But as it progresses, we learn that not only are things not as they seem-they’re downright astounding.
TOP GAY MOVIES OF 2018 MOVIE
Shoplifters: Writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda’s devastating drama is on the surface a movie about a Japanese family living on the fringes, amicably free from moral standards. That, in fact, is the purest beauty, and what makes this film such a singular force.
But instead, the movie is about the moments of bliss between black people in love, as well as their impenetrable joy in spite of it all. The romance between Tish (Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James) is poignantly centralized in a story that could so easily be about the world they live in, one filled with racism, mass incarceration, and other forms of oppression that chip away at their humanity. That's at the heart of If Beale Street Could Talk, a film that understands love as an act of resistance in a time of turmoil. Baldwin, as Jenkins himself has proven to be with all his films, was as much a purveyor of truth as he was an advocate for love-particularly black love. And it’s a beautifully written and gorgeous film? That’s just amazing. The fact that writer/director Barry Jenkins had the confidence and talent to adapt this seminal work of James Baldwin, the iconic gay, black author and activist, in a time when we remain as divided as ever on issues of humanity, is an accomplishment in and of itself. It’s a story that doesn’t seek to redeem any of its characters, but rather present each as a necessary commodity for the other in a corrupt world. But even more pointedly, Widows gives its women the authority to effectively overturn those tables for their own monetary benefit and survival.
But because this film so exquisitely deconstructs the very motivations surrounding a heist-greed, power, and politics-through the eyes of women primarily on the margins, black male criminals clamoring for the same influence as their white counterparts, and politicians hell-bent on maintaining control at the expense of everyone else, it becomes a fascinating conversation about who gets to have a seat at which table and why.
Let’s be clear: A heist movie starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Elizabeth Debicki, Daniel Kaluuya, Brian Tyree Henry, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall, directed by Steve McQueen, and co-written by Gillian Flynn would've already had most people’s attentions based on these facts alone. Even in its moments of levity, the movie compels today’s audience-divided by their interpretations of good and bad-to consider what privilege and disenfranchisement look like when they’re no longer defined by our personal perceptions. It brings that contention to the forefront with the confidence that this friendship can remain intact as it is simultaneously interrogated. That’s what makes Blindspotting, the story of Collin and Miles (Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, who also co-wrote the screenplay) so interesting to watch. It’s a prickly line to walk, which is likely why few films bother to go there true friendship is often portrayed as unconditional love and respect between two individuals, even when one is oppressed by the other. Here’s to 2018 and a new beginning.Ĭinematic history boasts many good movies centered on interracial friendships ( Clueless remains undefeated), but few honestly portray the maddening internal conflict of a black man watching his white best friend appropriate the very same actions for which the black man is criminalized. Cinema reminded us that love-both familial and romantic-is our most powerful weapon against hate and utter despair, and it gave us young underdogs-girls clawing their way out of the margins-who stood up and demanded to be counted.Ībove all, films this year made us believe that change is possible and the status quo is moving in the right direction.
Meanwhile, quieter, more personal films urge us to reflect on our own childhood memories-the good and the bad. This year gave us a black superhero paradise and the first successful mainstream film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years, an intersectional group of women challenging a criminal patriarchy, and a dance school coven resurrected from the bowels of hell to wage war against their oppressors. But amid each day's new disaster, a steady and powerful opposition to the film industry's status quo took shape, a resistance against the normalization of racial homogeneity, misogyny, and the oppression of voices too-long silenced. A bevy of apocalyptic headlines-from POTUS' latest tweets to the #MeToo fallout to the exhaustive daily struggle for women’s equality-threatened to completely sink our spirits.