In a world where feminism is alive and well.
| In a world where jobs for women are hard to come by and they are always over-looked for the less talented man comes one woman who’s going to make a difference for her generation. Her name is Carol (Lake Bell). Excuse me while I get a newspaper and figure out if it’s 2013 or if I have somehow gone back in time and watched a new film from 60 years ago. The film's over-the-top insistence that women have it so hard can make any well-meaning feminist vomit and it takes away from everything the movie did well. | | 2013
Directed by: Lake Bell
Screenplay by: Lake Bell
Starring: Lake Bell, Fred Melamed
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It’s set in the movie trailer voice-over world, and while I’m sure there are more men working than women, I still think the rants of sexism can be toned down, a lot. Carol is struggling to get good jobs in the industry while her aging and respected father is still in demand as well as every other arrogant sexist man in the industry. And I think this is supposed to make Carol the most sympathetic creature on the planet and proof that if she knows two sexist men working in the industry, that means every single person in the industry is a sexist man. If the film is allowed to make such ridiculous generalizations, then so am I.
As Carol is trying to figure out how to advance her career, she also has to handle her father, two men with romantic implications, and her sister and her marriage. The film does a decent job mixing in the comedy with the drama, and both seem to stem from her family relationships. Her father’s current woman-on-his-arm is the same age as Carol and her sister, and her sister’s marriage isn’t as rock-solid as she hoped. One of the better roles in the film is Rob Corddry as her brother-in-law in an honest and dramatic performance. Demetri Martin as Carol’s love interest provides the quirky comedy as expected in an audience-embracing indie.
“In a World…” can be quite enjoyable, but I fail to see how this is the revolutionary indie film so many people are claiming it is. The feminist message is beyond pointless and stupid and Carol is not nearly as deserving of our sympathy as Lake Bell seems to think she is. In fact, we only see Carol trying out for the blockbuster voice-over roles and is demeaning towards all the voice talent jobs out there. She thinks she's too good for anything but the best just because she's a woman, and that fact in and of itself definitely does not automatically make this movie good.
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