Now that the first season of Legend of Korra has been wrapped up, I sat down with Alice Marie and Rick to talk about the show and hash out all our intense, well, feels. We wanted to chat about what we liked about the series, what we didn’t like, and what we hope for in the second season. Read on after the jump for our chat.
New show, new Avatar, new feelings.
We’ve mentioned previously on the site just how excited we are about Dear White People. The project speaks for itself, as you can tell from the trailer, and it’s obvious that it’s exactly the sort of indie film making that sets our hearts aflutter. At an opportune time, Moxie caught up with writer/director/producer Justin Simien and producer Lena Waithe for a quick chat to find out a little more about what the project means to them, so read on for the interview.
Moxie: I’m completely in love with your project, having seen the trailer on Shadow And Act. What sparked the idea for the project?
Justin Simien: The original idea for the film happened during my senior year at Chapman University. After growing up in Houston, attending the rather diverse High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, college life at a small private college in Orange County was a four year long culture shock. I wanted to comment on my experience and started collecting personal episodes like mitigating the sheer disillusionment in certain White students when I couldn’t teach them how to crypt walk, or when I decided to finally cut my substantial fro, or just in general when I acted differently then the Black people they saw on 106 and Park.
Lena Waithe: I was first introduced to [the project] in a writers group (which is how Justin and I met). He was writing it as a TV show, but all the themes and the characters were the same, and it had a huge impact on me. I loved his voice and I loved him. Of course we quickly became close friends and I finally read the feature length version of “2%” which is what it was originally called (because the black students at Manchester only made up two percent of the population). And once I read the feature, I was just sold on helping him bring this story to light.
M: As a Black woman and a creative I know I’ve had conversations with folks time and time again, especially in college, that are reminiscent of a lot of moments in the trailer. What was the moment when you all said, “We need to make a movie about this”?
JS: I had been working on the material for a few years, trying it as a TV pilot or an overwritten 265 page feature, which didn’t garner much interest for some strange reason, when I realized that my professional life was mirroring my experiences in college. I was still one of VERY few black faces in most of the places I found myself professionally. Requests to teach friends how to crypt walk were replaced with requests for “Dougie lessons.” I was being confused for the one other Black guy in the office, and the requests to see me with an afro continued unabated, despite my insistence that it was a pain for me to manage and I didn’t really want one.
Also (and more importantly) in the culture there seemed to be a real need for a fresh dialogue about race. The birther movement was gaining momentum, the ugly incidents over a “Black” themed party thrown at UCSD mirrored scenes from the script, and debate over the lack of Black voices in film and tv was happening all around me. That’s when I started the twitter account @DearWhitePeople and working in earnest to get the script to a place where it could be shot as a feature.
LW: I dug [his Twitter] so much that every now and then I would pitch him jokes for it and he would throw them up there. But myself, and one of the other producers Ann Le (who’s been there from the beginning) have been passionate about the film for years. And Justin’s been working on the project for about 7 years. So it’s always been around, I think we just all came to the point where we said it’s either now or never. And thank God, because the timing could not have been better. Continue reading
This week we’re intrigued by details on Marvel’s 2014 film and a kung-fu movie directed and written by RZA, as well as Isabella Rossellini’s educational short videos about bees and an indie album to inspire girls in STEM fields. Continue reading
Welcome back, everyone, to a look at some of the new and exciting voices and stories in the world of comics. Once again, we’ll take a look at some issue No. 1’s hitting the shelves this week, and look for gold among the gristle, so to speak. This week was a good one for powerful female role models in particular, so let’s dive right in.
First up is Fatima: The Blood Spinners by Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets the comic, not the band; Palomar) from Dark Horse Originals. This black and white book with Hernandez’ distinctive simplified style is a tale of a world gone mad. Spin, the most addictive drug ever created, turns out to have a nasty side effect: it turns anyone who uses it – even once – into zombies! The title character, Fatima, is a high-powered femme fatale who may be the only woman who can save a slowly dying world. Her flashbacks in the first issue (after a slew of black and white zombie ass whoopin’) show us a rookie law enforcement officer and her first exposure to the zombie junkies who will one day destroy the world, while also hinting at her inner pain in the present. Fatima is deeply scarred but ultimately strong, and while this is a pretty simplistic character we’ve seen before, it’s nice to see that it’s a woman. Also, the simplified nature of the art makes her inner turmoil something that I don’t really demand to be revealed all at once, if only to watch her keep splattering rotted junkie-zombie brains everywhere. Not a comic I would normally pick up, being a sucker for super polished artwork, but I’m glad I did. Continue reading
With Marvel and Joss Whedon’s Avengers tearing up the multiplexes and making audiences believe a man can fly, build battle armor, throw shields, punch things really hard, and/or enjoy a good shawarma, a sequel is as inevitable as Steve/Tony/Harry/Draco slashfic. The starting lineup for the next film is likely to be a subject of rampant fan speculation, until some time in 2014.
In order to stave off the failings of other team-based superhero flicks (you know who you are), I hereby submit a list of card-carrying Avengers too creepy, misogynistic, racist, or just plain wrong to ever, ever, ever make it on the big screen. I hold no illusions that anyone involved in Avengers 2: Avenging Boogaloo is likely to heed my warnings. But, by the Allfather, I hope they have enough common sense to reach this conclusion on their own.
The Avengers are, according to their masthead, the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. So I had to dig deep to find truly awful characters. On the other hand, did you ever expect to see Whiplash in a major motion picture? Whiplash? Really? Did Living Laser turn them down? Was the Circus of Crime on tour? What I’m saying is, any one of these folks could actually appear in an upcoming movie.
HORRIBLE AVENGER #1: Henry “Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket/Wasp” Pym
New codename? Must be Tuesday.
WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT HIM? Beats his wife. That’s a No. 1 reason to disqualify him right there. But let’s just say movie continuity undoes that bit; let’s just assume it’s unfair to judge a character by a single panel. How about the fact his wife, Janet Van Dyne, is his dead best friend’s daughter? Consider, also, how he coerced her to retire from superheroing because it was “too dangerous.” There’s also the bit where, in order to get her to marry him, he actually faked his death, claimed he was someone else, and kidnapped her? And, just to prove that he might as well be a supervillain, he built Ultron, a robot who, once implanted with an AI based on Pym’s personality, decided it wanted to kill every last human on Earth. Hank Pym is a walking disaster.
If you take away every misstep and psychological malady that makes Pym such an irredeemable ass, you’re left with, what exactly? A Bruce Banner who gets smaller the angrier he gets?
THREAT LEVEL: HIGH. As a founding member of the Avengers, and with an Ant-Man movie in the works, unfortunately, this creep is almost guaranteed to show up in multiplexes. Read on for 4 more
Photo by Ron Gejon
On our radar this week: the sweetest geek wedding ever; Nimona, a new web comic from Noelle Stevenson; cute robo-pets, plus a few more items. Continue reading
Guest contributor Jeff is a Texan, a comic book dork, and a general sci-fi nerd who is engaged in happily educating his teen-aged daughters on the value of brightly illustrated story books where shit blows up, while they educate him on vegetarianism. He writes elsewhere on the web and about soccer (his other obsession), and you can follow his exploits on Twitter.
While we’ve all dreamed desperate nerdy dreams of opening a forgotten shoe box in Grandpa’s attic and discovering a near mint issue of Action Comics #1, the truth of the matter is that No.1 issues appear on the shelves of our favorite nerderies (def: place to revel in one’s nerd-ness, i.e comics and gaming shops, the Internet, your mom’s basement, etc.) on a weekly basis. The number of new stories and voices in comics is astounding, and a part of what keeps us coming back every week. Sure, we want to keep up with Batman’s challenges of dealing with fatherhood, or follow the prep-schoolers of Morning Glories as they struggle with life and death, but we also want new idols for our geekdom. One never knows when the next sensation will come down the pipe. So, this spot will serve to fill you in on my impressions on some new No.1’s on a weekly basis, giving us an idea of what’s hitting the shelves. Some of these may end up being mere fanboy fodder, while others might have legitimate depth and value.
First this week is The Evil Tree #1, from Arcana Comics. Tough to come by in print, but available in its digital format, this little slice of horror comic pie is pretty standard fare. A group of friends of diverse ethnic – and possibly sexual – identities? Check. Gathered together on some sort of outing, getting “away from the city”? Check. One of them, (who of course is the blond female in the little smorgasbord of characters), has been having “a weird feeling”, not to mention horrible dreams with ghosts and men wielding axes in the shadows. Yet, having seen every horror movie ever made, the friends wander off to a cabin in the woods (not THAT one, sadly) and chop wood for a fire, in preparation for a horrible impending snowstorm. Check, check, check. This book really had little to distinguish it from a lot of stock horror stories, and that wasn’t even the worst part. Sadly, it’s just not a very good comic, either. Granted, not every panel of every comic has to contain the word “BANG!” in a balloon, but this book, even with the aforementioned nightmarish beginning, doesn’t have much action at all. Even in stock horror films there is enough creepiness in the background to keep your imagination wound up, and to build tension in the audience. Here, it’s lacking, and the scare tactic ending falls flat because of it. The art is rather Sunday-comics simple as well, making true horrific tension difficult to build. Overall, a dud, in my humble opinion. Continue reading
Needless to say, I loved The Avengers. It was hard to believe they packed that much awesome in one movie. The action sequences were great, the balance between the different characters was well done, and I particularly enjoyed the touches that bore that unmistakable Joss Whedon stamp. The movie was a testament to what happens when a comic book movie is in the hands of a comic book fan. However, something that stood out happened before the movie even began.
I saw the film twice during opening week, once in 3D and once in 2D. Each time, during the commercials that play before the movie previews, there was the same ad for the retail chain Target:
Viewing this commercial, I was immediately struck by the obvious omission of Black Widow and, indeed, by the lack of any girls at all. The narrative presented in the Target ad was obvious: boys are the only children interested in The Avengers and suitable for playing with Avenger-related toys. The only female shown in the commercial is an adult, a mother in the role of caretaker and guide. A further message conveyed is that the only members of The Avengers that are important are the males. I’ll allow that Black Widow’s plain black jumpsuit doesn’t have the pizzazz of a giant green rage monster, or a star spangled shield, but why not have at least one girl in any one of the costumes?
The narrative in the commercial seemed at odds with the story presented in the movie. In the film, Black Widow appears as much as any of the other main characters, and she plays a vital role throughout the movie. She is strong, capable and behaves in truly heroic fashion. So why did Target choose to leave her out of the commercial? Perhaps her uniform wasn’t thought to be marketable? Was it her weapons? Or was it simply that she is female? I was curious to see what the deal was, so I visited two different Target stores, to check out the layout and content of the toy departments. While there, I unintentionally found myself doing an informal, mini-qualitative research. Continue reading
On our radar this week: sweatshirts as amor, casting news for Catching Fire, and the taxonomy of 80’s movie dads. Continue reading
Before I start, you need to know this about Bedevilled, aside from massive trigger warnings of violence, sexual assault, betrayal (you name it): this movie is a gutwrencher. The first half of the movie sets the stage with cruel and unjust situations that will leave you cringing and sad, and the film has no qualms in taking its sweet time building up to the denouement.
At the center of Bedevilled are two women, Hae Won and Bok Nam, who used to know each other as children, but have since drifted apart in drastically different directions. One is a heinous excuse of a human being, and the other is an abused shell of a person, broken but desperately holding onto life and fighting for any chance she can take. But let’s back up a bit to lay out the premise and look at why it’s such an agonizing movie, despite some very satisfying comeuppance served on the curved end of a scythe. (Obviously, contains plot summary and spoilers). Continue reading
or Sci-Fi White Guys, Lara’s Troubles, Happy Zombie Momma and One Too Many Ellen Pages
Every year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) fills the Los Angeles Convention Center in an explosion of high tech, prop guns, bronzed spokes models, and hyperventilating geeks of all stripes. Like a fortune-teller’s vision directed by Michael Bay, E3 forecasts video game future in as loud a way as possible. Watching coverage, it becomes readily apparent that, as much as I look forward to the event every year, it isn’t big on subtlety. The overwhelming male whiteness of event participants and the games being showcased also makes it pretty evident that the entire production isn’t too big on inclusiveness. Still, there are some bright spots – both big-budget and indie – that keep me hopeful for the soul of gaming. Let’s start with the not-so-good, however.
As has been the case pretty much every year, many of the biggest, most exciting games from the show star either white dudes in armor (Star Wars 1313, Gears of War: Judgment, Metal Gear Solid Rising or Halo 4), or white dudes in jackets (Watch Dogs, DmC, Hitman: Absolution). I won’t lie, with the exception of Halo (against which I hold a long-standing grudge), I will probably play all of these games as they become available. From Watch Dogs‘ new, hacker-driven take on stealth action, to Gears of War: Judgment‘s innovative narrative structure, to 1313‘s vision of a different side of the Star Wars universe, it’s all very exciting. It’s just not in any way diverse.
Pictured: White Guy in Armor, White Guy in Armor, White Guy in a Jacket, White Guy in a Jacket. Not Pictured: Anyone else.
We Want You! To Choose Monica Rambeau As Your Next Avenger
I’ve said it before, and I will continue to shout it from the mountaintops: Monica Rambeau needs to be in the next Avengers movie. The Avengers is one of the hottest movies of the summer and there’s already talk and speculation on which character, from the vast array of options, they’re going to bring in for the next film. Sure, they can keep to their current magnificent seven, but we have plenty of time to dream, right?
Now, I know your first thought is, “Moxie, you scamp, I see you trying to push your social justice agenda onto my summer blockbuster life.” To this I say, No duh! I love some Avengers as much as the next girl, but there is no doubt they could use a little splash of color (as could a lot of other blockbuster films). When the word on the street was that everybody was waiting for a Wasp appearance in the next film, I thought, “Cool, so Wasp is gonna be Grace Park, right?” Probably not.
Mantis and her glorious headgear
Then Entertainment Weekly discussed their list of prospective female Newvengers and it included some left field characters of color that I was excited to see mentioned, though my reaction toed the line between “OK, that’s cool,” and “Are you sure about this?” Moondragon and Mantis were really solid calls*, and it would be amazing to have some WOC on the force, obviously, as well as an openly bisexual character. I am more than a little bit wary, however, of giving characters like that over to the Hollywood Media Machine because I do not have the time, patience, or antacids to deal with the potential Dragon Lady, unfeeling, sex bomb, stereotypical ridiculata that might come out of that one. (And if fans can’t deal with Lucy Liu as Joan Watson, I don’t know how they would deal with this). To do it, and do it well, would be amazing, though. Another suggestion was Carol Danvers, and I too am for Carol Danvers, righteous heat that she is. Just this once, though, I am not on Team Danvers for the same reason I’m not fully on Team Wasp or Team Scarlet Witch. I’m Team Monica, all the way.
Flying straight for your heart
I think Monica brings a really human quality that will be needed in the next film, and it’s something that can be addressed up front. Her humanity is a big part of her story, as is her desire to be a part of a team. She would fit in seamlessly, without the need for a lot of pomp, circumstance, a half-baked movie send-up (Remember how good Elektra was? Neither does anyone else), or Hank Pym. Not to say she doesn’t deserve these things (well, no one deserves Hank Pym), but she deserves a fully cocked movie premiere, for sure. Right now, as we breath in the space dust that is the Universe, Monica Rambeau could be easily integrated into the post-credits Easter egg of the next Captain America movie. Can’t you see it all now?
A young woman, who doesn’t know what to do with the fact that she’s as superhuman as it gets, sees on the news coverage of a super-out-of-control blitzkrieg in the middle of New York City. She sets out to find the folks responsible, because if there’s anyone that can help her figure out this whole superpowers thing, it’s the Avengers. Bringing her in at the end of the next Captain America movie would be just canon enough, and now more than ever the Avengers need someone else who is going to solidify them as a team, and not just a bunch of big personalities thrown into a blender set “Save The World.”
I know, it’s perfect. Write some fanfic! Send a letter to your congressperson! We’re gonna change the world, or at least, make the next Avengers movie that much more awesome.
Also, Monica is totally onto your fangirl theories, Internet.
What new character would rock your rainbow bridge all the way to Asgard? Leave it in the comments, and don’t forget to show your work.
*Moondragon and/or Mantis are ESPECIALLY solid calls considering the proposed Big Bad for the next movie. But we shall see. If they do it well, I will be a very happy Moxie.
On our radar this week: reminiscences on The Wire, concept art for “Iron Woman”, and the Django Unchained trailer. Continue reading
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. – Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
There are certain authors and books that inspired me so much as a kid, that nothing I’d read as an adult can compete for that fiercely defended and familiar spot in my heart. The list includes Alexandre Dumas and C. S. Lewis, Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Conan Doyle, Kir Bulychev and Tove Jansson. Reigning high over all, however, is Ray Bradbury.
I remember the exhilaration of reading The Veldt, my favorite story from The Illustrated Man collection (although, maybe uncharacteristically for a kid, I didn’t cheer for the siblings who locked their parents in the virtual nursery, to be eaten by lions); the sadness of a future world ruled by censorship in Fahrenheit 451; and, more than anything else, I still recall the palpable terror and thrill of reading The Martian Chronicles for the first time, with its vicious and strange beauty.
In his stories and novels, Bradbury managed to weave together fantastical worlds and outlandish scenarios with the concerns and realities of his time. He has contributed a great deal to the growth and appreciation of sci-fi as a genre, both as an author and as a fan, publishing fanzines when he was a young man and attending early sci-fi and fantasy conventions. (One of my favorite stories, still, is of young Ray Bradbury too broke to attend a convention in New York and having his friend, Forrest J Ackerman, help out with bus fare.) His words sparked imaginations of kids worldwide and will, hopefully, continue to inspire future sci-fi readers.
If you are a fan of Ray Bradbury’s work, share your thoughts and favorite quotes and moments in the comments.
This post contains some Season/book 1 plot spoilers.
"The women are the strong ones, truly"
If you’ve been following my recaps of the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, you know that I have a lot of feelings about the show and its characters. But I have a special fondness for the female characters, not just because I’m a woman, but because they’re one of the largest and most complex group of ladies to be featured on a popular television show in recent history. It doesn’t hurt that they’re all played by very capable actresses, who bring such vibrancy and depth to their roles that I am often left breathless and unblinking on Sunday nights. So what makes these characters so great? Let’s take a look!
Before the beginning of the season, Lois did an excellent job of defending and explaining Sansa Stark, who is a perfect example of the character development seen in the women of Game of Thrones. Sansa’s experience is the opposite of those of the princesses of fairy tales and legends, and she has been forced to grow up very quickly, leaving her childhood behind and learning to navigate the treacherous world of courtly life. Her character arc is a coming of age story, a young woman’s journey into adulthood. This tale is by no means a new one, but it’s one piece in a larger quilt of women’s stories, including the other Stark women, Arya and Catelyn. All of them are essentially protagonists, loyal to family and friends, usually playing by the rules, but I doubt anyone would claim that they are the same character, or that their personal experiences and stories do not have merit in their own right. Continue reading
