"I Am Not Your Negro" the song remains the same

I Am Not Your Negro

“The story of the negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” And you only need seconds to realize this is not going to be an average, entertaining yet easily forgettable movie. By no means.

‘I Am Not Your Negro’ is based on ‘Remember This House’, an unfinished project the GREAT James Baldwin began in 1979, where he wanted to trace a personal journey & account of the lives and murders of three beloved friends of him and fundamental African-American civil rights activists (and political leaders & social icons) Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Unfortunately, when the masterful writer died in 1987 the manuscript was still merely started (only thirty completed pages). Luckily, filmmaker Raoul Peck found there was a story to be told, to be completed. A story so important and powerful today as it was when Baldwin envisioned his work.

‘I Am Not Your Negro’ is a fascinating piece from every point of view. First, as a documentary itself, it’s just surprising how much, considering the little stuff Peck had initially, there’s to say. It’s not really the somewhat expected historical reconstruction, rich on archival material, but the ability of the director to grasp and build the connections within the film and propel it into today. From slavery to John Wayne or Doris Day movies (oh, the lies we told kids that become fantasies that become political slogans that turn into idiotic policies, now let’s build a wall). From criminally offensive advertising and insufferable injustice to Martin, Malcolm and Medgar to Watts riots. From ultra-dumb reality shows to the latest Ferguson riots caused by the despicable police violence. Here’s why #BlackLivesMatter. ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ examines race relations in a very scary country. Because what this film shows is that America really stands for doesn’t have much to do with the "land of the free", but with the "kingdom of fear" forged by white Middle America. You know the guy who now runs the oval office? Enough said...

Second, because of its starring, involuntary main character. It’s Baldwin’s figure, powerful and delicate, pessimistic and hurt, even broken (the TV interviews reveal a human being so passionate and afflicted it is absolutely compelling), but always bright and lucid, who steals the show. And, needless to say, his words, hauntingly performed (not just spoken) by Samuel L. Jackson in the film, both his writings as well as the fragments of the aforementioned interviews, are not just the brilliant account of his times and the struggles suffered during the country ancient & recent past by a essential part of America’s population, cornered, left behind, oppressed and humiliated by their fellow Americans. They are, sadly, prophetic, revealing, enduring. The wounds are still open and bleeding.

‘I Am Not Your Negro’ is not an easy film. Obviously because of the subject addressed. But also because Peck/Baldwin have things to show and say, and they are keen to sacrifice the rhythm sometimes, as well as, more importantly, they are willing to respect the viewer, not treating her/him as someone stupid that needs everything to be highlighted and pointed out. Instead, a Sidney Poitier classic film can say so much, a meeting with Bob Kennedy can be such a slap in the face for the white (frequently liberal) hypocrisy, making the documentary a movie that goes beyond racism, to talk about the nature and perverse mechanisms of power: win, dominate, maintain the privilege by convincing, creating the mindset you are always the “good guy”. As an European, it makes you think immediately on how the EU is shamefully behaving with the refugee crisis, or how we deal with inmigration at home.

There’s also confusion and fear on the black movement side. Who was the president during the arise of #BlackLivesMatter? And Baldwin himself has real fear, he feels and sees himself as an outsider, and all the clarity he has in his speeches and discourses turns into vulnerability when considering his position (the “accepted” intellectual, the power of the radical but maybe not-so-radical TV-goer). Couldn’t be any other way? Things are really complicated. The task is titanic, challenging, defying. As ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ is. Striking must-watch.

SCORE: 8,5/10

"A Writer's Life", a journalistic mess

A Writer's Life- Gay Talese

As much as I believe Gay Talese's prose is masterful and his ability to find and chronicle a story is unparalelled, I'm afraid to say that with "A Writer's Life" this amazing journalist has descended to Earth, revealing us the worst of his art, offering us a book that, contrary to "Honor Thy Father" or "Portraits and Encounters", amazingly absorbing reads, is quite mundane, even tedious to follow at times.

And that's a shame, because it could have worked. "A Writer's Life" aims to be a memoir of a veteran journalist looking back to some of his "adventures". But there’s very little of his personal life, and the book quickly evolves into something else, an unexpected account of Talese's failures, his shortcomings to find a story that his bosses would die to put in paper, or his inability to close his latest book. That could have been challenging and exciting, such a gifted writer showing us how hard it is to "wait for the click", as The National would say on personal favouite "City Middle".

But with few exceptions, this book is not capable of transmitting that doubt, weakness, lack of luck, bad timing or writer's block when facing a potentially good story. And it's because -and that's tough for me to say, as I admire Talese so much- of the author's ego and his self-indulgence. Instead Talese offers a monumental digression of 600 pages where he recapitulates and reworks pieces and bits of previous, unfinished or left behind stories, adding personal notes or wikipedia-like-facts. It's arbitrary, and despite at the end everything seems to connect, it's incoherent as a whole. As a book, it's simply weak. Again sorry to put my thoughts in words, but I believe this is just a packed compilation of material to fulfill a contract.

There are horrible passages. In particular I couldn't go on with the whole story of the restaurants, so pointless even Talese is incapable of not much more of accumulating notes for almost three decades -just a bunch of pages finished by 1999-. Others are much interesting, like the one in Selma regarding civil rights and liberties of the Afro-American people, the Lorena Bobbit trial or the one about the Chinese player Liu Ying. But this latest story is a clear example of the serious problem this book has with its structure. Talese clearly didn't think much about order his account of failed stories, so the trip to China appears quite early on the book, then vanishes for hundreds and hundreds of pages just to reappear at the very end. The effect is quite strange, to say the least.

Even masters can fail.

SCORE: 4,75/10

And now Bankia... #Rescateciudadano now!

Enough should be enough. Until when our Spanish government is going to keep the financial spoliation? While our ruling conservative party keeps the drastic cuts on health services and education they prepare an estimate 7-10 billions state bail-out of the disastrous corporation Bankia. The rescue of the trouble lender is another reversal of policy, as the government previously announced there were no intentions of additional rescues to clean the country's banking sector, and the best practical example we, Spanish citizens, are being used, exploited to save their political friends, unsurprisingly, the big fortunes of this corrupt and miserable country.

By the way, if you didn't know, Rodrigo Rato, the executive chairman of Bankia has just resigned from the bank (with a compensation of 1,2 million euros, not band for being such a robber). You'll probably know him, he was the "very intelligent, economic expert" that leaded the International Monetary Fund just before the financial crisis started. Did you know what he do then? Resign, of course, he ran before the ship sunk. Oh, and just a "minor" date for your records: the government has already spent €18bn cleaning up the country's financial sector.

First the drastic measures destroying our welfare state, then the first injection of money for the banks, later the "amnesty" for the fraudsters fortunes evading taxes. Police violence on the streets, even against kids demanding better conditions at their schools. Spreading corruption everywhere. And now this....Our government doesn't represent us, citizens. They are just the puppets of the market. That's enough. We need a citizen rescue from the villains that have kidnapped our democracy. See you this weekend in the streets!

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.… where the State places those who are not with her, but against her,– the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.… Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight [...] If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. 

Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government)

#12M15M
#Rescateciudadano

"The Help", Oscars bound Disney's tale on racism

The Help

The problem with movies like "The Help" is that time has taken a toll on them. Luckily. Thanks mainly to the actors performances, its a recommendable film to watch, wtih a few elements worth to highlight. But it wants to please everyone so desperately it almost looses the point, that is, the story. Which was, as we all know, very far from this Hollywoodesque tale.

"The Help" is a curious mixture of tones and styles. It tries to add a new take on a subject already seen, but some combinations seems odd and too forced. Visually, and initially shocking, it all looks like a 50's Douglas Sirk movie. Very soon we realize, its not a matter of aesthetics, director Tate Taylor is not only trying to recreate a very particular Jackson, Mississipi, but uses the same treatment for characters. At least for "white" characters. An army of barbie-dolls, with the extreme caricature of Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly. The evil witch of Disney's movies, materialised into the self-proclaimed leader of a flesh and blood bunch of housewives. This might be an original perspective for a very sensitive material, but I'm afraid Taylor uses only to approach racism in a very lightweight way. Something that seriously harms the film.

Because the mixture between comedy and social drama doesn't always work. I know, not every film has to be as plaintive and sharp (and absorbing) as Spike Lee's "Bamboozled", or violence doesn't have the main issue, as "Mississipi Burning", but "The Help" decides to hide almost hide it, and when the threat, in the sense of a domestic threat between housewife and maid has to explode, it is done in a comic way. Wasting an actress like Sissy Spacek for a couple of fun scenes is a shame. It also doesn't help this is a female movie. Male characters are just sketches (some of them are not even on screen), which is an ok decision... except for the fact this film intends to portray Southern societies in a time of changes, so it is an obviously incomplete picture.

  

Fortunately, as I said, there are elements to enjoy and praise on "The Help". Acting gives the film a much needed impulse in order to not become an indigestible TVMovie. Viola Davis is strikingly good in her role as Aibileen Clark. She is almost the only depth character in the film, and she does wonders with it, sometimes condensed in just a facial expression. She represents the difficult, slow change/then rebellion against an unacceptable system. Linked to her is of course Skeeter's character, also convincingly portrayed by Emma Stone. I praise director Taylor for shifting the focus from the usual white, compassionate, heroic "WASP"  it seemed to be, replacing it for a credible, confused young woman unhappy with her Southern environment, becoming the vehicle of expression of the real, meaning character. The awakening of a collective, finally making their voice heard. Of course, a worthy mention has to be made about also to Oscar winner's Octavia Spencer in her role as Minny, funny counterpoint, that shines every second she's on screen. Allison Janney and Jessica Chastain ("The Tree of Life"), as Skeeter's mother (although in my opinion she's grossly "saved" to line up along the "good ones") and Celia Foote, deserves some recognition for their work. 

"The Help" has too many issues to be even considered an unforgettable movie. On purpose, everything is settled to remain in the mild margins of the real story. It's entertaining, and thanks to the acting, mostly enjoyable (luckily there's no Whoopi Goldberg here), but tries too hard not to offend anybody, finally becoming inoffensive.

SCORE: 6/10