new bidoun

Me, in the new Bidoun on Je Veux Voir, the second feature-length film from Franco-Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. You can read here, but you should buy the magazine.

One of my first favorite movies as a kid.

A look at the American Black Film Festival, held this past weekend.

Making films is hard and making good ones even harder, so the American Black Film Festival, held last weekend in Los Angeles, adheres to the old adage that 90 percent of life is just showing up. To paraphrase a panelist during one of the festival's events, "I've seen Citizen Kane and that shit was boring. What about Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" [full story]

A review of Tropic Thunder in The Root:

First things first: Ben Stiller's new movie Tropic Thunder, is neither as offensive as some feared nor as wry as I had personally (perversely?) hoped. In an age where repetitive, moronic attacks on the dignity of various groups are often met by tactical shows of manufactured outrage, Thunder, with its kitchen-sink jumble of provocations—blackface, Jewface, Southeast Asian stereotypes and the plentiful use of the word "retard"—could have been a memorable identity-related meltdown or a challenging satire on the order of Putney Swope (directed in 1969 by the father of Thunder co-star Robert Downey Jr.).

Instead of providing us with epic success or failure, though, Thunder is just boring and loud. The film is a prime example of the very Hollywood stupidity it pretends to satirize. Although I support the God-given right of any demo, group, segment or coffee-klatch to use their First Amendment privilege to protest against images they find offensive, picketing this expensive pile of "feh" is actually doing it a favor, as "political incorrectness" is Thunder's only selling point.
[full review]

A quick remembrance of Bernie Mac in the Root.

rips Bernie Mac.

50 years old. Keep your insurance up to date, go to the doctor regular, watch your weight, take a walk, all of you.

photo courtesy flickr user mama wolff; used under creative commons license

Me, in The Root on race, space aliens, In Search Of and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull:

How offensive was it compared to the other films? ... Skull has the middling honor of being neither the worst offender in the series (that's No. 2, South Asian horror misfire Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) nor the least. (No. 3, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, takes the dual prize of being the best Indy movie and the least racist.) Thank heavens for small favors, right? [full me]

This story originally appeared in the Village Voice in 1997, issue 41
UNTITLED.

How To Be a Player Directed by Lionel C. Martin

This story originally appeared in the Village Voice in 1996, issue 41.

ASHES AND EMBERS

JOHN SINGLETON GOES TO THE SOUTH TO REBUILD--AND TORCH--A LOST BLACK TOWN

Omega Man NRA

Charlton and Rosalind

i am who be

brock and charlton

Sidney, Harry, Charlton

charlon, james, marlon

brownface touch

brownface switcheroo

the kiss

rips Charlton Heston.

This time, we discuss Tyler Perry, Rev. Wright and the (potential?) end of the chitlin circuit.

I also slip in a direct Alexyss K. Tylor name-check, as well as an encoded/oblique 2Girls1Cup reference. Not a bad day's work.

This article appeared in the Village Voice in 1997

Money Talks
Directed by Brett ratner
Written by Joel Cohen and Alex Sokolow
A New Line Release
Event Horizon
Directed by Paul Anderson
Written by Phillip Eisner
A Paramount Release

reviewed by Gary Dauphin