{"id":2030,"date":"2017-12-12T20:55:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T20:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=2030"},"modified":"2023-04-02T07:13:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T15:13:34","slug":"my-own-private-top-ten-or-wonder-women-of-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=2030","title":{"rendered":"My Own Private Top-Ten or Wonder Women of 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

To repeat: I don’t do Top-Ten lists of movies or television or even books, mostly because none of them need my help as much as jazz does. What I’ve done instead over the past few years is assemble potpourri of popular culture items that I’ve found especially meaningful, ennobling and distinctive over the previous 12 months. I chose this year’s theme for many reasons, some of which you may infer from recent headlines. But primarily because it’s been clear to me for some time now that women have achieved prominence and glory disproportionate to the overall respect, economic or otherwise, they receive from society-at-large. Besides: Women\u00a0have\u00a0<\/em>been doing some remarkable stuff in The Culture this year, as you’ll see below. So yeah, we’re so<\/em> doing this. Here and now. And I apologize in advance for anybody I may have forgotten about or omitted. There’s always next year, yes?<\/p>\n

\"tracee<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Blackish<\/a><\/p>\n

1.) The women of black-ish<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 There are few things more satisfying to a couch potato emeritus than watching a sitcom hit full stride. By my own reckoning, black-ish<\/em>, now in the middle of a how-can-they-possibly-top-this Season 4, is striding so confidently ahead of the analog TV pack that it\u2019s hard to imagine anything else in the genre catching up to it, which is saying a lot given how strong that competition is, even on its own network (ABC). Creator-producer Kenya Barris, his collaborators and the whole cast deserve serial Emmys, most especially for its hyper-magnetic women. Begin with the routinely magnificent Tracee Ellis Ross who, as Mama Doc Rainbow, is the post-Millennial master of the \u201cfreeze-ray\u201d stare deployed throughout sitcom history against bombastic, self-deluded husbands. (See Alice Kramden nod, scowling at Ralph.) It\u2019s probably working since husband Dre (Anthony Anderson) has gotten less delusional over time, especially about his mother Ruby (the National Treasure that is Jenifer Lewis), at once the grand dame, caffeinated diva and galloping id of Family Johnson. I\u2019ve missed the languid graces of big sister Zoey (Yara Shahidi) now that she\u2019s in college most of the time. But kid sister Diane (Marsai Martin) more than makes up for her absence. She\u2019s poker-faced anti-matter to terminally cute Rudy Huxtable, throwing shade on everybody else\u2019s pretenses with a neurosurgeon\u2019s icy precision. Of course, she\u2019s my favorite \u2013 but don\u2019t tell the rest of them. Everybody in this household is special in her (and his) own way.<\/p>\n

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\"greta-directing\"<\/a>
\n2.) Greta Gerwig & Laurie Metcalf<\/strong> \u2013 All I\u2019m going to mention about Lady Bird<\/em> is one scene. Just one. Laurie Metcalf is alone in a car, driving around in a circle, saying nothing. That\u2019s all that happens \u2013 or at least that\u2019s all I\u2019m disclosing here. Yet when you see it, you\u2019ll realize once again how such moments make a small picture gigantic. Alone, that scene reveals three bankable, self-evident truths: You will be talking about this movie well past New Year\u2019s, Laurie Metcalf will win an Oscar and Greta Gerwig has the potential to make a masterwork. This isn\u2019t it, despite what you\u2019ve heard. But it\u2019s within her reach. Wait.<\/p>\n

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\"Tiffany<\/a>
\n3.) Tiffany Haddish<\/strong> \u2013 Girls Trip<\/em> was the year\u2019s springiest jack-in-the-box-office coup. Directed with unassuming charm by the habitually underrated Malcolm L. Lee, the movie carries a set-up that could have been too sudsy by half if it weren\u2019t for its gently timed raunchiness and, most especially, Haddish\u2019s explosive presence. Not since a young Michael Keaton ate Henry Winkler\u2019s lunch, along with most of the scenery, in 1982\u2019s Night Shift<\/em> has anybody burst forward on the big screen with such lets-get-this-party-started swagger. The only thing that\u2019s been more fun to watch than her performance (which has already won a New York Film Critics Circle Award) is the smart and jaunty manner with which she\u2019s been carrying her triumph throughout the Global Village. Take ten minutes off from a hard day to listen as she tells tell Jimmy Kimmel how she took Mr. and Mrs. Fresh Prince on a road trip. Guaranteed, you will come away thinking: Now this is how you\u2019re supposed to treat a power couple!<\/p>\n

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