Friday 21 November 2014

Of Aaliyah, recency and the taste of bacon

Of Aaliyah, recency and the taste of bacon




I watched the Aaliyah biopic on Lifetime a few days ago

I thought Alexander Shipp did a decent job as Aaliyah. She could have done much better if she was actually allowed to sing the songs that made Aaliyah an icon

However the flick was universally panned on social media for many reasons particularly that of Miscasting: Izaak Smith & Chattrise Dolabaille look nothing like Timbaland and Missy Elliot -who worked closely with the singer during her lifetime. (Pix 3)

Cle Bennett who played R. Kelly looks more like Akon ( pix 2)

Anthony Grant who played Aaliyah's lover towards the end of her life, Damon Dash, is too tall (pix 4)

Hundreds of funny memes concerning this miscasting are on Twitter

Oddly enough the only person who looked like a music star was Aaliyah's brother, Rashad, played by Jesse Sukunda. He looks very much like Drake

-the attempt to 'romanticise' the pedophilic relationship between Aaliyah and R. Kelly also rubbed people off the wrong way

- Her family probably had a bad feeling about the flick as they didn't give the film makers permission to use any of her songs in the movie

Perhaps the biggest problem is that described in this article by one of my favourite bloggers, Damon Young:

Aaliyah has not been dead long enough!

 

Damon writes: "You can’t make a biopic loosely based on recent common knowledge fact because those facts are still too present, too alive still for us to grant the filmmakers any leeway"

"It’s someone attempting to explain to you how the bacon you ate yesterday morning tasted"

I co-sign this

 

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