☆"I can't breathe."☆
Well, this takes on a whole new significance today doesn't it? So much for "Minnesota Nice," huh? Rest in power, George Floyd.
Of course, Mr. Floyd yelling and choking in his last moments of life would have happened independently of the murder of Eric Garner 6 years ago, but it helps serve as a stark reminder that not only have we a long way to go, we haven't actually gone anywhere. Because it was only in 2014…
☆"And finally it struck us that we didn't see Addie."☆
The history of America is the history of white supremacy.
In 1619, 20 Africans were brought to Virginia for labor on the White Lion. Not as slaves, but indentured servants, a common practice for the next two centuries for white immigrants alike. But when one of those men, John Punch, was given a penalty of lifelong slavery for an indiscretion, so began the lurch towards black suppression simply because the…
☆"God's testing you. You have to have faith."
"Would you? Could you?"☆
Known more for his screenplays than his directorial efforts, Paul Schrader has nonetheless floored me with two of his films where he was in the director's chair: First Reformed and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. I'll dig a little further into his filmography after being pleasantly surprised by American Gigolo recently, with his late-70s neo noir crime drama Hardcore.
Staunch Calvinist and conservative Jake Van Dorn (George…
☆"We don't have to be victimized first to be leaders."☆
The first ever two-part miniseries brought to PBS by its program POV, directors Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia team up in an Ava DuVernay executive production of And She Could Be Next, a deep and urgent documentary with moments to cheer and moments to weep. Focusing on the hard fight by women of color to run in American elections in 2018 -- and featuring political superstars like Stacey Abrams and…
The screen glows white in the theatre tonight
Not a cellphone to be seen
A film devoid of imagination
And it needs to be in quarantine
My face is scowling like a raging storm inside
Couldn't make it good, heaven knows they tried
Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good film Frozen I was to me
Raw deal, this reel, don't let them know
Well, now they know
Don't you go, don't you go
Can't say…
Now, this is a movie all about how
Will Smith got cloned by a man of renown.
And I'd like to take a minute, just sit with me,
I'll tell you how he became de-aged in a film by Ang Lee.
In west of some laboratory, born and raised,
In a test tube was where he spent most of his days.
Chillin' out, maxin', assassinatin' a fool,
And all shootin' some people to graduate from school,
When a couple of…
