This week I found myself a bit too curious for my own good and decided to watch his latest movie For Colored Girls.
The film is actually based on a play that was first run in 1975. The play is called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. The play was structured as a collection of twenty poems.
Tyler Perry has what some would call a very strong and loyal fan base. Some may say that his fans can be compared to that of the teeny boppers who fall over themselves whenever Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner take their shirts off in slow motion (or any motion for that matter).
I’ve never been a fan of Perry’s work. I see the argument for a strong African American to have a voice and to bring the issues of the community to the forefront of cinema, but I believe he’s just a poor filmmaker and wastes his stage. I’m not here to be destructive however, but rather constructive.
After watching For Colored Girls I immediately thought of five fantastic movies that I think Mr. Perry – and his adoring fans – needs to see. These movies, I believe, would help him be a better storyteller.
1. Magnolia (1999) (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) – Interconnecting Plot Lines
The film features different stories of women and how they’re suffering or being abused. The film finds it necessary to instead of let each plot stand on its own to let all these plots and characters interconnect and be a part of each other. If there’s one film that’s done it and done it best it’s Magnolia. He makes the stories of numerous people in LA over the period of one day all connect along a thread all over the theme of chance.
Magnolia opens with an explanation of how coincidence is a part of life and we must embrace it. Letting the story sit atop this bed of coincidence and chance makes the game of connect-the-dots with all of these characters actually work.
2. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) (dir. James Foley) – Play to film adaptation
For Colored Girls is a based on a play and it’s remarkably obvious with all the acting from every character in the movie that they’re acting it out like they’re on the stage as opposed to being in front of the camera.
Somehow when someone is acting in the theatre it always feels very out of context but in a film the setting is fully realized and the actors actually feel like they’re responding in reality. In Glengarry Glen Ross we see the acting force of Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey remind us that the stage isn’t the screen and never shall the two be confused.
3. Do The Right Thing (1989) (dir. Spike Lee) – Race Relations
If I ever had to pick one movie that I’ve watched which not only made me understand for once what it really is like to live in the African American community but to actually feel empathy for the African American community it’s Do The Right Thing.
In every movie which decides to highlight the African American society it always forcefully makes the white man to be the bad guy or makes everything a bit too uplifting to feel real. In Do The Right Thing though, not only do we have black and white but we have good and bad and it’s shared equally between the races. Right and wrong isn’t as easily understood as it is on paper and here’s a film which thrives by staying in the middle most of the time.
4. Hunger (2008) (dir. Steve McQueen) – The Art of the Monologue
When a monologue is given it’s the character’s opportunity to tell us, the audience, what’s really on his mind. The director sits the camera down to look into Michael Fassbender’s eyes and watch him tell us this story about how he killed a foal that was in misery. We’re not allowed to blink as we’re told this story with the utmost sincerity.
In For Colored Girls there are moments where each of the characters are doing that but at no point does it ever feel like they’re talking to me. It always feels as if they’re constantly beating me down with a ton of bricks, and the problem is at no time do any of the actresses embody the tale they’re telling us so it never feels sincere.
5. True Grit (2010) (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen) – Women
Even though For Colored Girls is mostly about damaged or abused women dealing with their own situations and eventually overcoming those hurdles, when women are so easily written off as the weaker sex then as an audience maker you yourself lose a little respect for that character. Mattie Ross, in True Grit, never backed down from a challenge and at no point was she ever deterred by the task at hand. She herself displayed true “grit” and that’s what films need when showing female characters. We need characters that other women can look up to and cheer for rather than just these flimsy ladies that can’t make it through the day alone.
What did you think of For Colored Girls?
I fail to see how anyone other than a person of color can "understand" another person of color in the perspective of race relations and social equality. I would never say I understand jewish people just because I saw a coen brother's film or that I understand Ghandi because I saw the movie "Ghandi".
While I don't like Tyler Perry's movies or TV shows, just ask yourself how many good films do you know that show average people of color (not including foreign films) and not including any gangster movies, any of the Chris tucker/Chris rock/ will smith type, and any movies that has a colored character as the supporting actors and not the main actor. And also exclude any film that actually about race and not the individual. There are hardly any. That doesn't make Tyler Perry a good filmmaker that just means that, in my mind most of better colored filmmakers can't be mainstream without conforming into the Chris rock/tucker or will smith prototype black character.
Good Point.
There definitely is a void to fill. But as you say it doesn't make him a good filmmaker. If M. Night was making films catered to the Hindus in America then I'm sure we wouldn't be here discussing the merits of his message, we'd still admit as to how fucking horrendous a director/story-teller he is. This is the same for Tyler Perry.
The only difference is that Perry has an audience. We all complain bitterly as to how horrible Twilight is, but you know what would shut us up a lot more than a good movie coming out of the franchise; it would be if the fans weren't there. If people would actually admit that the movie is bad then we would stop annoying ourselves with noise about "why???". If the fanbase stops lapping up the really made-for-TV quality storytelling from Perry then I (and a lot of other critics) would stop caring and we wouldn't be here arguing.
As per the whole "understanding" race relations stuff. I agree that it's difficult to understand another man's perspective and I'm not saying that me sitting down and feeling something after watching a Spike Lee movie makes me an expert on race relations in America (a country that I don't even reside in), but I'd like to think that I do have some sort of feeling about the situation. Call me stupid for that but I would say I have a general idea.
Thanks for the comment Max.