In ‘Alice’ A Historical Narrative Dissolves Into Melodrama

Alice begins with a blood-curdling scream. As the film comes into focus, the audience meets Alice (Keke Palmer), an enslaved woman on the run. Before her destination is revealed, the film pulls us back in time to a plantation in rural Georgia. Surrounded by her loved ones, Alice secretly weds a man named Joseph (Gaius Charles) in a darkened cabin. However, no sooner have the newlywed couple said their vows are they beckoned outside by the plantation owner, Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). The audience learns quickly that Paul luxuriates in endless acts of cruelty include sexual and physical violence. 

Alice’s world has been depicted in countless films, including Harriet, 12 Years A Slave and, the oddly similar Antebellum. In Alice, first-time filmmaker Krystin Ver Linden painstakingly takes the time to sit in this setting of horrors, depicting everything from iron muzzles to beatings and alarming talks of human breeding. Unfortunately, this adds nothing new to the narratives of this time period. 

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Keke Palmer’s Superpower Is Being True To Herself: EXCLUSIVE

When you’ve been working in the industry since you were a kid, you know the interworkings of Hollywood like the back of your hand. This knowledge has enabled Hustlers actress Keke Palmer to cultivate a distinguished and multifaceted career at just 26-years-old. An actress, singer, and morning show host–Palmer can’t be placed in a box.

Though she began her career in films like Akeelah and the Bee and on shows like Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP–as an adult, the veteran actress has starred in everything from the musical Joyful Noise to the gritty drama, Pimp. Now, in addition to the critically acclaimed Hustlers, Palmer is lending her voice and her opinion to the morning show, GMA3: Strahan, Sara and Keke while continually working in entertainment.

All of this hasn’t deterred Palmer from continuing to seek out movie roles or becoming the face of the most hilarious viral meme of 2019 –“Sorry to This Man.” At #BlogHer19 Creators Summit, STYLECASTER sat down to chat with Palmer about the most terrifying thing she’s done in her career, how she’s remained so positive amid #cancelculture, and what compels her to say “yes” to a role.

“I think at home, my mom always encouraged me to be myself,” Palmer reflected on how her upbringing shaped who she is today. “She encouraged me to be true, to not let other people’s perception of me be the perception of myself as a woman, as a Black woman, as a Black person, and as a young person. She always made me feel like I could defy whatever those odds were. Growing up in the church, I think that’s a place where many people can find their voice. That sense of community that I saw very early on, it always made me feel like I had that foundation that I could stand tall.”

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Image: Cierra Miller/ STYLECASTER.

‘Hustlers’ Is A Dazzling Display Of Women Betting On Themselves

Since the beginning of time, women have had to use their ingenuity and wits to survive in a world that often wants to keep them pinned down. Based on the viral 2015 New York Magazine article, “The Hustlers at Score,” Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers is a dazzling narrative. The film centers a group of women who decide to be active participants in their own lives. Instead of waiting for better circumstances to come to them– they choose to take what the need, and quite frankly what they deserve.

Hustlers opens in 2007–the year before the most devastating economic crash since the Great Depression. Wall Street was basking in its golden moment, and New York was the epicenter of it all. As Janet Jackson’s “Control” strums in the background, we meet Destiny (Constance Wu). A newcomer at one of the most exclusive strip clubs in the city–she hasn’t quite found her footing. She’s barely scraping by with enough money to help her ailing grandmother. The other girls have their regulars and their confidence–wooing clients into the backrooms and garnering thousands of dollars a night for their acts. However, Destiny still hasn’t quite learned how to “sell fantasy.” But there’s one woman who has.

Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) is the queen of the club. Vivacious, sexy as hell and enticing–she has learned how to work the club, and its men for well over a decade. When we first meet Ramona, swirling around a pole–she’s like a work of art. As thrilled as the club’s clientele is with her–Destiny is also dazzled. Looking for ways to advocate for herself–Destiny reaches out to Ramona who happily takes her under her wing (and into her mink fur).

A former centerfold, Romana eagerly shows Destiny the ropes. She teaches her how to reel men in, how to get them to fund her lifestyle, and she also teaches her some new tricks for the stage. In a role that is brief but hilarious —Cardi B stars as Diamond –a stripper from the Bronx who skills Destiny on giving an erotic lap dance. Under the tutelage of her new big sister–Destiny’s life changes for the better only to come to a screeching halt in 2008.

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Image: STX Entertainment.