The Bigger Picture Queens Of Cool

Ocean’s 8’s gender swap is no mere gimmick, says Empire’s Editor-At-Large Helen O’Hara; it can be a landmark moment in cinema

 THERE’S BEEN A lot of talk, over the last few years, about the rights and wrongs of gender-swapping film remakes and film characters, and the general efforts to make sure that not all the leading characters in all films are white, straight men. Lots of people (white men, mostly) have complained about the practice as it relates to Ghostbusters, or Star Wars, or most recently the Ocean’s films. But Ocean’s 8 demonstrates neatly that, with a thoughtful translation and a great cast, gender swapping can go a long way to redress one long-standing imbalance in cinema. Namely, the fact that women so rarely get to play cool.