I Can Do Bad All By Myself

Let us continue our trek through the land of movies I love that everyone else hates (which would be just about every movie I love, come to think of it) with a stop in Tyler Perry land. People hate Tyler Perry. They hate him. they drag him into discussions thaT have nothing to do with him just so they can bash him. I have seen interviews with him and I honestly don't get what all the hate is about. Is he arrogant? He might be, I don't know te man (and neither do any of you) but lots of people are arrogant and Hollywood loves them. Does he portray stereotypes in his movies? I don't know that either. I can't tell you why people seem to hate him, but I can tell you why I like him.

He makes movies I can relate to. I grew up in a family where the concept of "extended family" was as important to us as it is to the characters in this movie (I spent many months living with aunts, so I can relate to the kids in this movie). I went to churches like this, I grew up with this music, and I know a lot of people like this. All the people I'm talking about here are white. Someone told me that only black people like Tyler Perry's movies, and it's only the self-hating black people too, because they buy into the stereotypes he portrays (and that's one of the nicer comments I've heard). I can tell you I can relate to every word of this script, and I'm not black. I don't get it. I watch this movie, and I see a woman (April) who lives in a house she inherited and puts up with an abusive married boyfriend because she thinks that's all she can get out of life. We accept the love we think we deserve, right? I relate to April. I hear her say things that I've thought myself. I know what she's going through because I went through a lot of it, and the song "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" resonates with me because I read the lyrics and feel like it could be about me. When April finally decides to turn her life around and give love a chance and accept the love offered to her, I relate because it gives me hope that the same thing can happen for me someday. Whatever else this movie is, it's a movie that believes what it's saying. It believes in the concept of redemption, and I love it for that.

I said all this stuff in my original review of the movie but it bears repeating. I love it. Not everyone does, but I do, and that doesn't make me stupid and it doesn't make me a bad person.