, is a star-studded cluster bash that sounds like it could have been the setting for a “Sex and the City” Cinderella fever dream.
In The Sting , for instance, we wonder: Is Redford conning Newman?
For those who’ve never seen one of them, the “Ocean’s” franchise is about a pack of upscale thieves, who, like Robert Redford and Paul Newman in “The Sting,” pull off masterpieces of meticulously choreographed thievery, staying slightly ahead of the authorities (and the audience).
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Speaking of Anne Hathaway, she’s basically playing an actress playing an actress as referenced in Tropic Thunder (2009), Robert Downy Jr.’s, character, “A dude playing a dude disguised as a dude,” she is hysterical in the role of an insecure, narcissistic, clueless, yet gorgeous actress.
Gary Ross ( The Hunger Games ) has moved into the director’s chair.
Aparte de escribirla junto a Olivia Milch, Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) dirige Ocean’s 8 con la agilidad y flexibilidad que uno espera de esta propiedad, manteniendo el espíritu juguetón de la trilogía mientras practica su propio estilo – mayormente dejando que las actrices hagan su trabajo – manteniendo buen ritmo sin perder el hilo.
Director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) has said that this movie is “about camaraderie, not antagonism.”
“Ocean’s 8,” directed by Gary Ross (“Pleasantville,” “The Hunger Games”), is nothing without its impeccable costuming, which encapsulates perfectly a sense of femininity the film is determined to celebrate and deconstruct.
The director of “Ocean’s 8” is the talented veteran Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit,” “Pleasantville,” “The Hunger Games”), who co-wrote the screenplay with Olivia Milch, and they have delivered a solid if somewhat underwhelming caper similar in tone and style to the “Ocean’s” trilogy of the early 2000s.
Director Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games”) is not an especially stylish director, a handicap that makes the material feel even staler than it is.