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Notes -
I watched Sinners last night.
It’s a flick about 1930’s vampires set in the American bayou. It’s a black flick. It’s about blackness, being black, black music, black stuff. Very black.
I love black cinema. From Life with Eddie Murphy to exploitation like Sweet Sweetback’s to Don’t Be a Menace to Friday I dunno whatever, even Scary Movie maybe. I’ve seen several dozen of them. They’re all ‘ black ‘ and pretty watchable for anyone. Plus anyone with even a hint of social awareness can watch them just fine.
The movie I’d most compare this to (it’s where my mind went for some reason) is Idlewild - basically OutKast (the musical group) in Atlanta in the 30’s … also very black. I love this movie.
The black characters in all these films are … black. They seem like normal people, just black. Rich black. Poor black. Dumb black. Smart black. Teacher black. Funny black.
I was born in Poland so I e always watched (not enough) a bunch of Polish cinema. Same idea. The Polish characters are Polish characters in a myriad of ways and if you’re Polish then you get it, and if you’re not, you can still be entertained and understand.
Well with Sinners - and even before really over the last few years … it just seems like the blackness is performative. It’s not that I don’t believe Michael B Jordan isn’t black, or that the writer or director don’t know about being black, it’s that I think now they’re starting to act as a fictional black narrative.
Being a 1930’s black man is no longer believable on screen. It was believable in Idlewild. Friday is believable - it’s caricature of course, but believable! I believed Dr Dre … I don’t believe Kendrick Lamar. I believed The Wire … I don’t believe (basically any ‘ black ‘ show I’ve tried to get into lately). I haven’t watched the show Atlanta but I’ve heard good things but mostly from white people, and mostly the writer and actor falls into this land of unbelievability as well.
I think there’s this black (black American) malaise that I can’t describe or catch onto over the last decade or so that makes black entertainers over perform their blackness in a subtle way.
I’ve always felt black Americans are Americans, just black. More recently I feel like they’re trying to be in some way more so.
If I were a pessimist I would say this is part of the ‘ we were kings ‘ meme that has been overloaded into the cultural psyche - if I were an optimist, I’d say it’s a culture trying to find itself and strive for a cohesive core to begin to become something other than ‘ black Americans ‘.
I’m usually optimistic in all respects but I have a lot of negativity towards, in respect to this post, black entertainment. Or at black entertainment that attempts to be mainstream.
I've no intention of watching the film, but I'd recommend this clip of the big bad singing 'Rocky Road to Dublin'. Who knew Irish folk music and vampires would work so well together?
Going to be a top 3 scene of the year.
I thought the movie was mostly pretty ok - but that scene was incredible.
Yeah the movie was a bit of a mixed bag, but that scene was incredible. Spoilers for the movie from here on out.
One of the reasons it was so compelling in my view is the way it subverted my expectations - up until then it had been following a pretty typical 'blacks defiant against cruel whites' blacksploitation narrative, an 'a celebration of black music and culture' narrative, with the only non-black song being the world's creepiest bluegrass rendition of a black song (that was another good scene though). Then they sing the Rocky Road to Dublin. And it starts off sounding a bit freaky like Pick Poor Robin Clean, with the main vampire calling out:
'Then off to reap the corn,
to leave where I was born,
I cut a stout blackthorn,
for to banish ghosts and goblins'
like a funeral dirge - slow and sombre, echoing hauntingly, drawing out words to throw the listener off balance. The tension builds with every second, and you wonder what heinous evil shit these kkk vampires are about to get into... And then the fiddle starts up. And maybe it's my Irish blood, but I found it impossible to not start tapping along with it, it's such a catchy tune. And not only are all of the turned people getting into it, they are enthusiastically getting into it, even Stack and Mary are joyfully singing and dancing along. It changes the entire dynamic of the film - gone is the manichean blacks vs whites narrative that the first act sets up, now things are more complicated. The vampires actually offer a form of salvation - by embracing the NRx philosophy, submitting to a philosopher king, Stack and Mary and co have gained both community and freedom.
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