It’s been a crazy week as we gear up for Oscar season. With films like Interstellar and Into the Woods on the horizon (as well as stills from and a plot for a new Terminator movie that looks, well, catastrophic), this week we here at the buzz wanted to check out some smaller, lesser known titles before the big names hit the screen. This week brings us some helpful tips for white people, we find out what a boxing champ does in his spare time, meet Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger and find out why you shouldn’t mess with Neo’s pet. Plus, another week of big Marvel news. So climb on in, cause it’s time for this week’s Buzz.
Movies: An inflammatory, racially charged title for an indie directorial debut from a young, black gay director? This promised to be a skewering, vicious piece of angry satire from the get-go, and its incendiary trailer only reinforced the expectation that this would be like Spike Lee’s School Daze with more bite. You could feel the controversy and the Conservative whining already about the anti-White America sentiments, and a rally of fans gathered to celebrate the satirical slaughter of racial politics. Hell, that’s what we signed on for. Those of us that followed the film on Facebook and Twitter, that championed the trailer, that watched director Justin Simien on Colbert and lined up on opening day, we awaited (even those like me, who are so white american-looking we resemble a Captain America who gave up and discovered doughnuts) that classic American art form, that Twainian pageant of cliches dissecting other cliches to expose the harsh truth to stereotypes and ignorance.
But that’s not what we got. Oh no. We got something so much better.
Dear White People is the kind of film whose trailer already commands adjectives like “bold” and “vicious”, but you wouldn’t expect to call it “beautiful”. And yet here it was. A strikingly beautiful coming of age story, about the age that matters. Not Stand By Me-esque childhood nostalgia, but the search for identity that comes with college life. Dear White People isn’t populated with cliches and stereotypes, but rather 3 dimensional characters brought to life with subtle, nuanced performances from extraordinarily gifted actors (many of whom, because of the lack of quality roles for black actors, have never gotten to show such range), particularly the transcendent Tessa Thompson as the defiant fire starter Samantha White, a film student who crusades for equality who’s like “…if Spike Lee and Oprah had a baby”, but whose bitterness masks a wounded and vulnerable woman trying to find her place in the world. Her story runs concurrent with, amongst others, Tyler James Williams, a young gay black man wondering which “group” he belongs in, the “gays” or the “blacks”, feeling he’s not truly either nor truly accepted by either one (despite one black student assuring him “I’m listening to Frank Ocean right now”.
In the end, there is still a great deal of racial conflict and satirical skewering in Dear White People, but it takes unexpected sides at times, refusing to point fingers at anyone in particular, and making no true “bad guys”, like a more light-hearted Do The Right Thing. However, the crux of Dear White People isn’t really about black or white, its about identity, of which “being black” being about more than just skin color is sadly a factor in today’s society as exemplified by Teyonah Parris’ somewhat tragic “Coco” Conners in her lust for fame. It’s a film well worth checking out, both thought provoking and life affirming, and hands down the best directorial debut this year.
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Keanu Reeves is back, and better than anything since The Matrix (in fact, acting wise, this might be his best role ever). John Wick is an insane, all out action fest with gorgeous cinematography and a script that keeps on giving if you’re a fan of the genre. True, the film hinges on whether or not the viewer can digest the insane premise that because Keanu’s John Wick has a dog which gets killed, he proceeds to murder approx. 80 people, but on the other hand: John Wick has a dog which gets killed and so he proceeds to murder approx. 80 people. How are you not at this movie already?
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TV: If you’ve got a strange idea for a TV show, Adult Swim is probably the place to go. Talk show hosted by a bad Hanna-Barbera cartoon? Greenlit. A Law & Order style legal show based around a different bad Hanna-Barbera character defending other Hanna-Barbera characters? Sure. Hell, no Hanna-Barbera characters at all, just some talking food and a guy from Jersey? F*** it, why not? In fact, “f*** it, why not?” appears to be an overture for the entirety of the new series Mike Tyson Mysteries. In the premiere episode, Mike Tyson (voiced by the boxing legend himself) sits poolside with his friends, a posh ghost, a talking pigeon (who was once a man) and Mike’s adopted asian daughter checking his pigeon coop for distress messages. As the supporting characters all explain their origin (and Mike stands by both the hesitance of a song called “Ain’t Got No Time for Bird Sex” and that his adopted daughter, as a baby, told him to “stop living for himself”, Mike receives a message from acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy (whose name Tyson cannot pronounce) asking for help to finish his book, before the gang has to square off against a chupacabra (which Tyson also can’t pronounce). Animated in the style of classic cartoons like Johnny Quest and scripted in that Simpsons/Family Guy humor of smart people writing dumb jokes (just wait till you see who the chupacabra is), Mike Tyson Mysteries may be one of the strangest things to appear on any other channel, but by Adult Swim standards its fairly tame, more in line with the more straightforward humor of The Boondocks and Black Dynamite (unlike, say, Mr. Pickles, where the less said about it, the better). While the show could fall off from here, the pilot shows a great deal of promise, and could admittedly be off-putting to some. For this critic, it was a good little distraction, well worth returning too. However, you can decide for yourself, as Adult Swim graciously uploaded the premiere to Youtube.
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News: Dear White People, you aren’t the only superheroes in the game anymore.
A lot of big announcements came from Marvel’s big impromptu panel in LA this past week, some long rumored (Cap 3 will be Civil War, the popular marvel story, there will be a Doctor Strange movie, etc.) but the biggest revelation was about a character well likely unknown to most. In addition to announcing Avengers: Infinity War in two parts, as well as a Captain Marvel movie (the female version, Carol Danvers) and an Inhumans movie, we got the big reveal when not only did the announce a Black Panther film was in the works, but that they’d already cast Chadwick Boseman (the extraordinary talent from Get On Up) and revealed concept art for the costume.
For thos unaware, Black Panther is the alter-ego of T’Challa, a fierce and noble ruler in the African nation of Wakanda. He earned the title of Black Panther from his father, T’Chaka, who was murdered by Ulysses Klaw over Wakanda’s stockpile of vibranium (the metal used for Captain America’s shield). The story of Black Panther is a complex and dramatic one, almost Homeric in its tensions and dynamics, and will make an extraordinary edition to the Marvel line-up. It’s expected release date is November 3rd, 2017.
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Short Film: Let’s get this out of the way: The story doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a love story, plain and simple. Well, not so simple. It’s actually the most visually inventive short we’ve reviewed here in a long time (and genuinely almost infuriating its a student film, for how inventive and delightful it is). Everything from its art design to its score fill the heart with joy and delight, indeed, delightful is the perfect word to describe TheLife and Death of Tommy Chaos and Stacy Danger. It’s an utter delight with its quick cuts and cute moments, that feels both universal and personal. Plus, when lines like “he thought of the women he smoked like cigarettes” are so well written they send viewers to google to see if its a literary quote, you know you’ve got a good thing on your hands. The film is a must watch that will fill your heart with joy and a swell of affection for that person in your life you may have drifted from (plus, it will make up for all the disturbing horror shorts from last month).
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