On the surface, Black and Blue appears to be a “day in life” of a protagonist, played by Johnson. It begins with him waking up in bed and getting ready in the bathroom. Filmed in his home and featuring his family, Black and Blue takes its title from the Fats Waller jazz standard (popularized by Louis Armstrong), which can be heard in the video (played on the piano by Johnson’s son). The film is also connected to Johnson’s work and artistic practice, showing interspersed clips of his own as well as artworks by other Black artists (like Deana Lawson), books ( like Roy deCarava), and traditional African masks in his home.
But what many do not know is that in 2019, a Wonder Woman film was released that had all of the positive qualities of WW84, and remedied many of the negative ones. Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, a direct-to-video animated movie in the DC Animated Movie Universe, perfectly balances the campiness and seriousness of the character.
Whether you like cinema classics, sketch comedy, or science fiction, HBO Max has something for you! Check out our top picks for diversity and representation.
If the message here is that without a support system, grieving people turn into monsters, it’s not really well-delivered and may be flawed as a message itself.
If your upbringing was anything like mine, where the TV acted as an additional parent- there are so many new stories and perspectives to explore.
Disney has kept its word and allowed a new generation of Black and/or African storytellers to tell their own original stories. The question remains, will the public keep their word?
