If you haven't had enough of the real world and are looking for meatier entertainment at the box office, five films with social conscious themes are coming out.
Sorry to Bother You
Far-left leaning social satire dealing with race, class and capitalism.
Blindspotting
A man on probation who tries to walk the straight line, but finds trouble after witnessing a white cop shoot a black man.
Far From the Tree documentary
Explores families where children differ significantly from their parents because of autism, Down Syndrome, dwarfism, transgenderism or other characteristics. Also deals with genetic testing.
Night Comes On
Is described as a “female revenge drama,” a black woman sent to prison—life outside moves on.
BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)Based on the true story of an African-American detective in the 1970s who infiltrated a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado. Opens next month for the one-year anniversary of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that left a counter-protester dead.
Texas Tech University popular culture professor and librarian Rob Weiner said a free society is about different points of view, through art, popular culture and entertainment...which are forms of social history that tells us about the times we live.
“With the Civil Rights movement, there were films like ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?’ that really pointed out certain inequities. And, I think that we’re seeing a resurgence of that now,” said Weiner.
He said film is an art form and doesn't always have to be entertaining, it can have heavy messages. People don't want everything to have an agenda, but shouldn’t ignore it either.
Weiner said moviemakers might have an agenda that is honest to them, and the public is free to have a counterpoint.
“We are supposed to critically think about the world we live in; and talk about what is right, what is just, what isn’t,” said Weiner.
He said there are a lot of people, on both sides of the political spectrum, are angry about a lot of things. Cinema is an art form that can be used to express that--and you don't have to agree with it.