You could talk about what’s missing in Ocean’s 8 as compared to Ocean’s Eleven, the 2001 caper remake that this gender swaps. But it’s probably more fruitful to simply recognize that Ocean’s Eleven had some indefinable quality—a certain fizziness—that’s almost impossible to replicate simply by gathering similar ingredients. Here, director Gary Ross mimics some of Steven Soderbergh’s jazzy formal touches; Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett slip into the intimate patter of George Clooney and Brad Pitt; Ross and co-screenwriter Olivia Milch concoct a clockwork plot, hinged around stealing a priceless necklace from a starlet (Anne Hathaway) during a gala for the Met’s latest fashion exhibit. It all goes down easy enough. And while never pushing the feminist angle too hard, Ocean’s 8 does ultimately become about the ways these women exploit the sexist expectations of men. (I especially liked that Hathaway is allowed to shift from lampooning conceited actresses to something more complicated in the final 20 minutes.) The cast also includes Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, and Awkwafina, all having enough fun to give this a bit of fizz, if not quite as much as we might want.
