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 read this article and wondered why the person who wrote it thought it was timely (besides the fact that the New York Times  already wrote about the subject). The fact that the majority of children's book characters are white is hardly surprising. I think we're all aware of this fact. The solution proposed is to make sure that the editors and staff at publishing houses are more diverse so that the cycle can be broken somewhere along the line. The editors choose the books with primarily white main characters. Those books are the only options for children. We all get use to those choices...and maybe even get locked into them. I say that because the article kind of glosses over the fact that books featuring non-white characters tend to sell poorly. This begs the question: why aren't we buying books with diverse characters? Maybe a clue is what one African-American journal professor said about "not trying to make [her] kids read books about slaves all the time"...

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 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.