(****) If you’ve ever wondered what an immigrant’s backstory might be, you ‘re not alone. It’s a subject worth exploring. That’s why this sobering but illuminating parable by Italian writer/director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) is so compelling. He humanizes a journey thousands upon thousands of Sub-Sahara refugees make to the E.U. Doesn’t skip on the horrors, […]
Bob Marley: One Love
It’s like Bob Marley never left this earth. Credit his infectious music for keeping his legacy alive. When you hear a Marley song, you get a fresh feeling. Like you’re listening to it for the first time, even though you’re not. Forty-three years after the reggae king’s death, his essence, love, wisdom and social concerns are alive and well in his verses, choruses, lyrics and melodies. The power of Marley’s music will lift viewers spirits for […]
Sugarcane — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(****) It’s a day of reckoning. A time to hold people accountable. Graves are found around St. Josephs Mission, a residential school once run by priests from the Catholic Church. The facility in Williams Lake, in British Columbia, Canada, gave room, board and an education to Native American children from the nearby Sugarcane Reservation. It […]
Union — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***) It’s David versus Goliath and Goliath better watch out. Battles like D vs G tend to capture audiences’ hearts and minds. In this case the small warrior is a band of blue-collar workers, and the hostile giant is the behemoth corporation Amazon. It’s on! Directors Stephen Maing and Brett Story don’t put a lot […]
Sujo — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***) Crime kills. Crime kills dads. Dead dads leave sons behind. Sons suffer. Sons have to find their way out of the dark. The easier story for writer/directors Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez to tell about the horrors of Mexico’s violent cartels is one that’s a shoot ‘em up with plenty of bullets and bodies. […]
Dìdi (弟弟) — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***) Getting deep into the heads of teenagers is a gift. It’s a calling. Twenty-nine-year-old writer/director Sean Wang isn’t far removed from that age group, and he seems to have a feel for teen life that other filmmakers don’t. Just enough insight to create an extremely funny and very touching look at adolescents in Freemont, […]
The Greatest Night in Pop – 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***1/2) How many music stars (45) were in the A&M studio on January 28, 1985, and what was that wattage like the night “We Are the World” was recorded? As one wag put it: “If a bomb lands on this place, John Denver is back on top!” When Harry Belafonte beseeched Lionel Ritchie to help […]
Luther: Never Too Much – 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***1/2) At a young age, Luther Vandross knew music was his calling and there could be no other day job. Vandross: “I really don’t want a plan B. It’s going to be this or I’m going to be 80 years old trying to do this!” That drive and determination is on view in every frame […]
As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial – 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***) Rap lyrics have been used as evidence in more than 700 trials since 1990, and not to the benefit of rappers on trial. To their detriment. It’s time to talk about it. If using spoken word about what you see, hear, feel and experience can come back to bite you, wouldn’t you like to […]
Kidnapping Inc. – 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(**1/2) Any movie that starts with a man being kidnapped and thrown in the trunk of a car knows how to tempt crime/thriller genre fans, from the jump. However, director Bruno Mourral, who has a background in commercials, has more things in mind. The act/com/dra script he cowrote, with Jasmuel Andri and Gilbert Mirambeau Jr., […]
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