The Dark Projector

I know what you’re thinking. Why would you watch 15 animated DC films? To be honest, I don’t really have an answer to that question. But over the past few weeks, I have. And to counter that further, I’m glad that I did. Everyone knows that the current state of live-action DC superhero films is pretty messy. With Wonder Woman (Jenkins, 2017), Aquaman (Wan, 2018), Shazam (Sandberg, 2019) and Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (Yan, 2020) being the exceptions, Zack Snyder’s competitor to the Marvel universe is chock full of weak characterization, poorly executed CGI villains that are mainly drawing the heroes to over-the-top lasers shooting up towards the sky climaxes. It’s because of this that the format of the animated universe is so successful. While their live-action counterparts deal heavily with grandiose and tiresome CGI battles, the animated films focus on character-driven moments that really help the viewer understand the heroes fightin...

When looking at Netflix today, Tate Taylor’s popular film The Help (2011) was in the Top 10. To a lot of people this will make sense. It’s a film that multiple age groups have enjoyed and they feel good when they watch it. I’ve seen countless people post the image of Viola Davis comforting the child version of Emma Stone’s character in the film by saying “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” While that is a positive message that everyone can use to boost themselves up, the film is a symptom of a long and tired trope in Hollywood: the white savior film. In talking about films that deal with race, some of the first films that white people will bring up are films like The Help , Driving Miss Daisy (Beresford, 1989), and now Green Book (Farrelly, 2018). This is very troubling. What these films have in common is their need to share the Black experience through the white perspective. Each of these films has a main character that is white and through their experiences with ...