What To Watch After You've Seen Girlhood

The wonderful, glorious, poignant (look, just read my review so I can stop wasting adjectives on it, okay?) Girlhood is finally released in UK cinemas on the 8th of May. "Finally", many of you may say, "a coming of age film about a black teenage girl". And while there may be a severe lack of them, it's my duty to inform you that Girlhood is just one in a (admittedly very short) list of beautiful coming of age films about black girls and women. So if you're trying to cope with the wait until you can see Girlhood again, or love it so much that you're hungry for more, make sure to check out these incredible films.

Love and Basketball

It's hard to precisely name what makes Love and Basketball so great, aside from that fact that it, like all the very best rom-coms, takes genre conventions and either subverts or completely disregards them. The film tells the story of best friends turned lovers Monica and Quincy, who both aspire to be basketball stars. While initially the film may look as though it's about both characters, this is well and truly Monica's story, made evident by the absolutely brilliant and undeniably feminist final scene in the film. 

Crooklyn

Okay, so this may not be Spike's best, but it's certainly one of his better depictions of women. (She's Gotta Have It could've easily made this list, but there's that subplot towards the end of the film that just... no.) Loosely autobiographical and co-written with siblings Joie and Cinque, Crooklyn follows young Troy's trials and tribulations in Lee's native Brooklyn, dealing with her boisterous family. It's almost as nuanced as Lee's films about his male characters, which is refreshing, even if it is still a little lacking with the way it treats its female characters.

Our Song

Starring a young Kerry Washington, Our Song could easily be labelled as just another stereotypical "hood movie", but in actual fact, the film's lazy, naturalistic pacing, makes it feels a lot more like a female, transatlantic cousin to French classic La Haine. The film follows three friends who have to deal with being separated when their school is closed and they are separated. Similarly to Girlhood, Our Song's protagonists are never treated like victims, but like real characters whose decisions - good OR bad, are pondered upon and never judged by their director.

Belle

Easily one of the worst advertised films of recent times, it's easy to believe that Belle is yet another Pride and Prejudice-esque romance, but with a twist... the main character is, shock horror.... BLACK. But to label Belle this is to massively undersell it, as it's actually a very beautiful and measured coming of age film that clearly respects and loves its protagonist. The film is also a subtle critique of white upper class British society who claim to have no links to slavery, and who are "tolerant" of non-white people to an extent. The film was also the breath through for the luminous angel in a human body that is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, so hopefully it'll be even more acclaimed in a few years when she's a huge star and people want to look back at how she "made it".

Flirting

Similarly to Love and Basketball, Flirting is more of a two-hander, and sadly focuses more on the male part of the film's couple, but it's a brilliant year nevertheless. A sequel to the under-seen (AKA I haven't seen it yet) The Year That My Voice Broke, Flirting follows nerdy teen Danny's miserable time at boarding school, where he ends up falling in love with an enigmatic new girl (played by Thandie Newton in one of her breakout roles) who goes to the all girls school across the lake. Every time I think about this film, it illicit the kind of "awww" that I usually save for thinking about dogs or Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Boogie Nights. It's subtle, sweet, and it allows its black female character to be more than just a girlfriend or a supporting character.

Just Another Girl on the IRT

Leslie Harris's debut (and at present, only) Sundance prize-winning film is similar to Our Song and Girlhood in that it accepts its protagonist, flaws, ill-advised decisions and all. Following the brilliantly mouthy Chantel, (in one of the film's best scenes, she continuously interrupts her history lesson to ask why they never study black history) a smart high schooler who dreams of going to college but has to juggle her difficult family, boys, and an unexpected pregnancy. The film is filled with a frenetic energy and Chantel leads us through her life, constantly breaking the fourth wall to ensure that she is in charge of telling her own story.

Pariah

Dee Rees manages to combine two deeply important issues - race and sexuality - in her feature debut, allowing for a film that tackles a rarely seen subject in cinema - a black lesbian coming of age story. Lead by the brilliant Adepero Oduye, (who also gave a moving performance as a mother parted from her children in 12 Years a Slave) the film is a tender and mediative look at sexuality and family. Not only does Rees tackle what could be seen as a "tricky" subject, but she does so with skill and finesse, so it's exciting to think about how she'll tackle her Bessie Smith biopic that's due to air on HBO soon.

The Body Beautiful

Last but not least is one of the trickiest films on this list to get a hold of, but if you're clever at traversing the internet or hunting down films then you won't be sorry. Ngozi Onwurah's short manages to cram multiple issues - mother/daughter relationships, body image, cancer, interracial relationships - into its short time span, as well as focusing on its authors racial and gendered identity and how this shapes her place in the world. Filled with stunning imagery and beautiful ideas about femininity, The Body Beautiful is definitely worth searching for.

Whiplash and the Surprising Importance of the White Male Privilege Film

(Contains spoilers for Whiplash)

Seeing a film for the first time in a long while is a strange thing. I first saw Whiplash way back in May 2014 at Cannes, and proceeded to spend the next eight months shouting things like "it's amazing!", "a game-changer" and "that ending!" at anyone (aka no-one) that would listen. After a second viewing I can confirm that yes, Whiplash is still great. Only this time I found myself liking the film for reasons that I hadn't noticed before, reasons that I'm not even sure director Damien Chazelle meant to be in the film. Whiplash is a great film because it, just like last year's Nightcrawler, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Social Network, or even films as far back as Altman's The Player, states a fact that is obvious to all of us but that we politely deign to mention for fear of upsetting their fragile egos - if you are a middle class white man, there is little to nothing that will stop you from getting what you want, no matter how many people you have to manipulate, trample, rape or kill to get it.

Why then, you may ask, does that make Whiplash such a good film? Aren't there enough films out at the moment about white men trying to reach for the American (or English, if you look to The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything) Dream? Should I just go see Birdman or Foxcatcher instead? Well, let us propose something that has long been stated by theorists - cinema is a mirror that can be used to view ourselves and our society. Just like looking at yourself in a mirror after a long cry or a heavy night, it's not always particularly flattering. What do we see when we look through the cinematic mirror? We see a complete lack of diversity, and white men dominating the scene (both on and off-screen) just because they're white men. And another thing - cinema is supposed to be more than an just artform. Isn't cinema is a device to change the world? Has it done much changing so far? Hell no it, but maybe one day it will. So, the more films we make about the type of guy that saunters into a job interview, raises one eyebrow because he knows he's earnt it and ends up running the country within a year get made, the more we'll start to think that hey, isn't this a little problematic? Maybe we should question this, not just in our cinema, but in our society. It's worth pointing out as well that this is the inherent difference between films like Whiplash and Nightcrawler and films like Birdman and Foxcatcher - the directors of the former give us films filled (perhaps accidentally but nevertheless effectively) with the inevitability of white male privilege, whereas the latter try to convince us that oh, isn't life such a struggle for the white man? How will this famous actor manage to put on a play? Foxcatcher is a little different in terms of Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum's characters as there is actually a serious element of win or lose when it comes to wrestling, but the idea of the white American Dream is still there first and foremost.

A counter example of this is a film I haven't written about for a while, (so I'm going to be indulgent and do so here) Inside Llewyn Davis. Oscar Isaac's Llewyn is talented, and he sure as hell knows he's talented. Just like Miles Teller's Andrew, he treats people like shit because he thinks he's "better" than them due to his talent. So what's the difference between Teller's Andrew and Isaac's Llewyn? It's the colour of his skin of course. In reality, Isaac is Latino, and in the film he's Italian American. In one memorable scene, after F Murray Abraham's Bud Grossman rejects him as a solo singer, he offers him two pieces of advice for blending into the background and making it as part of a bland trio: "don't go in the sun, and shave your beard into a goatee". Due to his ethnicity, Llewyn's only option for stardom is to blend in and conform. Andrew on the other hand, can make it on his terms thanks, once again, to his established privilege.

The last scene of Whiplash is a solidification of all I have been talking about above. Throughout the film we are lead to believe that Andrew is a big bright shining star, and while it's exhilarating to watch all the highs of his talent, its also a little satisfying to watch the lows. So when you see him be beaten yet again by his ex-teacher and antagonist, you think it's finally all over. Forget talent, it's all about who has the bigger balls, and who can pull one over on who. That is, until he comes back out onto that stage, and begins his tour-de-force, an ace class in how to manipulate people in order to get what you want. By forcing his teacher to go along with him and help him give the best performance possible, Andrew starts once again to ascend to the top. J.K Simmons's character in Whiplash is certainly not perfect - far from it in fact, he's a homophobic (pretty much all kinds of phobic to be perfectly honest) bully. But it's a little disheartening to see what was once such a strong character be completely pulverised by his protégée and turning into a smiling, encouraging put upon helper. But hey, that's just the way it goes isn't it? Just like the phoenix, you can only keep the privileged white man down for so long - it's their destiny to ascend from the ashes to restore the status quo of society.

Grace Barber-Plentie