The Viewing Culture

Upcoming Movies 2014 -- These are movies that are scheduled for wide releases and feature people of color as the main characters...I hope I'm missing some. Think Like a Man Too - June 20 Verdict : I didn't see the first one, don't think I'll be seeing this one, even if Kevin Hart is in it. Get on Up - August 1 Verdict : I need to see another trailer. I'm leaning toward seeing the James Brown biopic right now. Addicted - September 5 Verdict : The synopsis of a woman being addicted to sex makes this seem like it will be too much like Tyler Perry's Temptation, which I did not enjoy. At all. No Good Deed - September 12 Verdict : If the trailer doesn't look hacky, I will see this because Idris Elba is in it. Annie - December 19 Verdict : I liked the original Annie. I like Jamie Foxx (I seem to be the only person who does) so I'll give it a shot. Upcoming Television Pilot Developments 2014-2015 -- These are TV pilots being ordered or develop...

I'll just accept this show as one of those pieces of work that I don't 'get.' Critics keep telling me to watch it because it's getting better and better. FOX keeps renewing it, but I'm just confused. The show isn't even mediocre. It can't properly connect its storylines without dropping characters or involving characters without good reason (if the plot doesn't directly involve Mindy, then good luck making sense of it), and why do these writers get a free pass on being stereotypical, insulting, and racist, but everyone harps on a show like Dads? I don't get it. I wish them the best of luck though and I hope the show continues to improve and find its audience. I just know I'm not it.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/the-colbert-report-embroiled-in-racial-controversy/#more-705803 Political correctness vilification strikes again. I think we all know the difference between real prejudice and racism and a joke. How wearisome. And this is not about if it's funny or not. It's about knowing--knowing--what the intentions were of these people who tweeted that joke from the show, but deciding to be offended anyway. That feels likes an abuse of the situation there. Play the victim and make it that much harder for the real thing to be taken seriously. Thanks. That's helpful to everyone. *sarcastic slow clap*

So I watched A Haunted House 2 trailer... I didn't watch the first movie, so I can't say that I was going in with high expectations or an open mind. Looks like a lot of The Conjuring will be in there with a healthy dose of the Insidious sequel (I'm guessing from the poster). Don't know what commercial they're parodying with the trailer. That will be fun for somebody...right?

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=116505 Really, Ice Cube? That's the movie that you're using your rebound success to make? The third Barbershop movie? Well, okay then. At least a whole heap of black folks will be hired to reprise old roles and take on new ones. That's something, right?

What is with all this wide release religious-themed movies lately? Is this just a coincidence? I don't get it. I know Hollywood doesn't care about conservatives, and I'm not really sure they think that church-goers are a reliable, bankable audience. Are these movies supposed to appeal to the mainstream? Why is Russel Crowe Noah? And Christian Bale as Moses in Exodus ? What, I guess Nicole Kidman will be Ruth next. Or maybe Chris Hemsworth as David. Makes about as much sense as Crowe and Bale. Is this an Australian thing? Weird.

I wonder why this is necessary. Will this be exactly the same? It seems to be, since Zoe Saldana even has a similar hairstyle to Mia Farrow in the same role from the original Rosemary's Baby. I hope they don't make the remake hokey. The original really made an impact on me in my youth.

My first impressions for the Caesar Chavez trailer... There was no Spanish--I guess to not scare away the Americans. No strong narrative either. The trailer is kind of unfocused. Trying to tell two different kinds of stories--biography and civil rights drama. I'd pick the civil rights drama for the first trailer. That's compelling and makes us ask questions about the man behind the revolution. Lastly, did any of the women speak? An odd message there.

WEtv. WEtv? What is WEtv? Thwy sound like BET lite or the old UPN from the fact that they have "Braxton Family Values" featuring Toni Braxton and her sisters and "SWV Reunited" featured the 90s R&B group which... SWV broke up? This is all too much news for me. Anyways, The Braxton show will be renewed for a 26-episode fourth season. I don't understand the meaning of that previous sentence or its implications. The SWV show will get an extended 10-episode second season. Apparently, they didn't decide that--ahem--it's about time...that they got back together. Out of the three people who will read this blog until the end of time, 0.2 will have understood that reference.

I vaguely remember talk about this movie some time ago when it was doing festival rounds... Not sure if it's my kind of movie, though. It's probably a moot point, however. What's the chance that it's coming to a theater near me? I barely got to see 12 Years a Slave. Barely. My theater had it two measly days. Eh, we'll see. This seems like one of those 'see whom I can get a rise out of' kind of movies...

Apparently, Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club (yes, apparently all of that is the title) isn't doing well as his movies in the past have in their opening weekends. So far it's sitting at number six. Maybe because this is his attempt to crossover to white audiences, and the black audiences can smell it? Yeah, the trailer features Nia Long, but I see all those other actresses there, and they were the ones with the goals, not Nia. I also see that Cocoa Brown is relegated to the comic relief role that actresses that fit a non-traditional type are forced into. Is it that his audience is losing faith in Mr. Perry? Or are they just not feeling the change-up? Maybe it was just a miscalculation on everyone's part? Who knows?

When I saw this news, I wondered what this was all about. What could she possibly be doing for the series? I was kind of excited/concerned/intrigued. Then I read the role: the nanny for their baby. Oh. Just the perfect part for a young African American girl. I sigh and shrug.

I watched the trailer to Wes Anderson's  The Grand Budapest Hotel.  It is definitely one of his films. Composed like a painting, every character a quirky character--didn't know it was rated R, though. The full of quirky characters thing got me thinking. Do black films--that is, films in which the majority of characters are people of color and are portrayed as people of color--have films like this? Films that have every character laden with quirk and also that have a distinctive style behind them. Like a  Fargo?  The answer left me scratching my head. I think I need to seek these films out. The closest I could think of was the first Friday movie. Yet it didn't quite make it because the love interest was a black hole of no personality. Oops. I'm very sure these movies exist, and I'm just ignorant of them. They've got to. I wish I knew about them.

I went to another small talk today at Comic Con about diversity in pop culture. It was okay. The only problem was one of the speakers were late and then talked over. I should have left early. The questions they asked the audience were deliberately too specific (Okay...people of Caucasian descent, what do you think?--oh...because other ethnicities have spoken enough and Caucasians have never gotten their say--right...More whites from the audience spoke than blacks. Hmm). I do agree that the reason that more diversity doesn't exist in the comic book world is because its audience doesn't accept it. I find 'nerds' very intolerant and insular. They hate change and don't take very well to encroachment upon their worlds, nor are they very sympathetic to other people's worldviews. All that together is just a big ole pile of apathetic indifference to diversity. They like their medium the way it is. If it's not diverse, so what? They're not going to go out of th...

I'm attending the Comic Con tour at Sacramento. It's all very nerdy and kind of over the top to me. Josh is having fun, though, so I guess it's worth it. I went to the film festival that showcases local filmmakers and their films. They had a special panel by a professor and two of her students from Sac State. The professor discussed Star Trek and its multi-racial characters since she, the professor, was biracial. One of the students analyzed the recent Black Panther (2011) animated series from the standpoint of how inferior black males are usually portrayed in media. The other student looked at the first two Alien movies and how they blended gender, 'queer' gender roles. Of course, the first two talks were much more interesting to me than the latter. Yet it got me to thinking. In the Black Panther series, they gave a new history for a subset of blacks. One that didn't involve poverty or slavery or oppression. On the other hand, in the Star Trek series, black...

Lupita for Supporting Actress! 12 Years a Slave for Best Picture! Wow!

I was quite surprised by the number of pilots ordered that cast people of color in the main--not just supporting--roles. I'm also excited. There's no way that one of these won't make it on the air so there'll be even more of that screamed about 'diversity' on network television. Here's a random list of ordered pilots and series from the networks: ABC Rosie Perez co-starring in An American Education (not sure how big her part is) Constance Wu starring in Fresh off the Boat Romany Malco and Amber Stevens starring in Keep It Together Anthony Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, and Tracee Ellis Ross starring in Black-ish Mykelti Williamson  co-starring in  Clementine Viola Davis starring in How to Get Away With Murder Courtney B. Vance  co-starring in Warriors NBC Malcolm Barrett  co-starring in Mission Control Craig Robinson and Larenz Tate  starring in Mr. Robinson Echo Kellum  co-starring in Two to Go Meagan Good  starring in Babylo...

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=113670 They can't agree how to portray Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a man...as opposed to what? Will he also be a dragon? Maybe Oliver Stone leaving the project will be a good thing. I've never much liked his biopics. They always feel too long and draggy and uninspired.

So SNL has finally hired a black female player--Sasheer Zamata. Hmm. On the one hand, it's about time. There couldn't really have been a dearth of talented black female comedians for this long. On the other, she's gonna have a lot of scrutiny on her. Every laugh she gains or fails to gain will be under a microscope. I wouldn't want that kind of pressure. It wouldn't be very conducive to the creative atmosphere of making people laugh. So who is Sasheer Zamata? I'm not sure. Apparently, she does a Beyonce impression. I've watched a little of her stand-up, but I guess we'll all see how she does once she's with the cast. I expect to see a lot of 'bout time jokes. I hope they let her find her own naturally.

I'm getting more than a little bit tired of the dynamic of privileged white person Out of Line 2-1 befriends not-so-privileged black person (with the black person helping the white person learn a lesson). Am I still supposed to be learning something from this? How about the realization that the black person isn't usually the one with the most power in this kind of relationship? Can we move on? Can we do something different? What about a powerful black person who meets an underprivileged white person and is reluctant to help them because of a complicated mix of reasons, including personal experience, class, and prejudice? The lesson-learning could go the other way around, too, without being demeaning. This isn't explored too often. What? Too implausible?