On August 9, 2014 in Ferguson Missouri, Michael Brown, who was unarmed, was shot dead by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. His body lay on the ground for four hours, cordoned off by cops. This incident sparked a cycle of unrest in this northern suburb of St. Louis that evolved into demonstrations and a […]
Step
Sometimes success should be measured in small increments. That’s what’s on view in this very grass roots documentary about a group of ambitious girls who use their membership in a high school step team as a foundation for learning, inspiration and improving their lives. The Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) provides […]
Detroit
Detroit tells a story of racial injustice and police brutality, based on fact, which is easy enough to believe and has parallels with today’s problems with police criminality and impunity. But since this important subject is not new, what is the point of the film? What are we learning that is unique? What actionable knowledge […]
Girls Trip
This hilarious and relentlessly bawdy take on a girls’ weekend reunion in New Orleans is following in the footsteps of some very popular female-appeal movies like Sex In the City and Bridesmaids. But Girls Trip is not a copycat. It’s very unique and will leave its own lasting imprint on the good-girls-gone-wild genre. […]
War for the Planet of the Apes
This recent Planet of the Apes trilogy has had a consistently haunting and majestic feel. It’s a sensibility that director Rupert Wyatt started with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and was sustained when filmmaker Matt Reeves directed Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014. That looming yet spiritual feeling […]
Bronx Gothic
It’s hard to explain this performance piece. Easier to describe the artist who does it. Okwui Okpokwasili is as tall as a WNBA player. As beautiful as a super model. She has the persona of a poet, an intellectual, a storyteller and a town crier. She is determined to bring the social consciousness of […]
Baby Driver
This thrill-a-minute addition to the crime/action/thriller genre doesn’t exactly break the mold, but it’s fun. 1. A teenager as the getaway driver is novel. 2. The integration of music as one of the essential film elements is a killer. 3. The car chase scenes, right from the beginning, are delicious. Baby (Ansel Elgort), an […]
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story
The job of a good documentary is to probe, uncover and get answers to tough questions. The job of a promotional reel is to exalt its subject. This non-fiction film lays squarely in-between. On some levels it’s revealing. On others, it has as much depth as an 8 X 10 glossy. Bad Boy Records, […]
Maudie
Sometimes a film tells a story like an artist paints a picture. Sometimes like a playwright writes a play, or an author pens a novel, or a poet composes verses. Director Aisling Walsh (Song for a Raggy Boy), screenwriter Sherry White and an amazing tech crew have taken those aforementioned sensibilities and created a […]
The Mummy
Pathetic on just about every level, The Mummy should be entombed. What the hell were they thinking? Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and his cohort Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) are shameless antiquities hunters. Their exploits take them to a desert village in an Iraq war zone, where they come under fire. U.S. armed forces have […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- …
- 62
- Next Page »