Akeelah and the Bee

This movie, Akeelah and the Bee, is a must-see.
Not just because Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett are in the movie, though that could be reason enough.
It's because this simple tale of a young black girl competing in the National Spelling Bee is a wonderfully different slice of black life than what we are used to seeing on the screen.
Rare is the movie in which the protagonist is a smart black girl. Her struggle and what I would presume eventual triumph are the core of this picture.
I haven't seen this movie yet, but what makes it compelling for me is that it appears that the movie recognizes that black life is richly complex and full of nuance.
The problem with movies about the lives of black people is the frustrating narrowness in which Hollywood sees us. We're either good or bad, black or white (metaphorically speaking).
But the truth is that we are human, that we come against not only the subtle pressures of race but also the every day pains of living life.
We are more than what Hollywood says we are, more than what some of us say we are (i.e. Soul Plane).
Movies such as Akeelah and the Bee and Eve's Bayou reveal that black people aren't here just to make white people laugh. And the problem with movies such as Soul Plane is that there aren't enough movies like Akeelah and the Bee to balance things out, to show the full range of black life in all its different forms and features.
The truth is we are flesh, and I want to see more of that flesh on screen.