Vincent Van Gogh was a painter for 10 years before dying of a supposed suicide. While he did his best to sell his painting for money, everyone thought his paintings were nonsense or downright horrible. Van Gogh was a tortured man; he was plagued with anxiety and depression, which he would express through his work.
That is art; while his story is an extreme one, it’s what art represents to me. The emotions or words we cannot say out loud, or the things we can’t find in our everyday lives, whether it is painting, movies, TV, music or literature.
Art has become dull in certain places. Even though there are still great things coming out across the board in all shapes and sizes, the main force of every heavy hitter of art is money-making. While one can argue that it’s always been about the money and should stay that way, there is an amazing example that just happened recently to show why the pursuit of money can ruin art in different mediums and even culture.
Tyler Perry and Ryan Coogler are both successful directors. I mean, Perry is a billionaire and basically owns BET but when was the last time you heard that somebody’s favorite movie of the year was a Tyler Perry film?
Perry says he tries to show the black experience in a raw manner but the reality is, he makes black “trauma porn”. And guess what? It makes money.
People all over the world want to see the black experience, even if it’s bad and doesn’t show the reality of what could or should be.
Perry just made a multi-million-dollar deal with Netflix to push more of it. Multiple times this year, he’s trended number one. He pumps out “art,” calls it deep, sells it, then goes to bed.
Perry is everything wrong with the current industry of all media and art. He takes issues like baby mama drama or cheating or a black woman struggling and calls it deep.
Sounds repetitive, but it’s safe, so it works. Investors don’t want to just take a random risk when they know they can get an easy return right away.
It’s why Perry is probably one of the most successful black men in American history. But is that good? Do we sacrifice what makes us who we are as a culture, people or even as an individual, to just make a quick cash grab?
Coogler’s Vampire Horror movie “Sinners” is without a doubt one of those movies you go in and watch, then walk out and say, “Yeah, that’s it.” The real meaning of the movie is that it’s a movie about music, culture and individualism, and is a love letter to the South with the armor of a vampire movie to tell it.
It talks about how black people get attached to the little things, that being equal takes away our culture, who we are as a people and how relationships can come and go – it even addressed issues of assimilation.
This is cinema, this is art. Coogler has made something special that only he could have done. Not a basic intellectual property that someone took, then tried to cash grab on it. Yes, he directed “Black Panther,” “Wakanda Forever” and “Creed” but those are his own stories with Black Power all over them.
As a young black kid, when I found “Creed,” it made me want to be a boxer, because there had been no black main character who was a boxer before.
With Black Panther, he basically made Afrofuturism a mainstream topic. Sinner is an original film with an all-black main cast who shined. It introduced the audience to upcoming movies like Miles Caton What’s not to love?
movies like Miles Caton What’s not to love?
Then there is the new “Jurassic World: Dominion,” like, come on now. Is art all about money now? Nobody is saying that it is their favorite movie of the year. However, “Jurassic World: Dominion” made about double as much at the box office this year compared to “Sinners.”
Producers and studios know that. While I was hyped for “Sinners” – being a black film geek – of course I was the first one there. That other movie though –most people watched “Jurassic Park” as a kid.
So, people went to pay tribute to nostalgia. What’s more, they exclusively put Christopher Nolan’s first teaser for his new movie, “The Odyssey,” to entice people to buy a ticket.
The sad thing is this strategy is downright genius. When a movie like “Sinners”, which is a horror movie about a juke joint full of black people who are fighting vampires, gets put up against the dinosaur movie part seven, our monkey brains go for the dinosaur. Dinosaurs are simple, safe and nostalgic.
Original or challenging isn’t safe. It’s the same thing with Tyler Perry movies, but on a more cultural level. For most non-black Americans, seeing an authentic black experience is interesting, but because of years of stereotypes, that idea has evolved into baby mama drama, tatted up drug dealers, pimps, hoes and whatever the hell else. It is practically a reproduction of the blaxploitation era of the ‘70s.
It is about the money. It’s the same thing as McDonald’s vs home cooking. One is conventional and safe, the other is original and challenging.
Coogler is the supermarket full of healthy whole foods while Perry is McDonalds.
This is the issue with black cinema, pushing again “black trauma porn” to get clicks or watched rather than making an original story.
Then again, this is just a very small tip of the iceberg, with black cinema being a part of it. There are so many art/media forms out there and sub-genres to them?
Art should be a way to express, not just sell. Art should be timeless and not a moment.
What is the point of human expression if it all looks the same in the name of profit? Wu-Tang’s line has more weight than ever, and everyone should ponder on it some more.
“Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M.”
