Sex and the City 2

by Courtney Hilden

Does this movie need an introduction? Sex and the City 2 is based on the television show hit of the same name, where four women (Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda) all interact with one another and the city (most importantly, apparently, its men) around them. In their latest outing, they head to the Middle East to scout out a hotel for Samantha to represent.
All well and good, right? Hardly.
Since this review is coming so late, it seems silly to take it down in all the ways it deserves to be: as homophobic, racist, and other miscellaneous forms of insensitive. Stanford and Anthony, two gay men who previously hated each other, are getting married. This would be fine, if Anthony didn't insist that he be allowed to cheat. For a movie written by a gay man and created by various LBGT allies, it still feels the need to create a stereotype of a gay man. And once again, New York is incredibly whitewashed, with one African American woman playing Samantha's assistant. And the section of the movie on the Middle East is filled with every stereotype they can find about Muslims. (They're so sexually repressed! They hate women!) Why this movie had to go to the Middle East and not somewhere else, where the story could have refrained from such poor depictions. (The franchise has managed to make it to L.A. and Paris, why not London, Rome or Milan, all big fashion cities?) The movie exists in a universe where yes, the recession has hit, but not realistically, since Carrie can still afford her old apartment and the girls can complain about having to fly couch. The movie was conceived before anyone apparently realized that depicting people's lives, even rich people's lives, this way was going to smart with an audience that is not so lucky.
The problem with these movies, other than their cultural fails, is that they remind the audience of how much better this material works in a television series format. At least there the audience has time to explore the storylines that get sidelined, allowing them to unfold at a more leisurely pace. The movie is long, but because it keeps moving, it rarely feels so. And mostly, it still works, since the girls are, despite their flaws, fun to be around.