Letterboxd — Your life in film

I've found it: buried under a terrible soundtrack, some really outdated jokes (about fatshaming, slutshaming, speaking English, etc.) and a few story contrivances sits the first honest-to-goodness GOOD Nancy Meyers movie. Sure, it's cowritten and directed by her husband Schyer, but this script has Meyers written all over it, up to and including the strained relationship between co-screenwriter spouses. The premise seems hokey until it proves it isn't, creating a really moving snapshot of the trauma and heartbreak divorced parents…

That little orange heart is misleading, as I don't "like" this film so much as I'm amazed by it. Because this film is INSANE - insanely misogynist, that is. A lot is said (and written) about the movie's racial politics, particularly the unsubtle image of a giant black ape stealing and obsessing over a screaming white woman. But the utter CONTEMPT these male characters have for women, expressed in nearly every line of dialogue prior to their encounter with Kong,…

Less of a film than an actors' showcase, with Washington as director showing little interest in making it much else. Camera movements and edits feel mostly perfunctory, with only a few lasting images adding to playwright/screenwriter August Wilson's script. Good thing, then, that the performances are dynamite, particularly Washington and Davis. Each cast member instills their character with an earthy nuance, breathing life and movement into near-ceaseless dialogue. Some parts of the play are weaker than others, like the overabundance…