Salon.com > The Help

How Viola Davis took Meryl Streep’s Oscar

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

When I saw Viola Davis across the room, wearing a shimmering pink sheath dress, I wasn't quite sure what she was doing there. This was at the New York Film Critics Circle's awards dinner in January, a relatively intimate event that has a history of bringing out the stars. But it's not the Oscars or the SAG Awards or the Golden Globes; there are no TV cameras and no red carpet to work. More to the point, the awards are announced in advance, and Davis hadn't won anything. Maybe she'd have turned up anyway to support Jessica Chastain, her costar in "The Help," who was winning a supporting-actress award, but Davis was mostly on hand to introduce Meryl Streep, who had won the group's best actress award for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady."

The Oscars play it safe, nostalgic

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:15:00 +0000

As usual, it all went almost exactly as expected. This year's Academy Award nominations went to a plethora of already much-accoladed movies and performances, with a rich dose of nostalgia and sentiment. Yet when Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak and last year's best actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence announced the contenders this morning, there were still a few gasps to be had.

The surprises started with the supporting performance nominations. Kenneth Branagh, Jonah Hill and Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") all seemed likely nominees. But it was the sentimental inclusion of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close's" Max Von Sydow, and left-field nod for Nick Nolte in "Warrior" that roused the crowd.

For the supporting actresses, there were even fewer surprises to be had, with the likes of Bérénice Bejo and Octavia Spencer once again going head-to-head. But the inclusion of this year's comedic It girl, Emmy winner Melissa McCarthy, for her bawdy, ballsy turn in "Bridesmaids" was a nonetheless sweet moment – and a rare display of evidence that you don't have to be a glamazon or Dame Judi Dench to be in the running for Oscar. And the best original screenplay nomination for "Bridesmaids" was another encouraging sign, proving at last that women can not only make successful movies involving explosive diarrhea, they can make Academy Award-nominated movies involving explosive diarrhea.

Jessica Chastain: The dazzling redhead who's suddenly everywhere

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Jessica Chastain may not yet qualify as a movie star, but within seconds of meeting her you completely understand why every casting agent in Hollywood is convinced she will become one. To put it bluntly, she is dazzling -- and I'm talking more about her manner and presence than her beauty, although she's exceptionally pretty, with flaming red hair and pale, translucent skin. She's vivacious and charming, seemingly without effort, and has the kind of spectacular smile that uplifts everyone's spirits within a 50-foot radius.

It makes you wonder where all those casting directors and filmmakers who so desperately want Chastain in their movies now were a few years ago, when she was a little-known television actress whose biggest part had been a four-episode role on "Law & Order: Trial by Jury." There are no answers beyond the usual clichés: Showbiz is full of pretty faces, and sometimes all it takes is one little break. Chastain's break was pretty big, and came when Terrence Malick cast her opposite Brad Pitt in "The Tree of Life," where her shimmering, ethereal presence created a thematic and visual balance to Pitt's intense, compulsive, authoritarian father-figure.

Early signs of a “Bridesmaids” bump

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:01:00 +0000

Last week, the summer's surprise blockbuster, "Bridesmaids," was released on DVD, after a spectacular run both in the United States and abroad. The fortunes of the film, which starred a brace of funny women and dealt equally in fart jokes and friendship, were regarded as crucial to the future of women in entertainment.

Hollywood, perpetually on the verge of never making another movie for anyone but teenage boys, was in need of a slap in the face, reminding it that women buy tickets, fill theaters, tell friends they loved it -- and know men who are occasionally eager to see the opposite sex portrayed compellingly on celluloid. "Bridesmaids" delivered a wallop, bringing in more than $280 million worldwide, and drawing an audience reported to be a third male, and largely over 30.

But has it actually whetted the film business's appetite for more female-driven projects? Salon called Lynda Obst, producer of movies like "Sleepless in Seattle," "Contact" and "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days," the television show "Hot in Cleveland," the author of "Hello, He Lied" and all-around movie sage, to see what, if anything, has changed in her town this summer.

Hollywood’s summer of revolution

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:01:00 +0000

Our oppressed underclass rises up and rebels against inhuman treatment -- well, at least in some of Hollywood's biggest current blockbusters.

While Tim Burton’s 2001 "Planet of the Apes" remake didn’t seem to have much on its mind, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is far more engaged with the culture of the moment -- as was the original, widely seen as a response to the civil rights movement. It's the only recent American film with even metaphorical relevance to the Arab Spring movement. And it shares some interesting resonance with Tate Taylor’s "The Help" and British director Joe Cornish’s "Attack the Block."

"The Help" falls into a long line of "problem pictures" running from Elia Kazan’s "Gentleman's Agreement" and "Pinky" to Paul Haggis’ "Crash." They’ve proven popular with Oscar voters, but while they purport to expose racism and other prejudices, they often subtly reinforce stereotypes in the guise of dismantling them. Whatever their virtues (usually as showcases for actors), such films tend to suffocate on their own earnestness. That can’t be said for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," which falls into another tradition. It’s no B-movie, but it moves along like one. Its depiction of the fine line between humanity and the animal kingdom owes a lot to George Romero’s "Living Dead" trilogy and David Cronenberg’s films. Genre films benefit from being irresponsible, which I mean in the most positive sense. By talking about animals and monsters rather than speaking more directly about race and class, they have the freedom to escape from received wisdom about the latter subjects.

HSN’s tacky branding of “The Help”

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Not since a Nashville trio decided to call itself Lady Antebellum has Southern pride seemed so cluelessly tone-deaf. Earier this month, Home Shopping Network launched a "one-of-a-kind collection of beauty, home decor, designer fashions and jewelry created in the spirit of the must-see movie" of the summer, "The Help." That's right, you too can dress up like a segregationist bitch!

It's true that much of the set design and costumes of "The Help" are gorgeous. They represent, after all, a well-to-do class of women who threw bridge parties in stunning old houses. They're belles of refined taste and impeccable hospitality. Yet the fact that the HSN collection features ladylike fashions from Lela Rose, created "with a clear vision to create classic style with a whimsical twist ... filled with elegant silhouettes and beautifully embellished fabrics," seems to wildly misunderstand the true nature of these characters. I like a floral brocade dress as much as the next gal, but I wouldn't want to order one because it's something Hilly Holbrook would wear.

What we talk about when we talk about “The Help”

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:18:00 +0000

It seems likely that no film since Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" has gotten so many moviegoers talking about the history of race and racism in America as has this summer's hit "The Help," which was adapted by writer-director Tate Taylor from his old friend Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel. The contrast between the two is instructive, if not alarming. Lee's film was set in its own present tense, on the racially polarized streets of late-1980s Brooklyn, N.Y. Taylor's film, for all its evident strengths, is a candy-colored and wildly ahistorical voyage into the Jim Crow past, a mashup of "Steel Magnolias," "Mad Men" and "Mississippi Burning," with the fire confined to the kitchen.

Judge throws out suit against “The Help” author

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:52:00 +0000

Did Kathryn Stockett use her brother's African American maid as the basis for a character in the bestselling novel-turned-movie "The Help?"

For now, that question may go unanswered, by a court anyway.

A Mississippi judge threw out a lawsuit Tuesday in which Ablene Cooper alleged Stockett used her likeness without permission in a book about relationships between white families and their black maids in the segregated South of the 1960s.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green granted a motion for summary judgment, dismissing the case because a one-year statute of limitations elapsed between when Stockett gave Cooper a copy of the book and when the lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit sought $75,000 in damages.

Stockett was not in court in Jackson, the same city where the book is set.

Cooper wiped away tears leaving the courtroom and launched into a tirade outside the courthouse.

"She's a liar. She did it. She knows she did it," Cooper screamed.

The judge did not make any determination on whether Cooper was the basis for the character, Aibileen, saying the statute of limitations trumped those matters.

Why “The Help’s” critics are all wrong

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:59:00 +0000

"This isn't about me." That's what eager, well-intentioned and lily-white aspiring writer Skeeter tells the nervous African-American maid Minny in "The Help." It's her pitch to try to get Minny to open up about her experiences as a domestic, and her feelings on the roiling racism of Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s. But it's also one of the most telling moments of what's shaping up to be one of the most controversial and surprisingly divisive movies of the year. Because novelist Kathryn Stockett wrote a book that wasn't just about her. And that has a made a lot of people very uncomfortable.

Amid the Oscar buzz and accolades for the fine performances of "The Help's" A-list cast, the film has generated criticism for its supposed whitewashing of one of the most contentious, painful periods in recent American history. The Association of Black Women Historians recently issued a statement on the best-selling book and film, sating that, among other things, "'The Help' is not a story about the millions of hard-working and dignified black women who labored in white homes to support their families and communities. Rather, it is the coming-of-age story of a white protagonist, who uses myths about the lives of black women to make sense of her own. The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women's lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment."

Why Hollywood keeps whitewashing the past

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:20:00 +0000

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece contains spoilers; read at your own risk.]

American historical films are forever refighting old wars, congratulating themselves for being on the right side, and encouraging viewers to pat themselves on the back for being on the right side, too. They view the war from the general's tent up on a distant hill and imagine that they're right in the thick of it. That's how Paul Haggis' "Crash" swept the Oscars in 2006 -- by serving up a contemporary story of Los Angelenos who said and did brazenly racist things in public constantly, as if it were 1967 and everyone was wearing love beads, Afros and hard hats. The characters seemed crude and primitive, lacking in self-awareness, unenlightened; this made them easy to label, judge and dismiss. A variation on this strategy has enabled another race drama, "The Help," to become an instant hit, a likely Oscar contender, and yet another reminder that when mainstream cinema depicts discrimination, it tends to ask the same two questions: "How did this affect white people?" and "Aren't you glad you're not bigoted like the creeps in this movie?"

“The Help”: A tale of not-so-ancient American history

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:30:00 +0000

As a book and a movie and a social phenomenon, "The Help" functions as a kind of Rorschach test that measures how you feel about the history of racial inequality in America. Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel is set in the profoundly segregated and hierarchical Deep South of the Jim Crow era, nearly half a century ago, and writer-director Tate Taylor's handsome and largely admirable film adaptation captures the time and place in ravishing detail. "The Help" definitely worked on me as a consummate tear-jerker with a terrific cast, and it's pretty much the summer's only decent Hollywood drama. You could also describe it as an accretion of familiar ingredients: "Mad Men" plus "Steel Magnolias" plus "To Kill a Mockingbird" plus "Mississippi Burning."

As I say, on the surface of things "The Help" is set in a distant galaxy, far, far away. It would be ludicrous to claim that things have not changed for black people in America. Somehow or other we apparently elected an African-American president -- please hold all the hate mail, just for a second! -- and even in Jackson, Miss., I doubt anyone makes the "colored maid" use an outdoor toilet these days. But you don't have to be some kind of raving leftist to see that "The Help" masquerades as an inspiring entertainment but also, along the way, invites us to look closely at contemporary attitudes and contemporary inequality, and not to feel too superior to the benighted past.

The dirty secrets of “The Help”

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:10:00 +0000

It's inevitable, apparently: Any writer lucky enough to produce a book that spends months on the bestseller list will be sued. So, Kathryn Stockett, come on down!

Stockett is the author of "The Help," a debut novel, first published in 2009, that went on to sell well over 2 million copies. Earlier this month, Ablene Cooper, an African-American maid and baby sitter working in Jackson, Miss., where "The Help" is set, filed suit against Stockett. Cooper accused Stockett of causing her to "experience severe emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation and outrage" by appropriating "her identity for an unpermitted use and holding her to the public eye in a false light."

At issue is Aibileen Clark, a character in "The Help." Clark is a black woman who works as a maid and baby sitter for a white family in the early 1960s. According to Cooper's lawsuit, the character's first name is pronounced the same as her own, and she and the character are given the same nickname by the children they care for. In addition, the fictional Clark is a middle-aged black woman with a gold tooth, as is Cooper. Cooper's grown son died of cancer; Clark's grown son dies in a workplace accident.