Posted on 01/21/2021 6:57:31 AM PST by Kaslin
Actor Ben Affleck once explained why he found it difficult to watch Republican actors on screen. "It's...hard," explained Affleck, "to get people to suspend disbelief. ... When I watch a guy I know is a big Republican, part of me thinks, I probably wouldn't like this person if I met him, or we would have different opinions. That (expletive) fogs the mind when you should be paying attention and be swept into the illusion."
This likely explains why "Uncle Tom," the documentary on which I worked as executive producer, gets no love from the lists of best documentaries of 2020. A critical and financial success by any measure, the gross earnings of "Uncle Tom," so far, exceed seven times its cost and counting. It recently became available on iTunes, Amazon Prime and Walmart online, as well as on store shelves.
Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson recently wrote about the film's snub with the headline: "Censored: Larry Elder's 'Uncle Tom' film." But the Hollywood trade publications Variety and Hollywood Reporter? Silence.
The Chicago Tribune's John Kass, a political writer, wrote a piece headlined "What Frightens the American Left: Larry Elder's New Documentary 'Uncle Tom.'" Kass writes: "Is there anything more frightening to the American political left and their high media priests of the woke world than Black Americans who think for themselves and refuse to kneel? ... And so, they are demeaned by Democratic politicians and either ignored outright or marginalized as race traitors, sellouts and 'Uncle Toms.' It's a way to humiliate them, shut them up, and cancel them. And the party's handmaidens of the media play along. But that's one reason why Larry Elder's stunning new film, 'Uncle Tom: An Oral History of the American Black Conservative,' is so important, especially now."
Each of the following three year-end lists of "best" documentary films of 2020 ignores "Uncle Tom," despite an IMDb viewer rating higher than any on the lists -- in most cases, far higher. (IMDb, the Internet Movie Database website, assigns films a rating, from one to 10, based on viewers' reviews.)
First, Polygon's list: 1) "Dick Johnson Is Dead," 7.5 (IMDb rating); 2) "Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets," 7.3; 3) "Welcome to Chechnya," 7.9; 4) "Collective," 8.4; 5) "You Don't Nomi," 6.7; 6) "The Go-Go's," 7.5; 7) "Mucho Mucho Amor," 7.2; 8) "I Am Greta," 5.2; 9) "Mayor," 7.5; 10) "City Hall," 7.3.
Next, Paste Magazine's top-25 list, listed alphabetically, without rankings, contains some of the same films, but many others are not on the first list. The new additions are: "76 Days," 7.1; "David Byrne's American Utopia," 8.3; "The Annotated Field Guide of Ulysses S. Grant," N/A; "Boys State," 7.7; "City So Real," 7.4; "Crip Camp," 7.8; "Epicentro," 6.8; "Feels Good Man," 7.6; "Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds," 7.0; "The Grand Bizarre," 6.7; "Heimat Is a Space in Time," 6.8; "The History of the Seattle Mariners," N/A; "I Walk on Water," 6.7; "Malni -- Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore," 6.2; "The Metamorphosis of Birds," 7.8; "The Painter and the Thief," 7.6; "Sunless Shadows," 7.3; "Time," 7.2; "Vick," 7.4.
Finally, there's IndieWire, an independent film website whose 2020 "best of" list (unranked and listed alphabetically) also ignores "Uncle Tom." The films on its "best of" but not already listed above include: "All In: The Fight for Democracy," 6.3; "Athlete A", 7.7; "Gunda," 7.4; "The Mole Agent," 7.6; "The Social Dilemma," 7.7.
Not a single film on these three lists achieved an IMDb rating of 8.5 or more. Not one. "Collective" registered the highest at 8.4. How did "Uncle Tom," again, shut out on all three lists, rate on IMBD? 8.9. Not a typo: 8.9.
Finally, of the last 10 Oscar winners for Best Documentary, none has a higher IMDb rating than "Uncle Tom." None. Only one matched its 8.9 rating. See you at the Academy Awards
And that is a two-way street.
Uncle Tom is not a racist book, just the opposite.
Funny, that’s exactly how I felt when I was on the set of Armageddon. I was standing next to him when out of nowhere, he threw a hissy fit because someone caused him to wait 2 seconds to start filming. Right then and there I knew these people have no concept of real life. There were other moments, but this one personified that belief.
-suspend disbelief that some 110lb woman is a ninja who can take down five male opponents at once?
-suspend disbelief that some homosexual is a ladies' man?
-that a tranny born male can be a woman?
-that a soft toad like Ben Affleck would be Batman?
I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school
He was terrible in that film
I need you like Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part
He’s way better than Ben Affleck
And now all I can think about is your smile
And that s..... movie too
Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you
Ben who?
It is a two way street, with the exception that we have facts to bolster the view on our side, and they utilize emotion to buttress the view on their side.
On their side, facts are completely irrelevant. It is what they feel that is important. What they want.
If I see someone with a Barack Obama or Joe Biden sticker or sign, my impression is that I won’t like them, because they don’t believe our rights come from God, they believe our rights are granted to us by government.
I won’t like them because they don’t believe that wealth can be created (even those that do create wealth) from nothing, they believe wealth can only be obtained if it is taken from someone else.
I could go on, but you get the idea, and we likely agree in any case.
I bought “Uncle Tom” when it came out.
Only a ignoramus or a racist could view that as a racist production.
Which they have not figured out yet is a big reason why movie attendance was declining even before the bat gazpacho flu.
And I don't say that because of his politics. Politically DeNiro, Sean Penn, George Clooney are all far more annoying than him, but they can act.
Affleck always looks like he's struggling to remember the lines he read for the first time two minutes earlier.
Here is the official trailer. I haven’t watched the whole documentary, either (my face is red), but I understand that it is very, very good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVLj-zARCv8
Ben Affleck’s only good roles are where he is playing a complete prick, like in “Mallrats”, because then he actually doesn’t have to act at all.
BM TY
He said it perfectly, his words are exactly why I will not watch anything any of his ilk produce or play act in. They are icky human beings.
Most actors are not well read or educated. The overpaid A-list are the worst and the biggest communists.
I will not pay money to see anything he is in. I mostly cannot watch for him freely anything he is in either.
He is a Godless alcoholic who messed up a fairly normal actress.
Welcome to Hollywood
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