From the outside, this sounds like it'll be a brilliant film. After all, Sandra Bullock earned a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Leigh Anne Toughy, a southern white women who helps a black football player, Michael Oher, achieve his dreams. It's based on a heartwarming true story but the fictionalised version is trite and preachy and, yep, more than a little racist. The film doesn't deal in any nuanced way with race, nor does it explore the structural inequalities that put Oher in a position of extreme disadvantage and in need of outside assistance. Instead, it seems to make the argument that white people can and should "save" black people and black people should be grateful to them for their intervention. Rarely has the white saviour narrative played out so blatantly in such a popular film.
Brydie is an Australian writer and performer living in London and she complains exactly the same amount about the weather as every other Australian living in London. Yes, that is her natural lip colour, no, she will not be taking any further questions at this time.
