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Riley in Midnight Mass is White Male Boring Summer
I’m gonna sound like a hater right now, but I promise you, I’m not. Well, maybe just a little. I just have to wonder, how many times will cinema place a very boring white man as the protagonist? I mean, someone who gets to walk around sulkily, say lackluster lines, exude zero personality, and still take up the whole screen in almost all of the shots? I’m exaggerating again. In too many shots. I wish black people could have understated roles, ones with no chutzpah to speak of. That’s my gripe with Midnight Mass. I also may have a leftover mini-gripe with Matt Bomer in The Sinner for the same reason. Do people really decide on acting careers so that they can do the very opposite? Not act? It’s like if I were a therapist, which I am, and I spent most of the time in the office, I don’t know, filing my nails.
How many times will I have to watch someone dull “act” while barely acting? Now, I’ve never been a movie actor, and I’m sure I’d look like a scarecrow on film, all stiff and uptight. But that doesn’t mean that cinema has to reward people like that. I’m being harsh. Zach Gilford, I’m sure, went to plenty of acting classes, and surely knows his way around a camera. But I couldn’t help but think, “Snap out of it, man!” and wave my fingers at the screen.
