‘Captain Marvel’s’ Brie Larson can’t save womankind — but she’s doing her best

This dance studio is where Larson comes to feel empowered — occasionally via the out­stretching of jazz hands — and that means you can spare her any “you-go-girl” lines or confetti cannons full of condescension. Yes, she is playing the title role in the more than $150 million Captain Marvel, the 21st movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and first ever from the wildly successful Disney division to be fronted by a woman. But, three years after she won an Oscar for her performance in the indie drama Room, the 29-year-old actress is confident enough to reject your media narrative about box office stakes and the fate of women and blah blah blah because Larson has read this story before and she knows how it ends.

“There’s this sense of setting this thing up,” Larson says. “I know it’s exciting and fun to be like, ‘Will it sink or will it float?’ ‘What’s going to happen?’ ‘Can women exist in the world?’ ‘We’re not sure yet!’ But women have been opening movies since the silent era. We have been part of every major art movement. People just push us away once the movement gains momentum and act like we were never really there.”