Well,

I would dispute that. The film is far kinder to the "Deena" character than the movie.


Alright-- I know. Who can dispute with Smokey Robinson? In all fairness, I think he missed the point. I took away from the film the pressure that black labels faced when trying to market their coveted "sound" in a world that wanted a different face. I think that made the characters a little more interesting. I understood why Curtis was Curtis. I didn't agree with it, but I understood.

I wish the film had allowed him to be a little gentler with Effie, and see more of the love. I think we would have had a more rounded character. Nobody should like Curtis at the end of the film, but they should respect the fact that he was just trying to play the game because he was forced to. That would make the final moment of the film, and the tragedy (selling your own soul) all the more heartbreaking.

I also know in a world sort of Black heroes we don't like to talk about their humanity, real or imagined, because it becomes an unfair liability.

It wasn't all about knocking the Berry Gordyish character for me. I don't need to see perfect suburban Love Jones blackness Big Chill Style 24-7. You know the type of movie that we all were excited about 10 years ago post Blaxploitation and Boyz in the Hood. Black characters that were only seen as positive if they were super wealthy, super smart, super educated, super moral for a film to super positively represent the Black experience. I think that super human characters are not any more positive than the awful depictions because they lack the ability to represent the depth and humanity of the Black experience. Yet I understand Why we have them. Because anything that is a "weakness" in us is unfairly magnified.


I actually have outgrown the need for positive to equal perfect in black characters. Who wants to see that? I do, however, need to see some growth. I need to see some complexity. I need to see a film that doesn't take the easy way out or make the characters caricatures.