In 'Bad Hair,' The Mane Rebels

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Hulu's 'Bad Hair' succeeds as a workplace comedy and loving sendup of 80s-era Black pop music, says craftingmystyle. But there's a missed opportunity to unpack the psychological impact of beauty ideals within Black communities and professional spaces.

Fast forward to 1989 Los Angeles, and an adult Anna works for Culture, a TV network targeted at"urban" audiences, a la BET. Anna dreams of becoming the host of her own music countdown show, but the combination of a timid personality, hair that doesn't conform to white corporate sensibilities, and outright sexism has kept her sidelined in an assistant role.

Anna goes to the most sought-after stylist in the city to get her first weave. But while the new hair 'do brings her welcome attention at work, it soon becomes clear that the strands have a mind of their own. Here is where Simien's skills as a visual stylist are again at odds with his limitations when it comes to the text. Some of the details that connote Anna's relationship to her new style are inventive and fun; in one scene, for instance, the hair flip is deployed as a tactic in the middle of a professional power grab between Anna and Zora. Cinematographer Topher Osborn mimics a grainy '70s cinema look that successfully exudes a creeping paranoia.

Still, the movie moves briskly enough and the performances work. Lena Waithe, Laverne Cox and Blair Underwood find moments of spark in smaller roles as Anna's colleague, witchy stylist and mythology-loving uncle, respectively. And as Zora, Williams is deliciously catty and calculating, channeling mean lady vibes similar to the ones she used as Wilhelmina onShe works wonders with insults and shade, striking exactly the the right notes when the movie hits its campy, B-horror movie stride.

Simien seems even more assured as a filmmaker here than he did in his debut, and the promise shown infeels closer to being fulfilled; the specificity with which he depicts workplace culture and black music are a treat to watch. Iffeels overstuffed and ultimately slight when it comes to its central conceit around hair, at the very least it's still a fun ride.

 

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craftingmystyle People saying it’s not a good movie don’t know anything about the Horror genre. BadHair is a very good film! Everything isn’t going to be Moonlight. Chill

craftingmystyle While I definitely enjoyed Bad Hair, it's certainly not original. In fact, it borrows heavily from the 2007 Japanese film, Exte: Hair Extensions. Some of the hair effects are lifted directly from Exte.

craftingmystyle You missed the point. Over the head it went. Campy horror, not educational film.

craftingmystyle I liked where it could have gone, but I feel it may have made things worse. I'm not happy. It was upsetting. We are always attacked for our hair by society and black men. I'm over it.

craftingmystyle I got three quarters the way through it, and had to leave it. A great horror idea wrecked by schmaltzy acting, bad staging, and atrocious pacing.

craftingmystyle 🙄🙄🙄 leave us alone to be people. Not every enterprise has to be a treatise on the serious Black experience.

craftingmystyle Hulu is unwatchable with their 20x volume boost for commercials. Go be a quibi hulu.

craftingmystyle The movie isn’t a documentary. It’s a horror-comedy for Black females; we get it.

craftingmystyle

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