A YEAR WHEN UNDERDOGS RULED
2017 had despair, dysfunction and Donald Trump, but the disenfranchised became the faces of franchises
Fifty years from now, people will look back at 2017 the way we look at 1967 today, slapping their foreheads and wondering “How the hell did that happen?”
Back then it was tie-dyed hippies and psychedelia, flower power and the Summer of Love.
In 2017, it was Donald Trump and the #MeToo war on sex predators, “pussy hats” and a feminist uprising.
In the face of a combative U.S. president bent on bringing back the white bread, Father Knows Best 1950s, history’s disenfranchised stood up and said, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it anymore.”
Pop culture responded in kind, with a slew of forward-thinking films ( Wonder Woman), TV shows ( The Good Doctor) and pop music (the resurgence of hip hop) that pushed boundaries in bold new directions.
It was, in the end, a year of dysfunction and discontent, disruption and disregulation, dismantling and demarcation.
A year when righteous anger reigned, underdogs ruled and everyone else jumped the shark.
What the hell happened at the Academy Awards?
It was the screw up of the century as La La Land, a whitesplainin’, mansplainin’ musical throwback to the days of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, was announced as Best Picture only to have the honour rescinded, mid-acceptance speech, when an envelope mix-up revealed the real winner was Moonlight.
Moonlight? You mean the comingof-age indie flick about a struggling gay Black man that almost no one went to see?
As Black faces replaced white ones at the podium, the confusion, chaos and red-faced apologies became the year’s most graphic predictor of what lay ahead.
Where goes Oscar, goes America.
Not to be outdone . . .
The Juno Awards and Canadian Screen Awards proved that when it comes to sheer incompetence, Canada — tepid round of applause — is second to no one.
First the Junos cut off Tragically Hip guitarist Paul Langlois as he was poignantly saluting a man who meant so much to so many: “I want to shout out to Gord Downie,” he offered, about to pierce the country’s soul with a touching farewell to his cancer-stricken bandmate. “And I want . . . (CUT TO COMMERCIAL).”
Then it was the Screenies, handing yet another Best Actress award to Tatiana Maslany for the show Orphan Black despite the fact it was her fourth win for the same role in the same category.
For all the talk about cutting-edge artistry, Canada takes great pride in presenting itself as a tedious cultural backwater. Hooterville North.
Protest lite
Along came Katy Perry — pop pinup/social justice warrior/shark jumper extraordinaire — attempting to cash in on the women’s movement with her “PERSIST” arm band and bespoke, tailored-for-the-times protest anthem, “Chained to the Rhythm,” with its penned-by-committee chorus:
“So comfortable, we’re livin’ in a bubble, bubble/ So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, trouble.”
Alas, nobody was buying the sunkissed “California Gurl” who spent the last decade shooting whipped cream from her bra as a defiant ambassador for social change.
Planet of the pretentious
Movie critics, overwhelmed by superhero flicks, mistook War for the Planet of the Apes for a timeless art film instead of what it really was — “Apocalypse Now with monkeys” — and gave it their highest ratings.
“Improbably magnificent!” crowed the Wall Street Journal.
“A formidable achievement!” trilled Slate.
“A unique and unforgettable experience!” confirmed Rolling Stone. Oh come on. Did they actually sit through this turgid blend of Bridge on the River Kwai, The Revenant and The Ten Commandments that scored 82 per cent on the aggregate site Metacritic — higher than any Ape film, including the iconic 1968 original?
It’s slow. It’s plodding. The subtitles are ridiculous.
I get that penny-pinching Hollywood has issued a fatwa on original ideas, that any director who wants to make an artistic statement must find a way to do so within a pre-existing franchise. But Colonel Kurtz as an orangutan? Does it really have to be so pretentious?
Brandy, you’re a fine song?
A cosmic deity in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 pronounces “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” — the 1972 charttopper by one-hit wonder Looking Glass — “one of Earth’s greatest musical compositions . . . perhaps the very greatest!”
Personally, I love this song, always have, though I figured its designation in this subversive superhero flick was intended as satire.
But then Guardians became the year’s No. 3 box office hit, while its 1970s infused soundtrack — which also includes songs by Sweet, Fleetwood Mac and Glen Campbell — peaked at No. 4 on Billboard.
“Maybe they’re right,” I reasoned. “Maybe those songs by the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin are all complete crap.”
But then a funny thing happened: my 9-year-old son, given the soundtrack as a gift, blasted not “Brandy” every morning, but Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.”
Is it possible that, in the pantheon of Earth’s Greatest Compositions, the cosmic deity picked the wrong one?
And on a positive note . . .
Autism, a developmental disorder that strikes fear in the unenlightened, found traction in the cultural mainstream. First up was the addition of Sesame Street’s autistic muppet, Julia. Then came the Netflix comedy series Atypical. Finally, and most impactfully, came the network megahit The Good Doctor, about an autistic surgeon grappling with workplace relationships while earning respect.
The surprising thing, as the autistic community (of which I am part) conceded with great surprise, is that none of these shows exploited brain disorder for ratings, presenting nuanced portrayals that respected the diversity of the spectrum and the dignity of the people on it.
The great normalization has begun. After decades of fear-mongering and neglect, autism’s status as pariah in the world of cognitive disorders is finally at an end.
Wonder Woman cleans up at the box office, proving (once again) that female-led blockbusters can draw a mass audience.
Biggest opening for a female director, largest opening of a female-led comic book adaptation, sixth largest June opening of all time, No. 2 box office hit of the year.
It also had the virtue of being, heaven forfend, a good movie.
“Feminism is about equality and choice and freedom,” actress Gal Gadot told the New York Times.
“The best way to show that is to show Diana as having no awareness of social roles. She has no gender boundaries. To her, everyone is equal.”
What really sold it in the Age of Trump was the sight of Gadot plowing through enemy lines in slo-mo, unflustered and unbreakable.
In the year of the Women’s March on Washington and #MeToo, it was an image that resonated.