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Steve Jobs Films Have A Serious Diversity Problem

This weekend I saw Steve Jobs, the latest film examining the life of the personally flawed visionary who led Apple at various times in the last 30 years.  There have been documentaries about Jobs as well as feature films starring Ashton Kutcher and more recently, Michael Fassbender.  Jobs was obviously an important figure in the world and in American pop culture and his story is worth telling, but the real question is why, in 2015, must Steve Jobs continue to be played by white men exclusively, especially since his father was Syrian?  It is just the latest, and perhaps most egregious example of Hollywood’s overwhelming bias towards white men.  Late night television continues to be dominated by them (though Trevor Noah and Larry Wilmore may represent a positive shift in one direction at least) and the recent comments concerning Idris Elba playing James Bond are also a good example of how much progress is still left.  But it is time for Hollywood to begin seeing Steve Jobs in a different way. So what if he looked mostly Caucasian; Jobs implored the world to “think different” in the late 1990s and we would be wise to heed his advice.  So here is a list of men, women and trans persons who would be great choices for the next Steve Jobs film:

1) Amy Poehler and Tina Fey – every time any opening for any show or role comes up it seems these two get mentioned so why not start with them.  Admittedly they have had little commercial success on their own and Fey, especially, has proven most skilled as a writer post SNL, but those are small details.  Yes, Steve Jobs was one person and Poehler and Fey are technically two people, but they are a package deal and if they can host the Golden Globe Awards then I am certain that playing the role of a solitary white man is within their skill set.

 

2) Steve Harvey – the man broke the white ceiling on game show hosting with his brilliant turn on Family Feud has terrible luck with women, having been divorced three times.  But Steve Jobs also had terrible luck with women and was also good at giving people advice (in technical realms), while lacking those skills himself, the same way Harvey does with relationship advice.  It would be a brave, but also perfect choice to have Harvey play Jobs.  And a 6 button mock turtle neck would modernize the Jobs’ look.

 

3) Michael Pena – Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the United States and yet, not one actor or actress has been even considered for Steve Jobs.  Well Pena has proven adept at drama and comedy and Jobs’ was one-half person of color (1/2 Syrian) so it is actually offensive that Pena has not played him yet.

 

4) Chelsea Handler – the bravest 38 or 52 year old woman in Hollywood, Handler has long been overlooked for things and the time is now for her to be considered.  She is a fearless pop culture commentator in the mold of comedy legend Kathy Griffin and she has had enough sex and empowering experiences with men to know how to play a man perfectly in a film.

 

5) Laverne Cox – Black. Trans. 2015. Steve Jobs.  I don’t think I need to write any more. Wake up America.

 

6) Carly Fiorina – when her bid to become president fails officially I would love to see Fiorina play Jobs. She was also a tech CEO forced out for fu*king up and she had Cancer.  What better method acting prep would she need, other than actually breaking through with a success story? Well perhaps being cast as Steve Jobs would be that victorious epilogue she needs.

 

 

7) Michael Strahan – if Jobs doesn’t have to be white, or male, then why does he have to be unlikable too?  Strahan has been like a friendly black St Bernard that America has trusted with their entertainment and their small blond white women.  So now it is time to let the black Mario Lopez have a shot at the iconic Steve Jobs.

 

So let’s hope it doesn’t take Hollywood too much longer to wake up. It shouldn’t take another Steve Jobs’ visionary to see that Steve Jobs’ cannot be played by white men forever.

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Movie of the Week: X-Men First Class

I just got back from the first truly excellent movie of the Summer (please calm down fans of Bridesmaids and Midnight In Paris, both of which I enjoyed, but not as much as X-Men: First Class).  I was not sure about X-Men: First Class, mainly because the trend established by the extremely disappointing X-Men 3 and the crime against humanity that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine seemed to indicate that a 5th X-Men film would lead to mass suicide.  Instead it is a near-perfect Summer movie.  There will be no spoilers in this review, but here is the general breakdown of my X-Men experience:

Kips Bay 10:45 am: The Prelude

I arrived at the theater at 10:45 and the good news for the makers of the movie is that the theater was nearly packed, which I rarely see for the pre-noon $6 movies at AMC Theaters.  As the lights came down I was nervous about the crowd.  A young woman in the back row was texting and some older man yelled, “Turn that fu*king thing off!” To which she replied, “Hey, there are little children present,” speaking of the young children with her.  She was right, but I was fixated on the old man who appeared to be the Ghost of J-L Future.  And by future I mean me at the next movie I see.

As if the rumble behind me was not enough, to my right was a woman who shockingly turned off her phone before the movie began.  I say shockingly because, much like Austin Powers after he was unfrozen, she had no inner-monologue.  She spoke during every preview to herself and approximately every 3 minutes during the movie.  But I think she may have had some mild cognitive impairment (or was just sort of dumb) so I only threw one soda at her to try and make her shut up.

Lastly, before the movie began, I saw a preview for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which is now my most anticipated movie of the Summer (no offense Transformers 3 and your Birth of a Nation portrayal of black men-inspired robots). Here is the preview:

So after hearing an old man curse out a young mom in front of her kids, sitting next to a woman who could not shut up and seeing a preview about apes taking over the world it was time for X Men.

The Main Event: X-Men First Class

For my money the greatest movie I have ever seen in a Summer is The Dark Knight.  It worked on any level – as a great film that could have been released during Oscar season or as a great popcorn Summer film experience.  X-Men: First Class is not at that level, but it still scores very high as a Summer movie.  And it is a good movie overall, but my effusive praise for it must be considered relatively.  That said,  it is the best movie of the Summer so far and I don’t think second place is close.

The movie delivers everything you want from a Summer movie and it delivers it well.  The acting is very good across the board, the effects are big and exciting, there are funny cameos and funny dialogue, neither of which feel forced or cheesy (contrast this to the humor found in most moments of the Transformer films).  Additionally, as expected, there are origin stories, which always make first installments of superhero movies fun (contrast this to one of the things I hated about Thor – it told his origin of how he came to Earth, but not how he got jacked (P90X?) and how his hammer became the baddest weapon in the universe).  And lastly X-Men: First Class has training montages, which any fan of Rocky IV can tell you make for fun viewing:

The stand outs

The cast is loaded with both stars and people that you will go – “Oh that guy/girl is in this too?!”  But there are three that stand out for me.  James McAvoy is great as the young Charles Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar nominee from Winter’s Bone, is great as Mystique, mainly because it is just a matter of time before she is named Esquire’s sexiest woman alive.

And lastly, Michael Fassbender is the dominant force in the movie as the man who becomes Magneto.  He literally looks like Don Draper if Don Draper gave up cigarettes and booze for a personal trainer and a GNC.  He dominates the screen and has the most depth of any character in the movie (besides seeing how the villain becomes the villain is always great).  Sadly, his accent becomes very inconsistent in the last half hour of the movie, which was sort of disappointing given how great he was for most of the movie.

The only negative in the movie is the jumping from location to location in the first hour of the movie is a little cluttered.  It feels like there are about 17 different locations in the first 40 minutes of the movie.  The jumping around does not make the film confusing, but rather, gives the early moments a slightly cheap feeling, as if someone was trying to make shortcuts in the screenplay.

Overall, if you are a fan of superhero movies, summer blockbusters or well-made action movies I find it hard to believe that you will leave disappointed.  Grade: A-