Commentary
IN REVIEW: What Men Want
NNPA NEWSWIRE — The movie is a hilarious romp with the female sports agent using her “powers” to break the glass ceiling at her job but affecting her relationship with a single father she meets who is a bartender at a local club.
By Hollywood Hernandez, Texas Metro News
What Men Want is a clever comedy from the same team that brought you Girl’s Trip and stars Taraji P. Henson in her first leading role in a comedy. It’s a movie where both men and women can learn a little bit about each other. The men are not demonized and the ladies are shown to be less than perfect as well.
Henson plays Ali in the movie. Her father, played by Richard Roundtree (Shaft), is a widower who runs a boxing gym. He taught his daughter that if you get hit, you’ve got to hit back harder.
While the lessons she was taught help her move forward in the “good old boys network” she does develop a reputation as a woman that does have difficulty in dealing with men.
One evening during a “girl’s night out” she has a spiritual connection over a cup of tea with a physic called “Sister,” who is played by Erykah Badu. The “tea”, mixed with some other drugs like weed and ecstasy and a hard bump on the head, give Ali the power to hear men’s thoughts.
The movie is a hilarious romp with the female sports agent using her “powers” to break the glass ceiling at her job but affecting her relationship with a single father she meets who is a bartender at a local club.
The rest of the cast, including Ms. Badu, is solid, but I really enjoyed the scenes with Erykah, most of it ad libbed. She stole every scene she played in the movie. (Also, there are some additional Badu scenes at the end of the movie, so stick around until the very end of the credits.)
The movie is rated R for language and sex and runs right at 2 hours. This is a great date movie, but it is also a very adult comedy. Leave the kids at home.
On my “Hollywood Popcorn Scale” What Men Want rates a LARGE.
Commentary
Opinion: Lessons for Current Student Protesters From a San Francisco State Strike Veteran
How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning. Protesters did the same in 1968.
By Emil Guillermo
How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war.
After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning.
Protesters did the same in 1968.
That made me think of San Francisco State University, 1968.
The news was filled with call backs to practically every student protest in the past six decades as arrests mounted into hundreds on nearly two dozen campuses around the country.
In 1970, the protests at Kent State were over the Vietnam War. Ohio National Guardsmen came in, opened fire, and killed four students.
Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists outside a dormitory at Jackson State were confronted by armed police. Two African American students were killed, twelve injured.
But again, I didn’t hear anyone mention San Francisco State University, 1968.
That protest addressed all the issues of the day and more. The student strike at SFSU was against the Vietnam war.
That final goal was eventually achieved, but there was violence, sparked mostly by “outside agitators,” who were confronted by police.
“People used the term ‘off the pigs’ but it was more rally rhetoric than a call to action (to actually kill police),” said Daniel Phil Gonzales, who was one of the strikers in 1968.
Gonzales, known as the go-to resource among Filipino American scholars for decades, went on to teach at what was the positive outcome of the strike, San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Gonzales recently retired after more than 50 years as professor.
As for today’s protests, Gonzales is dismayed that the students have constantly dealt with charges of antisemitism.
“It stymies conversation and encourages further polarization and the possibility of violent confrontation,” he said. “You’re going to be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”
That’s happening now. But we forget we are dealing not with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.
Gonzales said that was a key lesson at SF State’s strike. The main coalition driving the strike was aided by self-policing from inside of the movement. “That’s very difficult to maintain. Once you start this kind of activity, you don’t know who’s going to join,” he said.
Gonzales believes that in the current situation, there is a patch of humanity, common ground, where one can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. He said it’s made difficult if you stand against the belligerent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, you’re likely to be labeled antisemitic.
Despite that, Gonzales is in solidarity with the protesters and the people of Gaza, generally. Not Hamas. And he sees how most of the young people protesting are in shock at what he called the “duration of the absolute inhumane kind of persecution and prosecution of the Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.”
As a survivor of campus protest decades ago, Gonzales offered some advice to the student protesters of 2024.
“You have to have a definable goal, but right now the path to that goal is unclear,” he said.
About the Author
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran newsman in TV and print, he is a former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
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