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Or you can look at it and say... meh. But you'd be instantly branded a racist like you did if you criticized Obama when he got thrown at us. And " Get Out" which was almost completely based on a gimmick ending and left you wondering just how it got such universal rave reviews when it never seemed to be more than a throwback to 1970s cult psi horror. Which is fine. But they never tried to be Oscar worthy. And the others.... pedos and a gill man love story. Are they serious?
So we get movies that push whatever social message we're supposed to embrace and we had better embrace it... or else. Be it about race, sexuality, the environment, or some social issue that's time has come. Folks, Hollywood is a stagnant cess pool and is absolutely the last place you'd go to find a movie that has a story or a message, let alone artistic meaning. And if you can find an independent film maker that has that, you can bet Hollywood would ignore it or try to squash it or co opt it for whatever $$$ they can make from it .
So write this Oscar Season off yet again with a luke warm stable of preachy films and a fast failing and declining number of actors. Maybe they can generate some controversy over who or what got snubbed this year and then next year will be their moment to shine. Yawn. Been there, done that, just don't feel like watching it.
I'm thinking "meh" - but for another reason. I just don't think people should feel that there's so much riding on a comic-book character. And, no, people weren't branded as racist for criticizing Obama, if it was a fact-based criticism. I haven't yet seen "Get Out," but my impression is that the fuss wasn't about a gimmick ending (I don't know what it is, so don't tell me) but by an unusual point of view.
And I think you're wrong to be objecting to Oscar nominees on the basis of the subject matter. I didn't like "Shape of Water," but the problem isn't the subject.
As a black man, I think it's silly the level of praise Black Panther has been getting for the sense of it "defining Black America". It's a freakin Marvel movie about fictional characters in a fictional city in Africa.
I wish us black people would spend more time motivating and educating ourselves to do better as a race than blindly praise and give all of our money to a movie by a company owned by rich white people. I always have to chuckle when a black person acts like this movie is opening doors to us when it's not doing a thing for us here in reality. Wakanda doesn't exist.
That is my opinion as well.
And even if it did exist and there was such a metal with so many potential uses (and mis-uses), there is just NO WAY the general public (white or black people) would ever know about it, or have any access to it.
As a white guy who often watches films with all or mostly black casts, I think there is a difference here. Most black-cast films have been relatively low budget, in part because the thought was that white audiences would not swell the box office receipts. Here you have what is essentially an all-black and all-black-themed film drawing in a large white audience, and swelling box office revenues to over a billion dollars. To put it crassly, money talks. And with several successes behind them, I don't think the Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are going to continue to be seen as "black actors", but rather as "actors".
And I'll tell you why this isn't the same as "Roots" (although I do feel that "Roots" had more of an impact than a previous poster mentioned). I was in my 20s when I watched "Roots". The experience cost me zero dollars and zero cents. Here we have white folks plunking $20 bucks down to watch "Black Panther", and if it's a date that $40 or more, or if it's a family lots more $$$. That really hasn't happened on a large scale before. A little with Sidney Poitier and a very few other black actors, but I do think this is different.
I'm glad to see it, but I never thought I'd see a black president in my life time, and I never thought I'd see an essentially all-Black cast movie breaking a billion dollars. But that's just me.
Interesting comparison with "Roots" and "BP." But the frustrating part for me is how few people will go to a serious black-themed movie, as opposed to a frivolous superhero extravaganza.
Hey, maybe there's a connection between the first black president and the first black superhero movie.
Interesting comparison with "Roots" and "BP." But the frustrating part for me is how few people will go to a serious black-themed movie, as opposed to a frivolous superhero extravaganza.
Hey, maybe there's a connection between the first black president and the first black superhero movie.
It wasn't that frivolous--less so than any of the other superhero movies. Several significant socio-political themes emerge from it, particularly when you view Wakanda as actually representative of the US, which has been a wealthy society that has always been as isolated as we've wanted to be when we've wanted to be.
It wasn't that frivolous--less so than any of the other superhero movies. Several significant socio-political themes emerge from it, particularly when you view Wakanda as actually representative of the US, which has been a wealthy society that has always been as isolated as we've wanted to be when we've wanted to be.
Interesting comparison with "Roots" and "BP." But the frustrating part for me is how few people will go to a serious black-themed movie, as opposed to a frivolous superhero extravaganza.
Hey, maybe there's a connection between the first black president and the first black superhero movie.
What are some examples of black themed movies that weren't well attended? But I ask that your list not include a movie that is set in the past, does not depict blacks as poor, uneducated, or otherwise disadvantaged, and finally does not victimize the black characters.
I can only think of a few movies offhand that fit that criteria and those movies (Girls Trip, The Best Man, and Think Like a Man) were all successful.
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