On November 20, another important film will be added to the lesbian film canon: Carol, a 1950's romance brought to life by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
The film has been a long time coming, what with the novel that inspired it being written 60 years ago, and the first screenplay penned almost two decades ago.
Early reviews have sung praise for the film, but if you remain on the fence, here are a few more reasons to head to the theaters this weekend:
1. The Cast
Blanchett and Mara are incredible actors, having both been recognized by the Academy Awards. Mara recevied a 2012 nod for Best Actress for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Blanchett is a two-time winner, first in 2005 for Best Supporting Actress in The Aviator, and most recently in 2014 for Best Actress in Blue Jasmine.
The supporting cast includes Kyle "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose" Chandler, and American Horror Story goddess Sarah Paulson. Chandler has proven himself time and time again, even winning an Emmy back in the day for Friday Night Lights, and Paulson—a two-time Golden Globe winner herself—is the best part of everything she's in. That's just fact.
With a cast this powerful, the film is sure to deliver.
2. The Setting
Period pieces are just the best. They take us back in time and treat our eyes to glamorous fashion, intriguing music and fascinating vernacular, all the while reminding us that this world existed before we were on it. People still met by chance, fell in love, and broke each other's hearts.
What a beautiful thing to consider.
3. Girl Power
As New York Magazine writer Judy Berman so perfectly states in her review of the film:
"Films about heterosexual love too often make the woman the object of the man’s desire, his quest to possess her catalyzing either his growth (the Manic Pixie Dream Girl canon) or his dissolution (the femme fatale canon, not to mention Love). This does more than create the impression that women are passive in matters of love: In the context of a film industry that prefers to tell exclusively male stories in all genres except romance, it results in an overall lack of female characters who want or need or desire anything at all ... And it was in watching two fully realized women really see each other, in Carol, that it occurred to me how rare a sight that still is."
Film is an industry dominated by men. It is a common belief in Hollywood that female-led films do not do well, and, as such, they are generally no-no's.
Carol is sure to be a film that takes a wrecking ball to that belief, teaching us all a lesson that good characters, good writing, good directing, and good acting make or break a film—not the sex of the people in it.
4. See it for those of us who can't
The film has been given a limited release, with less than a dozen states hosting showings. While those lucky enough to be in Los Angeles, New York, or other major cities will have the opportunity to see it this weekend, many of us will not.
If you have the means, see Carol this weekend; if not for yourself, see it for the unlucky ones.
5. The trailer
If we still haven't convinced you yet, the enchanting trailer will do it in just one minute and 46 seconds:
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