Star Wars VIII:
The Last Jedi
This film’s cast is wonderful because it feels like it’s the intergalactic version of the Olympics’ Parade of Nations—John Boyega is a Black British actor, Kelly Marie Tran is Vietnamese-American, Oscar Isaac is Guatemalan-American, Domhnall Gleeson hails from Ireland, Lupito Nyong’o has dual citizenship in Kenya and Mexico, and Benicio del Toro is a Puerto Rican-born Spanish filmmaker. But the film goes beyond simply representing various groups. It deliberately goes out of its way to subvert common stereotypes of race, women in power, Asian-American contributions, and the hero’s parentage. To explain my reasoning for every character would be overkill, but what I appreciated most about Star Wars VIII is that the movie explores ethical complexities of character motivation, in every essential character acting upon a sense of justice (which doesn’t always net positive results). One of the core points of the film is that one single group or person does not have a higher moral superiority over others; divisions are built because of lack of trust or unwillingness to communicate.