I was scrolling through Instagram Saturday afternoon when I saw a friend’s desperate cry for some normalcy.

She was lamenting over the fact all of her favorite podcasts were updating their listeners on world news instead of the true crime, informational, romance digital getaways for which she had subscribed to them.

Her explanation about how these weekly podcasts were meant to be a brief source of a escape from the happenings of the world got me to thinking about BGM and how I too have been adding to the heaviness of the interwebs.

I was thinking about how to lighten the load around these digital streets when my dear friend, Teddy, hit me up. We had both just finished the new Netflix film Uncorked and wanted share our thinking with one another. And for that hour the world felt, dare I say…normal.

We weren’t thinking about what ifs or how comes we were just sharing our insights from a dope movie.

And so today friends, it’s time to bring some of that levity to you.

Spoiler Alerts

From this point on, I am going to talk to ya’ll like you were sitting on my couch after watching the movie.

Don’t come over here mad because we are talking about the movie. Just go, watch, and come back. We’ll likely have cracked open a new bottle by then.

Now, let’s get into this.

Trauma-Free Story Telling

Can we give God a handclap of praise for dope movies in which characters are trauma-free?

I’ve been fascinated by protagonists of color who don’t experience trauma for the last 9 months. While injustice continues to run rampant, there is something so beautiful about being seen as more than our trauma.

While there were devastating moments within the film, at its heart Uncorked was about the lengths we’ll go to achieve our dreams.

Can we also talk about how Elijah was able to seamlessly navigate the world of wine and barbeque? He had a place in both. His blackness wasn’t a hindrance. He didn’t have to fight for people to see him as a man. Which is noteworthy, especially when shooting the film in the city known for “I Am A Man” sandwich boards during the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968.

Ever Present Blackity Black Black Blackness

THE moment the first few seconds of Yo Gotti’s Juice dropped as the movie began, all felt right with the world. The fact that song was juxtaposed against images of the wine making process, made me say bravo.

Uncorked dripped of blackness, but it was never the center stage of the movie. If you knew, you knew.

Whether it was through sometimes tense sometimes hilarious family get togethers, house parties, or the barbeque spot Lois was running with a picture of President Obama, it was so beautifully black, and interwoven behind a well told story.

Because that’s what my blackness feels like to me. This really dope permanent armor that enhances the already cool parts of me.

Teddy said it like this:

We knew these folks were black and loved their blackness, we knew that Elijah wanting to be a sommelier was huge deal because of his race, him having the opportunity to study in Paris, ect…but all of those things were a matter of fact.

Relationships

Romantic

Uncorked artfully captured the rifts that come with the best relationships. Whether it was Elijah apologizing to Tanya in the bed after their fight or Elijah’s mom Sylvia noting that his father was “funky,” every hardship was navigable.

And it didn’t always translate to the people in relationship seeing eye to eye. Teddy noted this in our conversation.

I love how the mother was extremely supportive and that didn’t cause tension in their marriage, showing that folks can disagree without it being this cataclysmic event.

Teddy the Great

Even on her literal deathbed, Sylvia was not about to leave her baby stranded in Paris without some money. And even though he vehemently disagreed, it didn’t keep her husband from offering to cook her some dinner.

The love that Lois and Sylvia shared warmed my heart. From her telling him he wasn’t getting any because he talked about her wigs, to them dancing at the house party. It was the essence of black love. The first night he had to sleep without her took me all the way out, ya’ll.

Family

Boy ain’t nothing like family.
They’ll talk about you like you aint ish, and support you until the very end.

Elijah’s family might not have known the difference between a sommelier and a Somalian, but when his back was against the wall, they quickly came to his rescue.

And to block and tackle to ensure that his dream wasn’t deterred.

Watching Sylvia keep the news of her returned cancer put into perspective all of the ways our parents try to keep their issues from impeding on their children’s dreams.

The older we get, the more frustrating it can be to feel like our parents are holding back burdens that we can help them shoulder, but watching what the impact of those burdens would mean for Elijah’s life made me think about the why behind our parents choices to ….delay information.

I even think about how even when Elijah was grieving the loss of his mother while studying, he could only conjure up memories of a healthy full of life woman, because she kept him from seeing her at the end.

And in the same way that Sylvia tried to protect Elijah, Elijah worked just as hard to protect his dad after his mother’s passing regardless of their generational divide.

Generational Divides

Uncorked reminds us that generational divides transcend race and class. We saw that Elijah’s relationship with his dad wasn’t a black middle class issue, it was a father son issue.

When Asher from HTGAWM stepped on the scene, even with his ability to pay for trips and his Harvard degree, we still found the same difficult father son dynamic.

And while Lois believed that Elijah thought less of his family, I never saw that belief manifest in Elijah’s actions. For every correction, explanation, or defense of himself and his dreams Elijah never looked down at his family.

And Lois knocking on the door of Elijah’s hotel room door the night before he found out his master sommelier exam scores with dominoes in tow, I knew we were going to be alright.

So there we are, loves.
I won’t ask ya’ll if you’ve seen it or not since we established that we all have.

Weigh in and share your thoughts.
What did you think about Uncorked?

There’s magic in our musings and our storytelling,
Nicole