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I Give Up on Tyler Perry
His formula may work, but his films spark too much debate about his inability to evolve
Editor’s Note: This article contains movie spoilers.
This past Monday, I attended the New York premiere of Tyler Perry’s latest film, A Fall From Grace. This was a meaningful occasion based on optics alone: Perry gave extreme honors to Phylicia Rashad and Cicely Tyson, who were both in attendance, as well as to Netflix for its diverse representation in the boardroom, which convinced the director that this partnership was the right fit.
But there was one part that stood out to me before any of these praises began. When Perry took to the stage, he admitted in jest that he has a hesitation toward showing his movies in New York and Los Angeles because we have a tendency to be “bougie,” and he urged us to disavow ourselves of this attitude for the rest of the night. As I sat in the balcony with my pen and notebook in hand, getting ready to pick apart the film scene by scene, I felt both recognized and indicted. In that moment, Perry touched upon a rupture between himself and the bourgeoisie that has cast a shadow over his work since the beginning of his career. I, as a critic and journalist, find myself unable to reconcile this divide.
He depicts an underrepresented part of society, and he’s done it well through instant resonance with the characters, the cackles, and the religiosity.
I became acquainted with Tyler Perry’s work like many other Black people: through our Black mothers and aunties whose social calendars are filled with church gatherings and revivals. Perry was a reinforcement of the morality lessons I heard every Sunday morning and at Wednesday night Bible study. Women ought to submit to their husbands. Successful women needed to subsume their ambition and smooth out their assertiveness through the love of a man. Cheaters would always receive their recompense. Abuse and Black womanhood were indelibly linked by design, almost as if you pulled at one thread, the other would unwind and undermine its significance altogether. And we loved Tyler Perry for not only representing Black church folk in a world that often stigmatized and…
