movie comment--american violet *spoiler alert*

this part is from an email i got:
American Violet tells the amazing story of a young, single mother swept up in an unjust, out-of-control drug raid that targets the Black community in a small town in Texas. The film is based on true events and it examines how our country's drug laws and enforcement practices target African-Americans, and how the justice system uses threats and intimidation to steer people towards guilty pleas, regardless of their innocence or the evidence against them.
The film is inspired by the real life story of Regina Kelly, an African-American, single mother of four girls who was arrested in 2000 in a military-style drug raid. The raid resulted in the arrest of nearly 15% of the town's young Black male population for felony cocaine distribution. Kelly was innocent. Her name, along with the names of many others arrested (nearly all African-American), were given to police by a single, highly unreliable informant with personal reasons to antagonize her. Despite Kelly's innocence, she was urged to plead guilty by her family and even her public defender so that she could return to her children and receive a minimal sentence. A felony conviction, however, would have resulted in the loss of her right to vote and the public assistance programs on which her family depended, not to mention the tainting of her personal reputation and her ability to obtain employment. She chose to maintain her plea of not guilty. American Violet tells the story of her fight for justice.

now. for my comment :)
okay, so i loved this movie for a few reasons:

• this is the kind of thing that inspired me to do what i do. fighting the system is a very david and goliath type showdown, which makes it that much sweeter when you win. i hope this movie will inspire other people to pick up their stones and slingshots. . .you don't have to think in victim language.
• in the same vein, i liked this movie because it showed the side of the aclu i like. admittedly, i have a love/hate relationship with the aclu (american civil liberties union). they feel that cases about rights like those at issue here are equal to cases about the kkk's right to freedom of speech/expression--they don't do a balancing act when it comes to the effect of the rights they're protecting. i don't like this because it implies that there are not structural deficiencies in this country's 'rights' system. like all of us have had the same access to our rights for the same amount of time, and like some 'freedom of speech' is nothing more than a terror tactic and actually infringes on other people's rights and is nothing more than oppression itself. . .
  
• it is educational (and coonery free). it talks about an issue that we seem to overlook in our communities. for some reason we are quick to shun those of us who are 'convicted felons' as if we forget how messed up the system is. 90% of the 2.3 million people in jail are there as a result of a plea bargain--meaning they never went to trial and were never found guilty. and you know how easy it is to convince a scared, oppressed, innocent person to plead guilty to something just so they can go home/have a reduced sentence? they are thinking that if they could get arrested and they're innocent, they could also get convicted, apply some pressure and mind games . . .and bingo! instant win for the prosecutor and innocent person's life is forever changed.
• it doesn't glamorize the reality--the evil, racist, inept, vengeful district attorney who was the one causing the problems for this town was re-elected, despite the turnout of this case. it shows that everyone doesn't appreciate justice the way some people do, it shows that there's a reason the status quo exists. we shouldn't be discouraged, we should be appalled and fight harder. . .
• it also showed that there are a lot of factors that go into someone accepting a plea bargain, such as pressure from their families--their families know how to hit where it hurts in terms of persuasiveness, and sometimes that is enough to do away with the little fight the defendant has. this is just another manifestation of the short-sightedness/instant gratification problem that plagues our community a classic dialogue in the movie was (this is me paraphrasing after only seeing it once, sorry. lol):
  

dee: "but momma, didn't you always say the truth shall set you free?"
momma: "girl that's for the afterlife. . .for the here and now you better take that plea"

• it also shows a side of black america that people may have wanted to forget now that our beloved president is in office. this case took place in 2002, but things like this are still happening. i cannot miss this moment to drive home the fact that "the dream" has not been realized just bc we have a black first family. the reality for too many people is that their communities are suffering from institutional, pervasive racism. poor black people are still targets. and contrary to what tyler perry may lead to you believe, a good man, some preaching and violent gestures from a man in a dress don't solve all the problems black women face. . .

and it wouldn't be me if i didn't add some of my random observations:

• why did the black attorney spend most of the movie looking like a scared run away slave?? i was too through with him. it's a good thing he redeemed himself at the end :)
• i ♥ alfre woodard as a mother. i mean, she is great as a sanaa lathan mommy, but i just love her in any role where she gets to get a mommy attitude with her daughter. lol
• the main actress was such a good casting decision. she was touching and convincing. i hope we get to see more of her (hopefully in a movie where she can wear cuter clothes)
  
• and of course i loved the little girls, they were so cute and that oldest one was super convincing too (and did a good job of showing who suffers the most from these kinds of things)
• exzibit (sp?) as an actor. . .hmmm. he did pretty well. i'm not sure how much of a stretch the character was for him. maybe he was just that good that it seemed natural (glad he got rid of the cornrows tho. lol)
  

anyway, please please see this movie. it is so worth your support. be prepared to woosah (i had my fists clinched a few times), but also be prepared to have a paradigm shift if this is your first real exposure to this issue. oh, and bc i went to the movie with a non lawyer i know that there may be a vocabulary lesson in store for some of you. lol

movie comment: cadillac records

k. so i saw the movie. . .
i was so impressed! i guess because i didn't expect it to be good (i actually cringed in anticipation of beyonce's first line when she came on the scene) but i really liked it! adrian brody was great. the surprise (to me) appearance of cedric the entertainer is always welcome. jeffrey wright was (and is always) great--you can tell he really studied muddy waters! beyonce held her own--they made her sing more than they let her talk, but when she was talking, she got over that tendency she has to sound like she's reading. you can tell she really tried to channel the emotions of each scene. although i have to say, beyonce is and always will be beyonce. her 'people' have put us on so much beyonce overload that she will never be able to transcend her beyonce-ness the way jamie foxx was able to stop being jamie foxx and actually become ray charles. when i look at her, i see beyonce--no matter how many etta mannerisms she studied and adopted. which kinda sucks for any potential acting career she may have wanted. sorry b!
anyway, i really liked it and was intrigued bc i only knew a little about these people--muddy waters, chuck berry, etta james are people i know to respect but didn't know their stories (to my credit, i do have 2 etta james songs on my ipod). and i hadn't even heard of little walter (who knew columbus short was that cute??) or howlin' wolf. it was a very entertaining movie. i barely got the wiggles that i get whenever i see a movie in the theater (i have always had an issue with doing nothing but sitting and staring at a screen for 2 + hours). it was a learning experience for me!
in order to enjoy this movie, you have to realize what it is and what it isn't. it is the story of the rise and peak of cadillac/chess records. it isn't the etta james story, the leonard chess story, the chuck berry story, etc. it isn't a story about the time period that all this was happening in. so you will be left wanting more context and more details about the lives of these individuals. you only learn enough about them to either know their contribution to the label, their motivations, their weaknesses/tragic story, and maybe their downfall if it occured at the same time as the peak of the label. they couldn't fit everyone's story in that short timespan, but it was great for telling the story it was trying to tell. i also think i just love the feel of the music from that time period, it made me want to have the soundtrack and an etta james album by the time it was all over with. the bf says it was too much of a musical not to be a musical. . .i think you couldn't tell the story without the music, but that doesn't necessarily mean it had to be a musical! idk, maybe i liked it bc i didn't expect much, but i definitely liked it. you have to go see it. . .even if you don't love it, you won't hate it.
this, ladies and gentlemen, is the history of rock and roll. . .

ps- pay very close attention to your ticket. they are doing that thing again where they don't give the movie its sales--my mom's ticket was for the transporter movie, or something like that.

movie comment: the secret life of bees *spoiler alert*

i had the privilege of seeing this with some of my faves on its opening weekend. i give it two thumbs up!
i love movies with strong black women, i have liked dakota fanning since she was little, and i like movies that weave in history and, of course, civil rights. so this was a win-win for me. i also like movies that don't spoonfeed you every thought--i like being able to infer character motivations and letting emotions fill in blanks--everything need not be explicitly stated.
random thoughts:

• i think they should have had 'honey' by erykah badu in this movie--all i could think of when a. keys and her boo were on screen was 'i'm in love with a bumble bee. . .' someone should have made that connection! or maybe they did and erykah was too busy being strange to approve
• that wig they had on alicia was *not* the business. that girl has never been that close to that many naps in her whole life!
• the suicide scene was so. . .extra. i did not need to see the rock on her chest. i was already appalled enough at the idea that this movie that i expected to be about bees and flowers and happy stuff was trying to make me cry! spare me the gruesomeness! at most i was expecting someone to get stung by a bee--at MOST.
  
• and tho i was too stubbornly mad at the movie for trying to make me cry to let any tears actually fall, i have to say that it was a tough fight when little dakota broke down crying and talking about how she was unloveable--you could just *feel* the pain. how does a little girl get that good at acting at such a young age??
• i really wanted to see a roach follow marshmallows and graham crackers outside. . .
• is there really such thing as purple honey? i need some. . .
• i wanted to know more about the mean ol' daddy. . .i wanted to be able to feel sorry for him.
• did dakota ever get to wear the dress may was making? it was almost done. . .relatedly, where did she get all those clothes she *was* wearing?? all that didn't fit in that little bag!

*update: my super observant friends have pointed out that she was wearing the dress at the end of the movie. i guess these are the kinds of things you miss when you're distracted by wondering whether this girl is worth that little black boy risking his life--i mean, we love her, but i was a little torn.*

• do people who don't get married because they love themselves/their freedom more than their mate ever regret it?

anyway, i think at least all black people should go out and support this movie--it's coonery free!