The 91st Academy Awards (February 24, 2019) TV Show • Page 13

I think La La Land is a better example. I feel similarly about that one as I do about A Star Is Born actually: really well made and super fine but not one of the best films of its year.

 

but i feel like it was amplified more so due to its popularity and notoriety though. Like it's happening with Green Book now. I never even heard of Green Book until it won...and then came the subsequent bashing afterwards. I didn't neccesarily hear a huge outcry from this site on that movie until it won the golden globe (although perhaps i wasnt paying attention)

 

Black Panther’s Right Thing

The truth is that they didn’t dare put the same kinds of handcuffs they did in the past on Coogler. They trusted him largely because they had to trust him. The optics of doing the alternative were too risky. And that was terrifying to them, but they still gave up control and were prepared to take the loss, never expecting in a million years that this film would be the mega-success they’re seeing now (hopefully Hollywood is finally picking up how their modern audience actually works). With all of these, Marvel has seemed to finally learn a big lesson. And maybe it’s one that many audiences, and maybe that old teacher I mentioned gets to learn too: You can put a truly important film about societal divides into something, no matter what the scale.

Because it turns out that Ryan Coolger finally gave us a film with emotional the same complexity and duality of Do The Right Thing and he just so happened to do it on the largest canvas possible: an accessible studio tent-pole.

I can think of no higher compliment.

Morris holds forth on Black Panther, cultural criticism

Hill then turned the discussion to Black Panther. Morris touched on some of his favorite aspects of the film, praising the complicated ideological divide between T’Challa and Killmonger. He also praised the role of women in the film, especially dialogue that explores how black women are used by white culture.

Still Processing: We Sink Our Claws Into ‘Black Panther’ With Ta-Nehisi Coates

Here's some of the multitudes of words written and spoken about this over the past year, in various formats.

 

While I didn't quite understand all the love for A Star Is Born, it was well made and I can understand why it's in the field. If Roma wasn't also nominated, I'd love to see it win Best Cinematography.

 

Very standard formula of a superhero movie, the protagonist is the least interesting main character, Killmonger could have been a great antagonist but they took way too long to push him to the front of the conflict and then made him cartoonishly bad. Just a few things off the top of my head

 

How am I supposed to respond to the reasons they think it’s good if I don’t know what those are?

 

Green Book is also a really bad example of this though because it has a ton of problems and controversies surrounding it, and that's even in addition to the film being a mealy-mouthed white savior "hey, racists are good people too"-type movie. Between the co-writer tweeting in support of Trump's racist lie about Muslims in Jersey City celebrating 9/11, Peter Farrelly being outed for continually exposing himself to people on-set over the years, and the Shirley family's outspoken stance that the film totally misrepresents the relationship between Shirley and Vallelonga, it deserves all the harsh criticism it's getting.

If all this stuff hadn't come out so close to the voting deadlines of the PGA, Globes, and Oscar nominations, I don't think it would have as strong of a showing as it's had thus far.

 

I'm not sure how T'Challa can be considered the least interesting character in Black Panther. His struggle between upholding tradition and pushing Wakanda in a new direction was probably my favorite part of the movie. And the fact that the villain is the one who actually makes him see the error of his (and Wakanda's) ways is pretty unique for Marvel.

 

Awards always bring films more to the public consciousness and awareness, so backlash increasing as they get more popular doesn’t mean that the backlash isn’t unfounded. I personally didn’t know that Green Book was made without the permission and support of Shirley’s family until after the awards because I lost any possible interest after Viggo dropped the n-bomb. If it had been more on my radar I would have seen how horrible everything about it was sooner.

 

Imagine thinking Killmonger was, at any point in the film, "cartoonishly bad"

 

but again i never heard an ounce of backlash or heard any of this from anyone until it won the golden globe...or at least until it got nominated. I'm not saying the critique of this or three billboards doesnt have some merit to them, im just saying the negative opinion was louder and more vocal due to its 'success'

 

Legally obligated to repost the best ever piece of Oscars-related journalism

https://local.theonion.com/area-man-thinks-movie-he-saw-should-have-been-nominated-1822384201

 

He was incredibly woke and knowledgeable about the history of black people while at the same time wanting to become a literal world emperor. His pretense of wanting to simply lead black people to freedom was dropped pretty quickly

Oh and I should clarify that by “bad” I mean “evil.”

 

I’m in the minority on this site that thinks Infinity War is a much better film than Black Panther, but I understand why the academy chose to give BP the nomination.

 

omg you're so dense.

It seems like you're okay with the Oscars recognizing problematic films because that's what they always do, but you somehow refuse to acknowledge what makes Black Panther exceptional, while at the same time praising Get Out.

 

I physically cringe at seeing Infinity War in the same sentence as Black Panther. Ragnarok's the only other recent one I don't immediately reject as not being in the same ballpark.

 

What? I never said I was “okay” with it. I said they aren’t strange - ie, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that movies like Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book were nominated.

I’m also not considering the nominations of these films based on how problematic or woke they are, which seems like a silly way of thinking about them. A Spike Lee movie isn’t good because it conveys the correct political themes.

 

Uuuuuuuuuugh.

 

Bam.

 

Can I just “yikes” this guy and be done with it or was he the one who didn’t feel intellectually stimulated enough by that last time?

 

I’ve already talked about this:

Also there’s a huge difference between saying a film’s social significance is a factor to consider re: its quality and saying it’s good *because* of its social significance. Again, a movie like Do The Right Thing is great because of how it goes about discussing social issues, not simply because it discusses them.

 

whoosh

 

Weeeeeelp, once "woke" gets thrown out as a pejorative I know it's about time to hit the ol' dusty trails on the conversation.

But first, if you don't understand why Killmonger being "knowledgeable about the history of black people while at the same time wanting to become a literal world emperor" makes complete and total sense for his character, and in fact further reinforces the themes of the film, you're clearly nowhere near as intelligent as you obviously think you are.

 

I didn’t use it pejoratively. They made very clear that he was incredibly socially conscious. Pretty sure they even show a Public Enemy poster in his bedroom lol

You keep doing this - “If you don’t understand X, which I’m not going to bother explaining in the slightest, then you’re a total fucking idiot.” I don’t think it makes you look as smart as you seem to think it does. It’s just kind of childish and doesn’t add anything.

 

Do you seriously feel that a movie is good or bad *because* of its politics? That a movie with the right message is by definition good, and a movie with the wrong message is by definition bad? Obviously the context in which a movie is made and released matters to how we perceive and judge it, but that’s something different entirely.