Terence Nance is an artist originally from Dallas, TX. His first feature film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won a Gotham Independent Film Award. The album of the same title will be released later this year.
This is a conversation between an old filmmaker friend and I about Chi-Raq. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Terence
question: did you see Chi-Raq?
Shalomar
no. lol. ive been avoiding it. im nervous, i hear its bad.
you?
Terence
yeah. i’m supposed to write about it
Shalomar
your thoughts?
Terence
it’s not all bad.
But he shoulda cast Monique in Sam Jackson’s role. And Chief Keef in Nick Cannon’s role.
it’s about 51 percent genius
And 49 percent just… tone-deaf or just like aesthetically and conceptually unrigorous
or not thought through
Shalomar
I hear you
Terence
Chi-Raq is trying to do a similar thing to Where Do We Go Now?, which is 100% genius.
You should see it, compare the two.
Chi-Raq is not like the last 3 movies, which had almost no spark at all…
Shalomar
they were unfortunate
Terence
this one has like… enviable moments. fresh ideas.
There is a few dance set pieces that are like… “I wish I’d thought of that!”
And the Dave Chappelle scene was like, “wow, you can really make a movie written in meter sound natural, like vernacular.”
Had some nice meme talk in it
“when they murder white babies and things don’t change
saving black lives is way out of range.”
There was also this amazing performance from this guy in a wheelchair who seemed to be improvising a kind of moment of levity about the gang violence. He was great.
Shalomar
So basically I should see it…
Terence
But then it has like huge gaps between those great ideas of head-scratching shit.
I still can’t pinpoint how the main character got radicalized to incite world peace.
I mean, i know the scene that was supposed to achieve the goal of telling me that but it just… didn’t.
but it’s not problematic in the ways ppl are accusing it of being
Shalomar
hhmmmm
i think HE is problematic
Terence
he is problematic, although I hate that word. too general.
I’ll say that when he talks about the film in public the soundbites always make it seem like he is victim-blaming black ppl in poverty, and pathologizing whole Black communities because some small percentage of us murder people, but the actual movie doesn’t do that
I also think the film doesn’t objectify black women but the misogynist characters in the film do objectify black women in a very extreme and violent way – which to me is an apt social commentary. men are out of fucking control re: rape / sexual violence, as we know.
I mean, he casts the men as sex-obsessed objectifiers with overflowing potential for rapey violence.
Shalomar
understandable
Terence
which i think works as a characterization / generalization given the hyperbolic, allegorical tone he’s going for
And I didn’t take issue with the women characters in the film. They are like… a diverse array of tropes
Shalomar
im interested in hearing what another Black woman thinks about the women characters…
Terence
So then watch the movie!
Shalomar
i might… what were the women characters?
Terence
you have the grieving mother, buttoned up, sad at all times
you have the militant angela bassett character
and then you have the sexy young siren character
whereas all the men are just always talking about pussy
Shalomar
your descriptions could be perceived as types: hypersexualized vamp… angry black woman…
Terence
They are def. tropes but the movie speaks in the language of caricatures, generalizations and archetypes
e.g. gangsters in Chicago don’t wear bandanas like Crips from the 90s in LA, but they do in this movie.
But about the way he paints the gender roles.
It read to me like it was kind of daft and insufficient
not quite feminism that he was trying to embrace
it was kind of like how black comics always parody white ppl in the audience.
like
it’s harmless
they’re white ppl
They can stomach my comedic criticism of their racism because they have well-functioning white supremacy on their side.
Shalomar
will you write all this about the film?
Terence
i don’t know what to write
at this point in his trajectory spike is like the embodiment of a lot of our fathers’ worst traits and best traits. But still mostly the best traits.
Shalomar
Mostly, huh?
Terence
YEA! we would be nowhere without Spike
Shalomar
speak for yourself
Terence
No, I’m speaking for both of us.
really tho, what other Black filmmakers from previous generations are interacting at all with our generation, let alone producing our films?
Spike produced Darius’ film, Ian’s film, Dee’s film, etc. etc.
Who else is doing… ANYTHING?
Shalomar
Oprah…
Terence
Negro please
Shalomar
I’m just playin
Terence
Actually Chris Rock helps out
Shalomar
Yep, does Robert Townsend help out?
Terence
I’d put a c-note on No
Shalomar
Who got money… other than O?
Terence
Mad ppl got money. Will, Tim, John, Denzel, Whoopi, Tyra, Russell, Tyler, Jamie, Latifah. but it’s not really about the money, that’s only a piece of it.
Shalomar
True, it’s all about the put-on. Spike been putting ppl on.
Terence
Yep, you just gotta put your name on it and package it – the classic co-sign / put-on maneuver, works like a charm.
Shalomar
Forrest be putting ppl on
Terence
True… TEXAS!
Shalomar
YEP!
write what you are typing now.
I think the film could benefit from a nuanced response, so he should be addressed like that.
Terence
but i really don’t know what to say
i kinda feel like…
like, Dad, I love you but you crazy as fuck right now…
go sit down somewhere and let the art speak for itself.
I feel like I should address him like I talk to my actual father when he is wylin out.
Shalomar
I’ve seen a lot of folks coming at his neck and if you have the ability to nuance it then you should
he’s like your old ass uncle who was once on point but has grown out of touch
we can respect the legacy but still come for the weaknesses in the work
but i also think that folks worship him and his legacy so they dont want to fully come for him.
Terence
that “don’t name your kids muhammed” moment that foreshadowed the storm of shit.
And also because of that terrible song they put out before the film with that dumbass line in it that everyone on earth who reads books knows is bullshit
“we’re the only race that shoots and kills themselves”
But before I saw the movie I heard more critical response to the title, which is asinine given that Spike didn’t invent the word. And nobody seemed to do anything about Chief Keef’s many crimes against humanity in the form of photoshop abuse.
Shalomar
LMFAO
Terence
I know right, somebody should de-authorize his copy of Creative Suite.
Shalomar
That’s a tyrannical approach, Terence
he has a right to the means of production.
Terence
Not forever, just until he can, like, take a class
From someone who understands negative space
Shalomar
Negro, you so brainwashed
Terence
Anyway, the movie isn’t as self-hatey as the zeitgeist among the Black intelligentsia suggests.
there are like 2 lines devoted to telling black ppl get their act together, he has John Cusack use the phrase “self-inflicted genocide” to describe what’s going on
Which makes no sense given that he spent the first 5 minutes of that scene having Father Cusack explaining that the genocide has been inflicted by hypercapitalism and white supremacy-induced chronic joblessness, redlining / housing discrimination, gun laws, fractured relationships with a wildly corrupt police force and city government. etc. etc.
Shalomar
you should write that
Terence
It’s hard because I would like to address him very directly, pulling no punches, but with love in the way that I would talk to my actual dad but…
I wouldn’t talk to my dad like that in public
Also my dad loves me, so in the grand scheme of things he is receptive to my criticisms.
but on top of that, the more important thing is that he has lost “the touch”
like just how to make a movie dope
like that follow through
His music supervision and score game is now very bad and he used to be the BEST
Shalomar
The Jungle Fever soundtrack!!!
Terence
Right!
Shalomar
Come thru STEVIE!!!
Terence
Right!
How you go from God himself, Stevie Wonder, to R. Kelly on the soundtrack? How you gonna make a movie about violence and the score to it is R. Kelly moanin?
Shalomar
wait, naahhh. i cant rock wit it.
Terence
but like…
He’s lost the ability to connect his music selections with the drama.
It’s kinda like when I went to see In the Heights and those broadway orchestra musicians tried to play reggaeton
Shalomar
lawd, I’m sure that was delightful
Terence
It was like watching a plane crash into a trainwreck
Shalomar
Ha
Terence
In Chiraq tho, every cue was either too safe / not raw enough DRILL shit, or Maple-Sap-central-pull-the tears-out-my-eyes-by-brute-force-piano-ballads.
There is a church music scene in there that is unforgivably inert. Like there was no jesus in those chords.
And it’s Chicago!
It shoulda sounded like this.
THAT’S Chicago.
Shalomar
Yep, but he can’t take it there anymore, it’s gone from his creative DNA
Does he still do that thing where he puts full songs with lyrics and everything under scenes with lots of dialogue?
Terence
My Jesus, yes.
Shalomar
Yea he gotta stop that, but he’s too far gone…
Terence
IDK, I mean, the concepts, when limited to just pure cinema, are on point. His ideation game is top notch. I mean even in Red Hook Summer there was that brilliant scene with the monologue dolly shot where he confronts the pastor…
But that execution game is rusty. And he doesn’t have anyone around him to save him from himself.
Like a great novelist with no editor.
Shalomar
this is what im more pissed about
he just isnt hittin it no mo
he’s also lost touch with young black folks too imo
his style… it’s not translating well at present
idk
im conflicted
also ive yet to see it so…
Terence
see it today!
Shalomar
lol
im rushing to make a deadline
plus i wanna see Creed before Chiraq #noshade
