I would highly recommend you have a friend who is a Nobel Prize laureate.

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...

#17 : Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am



This documentary profile of the celebrated African American author was completed shortly before her death in 2019. Oprah Winfrey, Walter Mosley and Angela Davis are among the heavyweights paying tribute.

I'm not massively familiar with Ms Morrison or any of her work, but it strikes me as though she inhabits a somewhat-hard-to-criticise space, so I was expecting this to be some background (which would hopefully educate me somewhat) and a lot of people saying nice things about her (which I was expecting to be less educational).  Two hours though?  Really?!?

I was exceptionally pleased to see that it starts with the woman herself and she comes across as a very nice lady - wise and sassy.  Unsurprisingly, she has a nice turn of phrase, both in her books and her conversation - "Parents have a right to tell their children what books they can read.  They don't have a right to tell my children what they can read" on the subject of banning books struck me as particularly apt.  She also makes some interesting points on racism (both overt and subconscious) which were educational to me, but I suspect I'd have been surprised if it hadn't.

Interspersed with comments from the lady herself are some nice looking images - completely pointless nice looking images obviously, but nice looking nonetheless and comments from other contributors.  They are also engaging - generally not too over the top in their praise but a lot of them are very old friends, so it's not overly surprising they don't lay into her.  The whole film is, as I was expecting, very lacking in any criticism of the woman and I think it would have been improved if there had been some suggestion that she wasn't quite such a wise angel.  Although the woman herself is amusing about her college days - "I was loose.  I think I overdid it" as she's chuckles away to herself.

So, it's a very watchable film about a very fine woman but was it one of the top films of last year?  No, it was not.  It's a perfectly serviceable documentary which I'm happy to say engaged me throughout (unlike many of the films on this list so far) - but it's got a very straightforward structure and at no point does it make you think "Wow - I'd never have thought of telling the story that way".  I'm not sure it quite lands the ending (it feels like it just stops) and I also think that two hours was too long - it could quite easily have lost 30 minutes and not suffered.   It did make me want to read some of her stuff though - and apparently she made a mean carrot cake as well.

At the time of writing, the film is available to rent on most of the usual streaming channels - I'd recommend it if you're interested in Ms Morrison or just American literature in general, but don't go into it expecting a groundbreaking film.

#18 - A thoroughly depressing film
#16 - A fine film indeed



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