2021 Disclaimers

This is something I began last year, beginning the new year with looking back over some of my old posts and adding disclaimers to them, 12 posts for 12 months. For 2021, I have a mix of notes about alleged sexual predators involved in projects, acknowledgement of places where shows I love didn't step up where representation is concerned, an admission that I previous let one of my favorite comedians off the hook on a racist joke, and a few updated posts to account for accurate names/pronouns. As with last year, I'm only editing the posts to correct names and pronouns - otherwise, I'm adding the disclaimer to the top without changing the original content of the post.

Happy New Year. May 2021 be better as soon as possible, and may we all do our best to be better ourselves.

Soldier's Girl (07/07/15) - Although I do mention it in my review, it bears repeating more emphatically at the top. As excellent as his performance is, it isn’t right that Lee Pace was cast as Callie. It was a missed opportunity for a trans actress to play a leading role, and even though the film does a lot of things right, this is a wrong call that can’t be overlooked.

The Fosters (07/30/15) - While I really enjoy Noah Centineo on this show and prefer him as Jesus to Jake T. Austin’s 1.0 version, I acknowledge that it’s not a character he should’ve played. He’s one of a long line of white actors in Hollywood who’ve been cast as Latinx characters, something I didn't realize when I was first watching the series. The show also features a late-series ongoing plot in which an able-bodied actor plays a character with a disability (for the sake of spoilers, I won’t mention who.) How many more times do we need to see this happen?

A Single Man (11/20/14) - The last time I watched this movie, I exclaimed out loud when I saw the Weinstein Company ‘W’ logo during the opening credits – I hate that that man had a hand in so many great movies. In the case of A Single Man, the Weinstein Company didn’t produce it on the front end, but they did distribute it.

X-Men: The Last Stand (04/27/16) - Fixed Elliot Page’s name - the first of several for this year's disclaimers.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (06/17/14) - I added disclaimers to all my reviews of Bryan Singer movies last year, but I revisited this one again to fix Elliot Page’s name. (Note: I’m still using she/her pronouns to refer to Page’s character, Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. Looking over the post, I never referred to Page himself using any pronouns, so I didn’t need to change anything there.)

News Satire Roundup: March 6th-March 10th (03/11/16) - Fixed Elliot Page’s name and pronouns.

Midnight in Paris (04/05/14) - As I said in this review, I was never a huge Woody Allen fan, and that was before I heard about Dylan Farrow’s allegations against him. I’ve only ever seen a few of his movies, and this was the only one I ever loved. This isn’t the first time I’ve said this, but it bears repeating – I hate it when predators taint beautiful and creative things. I used to love this movie, but Woody Allen wrecked it.

Blue Jasmine (04/14/14) - More Woody Allen. Seriously, eff this guy.

Supergirl (07/02/16) - Over the seasons, I’ve come to truly love Supergirl, handwavy silliness and all. However, that doesn’t change the fact that seasons 2 and 3 featured a major Latinx character played by a white actress. The extra-irritating thing about this is that, in the comics, Maggie Sawyer is white, so they could’ve just had the white actress play her as white. But they specified Maggie as a PoC in her first appearance and established her as clearly Chicana in season 3. Why?! It’s so frustrating – “diversity points” don’t count when they’re not real diversity, and this was an important example of Supergirl failing to live up to its own ideals.

Convict 13 (03/14/16) - When I first reviewed this short, I neglected to mention a racist joke involving Buster’s caddy on the golf course. It’s one that I didn’t initially connect to the caddy being Black – when he hears a whistle blow, he instantly sits down in the middle of the green, on his lunch break – but when I rewatched the short for 100 Years of Buster Keaton, I realized it was probably a link that audiences in 1920 would have made. Being a fan doesn’t mean you can’t be critical.

Orange is the New Black (05/04/14) - Like Supergirl, Orange is the New Black is a fine show that does a lot of things really well but falls short in certain aspects. Namely, like way, way too many shows, it features multiple characters with disabilities played by able-bodied actors. Seriously, if characters with disabilities were cast appropriately, actors with disabilities would be all over Hollywood in prominent roles.

Shakespeare in Love (08/16/19) - I remember that I’d had it in the back of my mind when I watched this movie that Harvey Weinstein was involved in some way, but when I didn’t see the Weinstein Company Logo in the opening credits, I assumed I was wrong. Turns out, he did produce it – the film just predated the Weinstein Company. Additionally, the cast includes Geoffrey Rush, another alleged sexual harasser. That’s something I ought to have mentioned when I wrote the review.