Old stories, new takes

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 1st. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: what’s new at the movies.

This weekend, two new films arrive in theaters, both of which have loyal fan bases. Arts and Culture Editor Collin Garbarino now, on whether either of them live up to expectations.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Let’s begin with an animated adaptation of a book on just about every high school reading list, George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

In many ways, this film sticks to the classic story. The animals of Manor Farm expel their farmer from his home and rename the property Animal Farm. Their new society begins with promise.

SNOWBALL: And allllllll animals are equal!

But in this barnyard utopia a power struggle begins between the two pigs Snowball and Napoleon. Napoleon exiles Snowball and begins to consolidate power for himself, which allows him to exploit the other animals and rewrite the rules. Eventually, some animals become “more equal than others.”

Orwell’s novella doesn’t have the kind of action and feel-good ending that movie watchers have come to expect, so this animated film for families adds frenetic scenes and a young, relatable hero.

PUFF: Hi, Lucky.

LUCKY: Oh, hey. What’s up? uhh…

Lucky is a small intelligent pig who feels torn between loyalties to Snowball and Napoleon. By the movie’s end, he comes to realize Napoleon has led the animals in the wrong direction, and he starts a second revolution to restore the farm to its original vision. 

Other additions to this adaptation include a shrewd tech billionaire and jokes about flatulence.

Many Americans praise Animal Farm because Orwell used this parable to critique communist Russia. What often gets overlooked is that Orwell was a committed socialist who wasn’t promoting western-style capitalism. He just didn’t want Russian-style propaganda and exploitation. Attentive readers of the book understand that Orwell is teaching that both capitalism and Stalin’s communism are oppressive.

The film preserves Orwell’s socialist premise, updating it with some 21st century concerns. This Napoleon relies more on populism than propaganda to push his agenda, and tech billionaires are the new capitalist enemies who keep us from an egalitarian paradise.

PILKINGTON: I crush my competitors so I can raise prices as much as I want.

NAPOLEON: I like a lady who crushes.

This adaptation suffers from the same muddled political messaging as the book. 

In both, no matter what the rules say, the animals aren’t and never could be equal. Many of the barnyard animals aren’t intellectually equipped for having a say. The pigs are fundamentally smarter. Does the farm really need equality, or does it really just need virtuous pigs? And there’s a subtle implication that we’d all be happier with equitable poverty rather than prosperous inequality.

This is the socio-political worldview of the typical Hollywood celebrity, which might explain how this modest film managed to attract so many stars. It’s directed by Andy Serkis, and features voice work from Seth Rogen, Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson, and Kathleen Turner, among others.

Actors might preach socialism, but studios want to make money, which probably explains why the major studios and Netflix refused to buy this movie when it was being shopped around. 

What seems less understandable is why Angel Studios, which claims to champion traditional values, would buy a socialist film with an atheist director and a transgender voice actor.

Anyway, the other new film this weekend is a sequel to a favorite with the millennial generation, The Devil Wears Prada 2.

ANDY: Miranda.

MIRANDA: Took ya long enough.

It’s been 20 years since we last saw Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly terrorizing her staff at the fashion magazine Runway. The magazine is still around but the industry has changed significantly. An unexpected turn of events lands Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs back at Runway, this time as the features editor.

MIRANDA: I’m sorry. Who is this? Do you know her? Do I know her?

ANDY: I'm Andy Sachs. Andrea?

NIGEL: She was one of the Emilies.

Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt return to their respective roles from the original as well.

EMILY: It’s really remarkable. A senior editor at Runway...you!

ANDY: Yep.

MIRANDA: We’re all so thrilled.

NIGEL: Um hmm.

Runway is facing an existential crisis in this age of click bait, AI slop, and declining subscriptions. Will the guardians of high fashion be able to beat back the Philistines assaulting their business model while at the same time navigating the expectations of Milan’s fashion week?

I expect the movie will please fans of the 2006 film. It has enough of the original to give viewers the feeling of a family reunion. But this isn’t a retread because it takes the conflict in a fresh direction. 

Of course, there’s plenty of snarky one-liners.

EMILY: You know what’s funny? Is you’ve changed. You have, you’re much more confident.

ANDY: Oh?

EMILY: Kept those eyebrows though, didn’t you?

The movie is rated PG-13, mostly for two harsh obscenities, but the romances are more chaste than the ones in the first film.

I was especially impressed that the characters have grown into a new self-awareness in the last 20 years, musing on the costs associated with a career-centric jet-setting lifestyle.

The film also asks us to consider the beauty of human frailty. 

Some of the dialogue gets melodramatic, but maybe a little melodrama is called for in this age when AI threatens to come after both the arts and our jobs.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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