A look at "Turning Red" and the burdens on minority artists.
As the parent of a young child, my impulses to critique film, novels and music have been rerouted into children's movies, children's books and, perhaps most tragically, children's music. There was a time when I would have had an opinion on the new hotshot literary debut. Today, I mostly complain about "Dog Man," the wildly popular, insipid comic book series about a police officer who is half-dog, half-man. (My daughter has pretty much memorized all the words, most of which are about shrink rays or farts.) |
Children, as far as I can tell, melt down the parent's brain into something that's much more appropriate for raising them but certainly not great for analysis. Which is why I'm always thankful when a children's book or film comes along that can engage my long-dormant higher critical faculties. So I was so excited to watch — and then write about — "Turning Red," the new Pixar release by Domee Shi. The film is, on its face, about a young Chinese-Canadian girl who sometimes turns into a red panda, but it's also a brave and unblinking look at the pressures of immigrant life in multiethnic Toronto. |
As an immigrant myself, I have always felt a stake in how our stories get told in mass media. How do we avoid turning ourselves into Horatio Alger knockoffs? How do we accurately represent our parents without falling into stereotype? And, perhaps most important, how do we create a narrative that does not feel weighed down by the great expectations that get placed on our work, whether they're from our own people, who will likely pore over it with unwarranted scrutiny, or from our desire for acceptance from the broader public? |
I try to answer these questions in my newsletter, which is not so much a review of "Turning Red" but an appraisal of the conversation around the film. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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