Jezebels, race kink and Cardi B: in One Battle After Another, Black women are still stereotypes

"Many words have already been written about the good in Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film some say masterpiece including a five-star review in the Guardian. The electrifying pace of the action; that instant-classic car chase sequence and Benicio del Toro's heroically chill Sensei Sergio, have all been justly praised. So let's take this as read. But if a film is worth seeing, then it's worth taking seriously and in this case that involves asking: dear, revered PTA, what is up with you and Black women?"

"We know Anderson is careful and deliberate in his introduction of a racial dimension to this story. We know this because in the original 1990 novel, Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, the character corresponding to Perfidia Beverly Hills (played by Teyana Taylor), is white, with fluorescent blue eyes. Her daughter (played by mixed-race Chase Infiniti) is also therefore white, and while the race of the character corresponding to the other prominent Black woman in the film Deandra, played by Regina Hall"

"Sometimes film-makers go the other way with books about American history, and that's tricky too. When Sofia Coppola adapted The Beguiled into a 2017 film starring Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst, she meticulously excised all the Black and mixed-race female characters from Thomas P Cullinan's civil war-set novel, so that this southern belle soft-life fantasia needn't be troubled by the brutal realities of the 19th-century slave economy."

Watching One Battle After Another after Assata Shakur's death raises questions about how white male filmmakers depict revolutionary Black women. Paul Thomas Anderson introduces a deliberate racial dimension by recasting characters from Thomas Pynchon's Vineland as Black or mixed race. The film casts Teyana Taylor and mixed-race Chase Infiniti in roles originally written as white, and includes Regina Hall in another prominent role. The casting approach contrasts with Sofia Coppola's excision of Black and mixed-race female characters in The Beguiled adaptation. The actors deliver commanding performances, though Regina Hall remains underused despite demonstrated range.

Read at www.theguardian.com