“Obsessed Set the Blueprint for Enjoyably Mediocre Black Thrillers - Jezebel” plus 1 more |
| Obsessed Set the Blueprint for Enjoyably Mediocre Black Thrillers - Jezebel Posted: 09 Apr 2019 12:00 PM PDT  On April 24, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter's filmic magnum opus celebrates its 10th anniversary. Said magnum opus isn't her self-titled album or the critically acclaimed Lemonade, or even the Oscar-winning Dreamgirls, but a tiny 2009 film titled Obsessed, added to Netflix this month. A ridiculous movie that might have been lost to the annals of history if Beyoncé never became BEYONCÉ, Obsessed doesn't really hold up in the slightest, but its impact is large. In addition to giving us the most often quoted phone call in the world, it also ushered in a slate of middling thrillers with black casts, all of which are iconic in their mediocrity. Obsessed is an objectively bad movie. The pacing is odd, Elba's character Derek continuously makes inexplicably poor choices, Beyoncé's role as his much younger wife Sharon is paper thin and seems to exist only for the final, bloody confrontation, and Larter's Lisa may be the single most deranged and problematic depiction of a woman scorned since 1987's Fatal Attraction. And yet despite all that, it's still fun as hell. Beyoncé's Texas twang is in full swing, her line readings are terrible, and Elba's beardlessness and abysmal suiting makes it hard to believe he'd eventually be named the sexiest man alive. The soundtrack is intrusive and dated in the way contemporary pop music always is, but the classic thriller score is deliciously ham-fisted. Who doesn't want to see Beyoncé make the precedent setting choice to passive-aggressively call a white woman by the wrong name as punishment for flirting with her husband? And we haven't even gotten to Jerry O'Connell's ridiculous mix of pervy encouragement and genuine concern as Elba's coworker Ben. Terrible as it was, Obsessed set the stage for the black thrillers that have continued to pop up in regular intervals since the movie's 2009 release. The plots of these films tend to be paper thin after-thoughts that place black (heterosexual) couples in opposition to an outside antagonist, usually with a focus on the interiority of the black woman and the struggles she faces, up to and including the inciting incident. Whether it's Gabrielle Union fending off home invaders in 2018's Breaking In or Sharon Leal being stalked by the lover she took during the throes of her sex addiction in 2014's Addicted, this hyper-specific genre is chock full of scenarios that put black women in the role of both the damsel in distress and the righteous wronged heroine, often allowing them to save themselves, as in 2014's No Good Deed and 2015's The Perfect Guy. Part of what makes them so enjoyable is that they present a universe in which black women nearly always maintain the moral high ground; there is no disputing that our sympathies as an audience should lie with them. They're a welcome, if imperfect respite in an entertainment landscape where black women are still too often relegated to the role of best friend to the white lead. Black thrillers center black women and black families in a way that is still rare to see in other, less niche genres. That isn't to say that black thrillers don't have their flaws. As in 2016's When The Bough Breaks and Unforgettable, many of these films put women in direct conflict with each other, usually over a man. The female antagonists are depicted as shrewd, melodramatic stalkers hellbent on destroying the heroine for the crime of being coupled with a man they want for themselves. In extreme examples like 2013's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counsellor and 2018's Acrimony, the stories themselves are downright regressive. In the former, the wayward female protagonist is punished for cheating on her God-fearing husband by contracting HIV, and in the latter, the combustible leading lady is driven mad with jealousy when her trifling husband only finds success after she leaves him. These stories are almost offensive in the way they reduce black women's motivations to resentment at the men in their lives, but the wild ride can sometimes justify the journey. That these two films both hail from the Tyler Perry ouvre is an issue worthy of its own analysis. Obsessed is Beyoncé's last live-action, non-documentary film appearance to date and is the only role in which she does not perform (though music from her third album I Am… Sasha Fierce plays over the credits). Just 27 years old at the time of release and another four years from cementing herself as a living musical legend with the surprise drop of her self-titled album, the movie was clearly Beyoncé's attempt to branch out into more serious fare and position herself as a "proper actress." Her father and former manager Matthew Knowles is credited as a producer. Playing opposite up and comer Idris Elba, who at the time had had most of his credits in television, it's obvious in hindsight that the film was meant to act as a proving ground for the fabulous diva who could command a stage but had little formal acting training. It's little wonder that Obsessed is the film that spawned the "Beyonce can't act" meme despite having turned in more than serviceable performances in Dreamgirls and Cadillac Records respectively. It was the first time her narrative didn't center on music, and without the opportunity to embody Sasha Fierce, her appearance was admittedly lackluster. Though Beyonce may not have managed to have her A Star Is Born moment just yet, her impact as always is in felt in the legacy she leaves in her wake. Because of Obsessed's commercial success, black actresses have been able to retain amide-budget arena they can use to prove their skills and staying power without the pressure of a multi-billion dollar release. It's a trend that I hope never dies, and The Intruder is next in line. Cate Young (@battymamzelle): smugsexual, thundercunt hagbeast. |
| Michael Kors: Coming Soon to a Broadway Theater Near You - The Philadelphia Tribune Posted: 25 May 2019 11:35 AM PDT  NEW YORK — On a recent Tuesday evening, the line outside "Ain't Too Proud," the Broadway musical about the R&B supergroup the Temptations, snaked around the block. Many ticket holders fretted over whether they would be admitted before it started, but not Michael Kors. He stood in line patiently with his husband, Lance Le Pere, playing I Spy a Celebrity. Jessica Lange was up ahead, making her way inside. A woman in a red coat stepped out of a car; Kors identified her as "Liza Minnelli's best friend." "Her husband was like the disco dentist," he said. "Everyone at Studio 54 went to him." Kors, 59, who built a multi-billion-dollar business off his beige off-the-shoulder sweaters, baby blue skirts and "Project Runway" witticisms, had on his usual outfit: a black trench coat, black sweater, vintage gold Ray-Ban sunglasses and a pair of Levi's, which he wore with New Balance sneakers. Le Pere, 48, had on an Ami windbreaker, Michael Kors T-shirt and Levi's jeans. In February and September, the couple's lives are dominated by the fashion week calendar. During Tonys season, they pretty much live at the theater. "I feel like we're cramming for a test as June gets closer," said Kors, who, with Le Pere, gave $1.5 million to the Roundabout Theater for its development fund and in 2016 had the VIP room there named in their honor. "It's like, 'How many can we do in a week?'" This season, they have been to "True West," "The Ferryman," "Kiss Me Kate," "The Boys in the Band," "King Kong," "Oklahoma," "The Cher Show" and "Lifespan of a Fact," which they saw with Anna Wintour, their good friend and fellow theater lover. "We're like the fashion people waving the flag," Kors said. "She and I used to be perplexed why more people in fashion don't go, but I think it's because they don't want to turn their phones off. And they don't want to be here on a scheduled time." Wintour said: "Michael and Lance are the ideal theater companions. They are knowledgeable, witty and always excited to be there! And they believe in eating quickly before curtain." Kors and Le Pere even hop on planes to catch plays that haven't made it to Broadway. Two years ago, they went to London for the National Theater's adaptation of the movie "Network." Soon after, Kors texted Rufus Norris, the theater's artistic director, offering to help bring it to Broadway; Kors and Le Pere ended up becoming investors and producers. Now, they're on the lookout for another show to back, perhaps a musical. At "Ain't Too Proud," Kors and Le Pere made their way to their seats in the eighth row. The lights went down and Le Pere took Kors' hand in his. The touristy crowd cheered big Temptations numbers like "My Girl" and "Shout," but Kors was more moved by edgier songs like "Get Ready" and "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." "Ain't Too Proud" also took darker turns, with tales of drug abuse and friction with Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown. "Is there ever a show business story that's just smooth?" Kors said, as the curtain fell for intermission. When "Ain't Too Proud" ended an hour later, Kors rushed backstage to shower the cast in superlatives ("You guys killed it") and take pictures with them. Afterward, around 10 p.m., he and Le Pere went to the restaurant Joe Allen for a bite. Everyone there knew them. As frequent patrons, they have their own table near the bar. The order is always the same: a Caesar salad and hamburger, which they split. "This is our happy place," Le Pere said. Kors was still elated that two of the cast members told him that they wore his clothes. In 2015, Wintour spearheaded an effort to glam up the Tony Awards. Some designers had to be strong-armed into lending performers free gowns, but not Kors. "It may not be Jennifer Lopez at the Golden Globes, but I'm excited Patti LuPone wears Michael Kors," he said. And, the boundaries separating television, film and theater no longer exist, he added. Cynthia Erivo, he pointed out, parlayed her performance in the Broadway musical "The Color Purple" into a starring role in the box office hit "Widows." Billy Porter, the Tony-winning actor, is a breakout star on the F/X show "Pose." The conversation turned to another F/X series, "Fosse/Verdon," about Bob Fosse and his wife Gwen Verdon. The show has gotten mixed reviews, but Le Pere and Kors are huge fans. The minute it came up, the two seemed to be pantomiming each other. "We love it," Kors said. "Obsessed." "There's nothing like it," Le Pere said. "She's amazing," he added, referring to Michelle Williams, who plays Verdon. "Amazing," Kors said. "He's brilliant," Le Pere said, referring to Sam Rockwell, who plays Fosse. "Brilliant," Kors said. "Every part is done so amazingly." Nevertheless, Kors made it clear that he and Le Pere do not see themselves as theater queens. So what if they saw recent Broadway productions of "Mary Poppins" and "Hello Dolly" four times each? Or made sure to catch the Roundabout Theater's production of "Cabaret" three times: first with Michelle Williams playing Sally Bowles, then with Emma Stone in the role and finally with Stone's replacement, Sienna Miller. "We're experience groupies," Kors said. To prove the point, Kors listed other things he and Le Pere have done recently, including trips to Las Vegas (to catch Cher at Caesar's Palace) and MetLife Stadium (to see Beyoncé, despite torrential downpours). "We would have stayed til 2 a.m. if we had to," Kors said. As Kors sees it, "getting out and having your eyes and your ears and your senses open to something other than your own fashion world" is essential to the creative process. "How do you possibly design things for human beings if you're not part of the human world?" he said. He is aware that most fashion people take fashion incredibly seriously. That mostly annoys him. "Have fun," he said. |
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