Vanity Fair’s Aggressively Bright And Relentlessly Cheerful Hollywood Issue Is Here
Vanity Fair has published their annual Hollywood Issue, the issue which screams: AWARDS SEASON IS HERE. Except for this year, the cover subjects are less of a collection of actors and actresses with Oscar buzz, and more about who was available and knew how to work with a green screen. Speaking of color, grab your sunglasses, because Vanity Fair has clearly formed a horrible union with the DayGlo pigment company, and they are dead set on dumping visual happiness and cheer on your eyes. Damn, it’s like they’re overcompensating for something. What’s what? They’re likely trying to counteract the depressing, endless void we’ve been sunk into over the past 12 months? Ok fair enough.
As Vanity Fair writes, they went with a surreal theme this year, shot by photographers Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, because we can all agree this year was anything but predictable:
For the 27th annual Hollywood Issue, V.F. celebrates 10 creators and stars who showed us hope and humanity in a surreal year. Spike Lee can always be counted on to be succinct. “It was a fucked-up year, 2020,” he says. “Just a fucked-up year in bold letters with exclamation points: FUCKED UP!!!”
Our last trip around the sun was a painful one, as political ills both long-standing and recent were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A now former president and his cronies looted what they could while leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans to die lonely, avoidable deaths. Dangerous conspiracy theories consumed the minds of thousands, if not millions, yanking attention away from very real problems, like police officers carrying out racist violence and domestic terrorism. It was a year of myriad stresses, of horror and loss, of confusion and despair.
We looked for films and television series that illuminated. That said something crucial about what we were experiencing. That advocated for better, that championed goodness, that directed righteous condemnation at the people who had dragged us into what often felt like the worst possible scenario.
The ten stars profiled are Charlize Theron, Michael B. Jordan, Zendaya, Sasha Baron Cohen, Spike Lee, Maya Rudolph, Lakeith Stanfield, Awkwafina (who appeared in last year’s issue as well), Michaela Coel, and Dan Levy. And it features a cameo by Photoshop’s clone stamp tool:
Inside the issue is even more Photoshop, used to create pictures that are like “Graphic Design Is My Passion” on LSD:
All the Photoshop makes sense, though. Where are you going to get a bear-wrangle during these times? So, thank you for all your hard work, Adobe. And please, consider changing whatever your current slogan is to: Adobe…for all your Chrysler Building eagle-riding Spike Lee needs.
Pic: Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari/Vanity Fair