>Yall made me post on my vacation. I'm type mad, god.
>
>
>Let Orbit 'splain the 'She Hate Me' hate:
>
>You see, the problem with 'SHM' lays in an awkward double
>standard we all carry in regards to black directors and black
>films.
>
>You see, we tend not to like when black filmmakers go "outside
>the box" and create work that is out of the norm,
>unconventional, or obtuse.
>
>This is retarded because we routinely pardon, if not outright
>laud, similar work from white filmakers, all the time.
>
>That is why Spike Lee's most respected works, all fabulous
>films, are all films that hit their issues SQUARELY on the
>nose -- 'Do The Right Thing', 'Malcom X' and a host of others.
>Spike Lee started to suffer with the critics the second his
>films started to push the envelope, the second he tried to
>experiment a little bit, which is a natural progression for
>any artist.
>
>Among his most inconsistently and poorly reviewed films are:
>
>'Get on the Bus' -- A film that is a metaphor for black
>manhood, where every instrument and individual is symbollic in
>some fashion. This was relatively unprecedented for black
>filmmakers and especially for Spike Lee, and so critics pasted
>it. This is despite the fact that the film is well...fucking
>brilliant.
>
>'Summer of Sam' - In my top 5 Spike Lee joints ever.
>Absolutely brilliant. Problem was, white people and their
>black friends don't like the idea of Spike Lee, Mr."Race movie
>director" actually directing a movie where race is not the
>centerpiece of the film....it bugged them.
>
>Hating ass negroes pasted 'Summer of Sam' with:
>
>"who he think he is"
>
>"stick to what you do best"
>
>"What the hell is Spike doing trying to direct horror?"
>
>And others in this brand of lame-o criticisms, criticisms that
>are completely unfair, given that no one says anything similar
>when Spielberg makes his periodic piles of shit(see:Minority
>Report, AI, The Flinstones...many others).
>
>When Spielberg and company make bad films...we simply say:
>"Steven, you made a bad film."
>
>When Spike makes a film that we don't like, not only do we
>say:
>"Spike, you made a bad film"
>
>We say:
>"Spike...what are you trying to do?....Spike has lost
>it....."
>
>This explains the 'Bamboozled' debacle.
>
>Though 'Bamboozled' attacked its race issues head on, it did
>so in a decidely unconvential matter...awkward plot, awkward
>development and storyline. I dug it, thought it was cool and
>profound in its own way.
>
>White people, their friends, and toms said:
>
>"who does Spike think he is?"
>
>"That was too offbeat for me"
>
>
>This again, despite the fact that we not only pardon, but
>outright laud and dickride Jim Jaramusch, Richard
>Linklater(who I like), Quentin Tarantino, the cat who directs
>those trainwreck bad movies that all y'all love like
>'Happiness' and 'Palindromes(both of those movies fucking
>suck, thank you very much). '
>
>Take Jaramusch and a film like...'Ghost Dog'. I thought it was
>dope. Its sort of cultish. Lots of people, many of them white,
>dug it. Problem is, if Spike Lee directed 'Ghost Dog', put out
>the exact same film, the same people who liked it would say:
>
>"What was Spike's point?"
>
>"What was Spike trying to do?"
>
>"Spike over-stepped his boundaries with this one"
>
>
>Let *ANY* black filmmaker make a film like...say...'Life
>Aquatic'. We'd bitch and moan about how the film was too
>offbeat and esoteric.
>
>
>Let the Hughes Brothers have done 'A History of
>Violence'....it would have gotten none of the praise. It would
>been called, at best a "brave, but misguided attempt by the
>Hughes Brothers" instead of a film generating Oscar
>buzz(strange because it fucking sucks and was really weird, in
>a non cool way).
>
>
>This is what 'She Hate Me' suffers from. The wrong filmmaker
>made it.
>
>Hell, take a film like....'Black and White'. You
>remember...film "about" race...had a wild cast...Brooke
>Shields, Robert Downey Jr, Mike Tyson, Raekwon, Claudia
>Shiffer, Ben Stiller...mad people.
>
>Remember that?
>
>Directed by a white director(I 4get his name, but who cares).
>Had all sorts of sexually lurid scenes with a scattered,
>uncoventional sequence of events. Very racy.
>
>My problem with 'Black and White' was that well...it really
>wasn't very good.
>
>I saw it back in like 2000 when it came out at the insistence
>of several reviews I read that lauded it for being "radiant"
>and "brave" and "profound" and all sorts of dumb shit like
>that.
>
>I saw it, and saw a bad Spike Lee ripoff, that had shock
>scenes in it just for the sake of generating shock value, not
>for the sake of truly communicating anything honestly
>interesting or telling about race.
>
>I see 'She Hate Me' as at least as good, if not far, far, far,
>far, far, far, better than 'Black and White'. 'Black and
>White' was universally praised. 'She Hate Me' is universally
>shat on.
>
>The race of the directors is the only difference.
>
>'She Hate Me' is unconventional. 'SHM' is obtuse. 'SHM' is
>different. Not standard. unusual plotline. Ridden with social
>commentaries and messages. Sexaully suggestive.
>
>And I dug the hell out of it, along with 3 or 4 other people
>on earth.
>
>
>I don't quite see a solution to the problem I'm pointing out,
>as long as white people don't like black people. As long as
>those white people have a following of black people who tries
>to act like them(like a lot of negro film critics, and guys
>with Okayplayer.com accounts), this will continue.
>
>Its a damn shame really, because black fillmakers and writers
>should be able to be different and obtuse just like white
>filmmakers. I fear they'll never get the chance.
>
>Mang.
>
>
>----------------------------
>
>O_E: Your Super-Ego's Favorite Poster.
>
>"Any fighter that I face, I say prayers for them every night
>and that he and I live to fight another day."
>
>(C) Floyd Mayweather Jr.