Diary of a Tired Black Man

I looked at the external reviews for this film; all of them were positive. That's pretty amazing, as very few films ever made have received only good reviews. Then I noticed that the IMDb rating is only 2.9 out of 10, one of the lowest ratings on IMDb.

It's also peculiar that out of 80 ratings, not one person wrote a review. These facts don't seem to add up.

The maker of the film didn't choose only the good reviews and exclude all of the bad ones, did he? That would be rather biased. However, almost all of the external reviews I read, even though they rated the film highly, said the filmmaker was very biased in his presentation of black men being mistreated by their unappreciative black women.

I really don't know what the rules of IMDb are as far as what external reviews are included or not; whether the filmmakers have control over what is posted regarding their films.

It just seems something rather skewed is going on; a film highly rated by certain critics I hadn't heard of before, but yet with one of the lowest ratings on IMDb.

I stumbled upon this film playing on Showtime and found it to be so riddled with stereotypes that it's hard to watch. 'Diary of a Tired Black Man' is a low-budget, hybrid drama/documentary, which apparently sets out to present and answer the question of why black women and men are incompatible.

The film is not a technically beautiful one, but I'm a huge independent film fan, so I can live with the flaws. The single greatest problem with this film is that it took a subject matter ripe with possibility (an intimate look at Black Relationships in America) and turned it into a lopsided tirade against half of its subject matter--black women--which does the film its greatest disservice.

In between interviews with an assortment of people across America (this film would've fared better solely as a documentary) , the filmmaker interjects staged, dramatic moments surrounding the diary of a 'Tired Black Man,' Jimmy Jean Louis. The badly-written scenes, which are apparently designed to help audiences understand why this particular black man is 'tired,' only highlight the lead's poor choice in a high-maintenance, gorgeous but self-absorbed, airhead. This is a mistake that American men of all races have made, nothing race-based or shocking here, but the laborious scenes, interspersed with the interviews, gives the film a disjointedness that's exhausting to watch. Even Jimmy Jean Louis looks like he'd rather be elsewhere.

With the 'Tired Black Man's' diary writing as its basis, the film seeks to validate nearly two hours of raced-based drivel, without really getting to the heart of the matter: People are ultimately people. Men will be men and women will be women. To single-out universal, relationship issues as a stereotypically 'black problem' is just, well... 'Tired.'

Don't believe the 10 star reviews here written in the same voice. It's truly an abuse of IMDb and an insult to film-making.

The documentary portion of the movie made a good effort at dealing with relationship issues; however, it still came across with an biased slant against Black women. Despite this attempt at highlighting and solving problems, since it focused on how angry Black women make good Black men tired, what we ended up with for the most part was not at all balanced in perspective.

Yes, the documentary portion portrayed real people answering real questions, but at some point, the writer/creator must step in with facts, step in with objectivity, with examples of Black couples' success, and with steps towards healing, right? Well, the space and opportunity to do that was filled with a satire-like and wholly unrealistic melodrama. The main character, James, a near perfect Black man, and his trials and tribulations with a angry wife.

James was successful career-wise, the home-purchaser, provider, good father, faithful in the face of temptation, and church-going man. A viewer might expect that many of the men being interviewed in the documentary portion would have similar experiences--That would have truly been an eye opener to any women who may be losing hope that James exists. However, this did not seem to be the case. For the most part, it was not clear who these men were...if they were in healthy relationships or not, if they went to church regularly, were faithful, or were "James". What is clear is that they are Black men and they are "tired."

Many Black men and Black women are tired of the divisiveness and are seeking to come together in a real place where we have mutual understanding. Some of that understanding comes from recognizing that some of these issues are gender-based and affect other races while some of these issues are people issues (to generalize a point: good guys like bad girls/good girls like bad guys). I actually sensed that the writer may have been "angry". Although anger was never defined and how anger emerges was never identified, from my own education, I sense that this movie was not made in the spirit of love and healing.

All in all, I think the movie could have made more of a plea for each person (male, female, Black, or of other races) to keep being good and to be honest, to trust/to be trustworthy, to self-reflect, to hold the self accountable, to hold one's friends accountable for how they treat their significant others,to talk to each other (not inflame -anger-, finger point, or blame--that makes people defensive). Despite this, I think it may elicit conversations and motivate someone to take a call-to-action to decrease the communication gap between men and women (Black or otherwise) and promote ways we can make peace and progress with one another.

If I could give negative stars I would, cause frankly, this doesn't even deserve 1 star. I'll keep it brief. There are so many problems with this video --- too many to count.

First -- it's "labeled/categorized"as a 'drama' i.e. narrative film. That is one big glaring mistake: It is not a narrative film. It is a documentary. (this video is an insult to the genre, "documentary")

This is just an arrogant, self-righteous, one-sided, conceited, ignorant, self-indulgent commentary on the STEREO-TYPE of an "angry black woman" -- condescending African-American women who carry this self-inflicting, self-destructive disease known as, "Angry Black Woman Syndrome".

The majority of the men in this video, including our Lord-Almighty, director/savior, Mr. Tim Alexander merely come off as being completely ignorant, selfish, chauvinistic, and simple minded. He and his posse of "men" criticize all the women around them, surrounding them in their small, unimportant lives as being the cause of all their pain and torment. Okay, can we all say, "Martyr"!!!

And he edits most of the women to either look foolish or support his opinion --- wake up folks, it's called "EDITING".

Give me a break! I am not a woman. I am not African-American. I am not white. I am a male. And I think this was so infantile and stupid, it ironically defeated the director's point by making all the men testimonials look completely infantile- -- the men (including director, Tim Alexander) don't even seem like they could get a G.E.D. if their life depended on it. But I love how we're so blessed to see our very own Tim Alexander give talks in coffee shops and parks like he's some expert on gender/race relationships. Who is this loser, besides just being a narcissist.

Oh and for the record, I have dated several African-American women plus I have several African-American male and female friends and none of them (especially the females I've had relationships with) act or even think this way.

As it was barely mentioned in the movie, maybe these issues aren't just "black women issues" but rather "Men and Women" issues as a whole. For the Tim Alexander, I know that's a bit too much to swallow, cause after all, he's actually the racist for not seeing the larger picture and realizing it's not a color/race issue, but rather just the standard gender/relationship issues that every one deals with. It'd help if maybe he dated. Then he might actually know what he's talking about instead of just watching Tyler Perry movies.

It's actually a shame that film-making tools are so accessible to anyone because it can't stop fools like Tim Alexander who has to take credit for every-single job on the film -- director, cinematographer, editor, writer, original music, make-up --- I mean, come on... seriously... what are you, like 12 years old? Gotta have your name down on everything because you're so insecure with your abilities?

And insecure is what you are. It shows inside-and-out. This reeks of insecurities... of you, Mr. Alexander: Narcissist.

Finally, the "re-enactment scenes" are HORRIBLE. Why would you cast an African male with such a thick accent (who clearly hasn't grown up in the "American" culture) to be your lead protagonist/victim and mascot for all suffering African-American males? That's like comparing apples to oranges.

The female lead/wife who plays the supposed "angry black woman" really has no motive for being angry, other than just your weak script that says she's angry. Look around -- they live in a pretty upper-middle class lifestyle. Where's the stress for her to be so angry? It's not like the husband is a dead beat, or unemployed, or having an affair, or neglecting their child... It's not even that they're a blue-collar working class family but the wife just always demands more.

SORRY TIM. But the good news is, the world needs plenty of bar tenders, so why don't you start there and leave the documentaries and film-making to the people who are smart enough to make a good movie.

The dramatic parts are poorly scripted sometimes to a comedic level, but it starts an interesting conversation. It's definitely from a male point of view. Some of the interviews with men acknowledge their fault in the relationships, but this IS NOT the narrative.

Anyway, I'm "Conan O'Brien" white so take this review however you want.