Happiness Ahead (1934)

The newest in a long line of Cinderella adaptations, Amazon’s Cinderella (2021) prizes girlbossification above the very story it tries to adapt.

White audiences saw Peola’s mixed-race passing as a Black woman’s struggle to be white. Black audiences saw it as the rebellion of a Black woman trying to gain privileges only given to white people.

In the film adaptation, director Jon M. Chu turns each musical number into a massive show stopper, with grand set pieces and a wealth of diverse dancers. Yet, in this attempt to show reverence for the people of the Washington Heights barrio, Chu, or maybe more specifically those in charge of casting, left out a crucial part of the community, Afro-Latinos.

This emotional, frightening, and dreamlike story examines the ways actresses are exploited in the name of art.

“Synchronic” is special, but it doesn’t succeed in achieving all the objectives it aims for. The film is a science fiction oeuvre which tries to be cerebral at some points, although the original idea is interesting, it only accomplishes to talk about some serious matters superficially.

The Olivia Wilde renaissance is upon us.