Class is in session. Sadly, legions of kids know this to be true, as they begin to head back to school for another year of filling their brains with knowledge.
In the idyllic planned community of Suburbicon, everything appears to be in its right place. Apple-cheeked kids race home from school every afternoon, white picket fences outline immaculately manicured lawns, and a cheery mailman greets you in the same way at the same time every day. But there‘s trouble brewing in this homogeneous paradise. Is that a drop of blood?
We’ve likely not finished the fallout of Sunday’s big Oscar snafu, though few would place any blame at the feet of host Jimmy Kimmel, who wandered out to bring some humor to the La La Land error. In all the chaos, however, Kimmel’s final bit with Matt Damon ended up lost to time, as the host now explains how the show was meant to end.
From the time that the first images of Zhang Yimou’s upcoming historical epic The Great Wall came to light, the thorny matter of identity politics has hounded the film. In the period piece, confirmed white man Matt Damon portrays a heroic warrior that protects the Middle Kingdom’s greatest architectural and strategic achievement from an encroaching menace, and many frustrated online commentators have questioned the place of a non-Asian actor in a wholly Asian film. The term “whitewashing” cropped up all over, referring to the continued practice in the film industry of casting Caucasian actors in roles that could (or should) have otherwise gone to non-white performers. With a problematic pall still cast over the production and the February 17 release fast approaching, Damon spoke out on the issue in a new interview with the Associated Press, via The Hollywood Reporter, and attempted to assuage some of the public’s misgivings.
Jason Bourne, the latest installment in the popular Bourne Identity series of espionage films, approaches its home video release next week on December 6. That film, released this past summer, raked in a grand total of $415.2 million at the global box office.