Audiences can learn so much from historical events that are inspiring and sometimes just profound. When filmmakers choose the latter and decide to recreate a tragedy, it’s a risky endeavor. One that doesn’t always reward its audience. The third Battalion of the all-black Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment consists of 156 soldiers and is stationed in Houston in 1917 during WWI. The troops are often harassed […]
Project Power
Move over Molly. You’ve got competition! Folks in New Orleans are downing potent capsules dubbed Power that can give them superpowers. What’s the catch? The energy rush only lasts for minutes and it’s very unpredictable. Who in the world could think up such a novel premise? Point your finger at screenwriter Mattson Tomlin (upcoming The Batman). […]
Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn
Decades ago, long before BLM protestors marched and chanted “George Floyd—I can’t breathe,” demonstrators shouted “Yusuf. Yusuf. Yusuf. No justice, no peace.” Racially motivated crimes that ignite outrage have a long history. One of the most heinous felonies provides a back story to today’s struggles. On August 23, 1989, Yusuf Hawkins, a 16-year-old Brooklynite from East New York, traveled to the unfamiliar Brooklyn neighborhood of Bensonhurst with friends contemplating the purchase of used 1982 Pontiac. Unbeknownst to him the largely Italian/American community was hostile to Blacks. Some […]
Out Stealing Horses
When the title of a film is more vibrant than anything you’ll see on the screen, it’s an issue. The source material for this meandering and overly sentimental coming-of-age drama is the bestselling novel of the same name by Norwegian author Per Petterson. The focus is on a 67-year-old man named Trond (Stellan Skarsgård, Chernobyl) who relocates to rural Norway, a trip that […]
Radioactive
Rosamund Pike makes a lot of good choices. Check out her filmography and some of her very impressive feminist roles: A courageous war correspondent in A Private War, gusty widow in Hostiles, stoic wife in an interracial marriage in A United Kingdom and cunning spouse in Gone Girl. Now this. Pike portrays world-renown physicist and chemist Marie Sklodowska Curie. She […]
Fatal Affair
Dull suspense/thrillers are most often mired in formula. Example: Woman in distress. Man stalks her. Confrontations and narrow escapes. Big do-or-die finale. The Perfect Guy (Sanaa Lathan is hounded by Michael Ealy) stuck to those basics. Fatal Affair does too and adds nothing new to the mix. Director/writer Peter Sullivan and co-writer Rasheeda Garner stay on the path most […]
ESSENCE 50th Anniversary Issue
Happy to say I was one of the contributors to Essence’s 50th Anniversary Issue. My Essence Eats column charted the history of some classic restaurants that were around when Essence began in 1970. It also highlighted new eateries that are breaking ground and continuing to support the African American community.
Hamilton
If history classes were this entertaining, there would be lines around the block to get in. For many, Hamilton is an enigma. It was the toast of Broadway. Attention-grabbing scenes were performed during the Tony Awards Show. But if you weren’t willing to spend a fortune for tickets, you‘ve probably never seen this groundbreaking musical. What many […]
John Lewis: Good Trouble
“I feel lucky and blessed that I’m serving in the Congress… But there is a force that is trying to take us back to another time and another dark period,” warns congressman John Lewis. And he’d know. Since age 17, this brave crusader has been at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Now at […]
The Last Tree
“She’s not coming to take you away.” It’s a hollow promise. An 11-year-old black boy is snatched away from his white foster mom. The life he knew ripped out from under him. It causes a bitterness that lasts well into his teenage years in this thoughtfully and emotionally charged coming-of-age drama. Writer/director Shola Amoo’s semi-autobiographical portrait recaptures […]
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