jeen-yuhs (part 3)

jeen-yuhs (part 3)

While Part 1 + 2 benefited greatly from the kind of fly-on-the-wall inside access that Coodie (the primary filmer) had to Kanye’s struggles to achieve that first taste of mainstream success, Part 3 loses that, largely, and spends a lot of time compiling media footage and offering commentary.

Coodie reunites with Kanye to a limited extent after the release of Life of Pablo and there is some limited more verité footage from the period between 2016-2020, though the amount of it is somewhat limited and tends to not be quite as compelling.

At several points in the final leg of the film, Coodie repeatedly turns off the camera because he finds it somewhat unethical to be filming Kanye’s rambling monologues that seem to originate from a place of mental instability.

Perhaps the most noteworthy segment, for me, is a scene in which Kanye is listening to Tucker Carlson talk about the media’s perception that Kanye “is going insane” being a result of his espousing of Christian values like being against abortion. He seems to wholeheartedly agree with Tucker’s assessment.

Scenes like this one suggest that Kanye’s turn to religion is very serious for him, but also work in some way as a stand in for how any number of Trump supporters regardless of race can come to see themselves as laughed out of the public square by a media elite who have no use for their traditional values, the losers of a culture war who are looking for a champion to charge into battle on their behalf.

While I am not attempting to be an apologist for either Trump or Kanye, I do think that there is a lesson to be learned from this moment regarding the dangers of being dismissive of people’s fundamentally held beliefs and attempts to tightly constraint the limits of acceptable speech. It’s easy to be cynical about someone like Kanye and view his every move as a form of publicity stunt, but the final act of this documentary perhaps tries to first and foremost remind us that he is also a person… and that no amount of success can wipe away the human capacity for grief, frustration, and alienation.

I suppose that at some level what I’m trying to say is that we should seek to understand first rather than to judge first when someone says or does something that is offensive to us. I’m not saying it’s easy, nor am I saying that anyone should be faulted for being unable or even unwilling to do so (goes against the entire premise of my argument, in fact). I’m saying though that perhaps it’s worth holding as an aspiration, one that might do more to change the toxicity of our culture than almost anything else.

jeen-yuhs (part 2)

jeen-yuhs (part 2)

Part 2 pretty much begins with Kanye getting into a car accident in LA almost directly after being signed to Roc-a-Fella records. The accident breaks his jaw in multiple locations and breaks whatever interest Roc-a-Fella had in releasing his album.

…so he keeps making beats to pay the bills and scampers to record The College Dropout without any institutional support, using borrowed studio time from friends and colleagues.

There’s a scene of them going into MTV after hours to work on the equipment there to produce the video for “Through the Wire” which Kanye pays for out of pocket.

Kanye forgoes recommended surgery in order to keep pushing to take advantage of this make-it-or-break-it moment.

He self-releases the video for “Through the Wire,” and it blows up and tops the MTV charts for weeks. Suddenly, Roc-a-Fella is interested again, and we end this chapter with him winning a Grammy.

Watching the “Through the Wire” video again, I can see how the first two parts of jeen-yuhs are effectively a three-hour version of what the video distilled into three minutes. The fly-on-the-wall style continues to be remarkable, showing recording sessions, initial reactions, etc. to what would ultimately become an album that has sold over four million copies in the United States alone. It’s not hard to see that Kanye made this a reality through a kind of confident determination that none of the many obstacles in his path could deter.

I am very curious to see what kind of access and footage awaits in part 3 once Kanye has reached a kind of superstar level of success.

Encanto

Encanto

A Disney musical about intergenerational trauma, healing, and the power of family and community.

The songs are written by Lin-Manuel Miranda which you probably already know means that they are extremely good. If you don’t, please familiarize yourself with Hamilton. I’ve included a video below of my favorite song.

With movies like this coming out from Disney, I can understand why people who explicitly subscribe to the premise of white supremacy believe that they are losing the culture war and need to fight back.

It’s only been five years since Coco came out. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937, so that’s 85 years of white princesses. It’s exciting to think about what a potential difference that wide-spread releases of films representing diverse cultures in a way that is not completely whitewashed could have for kids growing up now, even if it is long overdue.

Disney isn’t making these films to win brownie points though. Clearly consumer desire for these stories has made it profitable for them, and it’s probably worth celebrating the fact that a diverse set of audiences believe that these stories are important and relevant for them.

The day before we watch this film, I randomly listened to the Top 100 World Charts on Apple Music and this song was in the top ten:

King Richard

Every Friday is “Movie Night” in our household, and last Friday at my partner, Jen’s, suggestion we watched King Richard. I can certainly recommend that anyone who has a burgeoning young athlete (as we do) in the house check it out.

The film is generally everything you would expect from a biopic about Venus and Serena Williams starring Will Smith. What’s probably the most intriguing about their story is that he pulls them completely out of the limelight and from any competition for a number of years just as they’re starting to attract attention in the Tennis world, basically to avoid the burn out and destructiveness that fame can have on young people who aren’t prepared for it and what it brings.

The film also pinnacles with Venus Williams losing a match and having to remember how amazing that she was even able to hold her own at all in the match considering she was in her first pro tournament and playing against the number one ranked player in the world.

I did some ratings before, but I think that I won’t do them anymore.