Strong familial conflict, magical adventures and timely social messaging make this animated feature a bit deeper than most.
The Wonder
(***) It’s a very simple story, at first. A modest allegory that pits religious fanaticism against common sense in a test of wills that slowly becomes biblical. Ireland 1862, 13 years after the Great Famine of 1845/49 caused millions of deaths. Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy), an 11-year-old girl living in the rural Irish Midlands, is […]
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
(****)Wow! You’ll say that over and over again as this mind-blowing, superhero epic unfolds. Wow! The loss of King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), aka Black Panther, weighs heavily on the people of Wakanda. More so on his sister Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) and his mother Queen Ramonda (Angel Bassett). They try to move forward but are paralyzed […]
Wendell & Wild
(**)Sometimes there’s too many cooks in the kitchen. Sometimes there are too many storylines in a movie. Same difference. Thirteen-year-old Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross, TV’s This is Us) lost her parents (Gabrielle Dennis, Gary Gatewood) in a tragic car accident when she was eight. She still blames herself for their deaths, wants them to come back […]
Family Life on View at the 2022 New York Film Festival
Families come in all sizes and shapes. Immediate, extended, separated and crazy too. These films, from the 60th annual New York Film Festival, showcased how loving, eccentric or dysfunctional familial relations can be. Aftersun (**1/2) Calum (Paul Mescal, Normal People), a divorced Scottish father living in England, reunites with his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Francesca Corio). They meet up on a weekend trip at a Turkish resort they’ve frequented […]
Women at Work at the 2022 New York Film Festival
For 60 years, the New York Film Festival has programmed films from around the world that profile women’s issues. In 2022, the festival continued that tradition with movies that chronicled the female experience from centuries ago to modern times. Corsage (**1/2) You can’t deny the sheer beauty of this very exquisitely crafted biopic. Nearly every frame in […]
Black Adam
(**1/2) Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Black Adam? Who? Introducing DC Comics’ latest crime combatant, Black Adam. His superhero traits are similar to Superman’s (flying, ultra-strength, etc.), but there are key differences. One has a pleasant personality and values human lives, and the other, an angry malcontent, doesn’t […]
Till Debuts at 2022 New York Film Festival
(****)“Hardly a moment goes by when I don’t think about Emmett and the lessons a son can teach a mother.” Quoted from Mamie Till-Mobley. Emmett Till, a black teen, was murdered by racists in Money, Mississippi on April 28th in 1955. Writer/director Chinonye Chukwu (Clemency) and cowriters Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp (doc filmmaker of the […]
Diverse Voices Reign at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival
They came from far and near. Diverse voices expressing thoughts and stories in noteworthy films. People coping, rebounding, laughing, unraveling mysteries and putting life into perspective were seen and heard at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Bros (***) The first 30 minutes of this very contemporary and contemplative gay rom/com have got to be the funniest […]
Black Life Lights Up the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival roared back to its splendor with in-theater premieres and showings. Thousands upon thousands of international film lovers flocked to cinemas, viewed the latest wave of diverse voices and watched Black films that reflected Black life. Devotion (**1/2) Back in the ‘50s, pilot Jesse Brown made history as the US Navy’s first Black aviator. […]
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