Friday film roundup: Two Studies in Prejudice and Tolerance
Imagine a fun, infectious film that champions a repressed minority. Imagine a film that actually seems to respect that minority community and fully integrates it into the storyline, even granting the story’s principal victory to a member of that minority group. Imagine a morality tale that so gently communicates its message that it seems as natural as smiling, as healthy as laughing”–or as liberating as dancing. And imagine a film that makes the case so eloquently that it’s easy to extrapolate the lesson to minorities of all stripes.
That movie is Hairspray, being released this weekend. The minorities celebrated there are blacks, women, and overweight people. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, on the other hand (and also a new release this week), tries to accomplish all of those things for the minority gay community”–and fails miserably.
Jenn Wright calls the former “great fun to watch,” while Greg Wright finds the latter “execrable.” And it’s funny, because the sentiments in Hairspray can (and were originally intended to) apply to gays as much as they do to blacks and fat people. But Adam Sandler can’t seem to appreciate such an approach, sadly.
This week, Greg also interviews the directors of next week’s Arctic Tale, and Kathy Bledsoe looks at how the screenplay of The Order of the Phoenix went wrong.
