(***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., […]
Igualada – 2024 Sundance Film Festival
(***) There’s a race issue in Colombia. A class issue too. Add in right-wing leaders who champion the appropriation of land inhabited by people of African heritage, and the mere existence of the well-grounded, social activist Francia Márquez is a miracle. Her ascension, from local hero to presidential candidate, is a transformation worth studying. Documentary filmmaker Juan […]
Daughters Wins 2024 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and Festival Favorite Award
(****) When you start with a humanizing premise, there’s nowhere to go but up. Documentaries that present solutions, not just observations, should be lauded and rewarded. That’s why praise has been bestowed on this heartwarming film and its mission to reunite daughters and their incarcerated dads. Bring a tissue when you see it. Maybe a […]
I.S.S.
(***1/2) Blast off! This gripping sci-fi/dra/thr holds attention from the moment astronaut Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose, West Side Story) enters the International Space Station (I.S.S.). In the near future and 254 miles above sea level, Foster is welcomed by fellow American astronauts Gordon (Chris Messina, King Richard) and Christian (John Gallagher) as she enters the I.S.S. They introduce her to Russian crew […]
The Book of Clarence
(**) It is written. Making a befuddling satire is a sin and mixing pageantry with ambiguity is not the next coming. That’s why The Book of Clarence flounders. This story of Jesus’s final days riffs off the many Hollywood interpretations that came before it. From 1927’s The King of Kings by Cecile B DeMille to 2004’s The Passion of the […]
Lift
(**1/2) Any film that begins with an elaborate, broad daylight heist deserves viewers’ attention. It’s what comes between that intro and the film’s adrenalin-pumping final hour that may give Netflix audiences reasons to take a refrigerator break. Comedian and comic actor Kevin Hart tries to ditch his funny, smart-mouth persona to play a suave international […]
Society of the Snow
(***) “If I die, I give you permission to feed on my body.” Sounds like the opening line of a cheesy vampire movie. Instead, it’s the turning point in a based-on-fact drama that pits men against the elements and their only weapons are ingenuity, an unflagging will to survive and courage. In 1972, a Uruguayan […]
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