The Help and Links

The Help is probably one of the most universally hated films in a really long time.Everyone admits that that acting is great but the screenplay should be set on fire. Weird, I'm so used to being the only one on this side that I tried (hard) to find good in this movie just to work up against the crowd.
Anyway I'll let everybody else talk about this movie....
1. Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC (video)

2. Thoughts on The Help  

 If given dignity, it’s a kind of unrealistic selflessness that further excuses her [black female characters] character from having the same drives and ambitions as the other characters. She is tired, hard and so used to her low station that someone more privileged must sweep in to let her know how badly she’s being treated. The biggest injustice is that whatever their personal integrity, black female characters are continually shown as the sidekick in their own story, always within the context of race, with their voices used to provide teaching moments for the real characters. 


Take, for example, recent female-driven films like The Devil Wears Prada and Nanny Diaries, in which the helpful black friend (Tracie Thoms and Alicia Keys, respectively) appears on screen solely to assist the central white character (Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson) through life and love. Or consider the 2009 Oscar season: Sandra Bullock took home the Best Actress Academy Award (The Blindside) for playing a white woman who takes on the role of mother to an unwanted black male football player, whose “non-racism” was continually held up as an standing-ovation worthy virtue instead of a basic tenet of human dignity. Meanwhile, Mo’Nique won Best Supporting Actress (Precious) for portraying one of the worst mothers ever seen on film. She not only physically, emotionally and sexually abused her daughter on a regular basis, but she also encouraged her “man” to as well. 


These are the roles that Hollywood rewards and, in the process, reinforces

3. The Help Tidies Up Alot (for some reason this link isn't working)

There are ridiculously few black production executives in Hollywood, none of whom have anything resembling greenlight power. DreamWorks, for example, does not have a black production executive, though it is the only major studio to have an African American marketing head. So while Hollywood has an abundance of white liberals, it is an insular world, full of executives who have little firsthand understanding of the black experience.
Perhaps that’s why “The Help,” despite its earnest, colorblind intentions, feels like such a naive piece of feel-good storytelling.

I bet plenty of people will be beating the drum for Davis’ performance, and rightly so. It would be terrific to see her win an Oscar for her part, just as Hattie McDaniel did more than 70 years ago for her role as a black maid called Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.” In Hollywood, I guess that’s what they call progress.