Comment on Does ‘American Fiction’ signal the end of Hollywood’s woke era?
freamon@endlesstalk.org 8 months ago
In a fit of self-loathing, I viewed the page via 12ft.io to circumvent the paywall.
It doesn’t get better. “As an educated, heterosexual, Christian black man”, the author enjoyed “Boyz n the Hood,” “Menace II Society,” “Baby Boy,” “New Jack City,” “Sugar Hill,” “American Gangster,” and “Training Day” even though they didn’t represent his lived experience.
These are all films directed ages ago by men, but - somehow - it’s only possible to depict black men like this due to modern Hollywood ‘wokeness’. If you wanted to a black character to be - I don’t know - a policeman or a chocolatier, it wouldn’t be possible. This is why Wonka and Fargo Season 5 weren’t produced, and we never got to see them.
It’s 'cos of the women, you see? Matriarchs, like - um - Tyler Perry, prevent black heterosexual men from been shown as anything other than criminals. They know it’s the only thing white liberals will accept.
The author mostly liked ‘American Fiction’, in having the courage to unravel this great conspiracy. Apparently, it’s great to see to someone like him on screen, because Representation Matters of course, but he didn’t like the LGBTQ elements, because representation of people unlike him doesn’t matter, and that’s just “gay mafia pandering”.
realcaseyrollins 8 months ago
While it was pretty silly for him to pigeonhole these depictions of black men as "woke", I don't know that the author's point is invalid. It's actually what the movie is about.
Of course there are stories about black people who don't fit into these complained-about stereotypes, but I think they easily get drowned out by the stories that are.