Of course we’re going to Aspen. It’s still the most exclusive ski resort in North America, (even though Joey B is going there this weekend too) isn’t it?
And don’t worry about Lady M’s nose being offended by the noxious smell wafting from Aspens “waste water” treatment plant. I understand it’s something you get used to, because the rich really are different from you and me. Apparently their s*** really doesn’t stink! Reason enough to book only the most exclusive and luxurious cruises and resorts.
Meanwhile, in order to earn her second luxurious vacay of 2013, Lady M conducted an interactive student workshop with school children from Washington D.C. and New Orleans and the cast and crew of the film “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
“Beasts” was a breakout hit at last year’s Sundance Film Festival; it’s the story of a precocious and unbelievably adorable little girl named, “Hushpuppy,”
Quvenzhané Wallis at age 5 in “Beasts”
her dying father and life on a Louisiana bayou called “the Bathtub” as a hurricane of mythical proportions approaches. Critics loved it:
“From the left, you can embrace a vision of multicultural community bound by indifference to the pursuit of wealth and an ethic of solidarity and inclusion. From the right, you can admire the libertarian virtues of a band of local heroes who hold fast to their traditions and who flourish in defiance of the meddling good intentions of big government.”
As is often the case, it’s wise to look beyond the New York Times for insight before drawing conclusions. Some critics considered the movie to be a colorized morph of Where the Wild Things Are and Titanic:
These critics are a bit harsher in their evaluation of the “Beasts”
The whole first half of the film is basically that scene in Titanic where Rose leaves her stuffy old first class soirée so Jack can show her some real fun down in steerage, where Irishmen and negroes drink frosty brews and dance jigs to lively flute music. OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS, POVERTY IS SO MUCH FUN! WHY HAVEN’T WE COME DOWN HERE BEFORE?!
They question the script’s authenticity:
Screenwriter Lucy Alibar originally wrote Beasts of the Southern Wild as a play called Juicy and Delicious, which was about an 11-year-old white boy and his father in southern Georgia, where she grew up. In adapting it to a 6-year-old black girl in the Louisiana swamps, Queens-bred director Benh Zeitlin turns it into a maudlin exercise in cultural tourism.
Take offense at the film’s manipulative form:
Also, call me cynical, but watching po’ black characters deliberately misuse words and grammar in folksy phrases written by white people (“cavemens,” for example) feels hokey at best and offensive at worst. Keep in mind, I knew nothing about the filmmakers before I watched this film. It just reeked of theater kid fantasy, and I’ve seen enough Hurricane Katrina narratives written by liberal arts students in New York to recognize this as one. Art students be lovin’ Katrina narratives like fictional Cajuns love crawdads, you all.
And even hint at, uh, racist undertones in the movie:
I thought we weren’t supposed to fall for the Magic Negro and the Noble Savage anymore? Yet here it is, a whole movie full of them, plus folksy Cajuns who can’t open their mouths without homespun crypticisms aw shucksing their way out.
Butt now that Lady M has endorsed it, watch for it’s adorable little star to take an Oscar.
After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a really cute candidate with a funny name won because of their lack of experience and naivety.
Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!
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