Image courtesy Summit Entertainment.
As La La Land danced through theaters the past few months to the tune of $137.5 million domestic, a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations and a Best Picture victory that’s been presumed to be in the bag for months now, it’s also picked up a few serious accusations. Some say it’s white-washing black erasure. Some say it’s fascist propaganda.
Let’s put that shit to bed right now.
Images courtesy Universal Pictures.
8/10 They gave half of sketch comedy duo Key & Peele a movie — and it’s a psychological thriller? Get Out of here!
When Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) drives up to the country with his girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), things go wrong immediately. Her family — father Dean (Bradley Whitford), mother Missy (Catherine Keener) and brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) — are clearly uncomfortable around her black boyfriend, and it soon becomes apparent the entire town is as well. Additionally, the black members of the community seem strange and off-kilter. As Washington tries to impress his girlfriend’s family, he is exposed to the town’s sinister workings.
Image courtesy Paramount Pictures.
3/10 Advertising for The Great Wall centered on one question — “What were they trying to keep out?”
The Mongols. They were trying to keep out the Mongols.
In the 11th century, European mercenary William Garin (Matt Damon) has crossed Eurasia in search of China’s mythical weapon — black powder. His band of 20 men has been reduced to just two by bandits in the Gobi Desert and a mysterious monster by the time he and Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal) reach the Great Wall of China. The Nameless Order, a special military division that watches the wall, captures them, and they bear witness to the swarm of the tao tei — ravenous monsters born of a fallen emperor’s greed that pose an extinction-level threat if they reach the capital.
Image courtesy Universal Pictures.
The Great Wall came out in American theaters last weekend, beating industry expectations with a $21.7 million take. It’s a good result of a movie that was primarily met with claims of whitewashing and racism for starring Cambridge-born Matt Damon in a movie about ancient Chinese history.
Obviously, Damon hadn’t taken a yellowface role, however the initial trailer made it seem. The idea was to have European traders written into the story and get a major star to help with American marketing. It’s still racially charged, but no different than Transformers 4 going to Hong Kong for financial gain.
While whitewashing isn’t really an issue in The Great Wall, the people crying against it were right to be concerned. Ghost in the Shell hits theaters next month with Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, and that’s a major issue.
Reel Entropy 