49/100

Loving isn't understated, it's *barely* stated. Jeff Nichols' new installment in his consistently boring filmography utilizes a kind of languid serenity which is at peace with the chosen story and the larger resonance of its ramifications in modern culture, but it's also not a very exciting situation or one which lends its hand to engaging, articulate drama. Nichols was the perfect fit for the project, but just because sensibility lines up with intention doesn't mean it's a story meant for the cinema, and Nichols buries any chance of flourish by committing solely to the actors and tossing everything else into the fields. Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga are astounding forces when it comes to embodying the indescribable love shared…

The thing I take away from the two latest from Jeff Nichols (so far, the only two I've seen from him) is the use of silence. Most of the film takes on a quite, slow moving, and rather calm sensibility towards each of its subjects and never breaks away from it (aside from one sequence towards the half way point).

It's something I can see most being bored by (trust me, during one of my theater checks a few days ago, I saw a guy straight up sleeping during this movie) but it's something I rather admire.

Time and time again, someone will take this sorta subject matter and over exaggerate it to the degree where it's hard to take…

Hacksaw Ridge and Loving offer two visions of hell on earth.

Rather than convey passion between a man and woman, Loving idealizes Southern black and white culture, presenting a utopia of interracial drag racing and social kindliness that ignores all social context. This Richard and Mildred are not just good, color-blind people; they’re a quintessentially hapless duo. They make babies, but they don’t make history; history happens to them, and the film proposes that we simply respect their loving feelings out of pity. But where’s the romance?

In 1962, One Potato, Two Potato was the first mainstream film to depict interracial romance. Director Larry Peerce and actors Barbara Barrie and Bernie Williams contrasted a couple’s personal desires to society’s dysfunction.…

Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) marries his pregnant girlfriend Mildred (Ruth Negga) but soon afterwards they are both arrested. Richard, a white man, and Mildred, a black woman, are forced to plead guilty to avoid prison time but they also must leave the state of Virgina. Soon the ACLU hears their case and tries to get it to the Supreme Court.

LOVING is another winner from writer-director Jeff Nichols who is certainly one of the most interesting filmmakers out there. It seems a lot of movies based around race were released in 2016 and many of them were based on true stories, which includes this one. If you're already familiar with the story then it's doubtful anything here will blow you…