Mama Madea

Ghetto auteur Tyler Perry is about to unleash his latest man-in-
drag epic, Madea Goes To Jail, on what will probably be a very
receptive world.

The most charitable thing you can say about the best of Tyler's
oeuvre (Why Did We Get Married? for instance) is that is was
better than his worse (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Daddy's
Girls). Typically, he violates every rule of well constructed
narrative or accomplished film making. His best work (Married?)
is merely competent. Yet, Perry has legions of devoted fans and
is steadily approaching Oprahville in lifetime earnings.

I do salute Perry for giving work to worthy and woefully under-
employed black actresses - Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, Academy
Award nominee Taraji P. Henson and Robin Givens to just name
those in his last movie (The Family that Preys).

Lastly, I have come to the conclusion that the audience is never
wrong. It is always the artists' fault when they fail to connect with
an audience. So I watch all of Tyler Perry's movies (I own The
Family That Preys but haven't watched it yet) trying to discern what
his audience is connecting with - and, attempting to learn something,
seeing if I can apply those lessons effectively without debasing my
own work.

There are simple verities in this world and sometimes we, as artists,
willfully ignore them.