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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I was excited to see "Diary" because I'd heard all about Tyler Perry and I really loved the Barbershop movies and have become interested in African American Cinema. But I thought the movie was all over the place. It was really, really implausible and sappy and the main character was very unsympathetic. I loved the madea character, of course, although it seems sort of like a stock character nowadays. Maybe Tyler's stuff works better on stage.
So, let me see if I can sum up the critics' objection to "Diary:" They didn't like Tyler Perry's Madea character because she was too over-the-top?
Gee, I guess they didn't much care for Bruce Willis' "John McClane" character in the "Die Hard" series or Brangelina's campy spies in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." Huh? They did? And audiences liked them, as well? Hmmmmm... I wonder what the problem is here? Maybe if the critics admitted to enjoying Madea, they might be accused of perpetuating stereotypes?
Sure, Madea is a caricature! But, as film reviewer James Berardinelli wrote recently, "[W]e go to... movies to escape from the real world, not to be immersed in it." Here's the thing, though: Madea isn't so far off target. She's based on real people - real Black women. My wife and I are the only two Whites in a Black congregation of 100 members in the Deep South. Madea made us double over in laughter because she reminded us of people we know! We've rented all of "her" DVDs and enjoyed every one.
Maybe all of those uptight critics - White and Black need to loosen up and let themselves enjoy Mr. Perry's work. I, for one, will miss Madea when she "retires."
I saw "Diary", and I plan on seeing "Family Reunion" too.
The bottomline is: if Hollywood can continue to turn out in mass rotten-to-the-core "general market" (i.e. "white") movies, then why can Blacks and other ethnic groups make mediocre to just "so-damn-bad-they're-art" movies? As long as they make money, since that's all Hollywood (and the rest of America) is interested in.
"Diary" was certainly not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was funny and provided the escapism I was looking for. It also provied me with the rare chance to sit in the same theater with my fundamentalist Christian girfriends (and also a Jewish girlfriend)who aren't open to seeing the more "provacative" movies out there.
Tyler Perry hit a goldmine. And whether anybody wants to publicly admit it (so I will): Amos 'n Andy were funny as hell! Racist, but comic genius. For black people to sit around and denigrate that and other chitlin-circuit entertainment is hypocritical and embracing a cultural denial that borders on ethnic mental illness. Every black comic working today stole their act straight off the chitlin circuit. Black people-we laugh at ourselves and our current and past situations for emotional relief, plain and simple.
As for Mr. Perry's sexual orientation-well if you ain't trying to screw or marry him, who cares? What's the relevance? "What would the black church think?" Oh, I dn't know, the same thing they think about all of the closet gay choir directors and those two ladies that have lived together and come to service now for the last thirty years. The Black Church (just like the "white" church and synagogues) continue to stick their head in the sand over the issue of any sexuality, hetero or homo. If you're looking for clarity and compassion on sex, stay out of the Church, Synagogue and Mosque.
There was a time when there was nothin' but so-called chitlin-circuit entertainment for black people. The road is wide and long now, and if you just can't bear the thought of a loud black man in drag, then exercise your options.
Mr. Perry has a built-in audience. No one has the right to deny them what makes them laugh or cry.
And one last thought to my fellow "negros": isn't it time that we got over the whole "this is so embarassing in front of the white folk! What will they think of us" angst that we've carried around since the early days of integration? WE OVERCAME! We can put out shit and roses with the rest of them. Pick on something else, something valid.
Chris Rock has said that when a Black man makes a lot of money doing anything it inevitably attracts criticism. I laughed and laughed, not quite believing it to be true. But there seems to be some truth to this. Even today, the "white father" needs to put his hand of approval on a Black person's work for it to be accepted; nevermind that the other hand goes into his pocket as well.
I love hunor, all kinds. I watch everything, from Mind of Mencia, to Dave Chapelle, to Chris Rock. I believe that humor can teach us a lot about each other, as long as we recognize caricatures for what they are, broad swaddling of humorous perspective around a kernel of truth.
Tyler Perry invests in caricatures, humorous extrapolation drawn from his own experiences, perspective, and environment. His audience knows this, which is why they are drawn to it. He does not talk down to them, or condescend, or say "this is the way we should be." He says "here's a little of how we are, what we wish we could do and say under these circumstances, and how we wish things would turn out."
Black people recognize that with all the criticism White people seem to lever at Tyler Perry's broad strokes on Black family dysfunction; White families' dysfunctions are no better, and no more valid.
Now if only the critics would get that.
I didn't see this movie not because I have any problem with Tyler Perry or the character of Madea -- I've seen videos of his plays, and frankly, the Madea character was hilarious and the only one I didn't want to smack upside the head. My blackness was not offended -- I was annoyed as a woman, that the main character allowed her husband to kick her out of her own home, have other women in the home, and then solve her problem by moaning on her knees a lot instead of being proactive, as if her over-the-top suffering beatified her in some way -- THEN, when her husband lost his health and his mobility, she leaves him in a cold bathtub for hours (or was it days? It's been a while) another over-the-top not to mention vicious, vindictive action. So was she supposed to be a beatified saint or a vindictive bitch? And how was I supposed to like or identify with this flimsy character, vacillating between weakling and sadist. So I didn't bother with the movie. (Also I am tired of seeing Kimberly Elise doing all this suffering onscreen -- she is beautiful and talented as is getting unecessarily typecast because of how she looks, that is to say, not like Halle Berry.)
However, from Tracy's letter in particular, it seems that the movie altered the plot from the stage play significantly, so maybe I'll check it out.
But I've gotta reiterate, strongly, because I think even the critics missed this (and I know all the people going "Shaddup, I know someone like Madea!" missed this): Madea is not the problem -- the unreasonable, unrealistic and hypercliched supporting characters are the problem, and that is a general, not a "black," thing.
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