Nenjam Marappathillai 

‘Barbie’ is an entertaining, meaningful piece of filmmaking with a heartfelt message.

It’s dark, uncomfortable, and there are things that don’t make sense.

Presenting a bold and unapologetic narrative focused on strong Muslim female characters, the show beautifully incorporates punk rock as a feminist movement in their lives.

An aspect of She-Ra that I find refreshing is even though a large portion of the cast is on the LGBTQ+ Spectrum, being gay is never mentioned. While this might initially sound like a negative thing, in the show’s land of Etheria being on the gay spectrum is shown to be so common and normalized that straight isn’t the default. As much as there is to appreciate about narratives revolving around the obstacles that may come from being non-heteronormative, it’s nice to get immersed in a world where no one bats an eye at all to any sort of differing identity.

Some people’s first introduction to Mira Nair might be as New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mom. But with her insightful direction of 1991’s Mississippi Masala, Nair shows how much she deserves to be known as an artist. Delivering a nuanced portrait of a romance between a Black man and an Indian woman living in the South, Nair explores the complications each character faces, giving both equal weight.

Of the 28 total films I watched, just six of them were queer or featured queer characters in some way.