(**1/2) Can a debutante ball, an old fashion rites-of-passage for young women, make the transition to the 21stcentury—and be relevant? Yes and no. The organizers of a one-year-long leadership program in Canton, Ohio are training Black female teens to adapt to their preconceived—sometimes archaic—notion of what womanhood should be. They have good intentions and dubious […]
The Knife — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(**) It’s a crime/drama/thriller premise that had some potential. If it was developed differently, it could have been a contender. A middleclass Black family is awakened in the night, in their home by an intruder. Chris (Nnamdi Asomugha, Sylvie’s Love), the dad, goes downstairs to investigate. He confronts a white older woman who looks deranged. There’s […]
Black Table — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(**1/2) If you’re Black and you attended a predominately white college or high school, all this sounds familiar. There was likely a Black table in the lunch room where you gathered. Not due to segregation. More as an oasis in the middle of an ocean of people who didn’t look like you. In that way […]
Method Man is the Fixer in Bad Shabbos, the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Winner
(***) When the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival ended June 16th, the audience had spoken. It named the zany, dark comedy Bad Shabbos its Audience Award Narrative winner. And this movie can thank a breakout performance by the 53-year-old rapper Method Man (Wu-Tang Clan) for pulling it across the finish line. Shabbos is the day of rest for […]
Inside Out 2
(***) We try to control our emotions, and don’t always do a great job. What if they were outsourced to five dingy spirits who were afraid to give up their power? Disney/Pixar puts that notion in play. It’s an amusing premise. One that turns into a delightful screening for 96 entertaining minutes of manic animation, […]
Jazz Superstars Shine on the 2024 Capital Jazz Festival
(***) The biggest, brightest jazz, smooth jazz and R&B stars come to Columbia Maryland every year to shine a light on the Capital Jazz Festival. That orbit has been a perennial alignment since 1993, when the fest was inaugurated. It happened again in 2024 when 20,000+ fans roamed through Symphony Woods Park, sitting in the […]
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
(**1/2) They’re older. Wiser? Well older. Boyz II middle-aged men. They still got it? And if they do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II (2003), starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as rambunctious Miami cops Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowery, were directed by the flashy director Michael Bay. Bad Boys […]
The Idea of You
(***) “I can’t get that kiss out of my mind.” How would you feel if you received that text? It wasn’t supposed to happen. A brief encounter turned into something more than it should. An older woman. A much younger man. Where could this lead? That’s the premise of Robinne Lee’s romance novel The Idea of […]
Atlas
(**) Hard to respect an action/adventure/sci-fi film when all its flaws are so obvious. The un-special effects in this feeble, futuristic and shallowly written movie (Leo Sardarian, Aron Eli Coleite) are so telltale they would be laughable in a theater. But on a streaming service (Netflix), where mediocre movies are a bit more tolerable, there’s […]
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
(***1/2) Wow. It’s a rebirth. There’s a new badass rising like a phoenix. In 1979, Australian director George Miller introduced the post-apocalyptic and eerily dystopian action film Mad Max to audiences around the world. Forty-five years later he’s resurrecting the saga and has created a new storyline that’s as worthy as all the others in: Mad Max 2: […]
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