Top Wild Cards
Curated List by Alexa Heard
A wild card in a game of Uno is a game changer - it can make & break relationships & create an argument about proper Uno etiquette.
In a year of continued chaos, calling 2020 a “Wild Card Year” is a polite way of describing the environment we’re living in: 45 is still President, we’re in the midst of a global pandemic, and millions are unemployed.
If some years ask questions and some give answers this year is clearly about rule breaking & change. Our society is diverging from the norm, and so is much of pop culture.
2020 has given us amazing & groundbreaking art. Given that many of us are still stuck at home (OR SHOULD BE), I have curated a list of 5 wild card pieces of media that have changed the game in their respective genres and will provide a pleasant distraction from the world outside.
Sawayama
The debut album from the Japanese-British singer-songwriter is a standout in in the current pop landscape. She effortlessly fuses pop with rap, rock, and R&B while infusing her music with lyrics about complex themes like generational trauma, depression, love, friendship, and the perils of racism.
Although, there are typical pop efforts like the up-tempo bops Comme De Garçon, Paradisin’ and XS, and more ballad like introspective songs Love Me 4 Me, Who’s Gonna Save U Now, and Chosen Family even those songs are fresh and different. XS is a scathing critique of “excess culture” and Chosen Family is a ballad about chosen families in LGBTQ communities.
Yet, there are some absolute showstoppers that are unlike anything the other girls are making. Songs like Dynasty and Akasaka Sad tackle the feelings of generational trauma and depression. STFU! chronicles Rina’s personal experience with racist music executives and Tokyo Love is about the gentrification of her beloved hometown of Tokyo.
Overall it’s a beautiful pop album that has something for all music lovers.
THE HITS
XS (especially the remix with Bree Runaway), Comme Des Garçon, Tokyo Love Hotel
THE DEEP CUTS
Akasaka Sad, Love Me 4 Me, Chosen Family
MY PERSONAL FAVORITES
Dynasty, Who’s Gonna Save U Now, Comme Des Garçon
Gina Prince-Bythewood
The Independent Spirit Award winner is the director of Love & Basketball (2000), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Beyond the Lights (2014), and The Old Guard (2020) which premiered on Netflix in July. Bythewood is a trailblazer of black film. She’s one of the few black women directors working, and provides a fresh perspective to every film she touches.
She brings a tenderness to all her works that enhances the humanity of her characters. It’s the way her characters often practice healing as intimacy, & the softness they handle each other with is what makes her a wild card director. Instead of making another traditional superhero movie, Bythewood brings that same tenderness and intimacy to a film about immortal soldiers who protect the world.
Despite her obvious, Bythewood doesn’t get the same credit and respect as some of her contemporaries. In 2014 she wrote an impassioned blog post called “Why I Make the Movies I Make” about the hurdles she’s had to overcome to get her films made despite her first film being lauded as a cult classic and earning her an Independent Spirt Award. Bythewood dabbles in different genres and bends the rules of traditional film making. I highly recommend either discovering or revisiting her films.
THE HITS
Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights, The Old Guard
THE DEEP CUTS
Disappearing Acts and Before I Fall
MY PERSONAL FAVORITES
Love & Basketball and Disappearing Acts
I May Destroy You
Genius is a word that’s often overused & misplaced but when a young writer singlehandedly writes 191 drafts of a 12-episode limited series, stars in it and co-directs nine episodes, genius seems the appropriate word. Michaela Coel, the creator of “Chewing Gum” has a new limited series. After famously turning down a deal with Netflix the new series is on HBO and BBC.
The series is a departure from the slapstick comedy that made “Chewing Gum” & instead explores consent, friendship, deception, and guilt in a real way. The series chronicles millennial social media personality Arabella, played by Coel, and her friendships in the wake of being drugged and raped. Coel takes an unflinching look at everything from social media addiction to racism with these 12 episodes and provides the audience with moments that will not only make you think but enrapture you with their thoughtfulness.
Coel’s talent as a writer shows in not only writing each episode herself but with the way the script is filled with perspective & nuance. Each character is treated with a refreshing amount of humanity & honesty.
Yet, Coel is not a one trick pony, she shines as an actress and absolutely owns the screen in many scenes. “I May Destroy You” is the next piece of television that everyone is and will be talking about, its’ reinvented the rules of TV.
It’s a unique and moving piece of television with outstanding performances. Each episode requires at least one rewatch and a debrief with your friends in the group chat.
THE EPISODE TO WATCH NO MATTER WHAT
Episode 3: “Don’t Forget the Sea” - Episode 6: “The Alliance” - Episode 7: “Happy Animals”
THE EPISODE THAT WILL MOVE YOU
Episode 10: “The Cause the Cure” & Episode 12: “Ego Death”
OTHER MICHAELA COEL PROJECTS TO WATCH
“Black Earth Rising” - “Chewing Gum” (S1 & S2), and “Been So Long”
The Good. The Bad. & The Basic
The podcast for the unapologetic TV binger & film watcher, this podcast was created by two friends Alex and Em. Each week the duo explores a different television show or film and decides whether it was good, bad or just basic. Alex and Em have a talent for getting to the heart of the matter when it comes to character breakdowns and plot analyses. The hosts balance their thoughtful insight with humor and honesty.
Although there are plenty of podcasts that could recap and analyze your favorite shows, Alex and Em not only investigate a wide range of shows and movies but this particular team has the perfect balance of educated opinions from black women and they provide a perspective that is often missing from media critique.
Alex and Em saw that there were very few spaces for black women media critics and decided to create their own space. The podcast is a new place for other TV lovers and cinephiles to hear a perspective that isn’t often listened to or explored. “The Good, The Bad, and The Basic” is a must listen for anyone who loves movies and TV.
THE EPISODES TO LISTEN TO
“The Sopranos” - “Breaking Bad” - “Scandal”
“Breaking Bad” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
The Vanishing Half
The Vanishing Half chronicles the Vignes twins, sisters who after growing up together in a small southern town forge their own paths with one sister choosing to pass as white and the way their choices shape their lives.
The novel explores the lasting influence of racism in our country’s history and the looming presence it has over the lives of black people in America. Bennett paints the Jim Crow South with the same beauty as she does modern California.
Further despite the novel discusses passing, it is a universal novel about family, identity and perception. Britt Bennett’s debut novel The Mothers created a splash on the literary scene and became a bestseller and was one of the most important new books in 2016. Much like her debut novel, Bennett shifts point of view and allows for the reader to gain insight into each character. Both of Bennett’s novels are beautifully written page turners.
Bennett is compared to Black literary legends such as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. She deserves to be lauded as the talent she is while she’s among us. Britt Bennett is among a sea of other talented writers but her ability as a writer and a novelist stands alone. Her writing will leave you thinking and wanting to devour more of her work.
OTHER BRITT BENNETT WORKS
The Mothers, “Addy Walker, American Girl”, “Who Get to Go To the Pool”, and “White Terrorism Is as Old as America”
Find More at: Brittbennett.com
