Guest Editor Garance Dore: SATC2 Review

Gaaah! Everyone (almost!) has hated SATC:2. It has been derided as racist, cringe-worthy, unfunny and everything else. I am watching it tonight and I remain undaunted by the criticism. Margaret Pomeranz managed to rate it 3.5 stars (and she and I are mystically aligned when it comes to films), so I truly think it can't be that bad. I really believe that we need to stop taking ourselves - and cinema - quite so seriously all the time. This film is not being touted anywhere as an indepth study into the psyche of wealthy, well-married, sexually liberated 40-somethings living in New York. No one would watch it if that was the case. It is being sold as a pleasant fantasy wrapped up in a solid, syrupy Dior bow. Can we please stop looking for meaning in something that is being sold as quite the opposite? We know what we're getting ourselves in for when we purchase our tickets. I think SATC needs to be watched in the spirit in which it is made: lighthearted, frivolous fun. Which is exactly what I shall be doing!

Garance Dore had this to say about the film, and I thought it was an interesting - and different - take on the film.


"The first images were pretty shocking. Seriously? Wrinkles!!! Maybe the girls of Sex and the City should have stopped while they were ahead. And then does it sparkle. Where is the simple and joyous mess? And what about Carrie’s charming and slightly dated apartment? Miranda’s bizarre outfits? And what about that all-too-glossy world they live in?


And then suddenly, like a perfectly timed wink, the film starts off in the middle of the most improbable marriage that you never saw coming… And Liza Minelli starts dancing around like a kitten to Beyonce.

What I saw in the movie was a commentary on maturity. How the strange ideals of today can age, like shopping, hysteria, sex, friendship. And almost like it’s a little embarrassed of the subject (Aging? Come on, not glamourous!), the film clumsily hides it beneath layers of glitter and rubies provided by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

But in the end, I thought it was totally interesting to see how the women matured on screen as a testament to how we live today (You might have the right to grow old. But at the same time, you have to stay womanly, desirable, desiring.) To see the taught skin of these women, their eyes still full of ambition, absolutely undying.

My mom, who’s Samantha’s age just started up a new career. The perfect body of Carine Roitfeld that inspires young designers.
An entire movie about women over 45.

And it still makes a theater full of teenagers crack up. They will certainly have a completely different view of aging than we do.

It’s sad and it’s fun, this never ending battle to be perfect. Sex and the City 2 definitely paid homage to that, and for that reason alone, I’m willing not to toss the film in the trash. And I even hope there’ll be a third.

Oh, and Abu Dhabbi, it’s nice and all, but the starring actress of the show I’ve decided was New York, and I missed her a lot.

So here’s my super late review of Sex and the City 2. Why write about this movie when I see about three movies a week all year round? I think it’s because these 4 girls really marked a whole generation.

Granted, this wasn’t at all how the 8 year old felt that I talked to yesterday. I asked her, “Are you gonna go see Sex and the City?
and she responds, “Nooooo! Everytime I see the commercial for the movie, those girls scaaaaaaare meeee!!!”

Translation : Tim Sullivan