TFP wants to start off on an upbeat note – after declaring this coming season in theater the most Asian on Broadway- in a year with no shows set in Asian countries – (which, she’s not wrong) – she had some more good news via Insta – Bossy Bear – the Nickelodeon series (based on a children’s book series by David Z. Horvath and his wife, Sun-Min Kim) has beaten, numbers wise, the juggernaut that is…wait for it..PAW PATROL!
Here is what it means to AAPI America, and this is what she told her kid when he asked why it was a big deal – what it means is that children understand and require content where they can see themselves. They love the dogs. They likely have a lot of dogs they know personally – but to them, dogs do not represent necessarily human behavior, though they do talk and deal with moral issues on Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol is a great show, and has been THE GOAT for a long time. However there was room for a show down, and when it all came out – in January the viewers for Bossy Bear were 147,000, vs. Paw Patrol’s 80,000. Bossy Bear was UP 77% and Paw Patrol was down 48%.
Bossy Bear is a bear that walks upright – in a family of upright walking animals. The drawings are not photo-realistic, so it is easier perhaps to discern human type behavior as interpreted through animals.
However what TFP wanted to point out is that Bossy Bear ‘lives’ in a multi-cultural area that is more urban based – and they have different characters raised by different kinds of parents and in different ways. It also is based in Asian, specifically Korean culture as interpreted by America – so here’s what AAPI’s – we are winning the future Generations- no one is turned off by the show’s innate and specific Korean-ess, they embrace it and within the fabric of the show, they see themselves and their neighbors.
Yes, it means that kids are more willing to watch different kinds of characters and be inclusive – a huge ups to their parents and families – because Bossy Bear and his sister being of Korean descent – is not threatening to them. The Kids will be all right.
Meaning perhaps we will see a time when someone is not targeted by people for their background. TFP is all for that! Oscar Hammerstein was correct – if you are going to be racist to someone, you must be carefully taught how to do so.
Great that Nickelodeon is teaching children to acknowledge and be open – because in specificity, we find universality.
TFP also wanted to give a shout out to the Newly interpreted British production of Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. It got rave reviews in all the papers there – and we love to see it. Open till February 24th – Directed by Matthew White, the cast includes Jon Chew, Kanako Nakano, Saori Oda, Takuro Ohno, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Luoran Ding, Masashi Fujimoto, Rachel Hayne Picar, Eu Jim Hwang, Able Law, Ethan Le Phong, Jo Jo Meredith, Patrick Munday, Sario Solomon, Joy Tan, Lee VG and Iverson Yabut.
Now on to the Mojo Dojo Casa Award Nominations aka The Oscars!
Now TFP fully acknowledges that there are Nominees in so many categories that are super encouraging.
The Supporting Actress category is a joy to look at – America Ferrara for Barbie, Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers, Jodie Foster for Nyad, and Emily Blunt for Oppenheimer.
Must be noted that Ms. Ferrara is the 9th Latina ever nominated and the last time a Latinx performer won in the category was in 2021, Ariana DeBose, awarded in 2022.
In the Best Lead Actress category HERstory is being made as Lily Gladstone is nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon (First Native American Nominated in Best Actress Category). TFP is rooting for her.
There is even A woman nominated in the Best Director Category – Justine Triet who directed Anatomy of a Fall. She is a French national.
In the Best Lead Actor category – Jeffrey Wright and Coleman Domingo
So there is diversity going on – it just seems to TFP that while we applaud certain moves, we cannot help but comment on some others that seem, to quote Julie Andrews, ‘egregiously overlooked’.
Even as we see so much progress…for example…
members of the LGBTQIA+ community playing characters of the LGBTQIA+ community!
TWO of them!
Coleman Domingo and Jodie Foster!
Yet, TFP cannot help but notice…the bulk of the ‘queer’ characters are played by straight people, straight people who are allies, but straight people – again…progress comes like a drip drip and not a tidal wave.
One year of a ‘big win’ for a certain group is not a guarantee of an reworking of that world. It’s not. The kids want it to be, however TFP is old – she knows how progress goes – like the cha cha – forward back, forward back. And a one and a two.
Will we see progress every awards season? A little bit.
But will patriarchy end?
No.
Not even with a bill passed by POTUS Barbie.
People like patriarchy. Of course ‘those people’ are Cis White Men, they love it. They can open their minds and hearts in small amounts, in categories that they do not feel threatened in. Supporting categories for POC, they love that – because to a certain extent they believe that is where all the “Alphabet” people are – and that is our purpose – in their minds.
This is not to negate any one or any performance at all – honestly they are all standouts – but just to note, that is where ‘they’ feel comfortable having us. So that is why it does not threaten the status quo to have diverse nominees in the categories. (Not too much progress at once or ‘we’ will get spoiled.) A win by an Actor or Actress of minority status is always followed it seems, by a win by a straight white person. Don’t believe her?
After awarding Best Supporting to Ariana DeBose, in 2023 the award went to Jamie Lee Curtis for Everything Everywhere All At Once. Also nominated that year in that category were Angela Bassett,(who did so many of the things) Hong Chau, and Stephanie Hsu.
Cuz….
TFP doesn’t know if the horses front ends are anywhere near these nominations, but she is pretty sure they can be included if we look at them from the rear.
There are three women nominated for Original Screenplay – Anatomy of a Fall –Justine Triet, May December -Samy Burch and Past Lives – Celine Song - that is great, shakes up that category a bit as that has never happened before. Should they all have been nominated in more categories? Yeah.
But then where would the white auteur directors go?
Would have been lovely if Greta Lee had been nominated, or Charles Melton or…it is pointless to go on – we see what it is.
Celine Song should have been nominated in the Best Director category and we know what that is too – let’s just acknowledge it.
Yes, there were super cool pushes for inclusion so- now let’s talk about it – Barbie was not nominated for Best Director or Best Actress – it was nominated in the Adapted Screenplay category so Ms. Gerwig can share the nomination with her Husband.
How nice. What’s that called again, TFP?
Margot Robbie played Barbie, but she also produced the film, so she is nominated in…the Producer category for Best Picture. However no one would have noted the project had she not been able to play the role near perfectly.
Is this a time to get upset? Are we all going to fall on our swords for two white ladies who have one of the highest grossing movies of the last year?
Barbie is a sly comedy – and comedies have always been discounted at The Oscars. TFP is honestly not ‘that’ surprised. The men want the Oscars to ‘mean something’ and so they award them for ‘important’ films that they can feel gravitas for. They have always done this, the men.
Look at The Oscar – it is a giant phallus.
What they have failed to realize, and what TFP relies on with this particular blog is that – humor, in so many ways, is a more important way to get across a message than demanding everyone be agitated. or crying. Or pounding their chests.
Men are sensitive.
The girls that laughed, their moms, and grandmothers and aunties who saw what was made ‘for them’, will make sure that film lives on in infamy, it is already a giant box office winner – but that comedic film will be shown until we no longer show films – that is a win.
Bigger than any ceremony.
In many ways, the non-nominations are the point. They are getting addressed on Instagram by Hillary Rodham Clinton – that is the point as well. That the ‘gals’ were right. They only get proven more ‘right’ as time goes on. Tick tock.
Greta Gerwig wrote and directed one of the most pointed take-downs of male ego in our modern cinema and the only ones who found it not at all painful to ‘get’ were women and the Gay men who love them.
That is it.
LGBTQIA + and cis women.
Cis women of all kinds ‘got’ it.
America Ferrara delivered a BLISTERING testimonial of what being in a patriarchy does to the female psyche, yes – but Greta Gerwig penned it. (TFP is not willing to give Noah credit for that monologue -he would have no way ‘in’ to that insight.)
Now it is fine, and by fine she means ‘totally infuriating but expected’ that they did not nominate Ms. Gerwig nor Aussie Actress/Producer Margot Robbie for awards for Best Director and Best Actress for BARBIE.
The point was made – we can only get so far before men stop us.
In a film about BARBIE, they nominated Ken. (And Gloria, who is not a Barbie at all)
The Oscars do not like comedies, so it was always a long shot.
Eventually – those men will die.
That is what they are scared of.
Men are mostly afraid of being laughed at – that is why they don’t like Drag Queen Story Hour.
TFP isn’t angry about any of it, it is actually amusing to watch because the talking points for conversation will be endless. Some push back will come from conservative women who hold up the patriarchy – because of course it will.
TFP expects it.
Does not matter though – the film is out, and it does not have to roar and rage – it can make it’s point by being smart and clever. It has bops and triple threats, and it is FUN, and for those who could not bring themselves to vote for a comedy film that will be a cultural touchstone for a long time – meh – your loss.
This is one of the unique issues of being a woman. We live longer and we never forget.
So All Hail to the Actors of Diversity that have made it to the Big Show this year – the world changes every day – we are watching it at the Oscars in slo-mo – but it’s still moving forward and that’s something to celebrate.
May the flowers you get be the ones that mean something to you.
S’allright Folks, Dance it out!
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