Representation in Art/Entertainment/Media • Page 27

It'll be the last weekend of March. Got lots of new stuff to talk about, especially with the popularity of Yuri on Ice.

 

dammit I want to watch Mockingjay on Hulu but I'm still mad at JLaw hahaha

 

Diversity at the 2017 Oscars: These Are the Records That Were Just Broken

 

The Oscar Nominations Shut Out Women Directors Once Again

 

haha nothing quite like back to back think pieces where one says "oscars do good" followed by "oscars dont do good". we're funny sometimes

 

Or, maybe reality is just complex enough for something to have both good and bad aspects. *shrug*

 

It's just outrage/clickbait stuff though. Why not just have an actual article labeled "A Look at Diversity in this years Oscar Nominees", where the pros and cons are labeled and analyzed without a spin.

I mean look at those link labels. "RECORDS BROKEN" for link 1, "Women shut out" for link 2.

 

"Outrage"? Most people who use that term in a context like this do so to dismiss the criticism. Is that what's going on here? I really hope not.

I checked the articles. The one listed literal records that were broken. The other said that only 4 women have ever been nominated for Best Director, which sounds to me like literally being shut out repeatedly.

The titles clearly are written in a way so as to grab one's attention. There's nothing wrong with that. It's been an aspect of journalism for decades. Both titles accurately describe reality and the content of their articles. They're not clickbait, which only describes unsubstantial articles with dramatic titles that play up a non-reality, articles which only exist for the clicks and not for the content itself.

 

Kelly Reichardt directed maybe the best film of the year with Certain Women, with absolutely brilliant performances from Kristen Stewart, Lily Gardner, Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Jared Harris.

Anna Biller directed the Love Witch last year, which is a very small movie and extremely stylized movie that was never going to be seriously considered for any Oscar attention, but it's really interesting.

Rebecca Miller's Maggie's Plan was a very fun Woody Allen-esque intellectuals in New York comedy, and anything Greta Gerwig does is worth seeing.

Karyn Kusama's the Invitation was a gripping thriller that expertly tied the thematics of her script with the literal geography of the physicality of the house her film took place in, absolutely worth seeing.

Andrea Arnold's American Honey is long (over 2.5 hours), and divisive, but the cinematography is beautiful and I regard the film fairly highly, particularly some surrealist scenes that, in isolation, work really well (though some might argue the whole doesn't hold up). Sasha Lane was very good.

Those are a few standout films directed by women this year for those interested.

 

If you're asking me do i think there's an issue in hollywood, like most of society, with diversity and giving women equal opportunities... especially in powerful areas...of course. Also, I think it's great to get dialogue going (even if it's repetitious), cause eventually their could slowly be change.

BUT i still stand by my point that both of these links were specifically labeled in order for you to click to link WITH an opinion already in mind....and to me that's where the issue is with me. They're opinion pieces, sprinkled with a few facts they find that help their narrative (and mind you, this is a narrative that i agree with, but i still want to get full representation in my "news" so I can come up with my own conclusions).

 

If you agree with the narrative, what's the problem? They have factual headlines and factual observations.

I mean, seriously, this is such a freakin' stupid point to be stuck on, my goodness. An award show that majorly impacts the film industry made small progress in one way, failed yet again in another, and the thing that sticks out the most to you is that those articles are pushy with their stance that representation matters? Really?

 

"Articles" shouldn't be pushy or have stances, that's my point, regardless if I agree with it or not. I don't even consider either article to be pushy, but their headlines sure don't let the readers come to their own conclusions.

 

...you do know opinion pieces exist, right? and are legitimate journalism?

 

Outrage! White Supremacy Losing Power Over Oscars. Sad.

Good News! Misogyny Still Rampant In Oscars

happy?

too far in the other direction? oh.

Oscars: People Were Nominated

edit: should probably say I have no malicious intent with this post

 

Some others:
Kelly Fremon Craig - The Edge of Seventeen

Mira Nair - Queen of Katwe

Sian Heder - Tallulah

Jodie Foster - Money Monster (some would debate this as a good movie or not, but I liked it enough)

 

@xkhiemster those would be great onion headlines

 

it also looks like Iñárritu, Cuarón, and Ang Lee are the only POC winners for best director, Singleton and McQueen were nominated but never won

 

On the plus side, that would mean that, for the past four years, the award has gone to POC.

 

Oh yeah, forgot Edge of Seventeen. It's really great. Haven't seen the others.

 

I was straight-up in love with Edge of Seventeen. Can't wait to wait it again when it comes out on Blu Ray.

Queen of Katwe was good.

 

I haven't seen Queen of Katwe yet, but the other three I definitely enjoyed to varying degrees.

I still need to check out American Honey, but the running time keeps scaring me away, haha. I'll need to invest an evening into it sometime.

 

Edge of Seventeen was fantastic.

 

One of my favorite books is Steve Stoute's "The Tanning Of America" and I just wanted to share an excerpt with you people, because it has been on my mind again since hearing about the Oscar nominations.

On Will Smith and the release of Bad Boys 1:

“In spite of the worldwide recording success Will had achieved with Top Ten hits and Grammy awards, even with the international stardom he had attained as a television star, when it was time to go and promote the movie Bad Boys overseas, the studio didn’t want to spend the money to have Will go on a major international tour. Why? Because the marketing experts hired by the studio insisted, African-American stars could only garner five millions dollars in overseas box office receipts. No matter what James Lassiter did to try to convince the studio they were missing a great opportunity, they wouldn’t move. That is until Will was invited to appear at an MTV event at Cannes and did so well in his interviews with the foreign press - these were then picked up all around the world - that the studio agreed to give him the chance to go promote the movie. The end result was that Bad Boys did 138 million dollars in worldwide box office receipts. So much for those experts who predicted a fraction of that. Part of the cultural misread had to do with the generation gap. Those experts, after all, based their predictions on the track record of international stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They were out of touch, no doubt, with their own kids, who were now seeing Will Smith as the earlier generations saw Sly Stallone. The experts were so disconnected from culture that they avoided not just traditional assumptions but hard-core statistics like Will’s TV show share in Spain [50%] and the global fan base established from his recording career.”

Sadly, not much has changed.

 

Another reason to love him
Adam Pally Is Right: Zoe Lister-Jones Should Get to Direct the Next Jurassic Park