New York Magazine @NYMag 3 hours ago
This is Angelina Jolie, mother of dragons, symbol of unapologetic female egotism and power: http://nym.ag/1MYYjOH
Even when she loses (By the Sea), she wins. The media painting this failure as a feminist sign of egotism and power
Angelina Jolie does exactly what she likes, full stop. That's why she has always been such a maddening, transfixing mixture of inspiration and affront to the rest of us. In her first few seconds in the spotlight, she rejected the demure lady-superstar path, openly scoffing at so-called Hollywood glamour with tattoos and black leather, then marrying an oddball 20 years her senior and wearing a vial of his blood around her neck.
It hurts reading that opening paragraph, don't it?
I find it funny that literally every year its "Beyonce isn't that successful" and literally every year a competing artist's career evaporates into thin air.
In 2011, you couldn't tell the Britney stans anything. In 2015, theyr'e the laughing stock stanbase. In 2013 it was the Navy who on their high horse. By 2016/17, Rihanna will be an afterthought and the Navy will cling to peaks while Beyonce releases her Private Dancer album at 40 after divorcing Jay-Z.
Year after year, she's greeted unexpected challenges with such calm and poise that it's almost impossible to trust her. Could Jolie be an alien from another planet, sent to control our minds while harvesting a gorgeous rainbow of children from every nation, each one destined to rule a planet of his or her own in some distant galaxy?
As absurd as that sounds, science fiction may come closest to capturing Jolie's status as a constantly reinvented symbol of unapologetic female egotism and power.
By the Sea, which opens on Friday, may not set the world on fire; early word suggests it is likely to exit theaters quickly. But as a clue to her otherwise-mysterious inner life and her unfathomable marriage, the film is like a Rosetta Stone. This is a woman who has it all, but who always seems to want more. She doesn't want to just be a world-famous actress, which she hints has always felt beneath her. She wants to be a movie director and also a guardian of human rights worldwide, one with a famous husband who is, in spite of his rigorous filming schedule, an equal co-parenting partner and supportive best friend.
Jolie always feels like the white-hot center of her universe, with Pitt playing the dutiful sidekick, the man behind the woman. Angie is royalty, Brad is her loyal footservant.
Are we unnecessarily demeaning a nice guy who has embraced an egalitarian marriage to a strong woman, or are we just trying to elevate Jolie to the status of a modern-day Mother of Dragons?
Modern-day Mother of Dragons. I like the sound of that. I also like how By The Sea's failure doesn't even matter in the grand scale of her mythos.
Ari what's happening to you? Focus was good but I expected more too.
Legend Ani really won