Directed by Lee Daniels 132 mins.
Worth my time? No. (Seen at the AMC Promenade 16)
This marked the first time this year that I felt embarrassed on a film’s behalf. Lee Daniels’ The Butler is shamelessly bathetic, terribly edited “Magical Negro” movie, minus the Magical.
The film’s tagline reads: “One Quiet Voice Can Ignite a Revolution.”
Wait, what? The fuck are they talking about? Forest Whitaker’s eponymous butler plays next to no active role in the plot. Come to think of it, there is no plot. The movie is a hodgepodge of easily recognizable eras in recent American history (though each sequence reminds you of the year and current sitting president in case you forget), much like the mess that was Oliver Stone’s W.
For all but the film’s final minutes, Whitaker’s character doesn’t make anything happen. Rather, things happen to him (he didn’t even know he was being considered for the fuckin’ butler job in the first place) or around him. His oldest son (David Oyelowo, recently in Lincoln and Jack Reacher) is much more active in the Civil Rights Movement, but even he is an empty character who’s attaches himself to every major group of a given era – Freedom Riders, then the Black Panthers, then running for Congress or some shit.
Whitaker finally stands up for his convictions when he resigns his post in 1986, being upset over Ronald Reagan’s veto of the South African trade embargo. But at that point he’s probably retiring with a nice pension (it is Washington DC, after all), so it doesn’t come off as that bold.
Then he grills some corn on the cob for an Obama ’08 cookout. Fin.
Aside: Why was David Oyelowo running for Congress in DC? They don’t have a vote in the House of Representatives.
Aside: I hope Cecil Gaines died in early 2009, thereby sparing him the shitstorm that is Obama’s second term.
Aside: Between Mo’nique in Precious and Oprah in this film, Lee Daniels seems to think all black wives are drunk and irritating.
Aside: Wait, Terrence Howard gets presumably killed and everyone’s just cool with it? Reminds me of Lukas Haas in Inception.
Aside: Whitaker’s father is played by David Banner. Fuck yeah.
(Seen on and written on 2013-08-18)
CineSpaz 