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 […]
Mr. Jones
Before there was fake news, distorting realty for evil purposes was called propaganda. That’s what the Russians did pre-WWII to convince the West that the Soviet Ukraine had economic prowess, prosperous citizens and full bellies. BS. The truth had to be told. In the 1930s, Gareth Jones (James Norton, Little Women and Belle), a young Welsh investigative journalist, […]
Miss Juneteenth
A small black neighborhood in the Fort Worth, Texas metro area. A former teenage beauty queen whose opportunities never panned out. It’s a microcosm. A blip on the radar. Just big enough to provide strong underpinnings for an earnest character-driven story. Juneteenth, aka Freedom Day, Jubilee Day or the Black Fourth of July, is an […]
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