Premier Rock Forum

A film like Sorry To Bother You is always going to get more attention than a film like Black Girl. One is new, relatively mainstream with bankable actors, and in color. The other is none of those things. Sembene never had the sort of name recognition--or distribution for that matter--that a filmmaker of his stature deserves (in the US, at least) although Black Girl is fairly well known as far as these things go. But I don't know that too many meaningful comparisons cans be made between the two films. But also, I totally get it and empathize. When I was in college Le Samourai got a new print that was traveling around the art-house circuit around the same time that those Star Wars special editions came out in the theaters. I couldn't get a single person to go with me to see Le Samourai , even though it has an appealing, non-intimidating premise and these were supposedly arty college students. But man, they went in droves, in giant groups, to see a movie they'd all seen dozens of times that had two minutes worth of new CGI. It's just the way it goes. STBY is imperfect, and probably overhyped in lefty circles but I can't blame people for being excited about an relatively mainstream film with a such clear point of view. In execution, well, the film is scattershot in ways I thought both added and detracted from it. A lot of loose threads and not all of them delivered but I also appreciate the shaggy dog aspect to it and all the goofy little details. It's a good movie as opposed to a great one with some inspired gags and set-pieces.

The comparing/contrasting of Sorry to Bother You and Black Girl might seem misguided or off-topic. What the two titles mostly have in common, aside from being written and directed by black filmmakers and dealing with exploited labor, is that they came out on digital video here roughly around the same time. And I witnessed several people proclaim (on the internet at least) that one just had to see the see the former. Like [a] Sorry to Bother You was the single best film of 2018, and [b] it was a revelation that would do for late capitalism in the 21st Century what Sinclair's The Jungle did for child labor and early 20th Century factory conditions...if only enough people rented it on Amazon. Neither of these things turned out to be the case in my experience. Meanwhile the reissue of the Sembène film, which sits a lot better as a narrative and coherent piece of art, putts along sheepishly in the periphery and most "woke" young filmgoers can't seem to be arsed to give it a shot. Maybe because they don't know about it, but just as likely because it's "old" and some of them can't be bothered with such things.It makes perfect sense why one of these films would be more popular than the other, I'll give you that. But in my experience movies tend to affirm what's already within a person rather than completely shake his or her foundation. So Sorry to Bother You ends up doing well with the people already in line with its vision, but doesn't necessarily change a lot of other people's minds, much less bring with it key reforms. This means that ultimately films about such matters might best be judged as works of art. With that in mind the most aesthetically accomplished, smartly written, well structured film will win nearly every time (should one decide to pit two films against each other). It's the reason a film like the Dardennes' Rosetta will always work better than something like Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop--both have lofty ambitions and good intentions, but one is clearly the more powerful and timeless work of art about a character without much power, money, or mobility.I get why people like Sorry to Bother You, but I'm not sure it's any more consequential a statement, or less cartoonish, than a movie like Snowpiercer. And it will likely age just as well.

Angus Jung wrote:Me Again wrote:I witnessed several people proclaim (on the internet at least) that one just had to see the see the former. Like [a] Sorry to Bother You was the single best film of 2018, and [b] it was a revelation that would do for late capitalism in the 21st Century what Sinclair's The Jungle did for child labor and early 20th Century factory conditions...if only enough people rented it on Amazon. It's perfectly okay to think Sorry To Bother You was overrated/not that good, without resorting to this kind of nonsense.It might seem like I was projecting there, but the fact of the matter is, multiple people on social media proclaimed it was the best film of the year. And some implored others to rent it like it was their civic duty, the implication being Sorry to Bother You was more than a "romp" and its popularity would lead to something other than satisfaction among its fans. Neither of these things turned out to be the case. It was a patently over-hyped movie, and it mostly preached to the choir.

I hope you're going to pay for that screening.

It may have been over-hyped by some people, but put it in perspective. It was made for $3 million by a first-time director and had limited commercial promotion. Pretty sure $3 million in 2018 is a low-budget movie. Snowpiercer was made for $40 million by an established director, meanwhile. On second viewing, I thought STBY dragged a fair bit after the halfway point, but it was late and I was tired. My partner and I put it on (illegally streamed) for a militant, middle-aged, Saskatchewan rank-and-file union activist friend we were hosting in Winnipeg. Darin got into the labor movement by unionizing a video cassette distribution centre he worked at in the 80s (w RWDSU). He'd never heard of the movie and wouldn't have seen it if we hadn't put it on in our home. If you want to get all competitive film-nerd about it, and stack it up against other movies on aesthetic terms, have your day, but I think that misses the point on some levels. In May, I saw Boots give a talk here on the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike (he admitted he'd never heard of the Winnipeg General Strike before getting booked for the talk). Winnipeg has a significant film industry bc of the historic Exchange District (note the Chicago architectural connection) and tax incentives (Sean Penn is here directing a movie called "Flag Day" right now). In the Q&A, a local black activist and filmmaker was like, "We're struggling to build black film culture here in Winnipeg, do you have any advice or suggestions for people or organizations we could be in touch with?" Boots was like, "That's the easiest question I've ever gotten. Come talk to me after this. I got lots of people for you to connect with."