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Review: Karen (2021), A Flawed Effort to Exploit American Racism

Karen (2021) actress

&NewLine;<p>Few films that try to cash in on current trends find much love from viewers or critics&period; Exploitation films can work well when they defy expectations through high production value&comma; conceptual authenticity&comma; or artistic nuance&period; However&comma; most &&num;8220&semi;timely&&num;8221&semi; exploitation feels at best&comma; cheap and unnecessary&comma; and at worst&comma; shallow and offensive&period; Sadly&comma; writer&sol;director Coke Daniels’ thriller film&comma; <em>Karen <&sol;em>&lpar;2021&rpar;&comma; does everything in its power to make a serious issue — racism in America — unbearably simplistic and contrived&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>From the moment I saw the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;nfEPWa1ay0U">trailer for <em>Karen<&sol;em><&sol;a>&comma; I knew that it was going to be bad&period; I also knew that I would inevitably watch it&period; It wasn’t that I felt drawn to the cultural relevance of the film’s plot&comma; but rather the absurdity of its existence&period; When it comes down to it&comma; <em>Karen<&sol;em> is little more than a meme masquerading as a legitimate take on the state of being black in modern-day America&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film uses the format of a crime thriller to justify increasingly farcical confrontations loosely based on very real racial bigotry&period; In <em>Karen<&sol;em>&comma; Malik &lpar;Cory Hardrict&rpar; and Imani &lpar;Jasmine Burke&rpar; are a young black couple moving into an affluent&comma; predominantly white neighborhood in Atlanta&period; In fact&comma; they appear to be the only African-Americans living in the area&period; This fact is not lost on the couple’s neighbor&comma; Karen &lpar;Taryn Manning&rpar;&comma; a busybody whose microaggressions are readily apparent&period; Within days of their arrival&comma; Karen installs security cameras outside her home&comma; with one pointed directly at Malik and Imani’s house&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though Malik and Imani have done nothing wrong&comma; Karen tries to use her power as the head of the local Homeowner’s Association to get them removed&period; The rest of the neighborhood is not nearly concerned about their presence&comma; making Karen’s bigotry all the more obvious&period; Hellbent on finding evidence against them&comma; Karen stalks Malik and Imani&comma; patrolling their every move&period; She even enlists the help of her brother&comma; Mike &lpar;Roger Dorman&rpar;&comma; a police officer who shares her racist sentiments&comma; to continually harass the couple&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As one can imagine from a thriller&comma; the microaggressions quickly turn into overt attempts to disrupt Malik and Imani’s lives&period; The confrontations become so intense that the couple considers moving&comma; though they ultimately endeavor to fight back by refusing to give in&period; Tensions mount as Karen and Mike face off with Malik and Imani&comma; who even ask for help from a lawyer who specializes in racially-motivated crimes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;07&sol;maxresdefault-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Karen movie" class&equals;"wp-image-2538"&sol;><figcaption><em>Karen<&sol;em> &lpar;2021&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The problem with <em>Karen<&sol;em> &lpar;2021&rpar; is not that it tells an unrealistic story&period; On the contrary&comma; it is the kind of story that happens in neighborhoods all across the country every single day&period; The real problem is that <em>Karen<&sol;em> is a laughably amateur film in nearly every respect&period; Take the title&comma; for example&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Most viewers already know that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Karen” has become a colloquial term for entitled white women who often express their privilege and bigotry in outrageous ways&period; Using the term for the title automatically conjures up images of white women filming innocent black people having lunch in the park&comma; or white women demanding to see the manager of a supermarket over the most trivial inconveniences&period; The term is society’s attempt to ridicule and make laughable an otherwise detestable segment of the population&period; This is why naming the film after the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Karen” archetype makes it feel like a bad joke from the start&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Another aspect of <em>Karen<&sol;em> that makes it impossible to take seriously is its inability to come up with creative scenarios&period; Nearly every scene is taken directly from news headlines or Youtube videos&period; We see Karen filming a group of black teens just walking through the neighborhood&comma; as she screams in fake terror and plays the victim until the police arrive&period; Yes&comma; it is something that happens all too often in real life&comma; but the film does not make it feel scary or serious&period; It is yet another bad joke in a film full of bad jokes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This brings me to the issue of actually analyzing <em>Karen<&sol;em> as a sincere thriller&period; In the face of overwhelmingly negative critical responses&comma; Coke Daniels tried to argue that <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;thedailybeast&period;com&sol;karen-director-coke-daniels-defends-his-controversial-movie-its-a-feel-good-film">the film is actually a satire<&sol;a>&comma; but this just feels like a sane person pleading insanity after the fact&period; <em>Karen<&sol;em> is&comma; without a doubt&comma; a terrible film&period; The writing does not work&period; The pacing and editing are clunky&period; Karen’s wig looks ridiculous&period; And&comma; perhaps most importantly&comma; it is so obviously an attempt to exploit growing racial tensions in the United States to make a quick buck&period; Coke Daniels deserves no praise for bringing this disaster into the world&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>When people call for more black filmmakers into the mainstream&comma; this is not it&period; There is plenty of great black cinema and talent out there&comma; but creating a meme-inspired race film adds nothing of value to the conversation&period; Instead&comma; it manages to turn the very real issue of racial discrimination and violence against minorities into one of the worst thrillers I’ve ever seen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading">Karen &lpar;2021&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you want to watch <em>Karen<&sol;em> &lpar;2021&rpar;&comma; the film is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;3cxb9ar">stream&comma; rent&comma; or purchase via Amazon<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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