Is it Black?
An Analysis of the Original Netflix Film Uncorked
In “Film Blackness” by Michael Gillespie, he questions the validity of black films and the requirements of what constitutes a black film. Is cast a qualifier? Does it include an overuse of Ebonics or an exclusively rap soundtrack? On page 2, he argues that “black film operates as a visual negotiation, if not tension, between film as art and race a constitutive, cultural fiction.” While many may say for black film to be authentic, it must tell stories that focus heavily on the social construct/stereotypes of race, Gillespie disagrees. Black films should use race, but not as its usual social function. The article poses the question, can black film produce an authentic black experience while avoiding the social categories/restrictions of race?
There are many issues with representation and storytelling of people of color in mainstream media. It is presented through casting and the sometimes-stereotypical representations of ethnic cultures and characters. Hollywood cinema has historicized racist regulations and practices. Even more modern networks have followed suit, by casting black people only on secondary, sidekick roles to while main characters. While this did increase the quantity of black actors, the characters still lacked depth and quality. The role was minimized to support, their families and cultures were hardly seen or discussed, unless it related to the main character’s storyline. This was the case mostly for films, there are many sitcoms depicting African American families such as Family Matters, Moesha, In Living Color, The Jefferson’s… the list is endless. However, these examples focus on showing the black experience not as an art form, as Gillespie inquiries about, but as a structure to discuss social hierarchies and limitations. Independent streaming networks like Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix have begun producing shows and films that follow Gillespie’s methodology. Netflix premiered Uncorked (Penny 2020), which supports Gillespie’s ideas. The film follows Elijah Bruener’s journey to become a Master Sommelier. His father wants him to take over the family restaurant and uses generational and racial guilt against Elijah. When Elijah announced his acceptance to a college program, he created a source of tension and conflict for the film. The intensity of the conflict increased when he went to Paris to enhance his skills.
Uncorked is full of varied displays and representations of African American families, while staying away from overdramatizations of conflict and violence. There are not any displays of drug use of criminal activity. It is a version of reality that shares the black experience without stereotyping it or primarily portraying a social critique/commentary on a racial front. In order to view Uncorked as a black film, Gillespie informs readers that restructuring strategy “requires engaging with the film as an art on the grounds of what it does and as opposed to what it recursively (been) predetermined to do as of the black experience” (6). By doing so, it does suggest that film is not the proper avenue for “being responsive to the needs of the black community,” and should not be rated as a success/failure based on these standards (Gillespie 11).
The film has a strong emphasis on family values, relationships, and support. The heart of the conflict is between Elijah and his father, Louis, over Elijah’s future. Elijah had a passion for wine and the sommelier position that he never expressed to his father. Because wine was not part of the legacy that he built, Louis did not respect Elijah’s dream. The father/son storyline has been depicted in many films. Louis’s role follows through – stoic, stubborn, and unsupportive. That is a stereotype about a lot of fathers or men, in general, but not specifically towards black men. Towards the end, Louis begins to change.
The film’s main storyline is not about race, but it does not completely avoid the film’s blackness. In the opening scene, Elijah meets Tanya and as a way to immediately acknowledge his blackness and black knowledge, and make wine easier to interpret, Elijah relates the types to popular hip hop artists, referencing Jay-Z and Drake, and aligning the feeling of the wine to the feeling of listening to their music and their specific styles to their songs. Being black made his sommelier journey harder, although his struggles are not directly because of racial discrimination. Elijah struggled financially and emotionally. Having to work did limit the amount of time he would have to study for the exam. He did not have the money to go to Paris, but he did have the support from his mother and girlfriend. One night, he shared his fears of failure with Tanya, as the reason for not trying harder to get to Paris. She changed his perspective on using fear to his advantage, as drive to get something done.
The film shows a fresh take on race in terms of identity. The stereotypical black male spends the film either avoiding authority or partaking in criminal activity. He is thuggish, ignorant, and uneducated. Businesses are usually illegal or failing. Elijah is nerdy, and awkward, and does not hold the social skills to flirt. He does not have any black friends either. He spends the film seeking a higher education and did not resort to drug or criminal activity when he failed. The family’s business had survived two generations and had the finances to expand to another location. A majority of the soundtrack did feature hip hop and R&B, but there was nothing oversexualized, ghetto, or obscene in the dancing/club scene or in costuming.
During Elijah’s parents’ night out, there was a scare that someone had broken into the restaurant. There was an opportunity to insert criminal activity, but the audience was treated to a moment of relief, when it was revealed that Elijah and Tanya tripped the alarm. There were other opportunities for racial stereotypes. His mother’s death could have been from gun or gang violence, or a drug overdose, but it was health related. In an earlier scene, Louis critiques Sylvia’s countless wigs. A common stereotype about black women is that wigs are worn to be more like white women or to hide short hair. It is not true typically. In the film, Sylvia reveals it is because of the cancer that she even owned the wigs, it was not about the length or texture of her natural hair.
Film blackness has a lot to do with black representation, but when looking at race, it is also important to look at whiteness. Richard Dyer makes claims in “White: The Matter of Whiteness” that emphasize the relationship between Elijah and the white students and professors he surrounds himself with in the wine and academic world. Dyer says on page one, one of the most important things about whiteness: “as long as white people are not racially seen or named, [they] function as a human norm.” Elijah and members of his family brought up the racial difference between them and the world Elijah was trying to join. It was spoken of as if foreign, dislodging white people from the norm. For the Bruener family, black was the norm. The racial opposition was a driving force for Elijah though. He was told by multiple white people that obtaining the master sommelier certification was difficult, and even their whiteness could not give them extra privilege.
Raylan, his white, wine boss, tried to relate to Elijah by sharing his hardship story. It had nothing to do with his privilege – he was young, married, and a father when he failed the exam twice. He described being single and childless as Elijah’s advantages. One of the professors was a black man, but he also expressed how difficult the exam would be, as well as the white students Elijah joined for study sessions. It seemed no one took into account or spoke about the extra struggle that would apply to Elijah because he was black. Dyer acknowledged this obliviousness of whiteness on page 11, “the privilege of being white in white culture is not to be subjected to stereotyping in relation to one’s whiteness… stereotyped in terms of gender, nation, class, sexuality, ability.” Raylan did not acknowledge that he was able to continue until he passed the test because he was white. He did not factor in that Elijah might not be able to afford it or have endless opportunities to pass.
A white classmate named Eric, nicknamed ‘Harvard,’ became Elijah’s foil. He also quickly fulfilled the role of the white savior. Elijah was confident and proud of his current wine knowledge until Eric started showing off. He does become critical of himself but not because of his race. When Eric asked him to join his study group, Elijah tried to decline, acknowledging that Eric had the privilege to not take the course or the exam seriously. He was Elijah’s direct competition, pushing him to study and work harder than his other white friend Richie could do, who was not as privileged as Eric. Elijah did not ask, but Eric offered and paid for half of the Paris trip. The two men also shared the same strained relationship with their fathers over their career. Harvard’s storyline was cut short in Paris when he insensitively tells Elijah that he is leaving early to go work with his father at a bank. This scene shows the white privilege of being able to invest in something and quit without facing any consequences, fear, or loss. He had a nonchalant attitude and did not seem apologetic, nor cared what would happen to Elijah for the remainder of the trip. If Elijah failed, he would have the job at the restaurant, but not much else to fall back on. To go on this trip, Elijah had to sell his car. The trip held more value than experiencing Paris.
After this, his mother got sick again and then passed away, and Elijah was increasingly discouraged and distracted from studying. He did not have the same level of encouragement from his family and Tanya could only do so much. The only positive was reconciliation with his father, after bonding over the restaurant. He tried to quit, but Louis did not let him. Louis helped him prepare for the exam once he saw Elijah’s passion for the process with his own eyes, even after he withdrew from classes. One of Louis’s main concerns was Elijah’s tendency to do things he knew nothing about, but he could see then, in the bar, that Elijah knew about wine. Despite not passing the exam, he is seen at the end of the film trying again. In typical storylines, the black character fails, and the story ends in tragedy. Here, the film ends as a feel-good and the viewer feels satisfied in knowing Elijah will continue studying.
While Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni, the authors of “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism,” agree that films do have an influence on constructing thoughts on race/ethnicity, categorizing norms and at times reaffirming ideas of the dominant ideology. They disagree on film’s purpose being art. They believe that all films are political, if not by subject matter, then by the factors of its production. Comolli and Narboni would categorize his work’s ideological function as either: C, in which “the content is not explicitly political, but in some way becomes so through its form” (690); or D, media of “explicitly political content… but does not effectively criticize the ideological system… because they unquestioningly adopt its language and its imagery” (691). From these categories, Comolli and Narboni tell their readers and critics the importance of “examining the effectiveness of the political criticism intended by these films” (691). Uncorked could be categorized between C or D. Wanting to become a sommelier while having a competing family responsibility is not overtly political, but because of critique surrounding black films, specifically Gillespie’s, the film becomes political. It may not speak on dominant ideology because it was produced by a minority, but it will still be explored racially. As a black film, it creates an explicit form of content for category D, but the film does not express any real critical opinions about the dominant ideology. It refrains from the stereotypical representation from the dominant ideology.
By Elijah following along with the dominant ethnicity in the film, he could be seen as “adopting its language and its imagery.” Louis saw it that way. At 50:30, he says the Elijah, “You think you’re better than us” (Penny 2020). As much as Elijah loved the wine business, Louis could not see it as anything other than a system made for and by white people, to exclude black people.
Another principle detail of Comolli and Narboni’s theology is that when determining the critical function of a film “it must be a rigidly factual analysis of what governs the production of a film (economic circumstances, ideology, demand, and response) and the meanings and forms appearing in it” (692). It cannot be deprived from commentary from a columnist or an interpretation of the film. This point almost negates the article’s initial statement that every film is political. Uncorked does not seem to be political, unless it is interpreted or analyzed by commentary on film blackness. Refuting this article’s theology supports Gillespie’s perspective that film while including race, should primarily be the art form it is created to be. The combination of ideas questions if Uncorked and other black films need to be analyzed under this lens.
To answer the question posed in the introduction, yes and no. In the social world that surrounds Americans, anything that is dominantly filled with minorities and not privileged groups is a social comment. Stories told in real-world scenarios are forced to comment on racial restrictions and discrimination, or it cannot be authentic. However, a film does not need to ignore the discussion of race in order to produce a real black experience. While Elijah’s attempt to cross the racial threshold in this career field can be seen as a betrayal of his family and the black community, the films shows a genuine story of a black family who deals with clichéd tropes in norm Hollywood films. It succeeded without focusing on any stereotypical elements of what is depicted on mainstream media.
Works Cited
Comolli, Jean-Luc, and Jean Narboni. “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism.” 1969, pp. 686–693.
Dyer, Richard. “White: The Matter of Whiteness.” 2013, pp. 1–40., doi:10.4324/9781315003603.
Gillespie, Michael Boyce. “We Insist the Idea of Black Film.” Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film, Duke University Press, 2016, pp. 1–16.
Uncorked, directed, written, and produced by Prentice Penny. Netflix Original, March 2020
