Notes on a demagogue’s favorite movies
Here it is again. The annual list event: “Barack Obama’s Favorite Movies of 2021.” Is he competing with journalists’ awards season? Or is this uncalled-for missive-to-the-masses simply another way to convince them that the King of Kalorama thinks just like they do? A critic-friend reacted to the announcement breviloquently: “‘God’ weighs in.”
It’s always amusing to see how Team Obama keeps its grip on the culture. This yearly lecture from on high is conceived to show Obama’s smarter-than-a-populist diversions. It lines up with mainstream-media tastes. Like pollsters and advance men, Team Obama shrewdly suss out what appeals to the media and what can be sold as hipness — the same way pet social policies are promoted during election campaigns.
The odd thing about Obama’s annual Ten Commandments (now an inclusive 13 Commandments) is that it’s always aimed toward cultural “improvement,” at demonstrating evolved taste. This arts version of progressivism resembles the Soviet knack for Socialist Realism.
Let’s break it down:
Drive My Car tops the list, suggesting that Japanese artistes imitating Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya are more refined than you. This undeniable art-movie snobbery disregards Eddie Murphy’s wonderful Coming 2 America (or might that African inheritance comedy resurrect the dread Birth Certificate controversy?)
Summer of Soul celebrates black music to prove one’s ethnic authenticity, a facile con-job preferable to Belfast’s white nostalgia, the family half we don’t talk about.
West Side Story keeps America’s past racist shame alive. Honoring old friend Spielberg who “fundamentally transforms” the classic musical according to Obama’s vision of the fractured U.S. It’s also belated thanks for the Obama deification in The BFG. (c.f. Make Spielberg Great Again.)
The Power of the Dog slams American history and toxic masculinity, hiding behind the skirts of Jane Campion’s copycat feminism.
Pig distracts from that Bill Ayers, old-time radical police slur with a backstory for fine-dining gratuity, an elite’s politically correct euphemism for leaving a “tip.”
Passing mixes racial and gender identity while paying tribute to outdated black literature.
The Card Counter condemns the Iraq War, the U.S. military, the carceral system, and flirts with interracial sex. A quadruple campaign platform.
Judas and the Black Messiah distorts Sixties black activism. Funny that the new Messiah himself likes it.
The Worst Person in the World is an ironic justification of personal peccadilloes regardless of popular approval.
Old Henry replaces Faulkner’s race profundity with new American antipathy. This corrupted, unpopular Western proves these films are not consensus favorites.
The Last Duel is a chic feminist rewrite of history. Its analogy asks: Can Michelle replace Hillary?
The Tragedy of Macbeth is low-hanging fruit. If you make the obvious comparison, it either gets called a conspiracy theory or you get canceled.
C’Mon, C’Mon tells a story that’s such a broken-family, broken-nation coincidence that it easily resembles a Barack-Michelle public-service announcement.
Quo Vadis, Aida? Huh? Its Serbian subject — reviewing Bosnia’s tragedy — reminds us that foreign policy is never far from Obama’s thoughts. But why this and not Zola to give a nod to the trans activists incensed by Dave Chappelle?
No sane person believes Obama actually saw and judged the films for himself. All these choices are demagogic, geared toward endearing the electorate. The list perpetuates bias, devotion, and gullibility. That’s how movies and politics work.
Team Obama must think Hollywood needs to be reminded that the great renaissance man is on its side and that his constituents need improved taste. Or does the former president only want your fealty?
