Oscar Watching: It's the HOLIDAY Season
Posted by Donovan Warren - 11/20/2013 - Features, Movies, Oscar Watching
With around $36.6 million, Thor: The Dark World again won the box office, but competition for the number one spot was surprisingly heated, so there go the "hammer" and "clobber" puns I would have otherwise used. Malcolm D. Lee's The Best Man Holiday, sequel to 1999's The Best Man, more than outdid the modest expectations set by box-office prognosticators: it far exceeded its $17 million budget with a $30.6 million opening.
As far as major awards precursors are concerned, The Best Man only earned an Indie Spirit nod for Terrence Howard, so I'm not arguing that this holiday-themed sequel has any major awards prospects. However, the success of Holiday highlights the lack of diversity in most American filmmaking: Hollywood still underserves audiences whose representation has been historically lacking; there's interest in films about those whom the industry consistently marginalizes.
However, as Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo points out, "[i]t's simplistic and inaccurate, though, to assume that any movie with a largely African-American cast is going to be successful"; he further cites Baggage Claim and Tyler Perry Presents Peeples as African-American-targeted films that failed at the box office.
But some fail to truly grasp this problem of representation – even as they try to address it. That someone wrote a headline referring to Holiday as "race-themed" (I'm not making this up) and that no one pulled said person to the side for that headline make the problem even more evident. As some have pointed out, a film isn't necessarily centered on race simply because actresses and actors of color lead the film or make up most of its cast.
12 years a slave, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Alexander Payne, alfonso cuaron, american hustle, Amy Adams, angela lansbury, Angelina Jolie, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, barkhad abdi, barry ackroyd, Ben Stiller, billy ray, blue is the warmest color, blue jasmine, Bruce Dern, bruno delbonnel, Captain Phillips, cate blanchett, Coldplay, dallas buyers club, david o. russell, David Oyelowo, Delivery Man, Don Jon, Drinking Buddies, Emma Thompson, Frances Ha, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, gravity, Greta Gerwig, her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Jared Leto, jeff pope, Jennifer Lawrence, John Ridley, jonas cuaron, Judi Dench, Julia Roberts, june squibb, Kevin Kline, Last Vegas, Lea Seydoux, Lee Daniels, Lee Daniels' The Butler, lupita nyong'o, Malcolm D. Lee, Margo Martindale, matthew mcconaughey, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, morgan freeman, nebraska, Octavia Spencer, Olivia Wilde, Oprah Winfrey, palm springs international film festival, phedon papamichael, philomena, piero tosi, Robert De Niro, rome film festival, sally hawkins, Sandra Bullock, santa barbara international film festival, Sarah Paulson, Saving Mr. Banks, Scarlett Johansson, sean bobbitt, Steve Coogan, Steve Martin, Steve McQueen, stuart dryburgh, Terrence Howard, The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the secret life of walter mitty, Thor: The Dark World, Vince Vaughn
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