Is it just me or are critics much more likely to get carried away about movies with progressive/right on politics? Throw in a solid performance from an African American female lead and they collectively wet their knickers over a relatively run of the mill heist movie. It was no Heat, put it that way!
I actually do sort of think this, as can be seen in a number of my shitty review/rants. But my issue is not so much about the political leanings of the messages or even that there are messages. What really bugs me is the lack of intelligence and nuance with the way some of the messages are presented.
I found Moonlight fairly unmoving as a film but I do think it's kind of dope to see films that are largely non-white affairs, and I like that it tries to tackle a subject that hasn't been addressed too often. Black Panther too for my money gets a thumbs up for what it represents, given that it's the first black dominated hollywood blockbuster (I think), the film itself also raises some pretty wild and radical ideas before realsing it's a Marvel film and has feck all to say on them. BP's weaknesses as a film are also mitigated by the generally godawful standard of the franchise series it belongs to. WW I aint going to defend, in fact I'm happy to have a go at it because I felt that not only did the film fail as a girl power movie (something that the filmmakers and supporters heavily played up), I actually thought that it's gender politics were rather problematic (bordering at times on the misogynist), not to mention the hateful ableist stuff.
That brings me to my cheif bugbear; films that push a simplistic, comforting, surface level message under the guise of political challenging cinema. And often these films have a politically suspect underbelly themselves. I'm thinking of films like Crash (most inappropriate white saviour ever), WW (as above), Three Billboards (its use of rape, race and little people), Shape of Water (Bojangles Nojangles).
Talk about race and give me something hard and uncompromising like Bamboozled, or give me feminism in the form of the scabrous, man-murdering A Question of Silence. I'm all for pointed messages that'll challenge my assumptions, but give me the cinematic equivalent of a "Trump has shit hair" tweet and I'll call you a twat.
And yes I also think that the traditional art critic is being replaced by bloggers that would rather have an agreeable political message than a good film.
Also, also I find today's "Hollywood liberalism" to be disgustingly capitalistic, duplicitously misogynist and in full support of white hegemony. Feck what ya heard.