A Hollywood Reporter writer hammered accomplished filmmaker Wes Anderson for committing “cultural appropriation” with his new film, “Isle of Dogs.”
Author of the Thursday article, Marc Bernardin, asked, “Who gets to make what art? And where should we draw the line between ripping off and paying homage to another culture?”
The Anderson movie plot centers on a boy and his dog lost on a fictional island, Megasaki. The dogs have been exiled to the island and must now survive on their own. Instead of praising Anderson’s symbolism or his attempt at original storytelling, Bernardin took it as a slight and believes “marginalized audiences” will step up to shut these kinds of movies down.
“This is a story that could’ve been set in Iowa for all it cares about the humans,” he continued. “As much as it seems that Anderson does have a real fondness for Japan — and the story is co-credited to Japanese actor Kunichi Nomura — he treats the culture a bit like wallpaper, set behind his drama as opposed to an integral part of the drama itself.”
“Telling an artist that she or he can’t make art is too close to censorship for my taste,” Bernardin wrote, “Don’t treat culture like some kind of Vegas buffet, filling your plate with exotic flavors and setting it in front of a Caucasian protagonist to be tickled and amused by. Remember the importance of empathetic weight: Who is the story about? And if it’s about a person from the culture you are drawing from, you’ve already gone a long way towards achieving a fidelity of intention as well as execution.” – READ MORE