Though he doesn’t purport to be doing film theory, Baldwin’s way of thinking anticipates phenomenological and affective approaches to spectatorship in film studies, as well as ideological critiques of the dominant white gaze in popular cinema. For Baldwin, the significance of cinema lies in its affective, experiential, and imaginative power-film has the capacity to propagate and reinforce evil ideologies, but it also may affectively and effectively move audiences, thereby opening up the possibility for reimagining the world we live in. It’s the rare instance of an absolutely perfect film.īaldwin’s The Devil Finds Work from 1976 is a brilliant book-length essay which blends personal memoir and film criticism in its interrogation of the white supremacist mythologies perpetuated in Hollywood films. It deconstructs its source material (comic books and the superhero genre) even as it offers the very best example of its tradition. It’s political without being preachy, innovative while honoring classical conventions in animation, and intellectually stimulating while also being wholly accessible to a wide audience. It’s a great animated film, a great superhero film, a great coming-of-age film, a great family film, a great action film, a great comedy. This perhaps demonstrates the genius of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse : it’s SO much without ever being TOO much. It’s also a silly cartoon featuring a talking pig. Its fresh reimagining of popular cultural mythology through animation offers a radical mythopoetic account of Black liberation which interrogates and overturns white racial constructs. Leaving aside the philosophical questions this premise elicits regarding quantum physics and ontology, Spider-Verse presents a robust and liberating corrective to the oppressive hegemonic narratives of white supremacy embedded in American society. And you’re looking at him.” By the film’s conclusion, Parker’s presumption is totally upended, as we learn that there may be an infinite number of Spider-persons existing in various parallel dimensions and timelines. After declaring that he loves being Spider-Man, Parker concludes with the following: “There’s only one Spider-Man. In the opening narration of the Oscar-winning 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Peter Parker (Chris Pine) offers a reflective monologue about the origins and subsequent adventures of his superhero identity as the famed web-slinger. The language of the camera is the language of our dreams.
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