The Help

The Help

Film review by: Witney Seibold

There was a moment in Tate Taylor‘s “The Help” wherein the portly black cook/maid Minny (Octavia Jackson), while working for the busty blonde ditz Celia (Jessica Chastain), expounds ever so briefly on the spiritual benefits of fried chicken. “When you’re eating fried chicken,” Minny says, “All seems right with the world.” Celia beams happily, and Minny smiles back in quiet wisdom. The light pours in through the window, and covers the entire kitchen in a halcyon Hollywood light rarely seen outside of Chris Columbus movies. The gorgeous artifice of the scene, paired with the ever so subtly coded racism (twinges of the Magical Negro), had me throwing up my fist in a beautiful display of ironic triumph.

Norwegian Ninja

Norwegian Ninja

Film review by: Witney Seibold

I’m trying to think of an American equivalent to Norway’s Arne Treholt, a man who, during the Cold War, worked for the Norwegian secret service, and ended up going to jail (and is still in jail to this day) for selling secrets to the Russians, which led to the destruction of an off-shore oil rig.