(***) They shouldn’t have messed with this granny. She’s coming for them—and she’s packing heat! Writer/actor and first-time director Josh Margolin has a wild imagination. One he honed while a member of various improvisational groups. He also has a 103-year-old grandmother he loves dearly. Hence the hilarity and premise of this scorned grandma movie that is a consistently endearing, […]
It Was All a Dream — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(***) She’s brilliant. This is one of those classic cases when the person asking the probing questions in a documentary is even more fascinating than the subjects being interviewed. When East Coast/West Coast hip hop and rap culture was in its infancy, it had an archivist. That shaman-like figure was Dream Hampton, a music journalist […]
Desire: The Carl Craig Story — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(**1/2) If you thought electronic music was created in Europe, think again. It might be more popular on that continent, but it was invented by some Black brothers from Detroit. And one of the first disciples of the genre is the well-known DJ, musician Carl Craig—aka the Mikes Davis of techno. One person’s niche music […]
Rebel Country –- Tribeca Film Festival Review
(***) When you listen to country music you can hear the Black blues and Mexican heritage influences in it. But no one has every explained how the genre became so homogeneously white and male when its roots sing a different song. Documentarian Francis Whately (David Bowie: Five Years) pulls the curtains back on the country […]
The Debutantes — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(**1/2) Can a debutante ball, an old fashion rites-of-passage for young women, make the transition to the 21stcentury—and be relevant? Yes and no. The organizers of a one-year-long leadership program in Canton, Ohio are training Black female teens to adapt to their preconceived—sometimes archaic—notion of what womanhood should be. They have good intentions and dubious […]
The Knife — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(**) It’s a crime/drama/thriller premise that had some potential. If it was developed differently, it could have been a contender. A middleclass Black family is awakened in the night, in their home by an intruder. Chris (Nnamdi Asomugha, Sylvie’s Love), the dad, goes downstairs to investigate. He confronts a white older woman who looks deranged. There’s […]
Black Table — Tribeca Film Festival Review
(**1/2) If you’re Black and you attended a predominately white college or high school, all this sounds familiar. There was likely a Black table in the lunch room where you gathered. Not due to segregation. More as an oasis in the middle of an ocean of people who didn’t look like you. In that way […]
Method Man is the Fixer in Bad Shabbos, the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Winner
(***) When the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival ended June 16th, the audience had spoken. It named the zany, dark comedy Bad Shabbos its Audience Award Narrative winner. And this movie can thank a breakout performance by the 53-year-old rapper Method Man (Wu-Tang Clan) for pulling it across the finish line. Shabbos is the day of rest for […]
Inside Out 2
(***) We try to control our emotions, and don’t always do a great job. What if they were outsourced to five dingy spirits who were afraid to give up their power? Disney/Pixar puts that notion in play. It’s an amusing premise. One that turns into a delightful screening for 96 entertaining minutes of manic animation, […]
Jazz Superstars Shine on the 2024 Capital Jazz Festival
(***) The biggest, brightest jazz, smooth jazz and R&B stars come to Columbia Maryland every year to shine a light on the Capital Jazz Festival. That orbit has been a perennial alignment since 1993, when the fest was inaugurated. It happened again in 2024 when 20,000+ fans roamed through Symphony Woods Park, sitting in the […]
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