Pride: A Pride & Prejudice Remix (2018)

I really loved this YA novel. It’s by Ibi Zoboi, who co-authored Punching the Air with Yusef Salaam. This is obviously a very different kind of book, but it’s incredibly well done, and like the best modern reimaginings of classic works, it has something of its own to say outside of its original source material.

Zuri Benitez and her four sisters are shocked when someone buys the long-vacant house across the street of their Bushwick block, turns it into a “mini-mansion,” and moves in. She immediately associates the wealthy Darcy family with the gentrifiers who’ve been moving in, and while her older sister Janae quickly falls for the affable Aisnley, Zuri wants nothing to do with them, especially the stiff, standoffish Darius. But appearances can be deceiving, on all sides, and Zuri and Darius begin to learn that there’s more to one another than meets the eye.

We’ll talk about the book as a Pride & Prejudice adaptation first. All the best interpretations of this story recognize both Lizzy and Darcy experience both parts of that title over the course of the novel. Zuri side eyes Darius’s bougie background, thinking him less Black because he’s not hood, and Darius makes some tactless assumptions about Bushwick. His pride keeps him on the edge of unfamiliar situations where he feels uncomfortable, and hers is wounded by his less-than-favorable first impression of her. Both characters are calibrated really well to be modern Black versions of their Austen counterparts (Afro-Latina on Zuri’s side,) and the supporting characters are all quickly recognizable from the book. I especially want to shout out Warren (the Wickham character,) Mrs. Benitez (Mrs. Bennet, obviously,) and Georgina (Georgiana Darcy.)

Plotwise, there are some clever updates in adapting the particular plot beats. The increasing gentrification of Brooklyn is a good way to put the Benitez’s home in peril, and Zuri’s hood pride helps gives context for her automatic resistance to Darius. Everything surrounding Warren’s character, especially his history with Darius, is well executed. I also like how the book explores slut-shaming and Zuri’s preoccupation with not wanting her and her sisters to get a “reputation”—it can be tough to translate the sexual mores of a Regency-era novel to the modern day, and this gives the reader a good “in” to Zuri’s worries about her younger sisters’ behavior.

And like I said, I love what the novel has to say beyond the bounds of a Pride & Prejudice adaptation. Zuri’s ruminations (and poetry) on what’s happening to Bushwick as white hipsters move in are beautifully done, and I love seeing the contrasts between how the Darcys move through the neighborhood compared to how she does. I appreciate that the Darcys are a Black family, both for the representation it offers up in the central romances and for the way it adds further nuance to Darius as a Black kid from a rich family who’s spent most of his life in white spaces.

It's funny, romantic, poetic, and thoughtful. What more could I want in a modern Pride & Prejudice?

Warnings

Language, sexual references, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.

Pride (2014, R)

I didn’t know how much I needed Pride until I saw it.  A based-on-a-true-story film with LGBTQ themes and a happy ending?    Such things are possible?  So many queer stories are about discrimination, violence, or HIV, and all three of those things do play a role in this movie; however, its focus, the idea at its heart, is such an uplifting one.  It’s the story of one marginalized community coming to the aid of another, two disparate groups uniting in a common cause and learning to celebrate each other.

In the ‘80s, coal miners across the U.K. took part in a massive strike lasting nearly a year (Billy Elliot centers around the same events.)  Pride’s protagonist isn’t a miner but a young gay Londoner named Mark Ashton.  A gay rights activists, Mark recognizes his own community’s experience in the miners’ struggles.  Both groups find themselves the enemies of Margaret Thatcher, overly-zealous police forces, and the heavily-biased press.  He galvanizes a group of other LGBT activists to form the LGSM, Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.  They set about collecting as much money as they can to keep the miners going throughout the strike.

That’s the first side of our story, and it’s a good one, but the real beauty of the film comes when you add the second element.  Having raised a quite a bit of money, the LGSM has trouble finding anyone to accept their donations; as soon as they say, “Lesbians and Gays,” the union stops responding to their calls.  Our heroes aren’t easily put off, however, and they decide to bypass the union altogether and send the money directly to a small mining community in Wales.  What begins as an uneasy encounter between two entirely different worlds – the villagers, most of whom have never met a gay person before, are wary of the LGSM members, and the LGSM workers aren’t sure they’ll be safe in a conservative small town – slowly morphs into a beautiful connection of shared ideals and acceptance.  The two worlds start to merge, and each side learns a great deal about the other, coming together as dedicated, honest allies of one another’s causes.

Yes, it has dark moments – the strike takes its toll, and any LGBTQ story from the ‘80s includes the specter of HIV – but the film never wallows in these trials and tragedies.  Its passionate, determined characters push back against any attempt to diminish them.  When someone throws a flash-bomb through their window, they just roll up their sleeves, grab the fire extinguisher, and keep fighting.  And the bond fostered between the LGSM and the miners always remains the focal point, giving the film what cinemaphiles would call “warm fuzzies up the ying-yang.”

The film doesn’t do much to dispel the idea that all British actors know each other.  The LGSM includes Andrew Scott (Sherlock’s Moriarty,) Dominic West (Hector from The Hour,) and Freddie Fox (the titular nephew from The Mystery of Edwin Drood a couple years ago,) and on the mining side, there’s Imelda Staunton, a fantastic Bill Nighy, and Paddy Considine (who I’ll always know best as the dad from In America.)  Plus, former History Boy Russell Tovey makes a small appearance just for the heck of it.

Warnings

A little language (including homophobic slurs,) brief violence, some sexual references, and drinking/smoking.