Reviews

From left; Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam and Ben Affleck in J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier (photo: Netflix) Movies have always loved the military.  The elements that we instantly connect to the military, such as bravery, loyalty, brotherhood, heroism, selflessness, dedication, strength and courage, are ideal fodder for the Hollywood fantasy.  And even though superhero movies have recently taken the …

Rihanna and Donald Glover in Guava Island (Amazon Prime) It’s starting to feel like summertime with Guava Island When News broke in 2018 that Donald Glover, alternatively known by his musical pseudonym Childish Gambino, was working on a secret film project, to be helmed by his creative partner Hiro Murai (who directed Glover in some episodes of Atlanta as well …

Ashton Sanders in Native Son from A24/HBO (photo: Matthew Libatique) From the very first moments of Native Son, the audience is overwhelmed by the dizzying blend of visual style and narrative intensity. Rashid Johnson, in his directorial debut, uses his career as an established postmodern artist to create a beautiful reimagining of Richard Wright’s incredible novel, bringing it into a …

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers in Marvel’s Captain Marvel (Disney) I’ll be totally honest with you. I had never even heard of Captain Marvel before. I’m not nor have I ever been a comic book person, but at least I had heard of characters such as Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Spider Man. But this Captain Marvel was a …

From left; Barry Ward and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in the prison escape drama Maze Against the backdrop of Brexit, now may be the perfect time for movies to remind us that the British Isles have a long history of tumult and chaos within its borders.  Now that there is widespread panic and confusion about what Great Britain may look and feel …

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in Killing Eve (BBC AMerica) We’ve all been there. Loving a show’s first season only to be disappointed by its second. This scenario only becomes heightened after a show like Killing Eve came out of almost nowhere. Add to this its network, BBC America, had only one previous prestige show – Orphan Black – where …

Bill Hader in HBO’s Barry. (Photo: HBO/Isabella Vosmikova) In 2017, when Bill Hader signed on with HBO to create, write, direct and star as the titular character in a new show, Barry, we were all expecting something along the same lines as the Saturday Night Live alumni; more zany, excessive characters that defined his comedic career. Very few were anticipating …

Lupita Nyong’o knows something’s wrong in ‘Us‘ Jordan Peele has always had his finger firmly on the pulse of the human condition – this was evident in his groundbreaking comedic work on Mad TV and Key &  Peele, but it has been proven to be one of his most remarkable talents through his transition into a horror film auteur, the …

I Am Not a Witch (Sundance) In Nigeria, within Keats State, a Goat was arrested as an armed robbery suspect. A vigilante group apprehended the Goat with the impression that human thief engaging in witchcraft turned himself into an animal to avoid detection. The belief in witchcraft is common in Nigeria and many other parts of Africa to include the …

Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson in Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You (Annapurna) Coonery, buffoonery, toxic masculinity, feminism, identity, and Black lives matter are among the many themes tackled in Boots Riley’s directorial debut film Sorry To Bother You. Think of this as an avant-garde, dystopian, social satire that uses racial dynamics in the workplace as a catalyst for exploring …