There is a strange phenomenon that occurs in films where something can seem both drawn out and rushed at the same time. This usually happens when filmmakers try to do too much at once. For example: when one is attempting to tell a long, epic story in a normal cinematic run-time. Or when one is trying to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to the theistic, supernatural, or miraculous aspects of a particular story. Continue reading
6. Chewitel Ejiofor: 12 Years A Slave
I find it incredible how this performance got lost in the shuffle of awards season. Were I a member of the AMPAS, he would have been my second choice for Best Actor after my #2 pick from this list, and I thought 2013 was the best Lead Actor pool in recent memory. I’m not quite sure the average viewer is aware of the physical toll this part must have taken on him, to say nothing of the mental aspects. I’ve been a fan of his for years, and this is his masterpiece. My favorite moments of his in this film are all dialogue-free: his reactions in big moments, his gracious smile, the singing of the spiritual at the funeral, and any moment in which he’s listening. He’s just got “that face” and he can communicate and do so much with it. He can do anything.
10. Lupita Nyong’o: 12 Years A Slave
In the months since I posted my 12 Years piece on tumblr, the world has rightfully fallen in love with Ms. Nyong’o and it is safe to say she is an unknown no longer. The utter despair and pain captured in her performance continues to resonate. This is the sort of performance you can feel in your bones and makes you squirm in your seat. The whole film is like that, really, but her performance stands out in this respect because her situation is so uniquely desperate and hopeless. She’s literally hard to watch at times, not because of the brutality she endures, but because the despair and sense of being trapped is so complete and dire in her face, in her actions, her voice. Great work in what ought to be a star-making performance. Now, if only the American film industry created roles for black women…
Media are reflections of the culture and society they represent and emerge from. When one is alienated from certain media it likely stems from a lack of relatability on the part of the consumer in relation to the reflection in question. In other words, the consumer doesn’t see themselves reflected in the product. This is why, stereotypically, men don’t like daytime soap operas and romantic comedies, women don’t like sports and wrestling, and black people don’t like Seinfeld and the Winter Olympics (this black person actually loves Seinfeld as much as he hates the Winter Olympics, but we’re talking about stereotypes). Continue reading
1. Adele Exarchopoulos: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Some actors have “that face,” other actors have “those eyes.” Exarchopolous has both. Her’s was not the most polished performance this year, or the most mature, but it is the one that effected me the most emotionally. It’s the one that stuck in my head and refused to leave. I don’t think it sentimental for one to give marks for that: cinema, by it’s very nature is an art of manipulation of the emotions of the viewer, and actors are the vessels through which the viewers emphasize with the characters. Continue reading
I chose to call this blog Mixed American Film Buff quite simply because I am those things. Film in particular and audio/visual media in general are my areas of highest interest and, for lack of a more appropriate term, expertise, but the content herein will in no way be limited to film, nor will I comment exclusively on issues related to my identity as a mixed person, although, since my ethnicity and background are inextricable facets of my identity, all issues relevant to myself and my perspective necessarily relate to those aspects of myself, because they, among other things, inform how I view the world. Film and related media provide me with a familiar framework to frame and interpret other concepts, precisely because they all relate to each other at one point or another, just as my identity, ethnicity, and background relate to everything I consume because they necessarily inform my perspective on whatever I consume. Continue reading
Mixed American Film Buff 