I’ve wanted to see both “Ava” and “Peppermint” (both R, and both deserving for violence and language) since I saw the trailers. This week I had the chance to catch both on Netflix, and my reactions toward them are polar opposite.
First, regarding “Ava”: I loved it. I’m a fan of all the actors, Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Common, Geena Davis, Ioan Gruffudd, Diana Silvers, Colin Farrell, and Joan Chen, and I could tell they were all having a good time making the movie. The plot is not that unique, an assassin (Chastain’s “Ava”) is having qualms about killing the people she’s hired to kill, and her agency decides to “retire” her. The characterization, however, is wonderfully three-dimensional. She’s former military, former drug user, former alcoholic, and she’s trying to keep her life together. She and her father had a falling-out, and she effectively isolated herself from the rest of her family, but now she would like to repair some of those relationships. Her sister’s fiance has gambling problems, and Ava thinks it can be solved with violence - because she solves her problems with violence. The wonderful thing, though, is that I could see her struggling with each of those decisions at different points in the film, and it made her a very relatable, sympathetic character in the middle of a been-there/done-that plot. Regarding Bechdels, it passed wonderfully: 1) There are several women in the film; 2) they speak with each other several times; 3) and those conversations are about a wide variety of topics, including familial and romantic relationships as well as business and pleasure.
Second, “Peppermint”: Jennifer Garner stars as a housewife who resorts to vengeance when her husband and daughter are gunned down in front of her - and the gang members go free because of money and power and corrupt officials. Unfortunately, that’s really the entire movie. Garner plays both halves of her Riley North character (Girl Scout mom and vengeful angel) very well, but everyone else is a one-note stereotype. The gang members are Hispanics covered in facial tattoos, they’re controlled by the Italian mob, homeless children are all innocent victims, every other woman in the film (all three of them) are only sex slaves or incompetent in some way, and the corrupt officials are so glaringly obvious in their corruption that people would have to actively look away not to realize it. It felt as if they did nothing more than gender-flip a 1970s Charles Bronson revenge script. Regarding Bechdels, it passes (There are three women in the film; two of them speak to each other; and they do not discuss romantic relationships), but that still does not elevate the film to anything more than a caricature-soup filled with lazy writing.