Linkables
Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 5:00PM Pajiba the highest grossing modern movie stars who've never made a sequel - interesting that there are so many!
The Wrap Chris McQuarrie to direct Mission: Impossible V. It'll be tough to follow Ghost Protocol so good luck
Art of the Title looks at neon Spring Breakers
Gold Standard Harry Hamlin on his Emmy nomination for Mad Men
Towleroad Spike Lee speaks about charges that he's homophobic based on his movies
Twitch Harvey Scissorhands is back! He wants 20 minutes cut from Snowpiercer. Hey, as long as they aren't Tilda Swinton's scenes...
Salon takes Jay-Z to task for disrespecting Harry Belafonte and asks that hip hop's political sensibilities grow up a little
My New Plaid Pants Dominic Cooper posing for his life
i09 'Break the glass, Sam Rockwell, Break the glass!' He may be joining the new Poltergeist movie
Film Dr 10 shallow pleasures of 2 Guns
Cinema Blend on the generic-looking boxy head poster for Don Jon... undoubtedly a tough movie to sell... though I'm not sure I follow the assertion that the midwest can't relate to porn addictions. LOL. Speaking of the internet (and thus the world's) porn addictions...
Boy Culture have you seen this Ryan Gosling strip scene from The Place Beyond the Pines that's making the rounds? Gosling's disgust at being asked to strip in the clip is his rebuke to the internet pervily watching it!
Reader Comments (16)
Washington may have not participated in any sequel, but lately all his movies look exactly the same to me.
Was expecting a strip-search in Gosling's clip. Disappointed.
Nothing to do with these snips..
Meryl Streep and Robert deNiro set to make The Good House together...........
This entire Jay-Z/Belafonte feud and all of the rhetoric surrounding it has gotten on my last nerve. Jay-Z is a grown man who can do with his fame, money, and influence whatever he chooses. He has no more an obligation to enact social change than another other everday Joe.Furthermore, if we "lay people" are going to begin putting such a demand on our entertainers, then we better darn sure be doing all we can to be agents of change in our own spheres of influence. Some people who grow up with the desire to be in show business have only that aspirarion, and to that end I say good for them. Not everyone is comfortable in the role of activist. I personally feel that as long as he isn't actively working against the interests of anyone who hurting anyone else, leave him be.
As for the matter of his referring to Belafonte as "boy," that's another discussion.
I'm with Troy above on this Jay Z / Belafonte issue.
That Salon article befuddles me somewhat. I'm not sure what the author is trying to accuse Jay Z of. As Troy says Jay Z is a grown man who can and should do with his money as he wishes, and I've always been uncertain as to feeling that all celebrities owe a civic duty to society above and beyond a layman. But, even apart from that I think it's disingenuous to accuse Jay Z of express passivity in race issues. I mean, naturally, he feels affronted by Belafonte calling him out (in his belief, unjustly) the song is a response and not particularly inflammatory one at that. Curiously, the piece omits the line immediately following where he asks, "Hublot homie, two door homie
You don't know all the shit I do for the homies."
I mean, I get that Belafonte is a legend - artistically, and racially and one whom I have profound appreciation for, - but I'm incredibly sceptical when modern day artists are castigated on end for not revering the past enough. This particular situation especially makes me just the slightest bit queasy because where is this cry for present day celebs to do their duties in other art forms that are not hip-hop music?
Streep is the only woman the make the list.
Coincidentally, that Pajiba write up serves as a somewhat appropriate companion piece to the Buzzfeed feature I read earlier this week that calls Denzel one of Hollywood's only remaining bankable male movie stars (http://bzfd.it/16m3y14).
Andrew -- hmmm. i see this outcry for celebs to be activists outside of race. Certainly gay actors are judged harshly for not speaking out.
Troy & Andrew -- really? you think nobody has a responsibility other than to do what they feel like doing? I think that is kind of a sad state if we don't expect more from the very fortunate. I know rich people who are not philanthropists and just hoard all their money for their own families and themselves bug the shit out of me. (i'm not saying Jay-z is one of those people. just saying those people exist and they bug the shit out of me. it's a selfish way to be).... It's kind of like the spider-man movies: 'with great power comes great responsibility' but then i'm about as left wing as it gets and believe capitalism and the "every man for himself" mythos -- which is usually attached to "i earned this money. it's mine!" self-hype that conveniently ignores the system being stacked in favor of the wealthy to redistribute wealth upward, is troubling and not very good for the soul.
But, Nathaniel there's a pronounced difference between being a selfish hoarder and being a loud activist with your money. I'm all for altruism, but I don't think it's expressly selfish if someone - celebrity, or no celebrity - does not want to be an activist or does not want to contribute to society above and beyond regular means (taxes, kindness to neighbours, etc). Then, altruism can happen without activism, and of course there's the consideration that if no one is active then everything falls, but regardless I think the "If you're not making pervasive ripples in activism for your marginalised race/gender/sexuality (good call on pointing out the same thing with gay actors)" is one that mildly disturbs me.
I'm willing to accede that Harry/Jay have issues of their own worth discussing but the salon piece is arguing that Jay is stuck in a presentist culture where just showing up is enough but then becomes mired by not pointing out what the specifics of that alternative and then attaching that to a lack of sensitivity/awareness of how racially troubled the world is re Trayvon Martin is just coming off to me as generally icky. Showing up isn't everything, I hear that, but I'm still not completely on board with her argument. But then it reminds me of the question of whether actors who make much money owe the public their celebrity, too. I say no, some say otherwise.
(Potential for good conversation in the situation, perhaps, but that Salon piece is rubbing me way wrong on it.)
My main problem with this type of calling out is that it assumes that we have the kind of access to celebrities that affords us the knowledge of everything they do, which is far from true -- especially in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Carter, who keep their personal lives shrouded in secrecy. Therefore, to criticize any of them for not doing enough in the way of social activism or philanthropy (and by whose standards?) shows both haughtiness and ignorance.
In a more specific sense, this beef unsettles me most, particularly on the heels of the Martin/Zimmerman case, because in singling out Jay-Z Belafonte actually indicts all of hip-hop culture for how young black are perceived. It's the same tired argument that puts all of the onus on young black men to behave in a certain way in order to make white people feel comfortable around them while absolving those same close-minded white people of their responsibility to free themselves of their prejudices. Of course, Belafonte didn't forthrightly say that, but when one considers the timing of his remarks, the implication for me is there and stinks of nefarious racial politics. Why didn't he name Will Smith, for instance?
Jay Z is populist and his image trajectory has been like a lot of rappers when they get older. Only a fool would call him a 'gangsta' and a 'thug' now and Jay-Z took full control of changing that image into something more mainstream and easier to digest.
The Belafonte stuff is not new in the context of calling out modern hip-hop (when a lot of hip-hop was conspicuous consumption in a post-East Coast vs. West Coat rap wars and post-Michael Jordan popular culture) and in the context of Belafonte calling out the status quo. HB is not only of a different generation but among his peers he always spoke the most radical rhetoric although that very good documentary on him showed he was sincere and certainly not alone in walking the walk and talking the talk. He has always been more than his catchy tunes and I would say Jay deciding to play that card of him being an old, crazy man who sang goofy songs (songs that heavily appealed to a white audience) was not taking the high-road.
Belafonte can not really be indicting all of hip-hop culture because there are still quite a bit of hip-hop culture that still is about social conscience. I doubt when he hits on Jay-Z that Belafonte also hits on Common, Chuck D, and Talib Kweli. Will Smith has always been called out as being too family-friendly and acting a certain way when was still active in rap.
Belafonte should not be confused with Bill Cosby's general comments a few years ago on the black community (that got way more scorn and push-back, which is a whole other topic) or even Don Lemon's ridiculously out of date advice on the politics of respectability to the black community. This is not about Belafonte calling out private citizens but demanding that the private citizens, in this case Jay, become a public figure beyond corporate branding. Belafonte is not talking the politics of respectability but social justice.
I like plenty of hip-hop sans a major social/political conscience (I love The Beastie Boys and they are not exactly the rap version of The Clash, although the late MCA's passion for Buddhism and Tibet made it in a few tracks) but I am not really impressed with Jay publicly dealing with instances of where non-rappers, be it HB or Spike Lee, call him out on things. He should not be the only person to answer those questions but he was not the first to get those questions either. At this stage, he should know a little better.
Mr. Gosling should have a stripping scene in every movie.
CMG: In the midst of the Martin/Zimmerman case I came across a few comments and op-eds from black public figures (Lemon and Romany Malco among them) whose idea of activism included rallying the black community to compel a shift in the way our young men dress, speak, and socialize with each other as a means of fostering social change, so I may have hastily -- thus erroneously -- lumped in Belanfonte with that group in my annoyance. However, I'd still be interested in knowing why he named Jay-Z individually and what he thinks the rapper should be doing.
Meryl Streep in talks to join Jeff Bridges in The Giver ...
Thanks for the link, Nathaniel. Looking forward to your Shadow of a Doubt discussion of Hit Me With Your Best Shot. It seems to me that the obvious best shot in that film occurs when Uncle Charlie looks back at his cousin tightly framed below in the doorway. That film kept finding ways to remind me of Notorious and Psycho.
Troy H.- Yeah that was my only real objection. Belafonte had plenty of opportunities to make that comment over the years and never did and is not in a too outdated mode calling for the politics of responsibility. Belafonte wants marches and discussions and public engagements, not ordering and decreeing what needs to be done by all. He wants a movement but he wants there to be a vanguard to step up as leaders.
Frankly, it annoys me when the black community gets tagged with the politics of responsibility having dress code as a solution. When I see demonstration and rally footage from the 60s and 70s, the protest movements that had the most rank clothing displays were the hippies and yippies and the civil rights movement had everybody in suits. Even the black power movement were fashioned to the nines. I liked that a lot of places after the Lemon comments did a bit of spoof on the whole politics of respectability by pointing out 'white rioting' and turning the tables.
Jay-Z was named because he is the most popular, at least in my opinion. Kanye is also popular but his whole relationship with going political is complicated, and I mean way beyond the 'George Bush hates black people' moment.
Nathaniel: Spike Jonze never disappoints:
HER trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS8zOLOcPMQ