The Darkest Minds recycles the gist of what we’ve seen in prior YA dystopian adaptations while ripping off Marvel and others in the process. The film’s prologue, which complete wastes The West Wing alumnus Bradley Whitford’s President Gray, sets up the film. Children across the country are getting ill. This mysterious illness is referred to as IAAN (Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration). Despite claims to the contrary, not even the CDC can find a cure. Those…
"The Darkest Minds: We’ve Seen This Before"Category: Movie Reviews
The genre-bending action comedy, The Spy Who Dumped Me, allows for Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon to take it to the next level. The film’s cold open sets the tone, introducing us to Audrey (Mila Kunis) and Morgan (Kate McKinnon) on the former’s birthday in Los Angeles while Drew (Justin Theroux) fights for his life in Vilnius. In addition to the cuts between the two, there’s the requisite flashbacks introducing us to their meet-cute. This also serves…
"The Spy Who Dumped Me is Kick-Ass Fun"
Generation Wealth feels like it’s the culmination of filmmaker Lauren Greenfield’s career over the past two and a half decades. For the film, which premiered this past January at Sundance, the filmmaker revisited so many of her previous photograph and interview subjects. The film also ties into the 2017 book of the same name as well as a similar photo exhibition depicted late in the film. High school probably wasn’t the best time to talk…
"Generation Wealth: Is Greed Good?"
Drawing on videos and interviews, McQueen tells the story of fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen. The fashion designer was best known as Alexander McQueen. His story may best personify the rags-to-riches story. It can be said that his own life wasn’t without his own tragic shortcomings. McQueen grew up in East London’s working-class Stratford neighborhood with five other siblings. Nobody could have ever predicted that a shy child would go onto become one of the…
"McQueen: Tragedy in Fashion"
The comparisons to Rear Window are there but writer-director Nosipho Dumisa makes Number 37 her own. Randal Hendricks (Irshaad Ally) just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He found himself in a wheelchair after a deal went terribly wrong. While he’s stuck in his Cape Town apartment, this film is not the Alfred Hitchcock classic. While it is an homage, the plot is tremendously different and you don’t have the legendary…
"Fantasia 2018: Number 37 (Nommer 37)"
Actress Jordana Spiro makes her feature directorial debut with the captivating Night Comes On, a heart-wrenching story that follows a young woman as she seeks to get her life back on track. It’s a solid first feature film for Spiro and helps shine a light on a segment of the country that needs to be represented in more films and in leading roles nonetheless. It’s not only the representation factor but also the stories of…
"Night Comes On: A Solid First Feature"
The Captain (Der Hauptmann) is based on the true story of Willi Herold. Some of the film has been dramatized but it’s so crazy that you honestly can’t believe it really happened. Willi Herold (Max Hubacher) was a deserter of the German Army with some two weeks left to go during World War 2. It’s only after he comes across a car containing the luggage of a Luftwaffe captain that he decides to impersonate one. If you think…
"The Captain (Der Hauptmann)"
Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story tells the long-overdue story of the first all-white vs. all-black Little League baseball game in the Deep South. The game took place about eight years after Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. The Civil Rights movement had started a year before this playoff game took place. When you’re a kid and into baseball, that’s all you want to do. It really doesn’t matter who you’re playing…
"Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story"
Kelly Macdonald delivers a strong performance as all the pieces fit nicely into Puzzle. Puzzle plays out like a period drama except for one minor detail: smartphones. Oren Moverman and Polly Mann’s screenplay, based on 2009’s Argentine film Rompecabezas, manages to give us a sharp character study of a middle-aged woman. Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) is in her early 40s. She’s not a woman who tends to leave her community. She isn’t fully reclusive but when she does leave the…
"Puzzle: A Character Study in a Period-esque Drama"
Joseph Kahn’s Bodied, holding its Quebec premiere during Fantasia 2018, is a satire that takes us inside the underground culture of battle rap. Adam Merkin (Calum Worthy) finds himself deeply embedded into the world of battle rapping while researching for a thesis paper. This only happens after a chance encounter with Behn Grymm (Jackie Long). Unfortunately for him, this takes a toll on his own personal relationships. This includes his tenured father (Anthony Michael Hall)…
"Fantasia 2018: Bodied"