Problematic Fave

Before there were flames on the side of Madeline Kahn's face in Clue, Peter Sellers was doing full-on yellowface in the Robert Moore's whodunit? Murder By Death -- and we talked to singer, dancer, actor, and RuPaul's Drag Race icon Peppermint all about it!

Set up as a send up of the "old dark house" genre, the film had an incredible cast including the aforementioned Sellers in yellowface; the OG Obi-Wan , Alec Guinness; queen Maggie Smith; Columbo -- I mean, Peter Falk, the Bride of Frankenstein Elsa Lanchester; Eileen Brennan, who also starred in Clue as well as literary legend Truman Capote and James Cromwell in his first feature role!

It's a stacked cast -- and the movie is super-duper fun -- but the way they lean into the yellowface of it all makes it problematic, obviously. The movie also handles its female characters very interestingly and the real Asian who stars in the movie, Richard Narita, deserves some sort of award for having to act opposite Sellers' yellowface. There is also some queerness that manages to find its way in there as well as bizarre representation of people with disabilities.

Murder By Death is wild and Peppermint and Dino had a grand ol' time unpacking all of it!

==

Peppermint

If anything, the biggest takeaway from this episode of Problematic Fave with stand-up comedian and writer Dylan Adler (The Late Late Show with James Corden) it's that Tai Lung, the villain in Kung Fu Panda, is giving masc top energy and is a queer icon.

In this week's episode, we talk about the the 2008 animated feature starring Jack Black and Angelina Jolie and as delightful as it is, this classic is giving Orientalism for the children!

===

Dylan Adler

Greta Gerwig's Barbie starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and a small town of pretty actors has been unleashed into the wild and there is a lot to be discussed -- and what better people to discuss this with than with Black Barbie: A Documentary director Lagueria Davis and producer Aaliyah Williams, a pair that has been living, breathing everything Barbie since this documentary about Black Barbie was born. Davis's aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell worked on the Mattel assembly line and had a hand in changing the landscape when she asked her her boss Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie “Why isn’t there a doll that looks like me?” The docu explores her story as well as the broader struggle for Black female representation in a world where worthy rarely means Black.

Davis and Williams, along with host Dino-Ray Ramos have LOTS of thoughts as they unpack this film that has been celebrated profusely, marketed aggressively, broken box office records, and caused some pockets of interesting conversation about the iconic doll.

==

Lagueria Davis

Join us this week as journalist and We're... Just Like That podcast co-host Shar Jossell takes us on a journey through the Queen Latifah-Steve Martin feature comedy Bringing Down The House from 2003. We explore the profound problems, humor and surprisingly insightful examination of the influence of hip hop on the dominant culture that this movie serves. And yes, there are a lot of racist moments.

==

Shar Jossell

In this different, BONUS episode of Problematic Fave, we bring you into the world of press conferences!

Dino-Ray Ramos moderated a press conference for the forthcoming comedy Joy Ride directed by Adele Lim and written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong & Teresa Hsiao. They were joined at the official press conference by the movie's stars Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu as well as the "sexy boys" Chris Pang, Rohain Arora, and Alexander Hodge.

This doesn't follow the regular Problematic Fave pod format as it is a press conference, obvi -- and it is a good ass time. The filmmakers and the cast have an unfiltered and also heartfelt conversation about the movie which explores self-discovery, friends and family -- and there's a lot of talk about chlamydia. Also, at one point, I think Sherry Cola says that Confucius was a top.

Enjoy!

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

There are a lot of problematic films and TV series in Hollywood, but what about the industry itself? In this week's episode Dino-Ray Ramos chats Maureen Ryan, journalist, critic and author of the book "Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood" which unpacks the toxicity of Hollywood. If you thought there were problematic people and systems in place in the film and TV industry, than this book will prove you right and then some.

Even though she unpacks a lot of the bad in Hollywood, she also gives hope with roads to making the industry less problematic -- it may take a while, but we gotta start somewhere. Nonetheless, we really get into the bad and the worse of it all and talk about our own experiences when it comes to working in an industry that we love, but clearly has a lot of problems that we hope to fix.

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

Maureen Ryan

Flower Drum Song was a benchmark in the the Golden Age of Hollywood grandeur and musical beauty -- and it was very racist by 2023 standards. We unpacked this Ro with stand-up comedian, actress, activist, and blazer of all trails Margaret Cho (Fire Island, Good Trouble, Hacks, Flight Attendant). Cho and Dino-Ray Ramos talk at length about the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie 1961 musical based on the 1958 Broadway musical on -- which was based on 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author Chin Yang Lee. The Oscar-nominated film gave us memorable performances including "I Enjoy Being A Girl" by the legend Nancy Kwan -- but also a lot of blatant, heavy handed, gong-banging Orientalism. The Asian representation in this film is remarkable and a watershed moment for the Asian American diaspora in 1961 Hollywood as it was a majority Asian cast... it also has a scene where an Asian woman's teeth is inspected to make sure she would make a good wife.

Cho admits that this is one of her favorite movies but also realizes its many problems. In this episode, we examine the Flower Drum Song and how it may be one of the most critical moments in cinematic history with problems that the Asian American diaspora are still facing in the 21st century.

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

Margaret Cho:

It's Pride! And what better way to dive into it than revisiting culturally relevant, trailblazing -- and traumatic -- movies about the LGBTQ+ community.

This week we welcome artist, urban planner, activist, and host of the Fruta Fresca podcast, Jose Richard Aviles to talk about the film Boys Don't Cry directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Hilary Swank, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of the real-life trans man Brandon Teena and his murder in Nebraska in 1993. They had lots to say about this very poignant -- but very problematic film for 2023.

Released in 1999, Boys Don't Cry was a watershed moment for queer representation -- but we know that it hasn't aged well. Aviles and Dino-Ray Ramos navigate through this film with critical thinking, but most of all, with empathy. It's a tragic story and to see that translated on screen brings about a lot of risks in representation and makes space for toxicity and violence. Watching Boys Don't Cry in 2023 is like walking through a landmine of harmful and hard to watch portrayal of trans people as well as much-needed queer representation we have never seen in 1999.

DISCLAIMER: Some topics we discuss may be triggering and difficult to hear.

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

To kick off Pride Month we have a treat for you: a BONUS LIVE EPISODE of Problematic Fave!

In this special episode, we travel to SeriesFest in Denver, Colorado where Problematic Fave host Dino-Ray Ramos moderated a special RuPaul's Drag Race conversation with local Denver drag queens Geo Conjure, Sexy Sadie, and Electra Dupri as well as Keith Garcia, artistic director of the Sie FilmCenter at Denver Film -- who is also a "drag mentor" of sorts, having worked with Drag Race winners Yvie Oddly (season 11) and Willow Pill (season 14).

We don't follow the usual format of Problematic Fave. Instead, after the queens performed (it was an incredible a show!), we watched a preview of RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars season 8. We then chatted about the impact of Drag Race on the queens' lives and we addressed the current landscape of anti-drag, anti-trans, and anti-queer legislation that is spreading across the country. They also told us a little bit about the amazing drag talent in the Denver and what makes the local scene so sickening.

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

To many, Revenge of the Nerds is an innocent cult classic underdog story from 1984 -- but it is kind of trash. Actually it's a lot of trash and we unpacked a lot of that garbage with film critic and podcast co-host of Unspooled Amy Nicholson!

It's amazing how this movie contained sooooo many problematic moments including a specific moment that is wildly offensive and would totally not fly today. We talk to Nicholson about THAT scene and how this movie constantly makes bad choices. We dive deep into this one so get your pocket protectors ready because it's going to be one problematic ride!

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

I said BRRRR! It's cold in here! There must be a Problematic Fave in the atmosphere!

We kick off season 2 of Problematic Fave with a live episode that was recorded at SXSW in March. We were more than happy to welcome actor Jojo T. Gibbs who chose to talk about the iconic cheerleading cinematic and very problematic masterpiece known as Bring It On! You may recognize her from the series Twenties as well as the cannibalistic thriller Fresh. She also stars alongside Megan Stalter in the Hannah Pearl Utt-directed rom-com Cora Bora which made its premiere at SXSW.

From the queer representation to the "urban" appropriation of it all, Gibbs and Dino-Ray Ramos dissect the classic film that Roger Ebert considered the Citizen Kane of cheerleading movies!

===

Problematic Fave is presented by DIASPORA and is created, hosted and produced by Dino-Ray Ramos. The series is also produced by Sanjay Sharma of Marginal MediaWorks and edited by Brian Aguilar.

I don't remember Falling Down being this racist.