I am just going to say it. I will not be paying money to see M Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender this weekend, or any weekend. I might end up seeing with engagement passes, I might not. But I will certainly not pay. I will no longer support a system of institutional racism with my hard-earned money.

Yeah, I’m saying it. “The Last Airbender” is racist. I have been attacked in another forum, when discussing Avatar, for having the gall to say that racism is a legitimate reason to not like a film. But I’d say a given film being racist is in the top three non-fannish reasons to not support said film. The other two reasons being 1) a given film is sexist and 2) the director of a given film is a convicted child rapist still somehow walking free.

There are numerous wonderful and articulate posts floating around on the internet that lay out the case for not paying to see this film better than I can. And given the growing number of incredibly negative reviews from many different parties, it’s not really necessary at this point for me to contribute to the white noise.

What I’d like to do is share a little fancast. A lot of the talk about the race issues in this movie has focused on the source material’s Asian inspirations, with mention of the First Nations/Inuit influence, but usually only a mention. Racebending has tried to keep this issue part of the focus, but in the wider discussion it tends to get lost. It seems like a lot of people are convinced that there aren’t any Native/First Nation/Inuit actors to choose from.

That is ridiculous.

Here are my choices for Katara and Sokka, two of the main heroes of the series Avatar: The Last Airbender (one of the best TV shows of all time), and their family. They belong to the Southern Water Tribe, one of two tribes in the ATLA world based on an awesome mashup of indigenous cultures, mostly various Inuit/Yupik and Pacific Northwest aboriginal cultures. This is mostly indicated by their skin tents, their igloos, their parkas, Katara’s “authentic Inuit hairstyle” (direct quote from the commentary on the series pilot), their canoes, and yes, their colouring. Some other indigenous cultures are referenced as well, in their catamarans and Sokka’s boomerang. The evidence is overwhelmingly in support of Native American/Inuit Water Tribes.

All of my fantasy actors are First Nations people.

So, under the cut, here’s the fancast!

Read more

Grade: B

Rating: 18A

What’s It About?
A young girl goes on a quest for sexual experience to win the heart of a boy she loves.

What’s its Bechdel Test Score?
3/3. Sammy has two female allies and encounters other women, and even though the plot revolves around sex and Sammy’s crush on a boy, they all manage to have much deeper conversations, very effectively tying Sammy’s external “problem” to her real, inner issues.

What about Minorities?
There is a wise old Japanese lady I was a bit worried about at first, but she’s really cool, and her mentor role doesn’t diminish her as a full character. Other than that, this was the whitest depiction of Vancouver I’ve ever seen.

So… Read more

Grade: A-

What’s It About?
In a Viking village plagued by deadly dragons, a small boy captures a dragon using intelligence and compassion instead of brute strength.

What’s Its Bechdel Test Score?
1/3. This movie suffers from egregious girl tokenism and pointless love interest-itis.

What About Minorities?
Everybody is a Viking.

So…

Read more

Grade: C+

What’s It About?
Alice falls down the rabbit hole and goes to Wonderland. I think it can kind of be read as a sequel to the 1950s Disney version. The plot is new, put together from various elements of the books.

Whats Its Bechdel Test Score?
3/3! A complete pass! Also, this movie is about a girl fighting a woman on behalf of another woman. Pretty sweet stuff! The male Mad Hatter gets himself all woven into the story but that’s forgivable, I guess.

What About Minorities?
It’s as white a movie as the next movie.

So…

Read more

Grade: B    

What’s It About?
A US Marshall investigates a missing persons case in an isolated hospital for the criminally insane, where he uncovers a conspiracy.

Whats Its Bechdel Test Score?
1/3. Failure.

What About Minorities?
It’s as white a movie as the next one.

What the hell did I just watch?

Don’t get me wrong. Shutter Island is really, really good. The acting is phenomenal – Leonardo DiCaprio and Sir Ben Kingsley in particular are being as fantastic as usual. The story is really compelling and fascinating, to the point that I kept putting off going to the bathroom because I didn’t want to miss what was coming next. I had to pee for an hour, but it was worth it.

However, this movie is kind of like a really horrible acid trip. Obviously that’s what Scorsese was going for, so, well played. This movie totally fried my brain. There is one main twist that is fairly predictable, but the way its handled and all the stuff around it totally has me questioning the outcome and trying to figure out what really happened. It’s the kind of movie you have to watch again to figure it out – unless, I suppose, you just want to accept the easy explanation, which I am totally skeptical about.

Unfortunately, it’s a horrible acid trip I really never want to relive. The score was completely over the top and really stressed me out. I was really digging some of the cinematography – it was trippy in really subtle ways that had be questioning whether things were real or imaginary – but at other times it was a bit obvious and gimmicky.

I would certainly recommend it, though. This kind of movie is what filmmaking is about. It’s a very brave effort, although Scorsese isn’t exactly a greenhorn at making “brave” movies, and a few people in the audience did walk out. I think that’s more of a positive note for the film than a negative however – it’s a real experience, and not everybody is going to be able to hack it. I really want to check out the book now, too.