The Help (2011)

[Mikey]

The Help stars Emma Stone as Skeeter, Viola Davis as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny-three very different, extraordinary women in Mississippi during the 1960s, who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk. From their improbable alliance a remarkable sisterhood emerges, instilling all of them with the courage to transcend the lines that define them, and the realization that sometimes those lines are made to be crossed-even if it means bringing everyone in town face-to-face with the changing times. -- (C) DreamWorkHas anyone seen this movie yet? What do you think?

[RED DAVE]

It makes the white writer much too heroic, but it honestly, if a bit sentimentally, tries to portray the misery of Southern racism.

RED DAVE

[thesadmafioso]

There was a great piece on it in Salon a while back, one which really tore to the heart of the movies portrayal of history through the lens of the white petty bourgeoisie liberal.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/08/12/why_hollywood_keeps_white_washing_the_past/index.html

[Commissar Rykov]

The very idea of the movie made my skin crawl and every time I saw the ad it made it even worse. I don't even begin to understand the appeal of the movie myself. Having come from the South I find the racism is so stereotypically condescending like these Hollywood films dealing with it are.