Change Your Image
bitemeloser145
Reviews
Dark Girls (2011)
This is a documentary I plan on forcing on young people
planktonrules says this is the type of film wishes s/he wishes they could "force children and teens to watch," and I wholeheartedly agree. I *will* be showing this film to my (college-level) literature classes in the near future. My primarily white students need to see this because they desperately need to see and hear people of color (in particular black folk in this film) as complex, deeply human humans, and my students of color need to see people like them/more like them, to hear their voices, recognize themselves, for their experiences to be legitimized on screen.
This film interviews a variety of people--black men, white men, and especially "dark girls" of every complexion and body type, not shying away the uncomfortable and complicated facets of skin color, especially in the US, but also globally.
Hard Candy (2005)
It *is* a red riding hood tale
I don't care what the cast and crew says, more than Haley's outfit was borrowed from "Little Red Riding Hood." The Brothers Grimm included *two* red riding hood tales in their collection. The second was a sequel to the first. In the sequel, Red Riding Hood is on her way to her grandmother's house with another basket of goodies, when she meets another wolf, only this time she isn't fooled. Instead she goes on to grandmother's, and when the wolf shows up, she uses sausage water to lure the wolf into falling off the roof to his death.
If the contrivance of having Jeff hang himself from his roof wasn't a deliberate nod to the Red Riding Hood sequel, than it is a heck of a coincidence. Especially since the movie stars a girl in a red hood, with a bag full of goodies, who uses herself as the sausage water! And since Red Riding Hood is typically interpreted as a tale warning girls against sexual predators, redoing the sequel seems an appropriate vehicle to use to construct a story supposedly inspired by Japanese schoolgirls getting back at sexual predators.
Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2003)
Beautiful, but lacking context
I grew up in the Ozarks, a member of a hillbilly clan buried deep in the hills, and this movie met me homesick. It's a wonderful portrayal of Cracker culture--the pain, the joys, the violence, the lyricism, the misery, the beauty of poor white Southern life. It's a way of life that is largely unknown except through gross caricature. This stunning documentary manages to catch a glimpse at it largely without condemnation, pity, or derision. I must admit, however, it does throw in a hefty dash of Southern Gothic.
As several commenters have pointed out, this is not a complete view of Southern culture, but merely one sliver. I'm not sure that the movie would make that entirely clear to outsiders. Of course the small town (white Pentecostal) South is not "the South." Nevertheless, it is a strand of Southern culture that deserves artistic scrutiny. This documentary is an excellent effort in that direction.