It’s a new day. In 2021 the New York Film Festival was live and in-person and exhibited a wide array of international films that broke new ground, featured veteran Black actors at their best and blockbusters that will be in movie theaters and on streaming services later this year or early 2022. These are some […]
No Time to Die
It’s a farewell. An elongated sendoff James Bond fans will instinctively desire. And they should. As should any action film enthusiast who likes a dash of style mixed in with their adrenaline-rush martini. James Bond (Daniel Craig) has retired from the game and MI6. He is not happy when his buddy CIA agent Felix Leiter […]
The Many Saints of Newark
This prequel film to the storied HBO cable series The Sopranos generated a lot of publicity with the novelty casting of the late lead actor James Gandolfini’s son Michael as the teen Tony Soprano. Now, fans are primed to watch the young impressionable Tony come of age. Is it worth it? Eschewing normal screenplay structure, where a […]
Old Henry
“You have no idea the hell storm you’re about to let loose.” No one would. This roughhewn “Micro Western” strips everything down to the basics. Down to the roots. Then it explodes. In the late 1880s, Henry (Time Blake Nelson, O Brother Where Art Thou), a widower, lives just outside of Nashville on a farm in […]
Noteworthy Films at the 2021 Toronto International Film Fest
The films featured at TIFF represented all genres from all kinds of places. Works by veterans and new filmmakers added dimension to the fest. These were in the mix. Ali & Ava (***) With a certain sense of whimsy and an exceptional ability to tell a unique love story, writer-director Clio Barnard gives two lost souls a new chance […]
Black Actors in Noteworthy Films at 2021 Toronto International Film Fest
TIFF featured a dazzling array of films. Many had black actors cast in pivotal roles in unique stories from around the world. Their performances will resonate with movie fans in theaters and on streaming services. 7 Prisoners (*1/2) Brazilian American writer/director Alexandre Moratto examines the depravity and perils of human trafficking, and his intentions outweigh his success as a storyteller, […]
Perceptive Reflections of Black Life at 2021 Toronto International Film Fest
After a year of COVID, TIFF returned as a hybrid festival with in-person screenings in Toronto and digital screenings around the world. A fine selection of African Diaspora films, films with black actors in their cast and general-release films brought the magic of TIFF alive again. Attica (***1/2) The 1971 Attica Prison Riots, the country’s longest and deadliest prison rebellion, […]
Cry Macho
When exposition and backstory weigh down an opening scene it’s tough for a film to get off the ground. That’s the burden screenwriter Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) and novelist N. Richard Nash’s dated, over-written script gives this road trip movie. Dead weight. In 1979, Mike Milo (Clint Eastwood), an older, washed-up ex-rodeo cowboy, is sent to Mexico to retrieve a 13-year-old […]
Music Lovers Reunite at Capital Jazz Fest 2021
After a 24-month COVID hibernation, the Capital Jazz Fest reconvened as a special edition at Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods in Columbia, Maryland. Normally an annual June event, which was canceled in 2020, the fest took place on September 4th and 5th—with a few modifications. Entry required proof of a COVID vaccination, or a negative test taken […]
Mogul Mowgli
“I’m built to prove myself,” chants Zed (Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal), a rebellious British/Pakistani rapper. Brazenly, he’s sharing a new, defiant perspective on the South Asian experience in the Western world. Culture clash powers this feature film debut by documentary director Bassam Tariq. It’s a reckoning for the central character and anyone who has drifted into […]
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