Cameron Crowe’s divisive filmAlohafeatures a stacked cast led by Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper. Despite having one of the best ensemble casts of the 2010s,Alohawas a critical and commercial failure,earning an abysmal Rotten Tomatoes critic score of just 20%and a worldwide box office total of $25.4 million against a production budget of $37 million. Crowe, known for his idiosyncratic writing and directing style in classic films such asAlmost Famous(2000),Jerry Maguire(1996),Vanilla Sky(2001), andSay Anything(1989), hasn’t directed a feature film since the 2015 flop set in paradise.
Despite all this,Alohais the second most popular movie on Netflixas of the time of writing. Stone, who just recently won her second Best Actress Oscar for her leading role asBella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos’Poor Things, plays an Asian-American woman named Allison Ng inAloha.Stone’sAlohacharacter sparked controversybecause the story dictates thatAllison Ng is part Chinese and Hawaiian and Stone is neither. Stone has an entirely European background that includes familial connections to Sweden, German, English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. Apart from this insensitive casting choice, Aloha’s biggest flaws come in the form of an undeveloped plot and a lack of focused direction from Crowe.
Aloha Has One Of The Most Stacked Drama Movie Casts From The Last Decade
Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, and more star
For a drama directed by Cameron Crowe,Alohahas an impressive cast that caught a lot of them at a really unique time in their careers. Led by Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, and John Krasinski, the film also features a bunch of other big-name actors, likeBill Murray, Alec Baldwin, Danny McBride, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, and Jaeden Martell. With a cast of this caliber, it’s certainly surprising thatAlohawasn’t able to pull off more of a draw at the box office, although the slate of negative reviews didn’t help spark any momentum. Crowe went on to create the 2016 Showtime seriesRoadies, which was canceled after its first season.
Stone was in between her breakthrough dramatic role in 2014’sBirdmanor (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)and 2016’sLa La Landwhen she appeared inAloha. Cooper’s career had reached new post-Hangoverheights with his leading roles inSilver Lings Playbook,American Hustle,Guardians of the Galaxy, andAmerican Sniperbefore starring inAloha. McAdams starred in the celebrated filmsAbout TimeandA Most Wanted Manbefore appearing inAlohaandSouthpawin the same year. Krasinski was still years away from making his feature film directorial debut with 2018’sA Quiet PlaceafterThe Officeended in 2013.
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Why Aloha’s Emma Stone Casting Is Still So Controversial
Aloha was accused of “whitewashing” Stone’s Allison Ng character
Emma Stone’s Allison Ng character is part Chinese and part Hawaiian, which led to accusations of Hollywood “whitewashing” her character specifically since the actress is of entirely European descent. While Stone is undoubtedly a great actress, some viewers felt thather character should have been played by someone who is actually of Chinese and/or Hawaiian descent, since that is what the character of Allison Ng in theAlohascript written by Crowe calls for. Sandra Oh poked fun at the controversial casting choice at the 2019 Golden Globes, saying on stage that the popular filmCrazy Rich Asianswas “the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha.”
Both Stone and Crowe have commented on the controversial role inAloha.Crowe wrote in a blog post, “I have heard your words and your disappointment, and I offer you a heart-felt apology to all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice. Captain Allison Ng was written to be a super-proud ¼ Hawaiian who was frustrated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one. The character was based on a real-life, red-headed local.” Stone commented, “There’s a lot of conversation about how we want to see people represented on screen and what we need to change as a business to reflect culture in a clearer way and not in an idealized way. There are some flaws in the system. My eyes have been opened in many ways this year” (viaEntertainment Weekly).
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Aloha Has A Few Big Actor Reunions From Hit Movies
Cooper & McAdams were both in the classic 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers
With so many big-name actors inAloha, several Hollywood reunions were bound to happen. Cooper and McAdams were reunited ten years after starring in the classic 2005 comedyWedding Crashers. Alec Baldwin and John Krasinski also reunited after 2009’s Meryl Streep romantic comedyIt’s Complicated. Comedic actors Bill Murray and Danny McBride have worked together a few times after appearing inAlohain the HBO television seriesVice Principalsand 2015’s music comedyRock the Kasbah.Stone and Cooper also both appeared in 2008’sThe Rocker, another forgotten and divisive film likeAlohawith a great ensemble cast.
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Aloha
Cast
Military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Cooper) returns to Hawaii, the site of one of his finest career triumphs, to oversee the launch of a weapons satellite. While there, he attempts to reconnect with his long lost love (McAdams), and unsuspectingly falls for the Air Force watchdog (Stone) assigned to look over him.
