Black Panther and Wonder Woman: Celebrating A Successful Hollywood Revolution in 2023
It is 2023. Five and Six years ago a Hollywood Revolution was launched.
2017's Wonder Woman. A female-led Superhero blockbuster. A female director. A mainstream pop culture phenomenon.
2018's Black Panther. A Black-led Superhero blockbuster with a predominently Black cast. An African country, portrayed heroically as a success story. A Black director. Another mainstream pop culture phenomenon.
2023. Let's take stock.
2021, two years ago. Shang-chi and the Ten Rings. The first movie to make $200,000,000 in the United States and Canada since Covid. An Asian-led Superhero movie with a Japanese-American director.
2022. Black Panther itself releases its Empire Strikes Back, immensely expanding the scope of the franchise. This one is clearly far more of a world-building fantasy than a Superhero action movie. It is one of the six biggest movies of the year, and one of the most anticipated and, among the public, one of the most talked about, as well as one of the biggest at the box office- all despite getting very little press in the media. Same Black director, the story's scope now expanded to include other non-white civilizations in addition to the African.
2023. What's the biggest movie of the year? The Barbie movie. A Female-led Feminist comedy by a female director.
Yes. It has been a successful Revolution.
And yet there is one thing that tops them all.
Last year, in 2022, the film equivalent of James Joyce's Ulysses or Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released.
By an Asian-American director. Telling a blatently obvious Chinese-American immigrant story.
The biggest thing, creatively, to happen in film since 1977. A Best Picture winner (one of the most deserved ever), and the highest-grossing indie film since Covid.
It's called Everything Everywhere All at Once, and it is easily one of the greatest movies I have ever seen.
A hell of a box office success for an indie art film, with plenty of big media coverage, and seven Oscar wins, including Best Picture and Best Director.
That's a lot of success for an indie art film. And this one is literally one of the few biggest artistic breakthroughs in the history of cinema, and one of the best movies ever made.
As an Asian-led cast telling a Chinese-American immigrant story from an Asian-American director, far from falling through the cracks, Everything Everywhere All at Once has become one of the most successful indie art films ever.
Yes. It has been a successful Revolution.
And the biggest part of the Revolution is Everything Everywhere All at Once- the beginning of a whole new form of filmmaking!
Here's to a successful Revolution!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson