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This review contains spoilers.
A new horror film, Master, is making waves in the liberal arts scene. It is black woman Mariama Diallo’s first film, and it follows three black women at a prestigious New England college: a freshman (Zoe Renee as Jasmine Moore), an administrator recently promoted to the position of “master” (Regina Hall as Gail Bishop), and a professor seeking tenure (Amber Gray as Liv Beckman). The horror element of the film is that the school is rumored to be haunted — especially freshman Jasmine Moore’s dorm room — which in 1965 housed the school’s first black student . . . until she hanged herself.
The mishmash of supernatural terror and social commentary is described well by Richard Brody, writing in the New Yorker, “[Master] uses horror-genre devices to reveal the ambient racism pervading American life.” At night, Jasmine has terrifying dreams about monstrous hands clawing at her. During the day, her white peers level micro-aggression after micro-aggression at her: saying she looks like various black celebrities, complaining that her nappy hair clogs drains, ignoring her request to be paid back for the pizza she orders at a party, etc. Administrator Gail Bishop gets the same treatment. Her white colleagues pepper her with condescending liberal comments, telling her that her “voice” is essential at the college, comparing her to fellow black trailblazer Barack Obama, etc. She discovers that her official portrait is being eaten away by bugs, and that her house has an inexplicable maggot infestation.
The movie makes much of these awkward encounters. In one tediously long scene, freshman Jasmine checks out some books from the library. As she walks out the door, she sets off the theft alarm. She turns around and tells the white librarian that this has happened before, and that the alarm is wrong. The librarian does not believe her, and asks her to come back to the front desk so her backpack can be searched. We are obviously meant to feel outrage over these petty indignities, but every time I’ve triggered an anti-theft alarm, employees asked me to go back to the register to figure out what happened.
As the film progresses, all three black women feel more and more isolated. Jasmine can’t make friends with the rich white kids, and there are almost no other non-white students. Gail the “master” feels completely out of place in a new job that surrounds her with bumbling whites. At one point, she screams at a group of them that it’s as if her position is not “master,” but maid. Professor Liv’s quest for tenure is stymied, and she’s accused of being another Rachel Dolezal.
At one point, the word “leave” is carved into the door to Jasmine’s dorm room, and a noose hung from it. Later, a cross is set ablaze in front of her building. The culprit is not found, and the audience is left to wonder if it was a racist student or an evil witch. The message, of course, is that it doesn’t matter: Racism is everywhere and inescapable. In the end, Jasmine is found dead, hanging in her dorm room. Again, we don’t know who is the culprit. Maybe another student did it, maybe evil spirits did it, maybe evil spirits infected her with a suicidal impulse. The message is the same: Racism comes from both people and supernatural forces, making it unavoidable.
I enjoyed the film’s mocking of white liberals. However, it’s not clear what the leftist black writer/director Mariama Diallo wants woke whites to do. Surely she wants whites to “celebrate diversity,” “elevate black voices,” and the like. But the whites in her film who believe in these things are mocked for being awkward and insensitive. Much like the white feminists derided by black political commentators, no amount of ethno-masochism or groveling is ever good enough. Perhaps the movie’s only virtue is that it reinforces that lesson — one that liberal whites may eventually learn.
Master is a failure as social commentary. Black students at elite universities are not terrorized. The supposed “hate crimes” they suffer from turn out to be hoaxes. The Ivy League coddles blacks students, allowing them to get away with stunts, such as marching through a school library screaming, “F*** you, you filthy white f***s!” “F*** you and your comfort!” “F*** you, you racist s***!” Blacks who think New England too white can go to an HBCU — there are over 100 of them. Suffering “micro-aggressions” is part of the human condition, not evidence of “institutional racism.” Finally, black women are one of the least suicide-prone groups in the country. In 2020, 70 percent of suicides in America were white men. Here are America’s suicide rates for women by race:
How about a cinematic examination of what leads an old white guy to kill himself?
Master is another reminder that our cultural elites are disconnected from reality. I hope its absurd exaggerations will get a white audience member or two to question the “huddled clichés” we are expected to believe.
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Oh, another movie that yet again tells the world how horrible white people are, what a shocker. All the usual staples are there too. The stupid bumbling whites, the obviously smarter nig-grows that had to work 12 times as hard to get to the same station in life. And lets not forget the racist messages carved into walls and the always displayed scary noose that magically appears when whitey is on the rampage.. I’m sure the reviews will be glowing, and awards will be plentiful coupled to this piece of garbage. It’s not enough that this crap gets top billing, it’ll also be racist to give an honest review of this shit.
You’ve made a mistake.
This is not about reason, or fairness, or objectivity, or cinematic quality.
This is about power.
can’t hold a candle to Blue Demon, in which
an experimental shark named “Red Dog” goes rogue, straps on a neutron bomb, and attempts to destroy the golden gate bridge:
A Jordan Peele knockoff movie made by sassy Black women about sassy Black women?
How could it not suck?
We all know how much America really cares about the plight of the Black woman and how tiresome and exhausting she finds us. It’s such a little-explored subject in modern American media. A real silent scream.
Hollywood, please make nothing but movies like this and give all the Blacktresses Oscars for them, forever.
Blacks are animals. Whoever heard of an animal killing itself?
Anyway, to respond to the title: worst movie ever made? My nominees.
1. Anything by Pasolini.
2. Exodus.
3. Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia.
Damn-another fake hate crime….
The last sentence of this review mentions “huddled clichés”. What does it mean for a cliché to be huddled? Is this maybe a reference to Emma Lazarus’s poem about “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? Please give an example of a huddled cliché and explain what makes it huddled.
Black people simultaneously want us to 1. disappear and 2. pay for all their stuff for eternity.
You see the same thing in ‘Black-ish’ with children’s SJW teacher. She is portrayed as still being a nuisance despite her real desire to help.
What they are expressing is that whites are annoying by their presence not just their deeds. Liberal whites who don’t see why they are offending the black characters despite not wanting to are an expression of their frustration with being a minority. They don’t want white people telling them what their ethnic opinions of activism is or should be. When the white characters praise her, they remind her she is the minority and things are still massively influenced by white perspectives.
This is an instinct towards self-determination and nationalism. The problem is blacks in the US don’t have an agreed or defacto homeland. (The black belt in the south where their slave ancestors came to doesn’t seem very popular) But I find it interesting that so far despite all the intensification in rhetoric that this hasn’t been articulated.
So every generation there are race riots. What we saw in 2020 was a defacto nationalist movement that would have culminated in demands for national independence in the old world.
‘…The last sentence of this review mentions “huddled clichés”. What does it mean for a cliché to be huddled? Is this maybe a reference to Emma Lazarus’s poem about “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? Please give an example of a huddled cliché and explain what makes it huddled.’
Be nice. Anyway, I like the idea of ‘huddled cliches yearning to be free.’
We could rewrite that whole poem.
They are parasites–they cannot prosper without a white host.
There are many contenders for that category, regardless of race ….
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Why would anyone watch such obvious tripe? Don’t answer that….,.,.
The Presidents of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, and Columbia are all jewish. Were any of the clueless white liberals in this movie identifiably jewish, either by name, appearance or mannerism? If not, it would be in defiance of what would be expected – i.e. an abundent over-representation of jews – and an indication that today’s up-and-coming black filmmakers are more savvy than I’d been giving them credit for.
Not so much bad as accidentally brilliant. A must see!
https://www.avclub.com/shadowboxer-has-little-shadowboxing-but-plenty-of-weir-1798233097
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What happens when highly-pampered low-IQ ingrates are given fantastic opportunities in elitist academia, with requirements tailored exclusively to insure their success — but they STILL fail?
Do they bow out graciously?
Or do they vent their infantile rage at the obvious targets of their jealousy?
I think you’re mistaking “films I don’t like” with “worst movies”. Although, the question is indeed partially subjective.
And I might agree with Pasolini’s “Salò”. That is one really unhealthy movie… But he did other things early in his career which were not that bad. Still, he was probably more promoted than others because he was gay, like Visconti was too.
Lots of film directors are gay. Especially the avant-garde ones…
Perhaps Priss Factor should share his knowledge about worst movies.
For worst film ever I nominate the recent insipid remake of “Cheaper By The Dozen.”
Holy fucking shit it was bad.