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I was looking at my twitter feed and saw a hilarious tweet from Hill Harper recalling one of the most hilarious lines from the movie "Hav Plenty."
It was an indie romantic comedy based on a true story. And even though I generally hate romcoms, Idid like this one. Mostly because of its cynical tone.
And that got me thinking about my college (and high school) days, when every month there was a romantic comedy with a mainly black cast out. Love Jones, The Best Man, Love and Basketball, Boomerang, How Stella Got Her Groove Back. And 10 million more.
These movies were popular with fairly wide audiences. In high school, they weren't but I lived in a conservative southern town, so that was totally logical. By the time I got to college, basically everyone I knew (who grew up in the US at least) watched some if not all of these movies, whatever ethnicity they were. Whether they got sucked in by the soundtrack or the plot.
Many of these were billed as "buppie" romantic comedies, since the characters were middle class to affluent and college educated.
And the somehow, in the past 10 years or so, there haven't really been any movies like this any more. It is super rare to have a "black" movie that isn't Tyler Perry.
More troubling, finding a romantic comedy with a diverse cast, of any form. What happened? Where did the diversity go?
Now that the US is rapidly approaching majority minority status, we should really see more movies with all types of people in their normal lives. Interacting with each other. But other than action movies, like the Fast and Furious series, it is a shock to see a multicultural cast of any form.
You have to have a good script in order to have a good movie. How many black screen writers are there out there? It's just easier, quicker, and cheaper to feed black audiences "recycled crap" because you already know that they'll eat it up, sometimes returning for seconds, no matter how crappy the movie is.
By the way, I caught How Stella Got Her Groove Back a couple nights ago on Lifetime, I think. Fantastic movie! I would loooooooove to see a sequel to it, now that we know the young lover (Jonathan Plummer, whom the movie is based) turned out to be gay .
He actually made a cameo appearance in the movie: when Whoopi and Angela Bassett's characters exit the hotel after checking in, the light-skinned brotha who says, "Welcome to Jamaica, ladies" is Jonathan Plummer.
I truly wish someone would write the screenplay for this because it really is a fascinating, true story. I would actually go to the movies for this one !
I think everything runs its course......those movies got tired and predictable.....
The black characters were all corporate America progressive types..... you throw in the "other side of the tracks brotha who wins the heart of the attorney sista.
She's got at least 2 girl pals ....one is chubby, the other is a horny broad.......The guys always had the fly Chestnut / Shemar Moore type with the comedy relief goofy (girls don't like him) buddy dude.
Throw in a sprinkle of the church choir and the Reverend who oggles the young girls.....and a fat mama type and you got yourself the usual witch's brew for those comedies.
The Best Man 2 will be released later this year. I can't say I'm really looking forward to it, but atleast Tyler Perry had nothing to do with it...I think.
The Best Man 2 will be released later this year. I can't say I'm really looking forward to it, but atleast Tyler Perry had nothing to do with it...I think.
I don't think you're really talking diversity - you're talking black. Personally, I wonder why there are so few Asian actors. But, back to your question, I've been wondering not so much about romantic comedies, but why most of the promising black directors seemed to have disappeared.
I don't think you're really talking diversity - you're talking black. Personally, I wonder why there are so few Asian actors. But, back to your question, I've been wondering not so much about romantic comedies, but why most of the promising black directors seemed to have disappeared.
I mentioned black, but in reality diversity is missing on all counts. I was thinking of black comedies when i saw the inspiring tweet. But as I was posting I thought about it a bit more.
For a while we did have some black movies. It was a start.
Other than Bend it like Beckham, I can't think of many movies with a south Asian lead. East Asians are MIA in non stereotypical roles as well.
Network TV is the same way, although info think USA is doing a really good job of adding in diverse characters without their race or ethnicity being a primary driver or topic.
Basically all movies are lacking meaningful diversity in any form. Basically the only diverse movie cast is the Fast and Furious series. But they might need to expand the cast for 7 to continue the diversity theme.
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