There are films that make you reflect fondly on the past and then there are those that make you kind of disgusted. For me, The Best of Everything is the latter. I am by no means a feminist but parts of this film pushed me to my limits. TBOE is a soap opera about a group of women living in New York City and working at a publishing company on Park Avenue. Though they try to distinguish each woman as a different “kind of gal”, they are all basically varying degrees of the same person: a simple, desperate woman. (Queue sad trombone).
Joan Crawford plays a rigid editor named Amanda Farrow and delivers some of her best bitch face eyebrows and blunt one liners. When the other women (typists with business degrees?!) are not avoiding an inappropriate gesture from their male co-workers or Farrow’s sharp tongue, they are discussing their failed relationships. I guess what I found so annoying was that none of the women are concerned with their own lives, careers or ambitions; they are ONLY worried about finding a man to marry them. Even Farrow, seemingly toughest of all, resigns from her executive level position to chase a married man!? Um, no thanks. Once you get past all of this, the film boasts a beautiful pastel palette and some great fashions. Or you could watch Madmen instead.
“THESE ARE THE GIRLS who want the best of everything… but often settle for a lot less”
