There's no place like this to call home

[sovay]

And later in the afternoon, I combined the prevailing concerns of the last twenty-four hours and saw Ryan Coogler's Black Panther (2018) at the Capitol Theatre with gaudior and rushthatspeaks. I can't write about it right now, but it's a gorgeous film: worldbuilding, performances, music, myth, serious and beautifully realized Afrofuturism. The thing where if you get enough women in the same cast together, they have conversations about honor and technology, not just men. I want my toolkit-loving niece to be old enough to show her this film for Shuri. Casino shootouts and war rhinos. Maybe the next time Nabiyah Be's on film, she'll get to sing. Once upon a time the most familiar way into this story would have been through the eyes of Ross of the CIA, and this is not his movie.

Comments

[kore]

Once upon a time the most familiar way into this story would have been through the eyes of Ross of the CIA, and this is not his movie.

YES, THAT. And in the earlier films he would've been sympathetic, and in the later films he would've been a symbol of colonialism, and in this he's just a bit player. Loved it.

[sovay]

And in the earlier films he would've been sympathetic, and in the later films he would've been a symbol of colonialism, and in this he's just a bit player. Loved it.

Yes!

[edit] And the bit player status is so important, because what is happening in Wakanda is a civil war: outsiders can't be the deciding factor and Ross is both part of the problem and part of the outside. He contributes. But he doesn't make or break the day.

[kore]

Not to be too blunt about it, but he's also a white CIA-trained operative blowing Wakandan pilots out of the sky via a drone. That was pretty jawdropping, even if it was framed as being on the side of the good guys.

[sovay]

Not to be too blunt about it, but he's also a white CIA-trained operative blowing Wakandan pilots out of the sky via a drone.

I think it works strictly because he's drone-piloting at Shuri's command; she's running him. Anything else and nope.

[kore]

Oh yeah, it's clearly framed as a good-guys moment and it's Shuri's tech and Erik gave the orders, and so on, but it was still a "wow they went there" moment for me.

[sovay]

Oh yeah, it's clearly framed as a good-guys moment and it's Shuri's tech and Erik gave the orders, and so on, but it was still a "wow they went there" moment for me.

There is a lot of refracting and patterning in this movie, so much so that it's one of the reasons I want to rewatch it: because they're the only two Americans in the main cast, because they're both shadow-work, CIA, "one of ours," I saw Ross and Erik sometimes mirrored against one another, and I think Ross' role in the civil war is part of that.

[kore]

OMG, omg YES, what a great point. And they're the two outsiders to Wakandan society, too (not counting Serkis. I bet he wasn't even there. I bet he waited and some other dudes went in and snatched the vibranium).