Thursday, June 3, 2010
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Thursday, June 3, 2010
POPCORN
OBSERVATIONS
Is "Sex And The City 2" A
Very Different
Kind Of Minstrel Show?
A Fendi Too Far: Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin
Davis in "Sex And The City 2". Warner
Brothers
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Thursday, June
3, 2010
Is the question above inappropriate? Ridiculous? Insulting?
Unfair?
All of the above?
For when one thinks minstrel shows in the U.S., one generally thinks of the material
satirized in Spike Lee's 2000 film
"Bamboozled".
Or the shows depicted by early 20th century
black artists like Mantan Moreland, Stepin Fetchit, Bert Williams. The
1950s radio and television show
"Amos 'N Andy". The blackface routines or skits by Al
Jolson, Bing Crosby, Max Bygraves, Eddie Cantor and in many Hollywood films of
the last century. Or anything on
BBC
TV's "Black And White Minstrel Show", which aired until 1978 in England.
It's a risky enterprise to compare or analogize these variables, but "Sex And
The City 2" is obviously not a minstrel show.
It is however, a rancid, hideously
offensive film. Offensive to Muslims and Middle-Easterners at large,
offensive to gays and women. That the film has a cast of leading ladies
has little, if anything (for me) to do with the venom aimed its way.
It's just a mean movie. Period.
"This is the most awkward movie I have ever seen," said my fiancée, whom I took
(or rather, she took me) to a recent weekend evening showing of Michael Patrick King's
second epic-length "Sex" episode. She made the comment halfway
through the near-two-and-a half-hour film, which includes such lines as, "could
this wedding get any gayer?" (Cue Liza Minnelli, in an uncomfortable,
exhausting and insulting routine that overstays its welcome almost immediately.)
The film's Samantha Jones character isn't funny at all in this go-round.
She's ugly, desperate, self-loathing and whorish. ("Lawrence of my
labia!", she declares at one point.) Ms. Jones says every nasty thing
except call herself a talking vagina on high heels. She's the hackneyed
punch line to many of the film's most offensive "jokes".
Kim Cattrall, the Liverpool-born lady who plays Samantha Jones, is greatly
talented, and if your local theater is still showing
"The Ghost Writer", you'd be well-advised to see Ms. Cattrall's fine work in
an infinitely better film, Polanski or no Polanski.
I had already seen "Sex And The City 2" early last week for review, politely
hailing it as a film
that desperately needed to get laid.
Many
film critics in the U.S. lambasted Mr. King's film in reviews, with both
male
and
female critics disliking it
in comparable numbers. This is shown in reviewer scores on Metacritic.com
that
told the story, with "Sex And The City 2" among the three lowest scores for
major Hollywood films in 2010. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times in a
story yesterday
observed that on Rotten Tomatoes, the Carrie Bradshaw-led sequel scored a
putrid 9% among top critics.
Last week on Twitter one post compared the effect SATC2 had for women to the
effect "Birth Of A Nation" had for blacks. (I'd respectfully disagree with
the analogy for reasons too numerous for this piece, but the comment indicates
that the New Line/HBO film sequel has clearly hit a nerve.) On June 1 the
Twitter handle @WhySATC2sucks was
born, and already there have been some choice comments.
"Sex And The City 2", a satire, hammers women, depicting them as shallow,
avarice-ridden, jewelry-craving, materialistic trollop-like fem-bots who may
memorize fashion designer labels better than their social security numbers.
Furthermore, Mr. King's film is deeply at odds with the economic moment, and its
characters contradict themselves. In one scene Miranda quits her attorney
job. (Many of my attorney colleagues have suffered layoffs in this brutal
recession, as have many law firms fallen prey to attrition.) Thanks to
movie magic (or illogic) Miranda lands at another job very quickly. Later,
she and another member of this quick-quipping quartet remark about how tough
things are for them as mothers, even as both have help.
Speaking of contradictions, the New York City that Miranda, Carrie, Samantha and
Charlotte inhabit is a fantasy or an exclusion. In the most diverse city
on Earth, we see very few blacks, Latinos or anyone else. (In the film we
see as many blacks in Connecticut and Abu Dhabi combined as we do in the Big
Apple, if not more.)
For a casting makeover, "Sex And The City 3" should have Donald Trump as Mr.
Big, Brad Pitt as Aiden, Jennifer Aniston as Carrie, Bai Ling as Samantha,
Angelina Jolie as Charlotte and Julianne Moore as Miranda. Special
appearances should be made by Alfre Woodard and Denzel
Washington as school teachers of Charlotte's numerous children (Ms. Jolie's
real-life kids), with Jennifer Lopez as a stock market analyst who tries to
repair a previous Manhattan engagement that went wrong. If all else fails,
Queen Latifah, just perfect in the far-from-perfect
"Just Wright", could be Charlotte.
Anybody in?
After seeing Mr. King's film a second time I couldn't help thinking about or
tweeting
this question,
to which the answer would most likely be "no" -- though I received
dissenting comments from several corners.
The other huge issue with "Sex And The City 2" is the catalog of offenses and
flagrant arrogance hurled at the Middle East -- specifically Muslims in Abu
Dhabi -- which is deeply troubling. Some of the characters' churlish,
patronizing and condescending behavior towards the people of the region are
grotesque, racist and insensitive, almost completely oblivious to respecting
religious custom. Just for the record: there's zero empowerment in
American women brandishing contraceptives at Middle Eastern men, just as there's
no empowerment in women (in places like Saudi Arabia) who aren't allowed by law
to drive, thanks to the patriarchal society in which they live.
And even if women wearing burkhas do wear fashion clothing underneath their
black garments in the Middle East, in Mr. King's film this moment of revelation
is used specifically to make a point about materialistic parity with the
unflattering and ugly, upbraiding American women. A "new Middle East"
indeed.
Like some of its fashions, "Sex And The City 2" wears its faux feminism well,
although there is one line from Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) that is true: "Men in
the U.S. would like to see women eating French fries under a veil." Each
time the film tries to mine in deeper terrain with lines and/or episodes like
that, it climbs away and escapes to a safety zone, afraid of its potential to
shake itself up and go the extra mile.
Not undone by any stretch, "Sex And The City 2" has many resolute and admirable
defenders, including a select few passionately supporting "Sex".
Melissa Silverstein of the blog Women and Hollywood
cited poor word of mouth among women and the film's release on a holiday weekend
as big casualties for "Sex And The City 2" and its relatively lukewarm showing,
although it is worth noting, as Ms. Silverstein does, that the male-oriented
"Prince Of Persia" floundered in its opening last weekend. Still, more
women spent time taking their children to see "Shrek
Forever After (3D)" over the Memorial Day weekend than viewed "Sex And The
City 2", and during the weekend showing I attended with my fiancée I observed
two walkouts -- both women -- who never returned.
Comedian
Billy Eichner hilariously trumpeted his love for the four Manhattan ladies
in the new film, doing an ambush-style man-on-the-street bit. There are
many others who support the film, adore it, in addition to many gays and a
sizable number of young women. Perhaps New Line (now subsumed by Warner
Brothers) could have consulted Mr. Eichner for marketing advice.
The showing that we saw (in a half-empty theater
that had 29 showings of the film in a
24-hour period) last Saturday night was populated mainly by female
20-somethings dressed as their on screen material idols, the way Star Wars fan boys dress like
Darth and Luke.
When Carrie kisses an ex-boyfriend, one of these women cheered loudly,
applauding with all the gusto of a Lottery winner.
Do young women really believe that self-absorbed materialism and consumerism in
an economy like this or at anytime is something to look up to and idolize?
(Young men who champion "belt-notching" jock whores, toilet-humored knuckleheads
or gun-toting "gangsta" rappers also shouldn't possibly expect to think that
idolizing such objectionable figures is honorable, either.)
Lest anyone believe "Sex And The City 2" is being unfairly piled on, there have
been three other
horrendously awful films this year, both in content and formula, that have been
flogged with as much vigor and alacrity as Mr. King's film has.
"Cop Out", a lazy, pathetic, mish-mash of unfunny rehearsal sketches
gone off the deep end,
featured Tracy Morgan doing some of his best minstrel show imitations.
"Our Family Wedding" was a non-stop caricature
and cartoon trying hard to maneuver into
minstrel show territory. "The Bounty Hunter"
was sickening and degrading enough and disturbing all the more because it was
written by a woman. There are many things in that last film that are as
bad or insulting as what lurks in Mr. King's movie and its empty-headed,
me-and-only-me it-girls.
I'd say unequivocally that "Sex And The City 2" as an experience is not nearly
as uncomfortable or deplorable as Ted Danson's blackface horror with Whoopi
Goldberg at the Friars Club
in New York City in 1993, but it's a film that limbos below the bar to new
and unchartered depths for gal-pal comedies. While last year's smash hit
"The Hangover" was no paragon of perfection, it
was sublimely entertaining and hilariously out of control, making repeat viewers
of both sexes. A sequel is on the way next Memorial Day. And like
the next SATC, the jury will be out.
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