I think my point is that beating up on a movie that was clearly made for RBG fans as if it could possibly describe the female condition this year is entirely too easy.
1
I'm of two minds about seeing "On The Basis of Sex". I am in the middle of Jane Sherron DeHart's book and the case in question may or may not be appealed to the Supreme Court. The story that DeHart tells clearly shows that Ginsburg shouldn't be taken even as representative of everyone who was involved in second wave feminism. Ginsburg may not have been able to get a job out of law school commensurate with her ability. But her Columbia Law degree and position as a professor at Rutgers Law School where she might or might not have gotten tenure represented substantial privilege in the world of 1970. The feminist movement sought her out because she was one of the few people with the formal credentials to teach about women and the law and introduce the topic into academia, and it gave her a pattern and a cause. Ginsburg's life is inspiring for women who think that feminism doesn't have to be for them. As Scott and Dargis pointed out to portray a woman for whom feminism gives her tools to deal with obstacles of race and class you need another movie.
i have watched this movie its really nice and i enjoyed with my friends right now we all friends watching this
Ready Player One
Support the Girls is at best passable. Bujalski's last four films have been, well, bad. I don't get Scott's fetish with him. And that last shot in Girls is as cliched and obvious as they get. Don't go out and stream it. Disappointment awaits.
2
Can you stop the tired bullying of Stat Wars and Ghostbusters "fans" because if a few immature toxic online bullies? Most fans expressed their dislike of these films respectfully and sincerly.
@Jeff I don't think those sexist, racist whiners can be mocked enough. Real fans of those films (and decent people everywhere) should be disgusted by the lengths those so-called 'fans' went to. The wails about their childhood being ruined came from people, mostly men, (probably wearing MAGA hats) for whom childhood never ended.
People whose sense of self is so fragile that it can be threatened when a film is remade with a female cast or when female heroines and 'gasp!!!' Black heroes are included should spend less time online and more time seeking professional help.
One of the reasons why the passing of Carrie Fisher hit so many of us so hard, especially women of a certain age, is because she was all we had if you were a Star Wars fan. Today's young girls and young people of colour have more options. I think that should be celebrated not torn down.
1
Too many critics look to film for social reality and intellectual reasons in stead of what the real purpose for which films are usually made, which is to entertain. A very good film often does both, but other very good films mostly just entertain. I live in the real world and live it every day, so I often indulge in a book, film, or television show, to escape that reality and give myself some emotional release. I do not want to leave a theater having been intellectually enlightened at the expense of not being entertained. Is The Green Book completely honest about racial complexities, maybe not, but it is well made and well acted, it touches you and makes you feel and makes you think at the same time. A little more constructive criticism would be in order.
6
I wonder why both Scott and Dargis keep beating up on THE GREEN BOOK. It's a well-made movie with excellent performances by both leads. It's a terrific "road movie," and while it does have a veneer of nostalgia, that's not a bad thing in the current political environment. Film critics get cranky whenever they think they've "been there, done that" and THE GREEN BOOK has a cozy familiarity, but that doesn't spoil the experience for the viewer. I saw the film with a full house of appreciative viewers whom I would suspect would be offended by Ms. Dargis assertion that it is a movie that allows the white viewers to feel good about their racial sensitivities. The same could be said about TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD or HIDDEN FIGURES or DRIVING MISS DAISY. It's condescending and a snotty thing to say. I'm in the minority of those who thought ROMA was ruined by its arty camera work, which got in the way of its narrative flow. The best scene in the movie is at the beach when the housekeeper runs into the water to try to save those kids. Finally the film found its heart.
5
Isn't Green Book a period piece just as Mary Queen of Scots is a period piece? So you would expect some degree of what today would appear stereotypical and perhaps cliche. The film critics may have missed the point. In my view the real beauty of the film and the story itself was that its two characters, despite coming from ridiculously different cultures, emerged as surprisingly open minded and maintained a life long friendship. And in that regard the movie is as relevant today as ever. Instead they dwell on how quaint it is. Really.
11
One of the things I loved most about Black Panther was how much it upset White people. On one hand they'd dismiss it as 'merely a comic book movie' and then spend a lot of time complaining about the fact that a movie about Africans which takes place in Africa had the nerve to have mostly Black people in the cast. I even heard that there was a social media campaign to encourage people NOT to see Black Panther, probably out of fear that Black people might develop a taste for blockbuster films about Black people.
I love the Marvel movies. Every single one of them (except for Black Panther, of course) feature one or two (at the very most) Black people . They all take place in 21st century America, in major urban areas, but nobody seems to think it strange that all of these superheroes only know one Black person, very often the SAME Black person. Don't get me started on the lack of Latino or Asian characters. Yet most Black, Asian and Latino people manage to get through their day without feeling the need to spoil the fun for White folks.
I'm Black and I LOVED Black Panther. I'm not ashamed to say that there were moments in Black Panther that moved me to tears. I'd like to talk about how much I enjoyed Creed too but I don't want to cause my White brothers and sisters any extra anguish.
5
@laura174 An awful lot of white people loved Black Panther, including this one. It’s the best Marvel movie, hands down. But I’m judging from your middle paragraph that despite what you say, you actually haven’t seen either Captain America: Civil War or Avengers: Age of Ultron. Both having scenes that take place in African urban areas (I underatand what you’re saying about non-African urban areas though) and Civil War, which has three black main characters (Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie and Don Cheadle).
@laura174 I'm a geriatric white Southern woman, and I really liked Black Panther.
2
@Rick I have seen those films (I actually watched them this weekend). To be honest, I'd forgotten about the scenes that take place in Africa, probably because they were less about Africans and more about White guilt. Civil War has an extensive scene in Africa. I don't think a single African says a word the whole time.
Chadwick was great in Civil War and there were a couple of scenes tossed in that set-up Black Panther, so I stand corrected there. But poor Anthony Mackie and Don Cheadle (a brilliant actor that deserves MUCH better) who are Avengers, on paper, are interchangeable sidekicks.
I have no doubt that LOTS of White people liked Black Panther, that's why it was the biggest movie of 2018. But the hostile reaction to a comic book movie that, in my opinion, was totally out of proportion can't be denied. Read the comments here.
Am I the only black man on earth who thought Black Panther was just ok?
6
This "dialogue" between Dargis and Scott exemplifies why their writing has become increasingly barf-inducing: they both seem to be near drowning in their obsession with political correctness, and the art form they've been hired to critique just keeps on moving farther and farther away from the main focus of the writing. Now I just pray that one of the writers at SNL uses their "insights" as the basis for a sketch about how far some white folks are willing to go to be seen as fully woke.
9
Holy cow, these movies all dwell on some outrage of being a victim. Are we falling into what is called PC outrage? Claiming to be victims of some perceived oppression or offense has been the excuse of so many horrible episodes in humanity. Why has it become hip to indulge it? Is it because it is now on behalf of a someone who is not white, or male, which makes it politically OK? Can you be offended by some group if you're white or male? Have we fetishised being offended to silliness?
5
While I enjoyed the character of Killmonger in Black Panther, I thought it important that he died. Symbolically, the death of the idea he represents - might makes right - opens us up to other possibilities.
He was a well crafted anti-hero, but he served his purpose. Bringing him back would be a mistake on many levels.
(Which won't slow down the rabid cash-in mentality of Hollywood.)
4
Not one of the movies considered for the Oscars this year was of any interest to me. The storylines have become way too niche. We need more crowd pleasers. I think this Oscar telecast will have even lower ratings than last year.
4
Almost all of the films mentioned were not shown in my area or they were shown at one theater for one or two nights. I live in a fairly large city with several independent movie theaters but my point is that if you wanted to see any of those movies, you had to plan and work for it. I wish they were in wider distribution and not just available for a brief time. Otherwise, I am stuck with what is merely entertaining.
1
Scott is taking his white savior role way too seriously with his dismissal of Green Book as a "compendium of tone-deaf racial clichés." Green Book is an incredibly powerful and entertaining film. I have a number of racist relatives who were deeply touched and possibly changed by it. I'd count it as one of the best films ever.
By calling it tone deaf and clichéd, Scott has revealed his own tone-deafness to what actually resonates with people. Ignore his supercilious review and go see the movie.
15
@SC Uh-oh! Someone has a difference of opinion!
2
"Widows” and “Ocean’s 8” put a spurious sisterly spin on old-fashioned American greed. Both would have been better and more honest if their characters were just as openly mercenary as any male movie thief and didn’t try to soften these women’s crimes with tears and rationalizations."
I did not see Ocean's 8, but I liked Widows. I think a"violence with no remorse" approach would have been misplaced. That was not the point of the story. I agree women and men should be treated as equals on screen, but they are different, and to me an honest portrayal means highlighting those differences.
5
The constant critical adulation for Black Panther totally befuddles me ...and I see it all as a bit of a pander. The movie was standard Marvel fair, and by that I mean a highly entertaining popcorn movie, I enjoyed it as much as any Avengers movie. It was not a brilliant piece of cinema, however.
A movie that portrays a monarchy that hoards power and technology from it's impoverished neighbors and uses a fist fight to determine leadership seems to bolster colonialist clichés rather than tear them down.
The movie is a social phenomenon that rightly deserves recognition for being a big budget film that was directed, written and acted by African Americans. That is an important piece of social history. The actual film was just blockbuster fun.
25
I thought "Black Panther" was OK, but nothing really outstanding.The film just had black people doing what white people have done in dozens of other superhero movies. But Scott and Dargis seem to think that because it is "diverse," it must be praised.
The intellectual mediocrity of the NYTimes is becoming a real problem for loyal subscribers like me.
18
@Donald Seekins oh, no, Donald, has the "intellectual mediocrity" of two of the most-respected film critics become a "real problem" for you? They liked a movie you didn't and so they must be "intellectually mediocre"?
I always assume that if you call someone "dumb," you must be the dummy yourself.
3
Unfortunately, way, way too much time in this article was spent discussing "Support the Girls" when it lasted about two and a half days in theaters.
1
I recently rewatched the 1930’s gem, “His Girl Friday,” and was struck by the realization that this movie featuring a star reporter who was a woman could withstand a good deal of the give and take about feminine empowerment and male prerogative that permeate this article.
Hildy, divorced from her editor who wants her back to cover a hot story, strides into her (oh, it’s hers!) newsroom and greets one and all with the relaxed confidence and winsome bonhomie of one whose value cannot be overlooked.
In this one astounding scene, Hildy says hi to all but stops only two or three times to chat with women on the floor, women decidedly beneath the notice of the bustling men. No similarly positioned male would lower himself thusly.
Just one of many scenes depicting a grown woman who has fully earned the respect and admiration of all her peers. The later episodes in the reporters’ pool are a revelation. No hint of condescension from the male colleagues, no question at all that Hildy belongs there.
Unlike “Adam’s Rib” HGF offers no feminist brief. In fact, Hildy arrives to tell her ex that she is going to Albany to become the wife of a life insurance salesman. The goal is absurd, not because some ideology says so but because we know immediately what Hildy is and isn’t. Housewife is an isn’t.
Be fun if these very smart critics would dip back into these precious oldies to see if the 21st century themes have resonance. Many surprises await, I think.
10
Great comment but the movie was released in 1940 not in the thirties
Scott and Dargis now judge movies according to how they let people vent their personal frustrations. Speaking of the hooter waitresses screaming on the restaurant roof, Dargis says, “she was up on that roof, at least in spirit.” This artistic criteria resembles how we might judge the effects of a professional wrestling match that lets us identify with the good guy against the bad guy.
5
stop "streaming" and get a library card. It's a big world. don't let the stream companies tell you what to watch. if it's easy it's sleazy.
1
"Black Panther' will be viewed by serious film historians, if they pay any attention to it all, as a sad, pathetic (poorly filmed) effort to do the impossible: merge rank commercialism with comic book heroism in pursuit of a meaningful enterprise.
5
This article made me wish Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert were still with us - they didn't condemn films simply because they were popular with audiences. I'm not even sure that Dargis and Scott are capable of suspending their biases enough to actually enjoy watching movies.
19
@Dave Newsflash: no one can "suspend their biases." That's what makes the biases.
All criticism is inherently subjective. If you disagree with their analyses, click to another page.
1
@Todd
Au contraire - people suspend their biases all the time.
I did it when I read yet another Dargis & Scott socio-sexual-racial-gendering plaint in the hope of reading about a few good movies I might have missed minus the sociology babble.
They fooled me yet again.
6
I would not characterize it as a 'profound reckoning' -- Anita Hill's testimony had the same impact on Clarence Thomas' supreme court confirmation as Christine Blasey Ford's testimony had on Bret Kavanaugh's, exactly none.
Both men had the audacity to act as if they had been wronged, 27 years apart and yet still the same result. That educated, intelligent woman, with so much to lose and absolutely nothing to gain make the heroic choice to speak up and are not only not believed but dismissed.
Women, men and children continue to be victimized, not just by these men, but by society, a society that demands proof of their allegations. That is exactly why men continue to treat others in this ignominious manner. The experience of these two men means that all abusers feel just that much more insulated from any possible consequences of their actions.
7
@Lostin24 So society shouldn't "demand proof of their allegations", when a wrongly accused person can suffer sometimes immense damage ? Such statements as these make me recoil at much of what the "me too" movement is about. I do understand, however, that many women also seek justice, and not just a blow against males, generally.
5
"Black Panther" was "idea-generating"? What were the ideas? I saw a violent cartoon-type movie that I could see appealing to persons ages 13-17 (I would never let anyone under age 13 see such a movie). It favorably portrayed an absolute monarchy and suggested that violence solves problems. And gave fanciful representations of what technology could accomplish. As a comic book it might have been good but it did not deserve to be made into a movie.
25
"We all know the true. In times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers"---KING T'CHALLA aka BLACK PANTHER. Xenophobia, Colonialism, Family, Identity, Patriotism, Duty, Loyalty, Class and Honor. Those are the universal themes and "ideas"I saw in this amazing movie. I thought they were obvious but apparently not.
7
I volunteer at a writing/tutoring center for kids who are almost all either African-American or the children of African immigrants. One well-intentioned young staff member arranged to show Black Panther as a special treat. He ended up fast-forwarding through much of the unrelenting violence while providing homilies about how we don’t solve our conflicts by fighting (to which frustrated boys rightly protested that it was a FIGHTING MOVIE!!) Several parents who got wind of it were angered that we showed a movie they would never have allowed their children to watch, and I was left wondering how the interjection of black pride into the genre magically rescues it from the dubious pile of brutal superhero “action” movies to make it either suitable for young people or worthy of all the praise heaped on it by normally sensible adults.
27
@George Potratz: "Normally sensible adults" is a designation that might not apply to big city, i.e., NYT movie reviewers. These people have political and cultural agendas that are often at odds with those of the broader movie going public.
"Black Panther" was praised because of the racial profile of its cast, writers and director. Lets face it, if it were just another violent Marvel movie (not a marvel of a movie) it would have been typified as fodder for teen-age sensibilities. One could have praised the producers for taking a big budget chance on a movie that gave prominence to the above mentioned, but not the movie itself which was just a Marvel movie with a hero of "another colour."
15
@San Ta
Yes, I think that the proud African-ness of the film was a positive feature. That elevated it above the general run of Marvel movies. I just don't think that's saying very much.
8
@George Potratz
George you couldn't be more accurate. However, your concerns fall on deaf ears of the movie going lemmings.
Once the PR department (in other words film critics) of papers like the NYT and LAT announce that these brainless, violent visual comic books are somehow important (or good) the people flock and make Hollywood rich beyond belief. In fact, even when some critics (rarely the NYT) allude to a super hero movie not being any good the masses still flock. It's a form of brain damage, where in, although people doubt the movie any good, still must buy those tickets to keep up on their (brain damaging) social media accounts.
I've also noticed that critics are now giving movies a positive score so they pump up Rotten Tomatoes scores, but when you read the review it's filled with negative comments. They read something like this:
"Although the plot is flimsy, and the acting is weak, there are some lovely shots and beautiful costumes, so your day won't be totally ruined." Yup that's a Fresh review.
5
A fresh perspective from our film critics. They have focused long enough on the quality of the films they see; now they are reviewing the audiences. And those benighted people are clearly not up to standard.
17
The Green Book was a wonderful movie with 2 great acting leads in which those characters evolved into accepting and caring for one another's differences. You reviewers totally missed that point, and with racism even more present today with our current administration encouraging it, you fail to realize that lots of people that are still stuck in their denial of being a racist either due to remaining in their home towns that are segregated with little or no exposure to minorities, and that they may see this movie and possibly be moved by it and have some kind of revelation because of it. Movies have always had that power. Some people would not be able to comprehend or they'd be afraid of a Barry Jenkins or Spike Lee movie. Recent movies that I think have had a positive effect on the fear of black people by racist were: Loving, Black Panther (subliminally), and Moonlighting. Obviously most of those people saw BP and skipped the other two sensitive movies. But I think The Green Book should not be dismissed as you write about because I'm a New Yorker for 35 years via Oklahoma and right now to see any movie that's as well made as Green Book was, about a white and black man, (or other minorities), becoming friends by really getting know each other is vitally important.
15
@rex You add more important reasons why people of all colors, ethnicities should see the recent crop of movies dealing with black life and American racism that Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott mention in their overview of several of these fine films. As mentioned in my previous post, the two critics seem to trash 'Green Book', an exceptional look back at what African Americans had to deal with in the early days of the Civil Rights Era. The true story of black musician Don Shirley and his hired chauffeur , who take a long road journey through through the Middle Atlantic States to the Deep South. The nascent clashes between the two men and their evolving friendship is a deeply moving story filled with humor and intermittent threats of violence. It's a journey that ends in a most moving finale, a deeply genuine moment that I think can be appreciated by both black and white audiences. "Green Book" may seem conventionally 'retro' as these Times critics might categorize it, but it nevertheless is a movie of considerable accomplishment and I hope will be a Best Picture Oscar contender.
11
@rex Yes, exactly. The acting was great, and the growing friendship, respect and understanding between Tony and Don was done with sensitivity and humor.
The scene at the country club, where Don is told to use the outhouse was Perfectly crafted as to the oh-so-polite, arm-twisting pressure with the intent of utter humiliation. That mindset, and that kind of speech, is all too alive and well here in NC and SC. (I live on the border.)
Anyone see the story about the black MD in Charleston, SC, who was shut out if a club? That was a week or two ago.
The Green Book reminds us how so little has changed.
12
Re "Green Book" I can understand the disparaging comments about this film being 'white liberal-centric' (in the vein of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", "Driving Miss Daisy", and "The Help") BUT it IS well crafted and anchored by excellent performances by Mehershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen.
During a Q&A following a screening the director, primary screenwriter (actual son of Mortensen's character), and Viggo Mortensen explained the efforts made to be as accurate and true to the real story and relationships as possible. That Don Shirley and 'The Lip' remained lifelong close friends speaks volumes. Bottom line it's a good movie and I enjoyed seeing it. And it made me curious to hear some actual Don Shirley recordings.
I also liked and highly recommend "BlacKKKlansman" and "If Beale Street Could Talk". The others are on my to see list.
Bottom line: these days ANY movie SANS superhero's, massive CGI, and crashes/ explosions and gratuitous killings is WORTHY of support.
10
@Howard Beale
I second that. 18 year old boys aren't the only ones who like to go to the movies. I'm thankful that movies that might have had difficulty being made like "Private Lives" Netflix picked up.
3
@Howard Beale I was stunned and just loved Green Book. Saw it twice, and may go a third time tomorrow, have not done that in decades.
3
What's going on here? You reviewers aren't reviewing MOVIES, you're reviewing sociological perspectives. Black Panther was so unwatchable, I missed all those good things mentioned in the article because I simply stopped watching. And I had really looked forward to seeing it, too. Green Book--didn't expect to like it and felt it was actually wonderful. Yes, cultural sensitivity matters, etc. etc, but movies as movies matter more--for lover of movies.
34
@Carol
Totally agree. No need for reviewers to be sociologists. The Green Book, for example, was a far better film than Widows.
11
@Carol
For me, the issue is that these two film reviewers are assaying sociological perspectives without any working knowledge of sociology or even any field related to it.
It's akin to a film critic giving a lecture on Electrical Engineering without having taken a 101 Intro course.
5
@Sándor - You're actually betraying your own lack of knowledge regarding the field of film studies and criticism. As a textual study/humanities discipline it overlaps quite a bit with social science fields like sociology because it addresses things that humans make and the sense that humans make *of* those things.
Your analogy doesn't work because electrical engineering is so much farther away from film studies and criticism than is sociology. (As an aside: I teach college courses in both sociology and film, and there are plenty of productive opportunities to cross-pollinate those subjects.)
Sociological approaches to film, literature, etc., have been well-established for a few decades now, but it's a bit odd to expect the technical scholarly language of sociology to be used in a film review meant for a mass readership like the NYT.
Also, A.O. Scott has the scholarly chops; he just doesn't need to be pretentious or pedantic about it. Check out his recent "Better Living Through Film Criticism" for a demonstration.
12
A memorable part of "Roma" happens when a pregnant "Cleo" is violently rejected by the father of her baby. That dramatic scene is very frequent in the real world. Hard to understand how men that have a mother, a sister, a wife, or a daughter can behave in that shameful way. Structural oppression is present everywhere.
Excellent article. Great headline.
6
“Sorry To Bother You” and “The Favourite” were my two favourite films of last year. “Blackkklansman” was also absolutely brilliant. I, too, thrilled at the greater diversity of characters the greater diversity of actors was ‘allowed’ to play.
But “Black Panther” was truly awful, in my opinion. Trite, wooden, and utterly unoriginal in everything except it’s casting. I do not understand the fuss (beyond there being a movie about a black superhero, which is a lot, but would have been so much more had the film been any good).
35
I find the meme that women are equivalent to men and must be seen to be so in every respect so tiresome. We seem to be driving towards a quota driven movie production schedule and pretty soon a movie watching quota schedule. When I want to want him strong confident women performances, I did through the archives to Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwick, Vivien Leigh an others. These were powerful women in their own right not just striving to be male equivalents.
14
@Sipa111
Perhaps it would be nice not to have to go back 70-80 years to watch "strong confident women performances."
I'd like to see them throughout film history, not just in one period.
8
@Sipa111 Anyone who thinks that greater representation of any minority group in any art form will automatically improve art and the degree to which it enables an understanding of our humanity is, in my view, badly mistaken. I give you Black Panther and Blackkklansmen as examples. Pointless or badly made.
Get Out and Do the Right Thing are brilliant.
Another example would be Martin Scorcese. Brilliant film maker and gets the Oscar for the extremely lame The Departed.
5
Re Scorsese's Oscar - like others awarded late in certain individuals careers, it was overdue recognition for having been overlooked (more than once) for more worthy work / performances. I agree that the remake "Departed" isn't his best work by a long shot although superior to jobs for hire like lame, "The Color of Money.
1
These days everyone is an advocate. The result of applying a political litmus test -- in this case identity politics -- is that all sorts of garbage is treated leniently because of the reviewers' fear that telling the truth will expose them to the virtual lynch mob that ruins careers by denouncing any deviation from the party line.
It's like Alexander Solzhenitsyn's story about the party committee members who hurried to applaud a mention of Joseph Stalin. The applause went on and on and on ... because no one dared to be seen to be the first person to stop clapping.
This conversation represents the utter capitulation of professional integrity to the terrible superficiality, corruption and crude political "narratives" of gender and ethnic studies departments of today's colleges.
How fitting that the iconic moment of film last year was three women screaming on a rooftop. And when audiences refuse to be fooled all of the time and won't take it anymore, these reviewers will lay all the blame at the door of racism and sexism. Next we'll be forced to make movies by quotas.
54
@Ian Maitland Not sure what you're going on about. The conversation admitted that not all of these "identity" films were good – just as the vast majority of white-male-led films are not. As for audiences not taking it anymore, 2018 was a record-breaking year at the US box office, led by Black Panther.
4
@Ian Maitland - Would that "gender and ethnic studies departments of today's colleges" wielded anything like the influence you've described here. They couldn't be more marginal and unimportant in terms of both on- and off-campus power (along with every other humanities and social sciences discipline). I speak from decades of forehead-palming inside experience.
Perhaps Scott and Dargis are actually arguing from their own critical perspectives--which happen to be concerned with the matters of representation that you condemn/dismiss as "identity politics"--and are not merely following some groveling, externally imposed script?
In your Stalinist Hollywood dystopia, what would it mean for audiences to not "take it anymore"? Will they simply stop buying tickets to things like Black Panther? If so, then the studios will indeed stop *making* things like Black Panther. How then will the "virtual lynch mob" compel them to do otherwise?
2
This comment above is so on the mark. The writer has totally captured all of the many issues with your reviewers' discussion. Your reviewers are so bereft of original ideas and unable to think for themselves it is frightening. Everything is political to these people. Every movie has to have a leftist political message or it is not a good movie. Can't we just evaluate movies on the basis of how well they are made and acted like we used to ? This is so sad to see.
9
Dargis and Scott's condescending attitude toward "Green Book" annoys me no end. Their spin on the film being a 'white perspective' look at a story that takes place in the early 1960s fails to mention the considerable achievement of all involved in that movie's production : the brilliant acting, superb screenplay and direction and an evocative look back on a different era in race relations. There is room for both the brilliance of BlackKklansman, Sorry To Bother You and a past look back. Here's hoping Oscar nominations recognize these and other notable films dealing with racism this past year.
32
I've not seen "Green Book" but I intend to because of my great admiration for the two main actors. You seem to damn it because it is aimed at white audiences. I'm not sure that is bad. Might a white man seeing this movie be nudged ever so slightly in a positive direction? He probably would not have ever been persuaded to see "Beale Street." (Now that one I am most eager to see for I loved "Moonlight.") And never would he had attended "I Am Not Your Negro," about someone who was both black and gay. (I loved it.) Just possibly "Green Book" deserves a bit of respect. Personally, I think "Driving Miss Daisy" (which I liked) and "The Help" )(which I could not abide) had effects more positive than not.
19
Reading this article a question occurs to me: why were there so many super strong and interesting female actresses and characters dominating movies from the Thirties through the Fifties...the height of white male power? Bette Davis, K. Hepburn, V. Leigh, E. Taylor, B. Stanwyck, J. Crawford and G. Garbo are a few that spring to mind.
36
@rpe123
Because - heaven forbid - it wasn't all about "white male power". It was about box office, as the movie industry always has been.
Audiences liked those strong women and went to see them. Hence they got more and the women got clout.
3
@rpe123
think about it, what was the defining event of that time. World War II?
We needed women as the men were off to war. What happened to women once the war ended?
It's no accident that women are the most integrated in nations that are constantly at war... ie, the authoritarian dictatorships of the Cold War.
I suppose if we were in perpetual war, then we wouldn't have to worry about equal representation.
1
@rpe123
The reality is that the strongest female archetypes in cinema appeared between 1900 to 1940 but then slowly vanished due to the Hays Code, anti-Socialist censorship, the Cult of Domesticity, et cetera. Few films made from The Fifties to our contemporary era can equal those powerful women archetypes of yesteryear.
We still don't have empowered women characters in cinema like the ones in the 1920s. When is the last time you saw a cocaine-smuggling, whiskey-drinking, two-fisted flapper who was part-time serial killer and who violently coerces the male hero to be her personal sex toy? Yet such was the run-of-the-mill role played by the fantastic Alma Bennett in "Long Pants" (1927).
The more one actually watches Pre-Code cinema and Silent Films, the more one realizes how much contemporary film criticism is built on myth and ignorance of the past. In this case, Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott dwell so much on the present that they can't remember cinema's past. Their criticism greatly suffers because of it.
4
In reading this article on the current state of American cinema I was disappointed that ‘Blindspotting’ was not included in the discussion. A buddy movie that challenges the current array of stereotypes in our culture deserves at least a shout out.
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@Mike Totally agree. We just streamed Blindspotting and although not perfect it was certainly good enough to merit a lot more attention than it's gotten. Highly recommend it.
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@Mike, I was surprised as well. Though BlackkKansman and Sorry to Bother You were good, Blindspotting stayed with me much longer. And much more so than Black Panther.