I'm a black woman who grew up in an impoverished area of Alabama, I always hated the people (my people) are portrayed in movies.
Will I be offended by movie?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad are the accents?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad are the stereotypes?
The trailer of the movie looks beautiful, but I'm not going to pay anything for someone to insult me and my family.
I'll preface this by saying I'm a white male from the north, for what it's worth.
There is absolutely no caricaturization in this film at all. Everything is subtle, the accents are natural, there are no overdone stereotypes, etc.
The film is one of the most "natural" films I've seen in a long time in that it doesn't feel like you're watching a film... you're just watching people in their daily routine...
You will not be insulted at all - I feel this is a fairly accurate portrait of rural (and somewhat impoverished) America, whether it's North, South, east, west, white, black...
Having said that, the beautiful cinematography clearly shows is as the rural south.
I'm a white southerner....for what its worth. You will not be offended, but pleased. This movie does not even bring up the whole white/black southern thing.....and thats what makes it special. It centers around a black family and there are white characters, but essentially its about people. Race has nothing to do with it. The accents are legit, and there are no "stupid southerners who hate everyone but love their sister too much."
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Absolutely, see it. It's not about racism or social issues, it's about a very specific situation and characters, all of whom are living, breathing people, though the broader issues must have impacted them for all that's worth. In a nutshell, it's about a man devastated by the death of his twin brother, a man who you realize has probably struggled with depression his whole life. A classic American male archetype.
There is an estranged sister-in-law and all their history, and a young nephew who is in danger of going adrift. The brother's death brings them all back into contact with each other.Depending on your point of view, not much happens, or the stuff of high drama happens.
Mainstream movies are about glossy people in improbable settings, this one happens to be about the owner of a tiny convenience store on a rural highway that 90% of America passes on the way to somewhere else. Top-notch performances all round, and beautiful, beautiful, though unobtrusive and un-self-conscious photography.
I may not be a black southerner--I'm white from the rural west, another fertile field for stereotypes--so I can relate to your general concern, if not the specifics. This is not a tin-eared Hollywood production from people whose only experience of everything between New York and Los Angeles is from 35,000 feet.
See it.
Trespassers will be shot.
Survivors will be shot again.
Well BlackHoney, the film stars people FROM the location who are non-actors. It gets no realer than that
I live about ten miles north of Mississippi and it didn't offend me at all, quite the opposite in fact. I found it refreshing in its lack of stereotypes or bullsh-t.
Same old walls closing in
I've found the characterization of black people very offensive in films, especially comedies. I've been curious to know how black people feel about black actors most frequently being used as a "baffoon." We have amazing people like Will Smith and Denzel Washington who have never allowed themselves to be made a mockery of, and that's great, but they are in the minority.
I'm watching Ballast right now, and it is pretty okay. I would also recommend Precious (the movie based on the novel written by Sapphire). It deals a lot with poverty, like this film, and overcoming it. I know that I can never understand the black experience, but it seems I would want my children to watch movies like this, to show them no matter how bleak things seem, there is always hope.