SAG Awards #6

[cleolinda]

Commercials. I missed what this commercial with everyone in the world screaming "NOOOOOO!!" at sales and coupons was for, but if they had included the Nonono Cat, I would have bought whatever they were selling.

Comments

[litlover12]

Maybe "The Help" isn't really worthy of that side-eye? ;-)

Look, I get why people are wary of "white savior swoops in and rescues all the black people and isn't she wonderful" stories. I do. But "The Help" isn't like that. I'm not saying it's the deepest story ever written, but it is more complex than that.

[cleolinda]

It would be more fair to let people who have seen the movie to argue that, I guess. Since I don't want to, I'll just stop.

[litlover12]

Fair enough. I'm not trying to be obnoxious, honest.

[cho_malfoy]

I give the whole concept of The Help the side-eye, but I love what it means to the actresses and the inspiration they draw from it. I don't know. It's weird.

I feel the same way. It's like, I never want to see the movie ever, but if it gives Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer the means to get the roles they deserve, well. At least it's not The Blind Side.

Thanks for recapping! I never watch the SAG awards, but it's nice to know what happens.

[la_petite_singe]

The Help is definitely overrated, but the performances are solid and I do like the way Viola & Octavia seem committed to the idea that their characters aren't just victims, but real, identifiable people, if that makes sense. And the cast seems adorable and friendly with each other. I am not at all pleased that it's up for Best Picture, but it ain't the worst of the lot.

[kid_lit_fan]

The commercial is alerting people to the fact that JC Penney is no longer having sales, instead, they are permanently reducing all prices by 40% or more.

It's not a very effective ad, I wouldn't have known what it's for if I hadn't read the news story about an hour before I saw the screaming people on my TV.

[manekikoneko]

Same thing happened to me! I was baffled until my mother explained it to me, because she'd read something somewhere. What a crap ad campaign.

[litlover12]

And using Mozart's Requiem. UGH.

[t4_flirt]

It's a total crap ad. And a pretty crappy marketing idea tbh.

I'm willing to bet their "40% off" turns out to mean higher markups more than anything. Good thing I'm not a big fan of shopping there to begin with.

[queen_of_kithia]

Caveat: I haven't seen the movie yet (I'm on a waiting list at the library). I wasn't going to read the book either because I don't do controversy well, but then I received it as a Christmas present and it would have been rude not to read it, and all I can say is...the book is worth reading. Problematic, yes; controversial, understandably so; but still worth reading.

I respect anything anyone has to say about the movie so long as the commenter has also read the book.

[cleolinda]

Here's the thing (and movie critics say this as well): you can't say a movie would have been good if only you'd read the book. A movie has to be able to stand on its own. You can't assign extracurricular reading as a condition of having a valid opinion. You can talk about whether the movie is an adequate adaptation of the book, but if it does not work on its own for people who have not read it, that's a problem with the movie unto itself. (I love the Harry Potter movies, but if they make no sense to people who have not read the books, that is a legitimate flaw.) I mean, you don't have to respect anyone's opinions if you don't want to, but that's not how movie critics in general approach the book/movie issue.

That said, I don't have the right to an opinion on either one until I experience it. But I could have a valid opinion of the movie without reading the book.

[queen_of_kithia]

Okay, fair enough: the movie should be judged on its own merits, independently of the book. But so, then, should the book be judged on its own merits, independently of the movie. And the impression that I am getting from some people who have seen the movie, whether they be professional movie critics or not, is that they are dismissing the book based on the movie. Or, to put it another way, they seem to be saying that if the movie did not do an adequate job of telling the story, then it was not a story worth telling. And that, to me, is very disappointing because books and movies ARE different media with different limitations, different strengths and weaknesses, and if it turns out that a movie was the wrong medium to tell this particular story, that doesn't mean that the "concept" was irredeemably flawed.

[cleolinda]

Well, exactly: the book should be judged separately. I'm not saying I'm wary of the book's premise; books generally are more complex than a two-hour film. I'm saying, based on the trailers, clips and reviews I've seen of this movie, independently of the book, I'm wary of it following a Hollywood tradition of putting a white character at the forefront of black characters' stories. I never assumed that the book did this.

Maybe I should watch this whether I want to or not.