Got to see this on the big screen last night. If this is presumably the last time we see these four (Marty, Pacino, DeNiro and Pesci) go into this genre that they didn’t invent but essentially defined, they’ve left us on a very pleasing note. I have a vague memories as a kid of hearing […]
Obama opens this doc by saying ‘Some people are attracted to the power that is part of being in the spotlight, others work best behind the scenes. Clarence Avant is the latter.’ Truer words never spoken, cause 99% of the audience of this Netflix doc will surely have never heard of this man… Like a […]
A few weeks back, my Twitter feed went nuts with black film geeks famous and not famous all saying Netflix dropped a series called ‘Pioneers of African-American Cinema’ that is mandatory viewing if you’re a student of the history or the artform or the culture. And they were all right. Streaming on Netflix, twenty episodes […]
I don’t know if this particular film needed the help, but first off let me say Netflix is getting better at playing to the eyes and ears of the film geek community. I got to see ‘Roma’ at the Directors Guild over Thanksgiving weekend, on the big screen the way I’m sure Alfonso Cuaron (and […]
One of my favorite Golden Age stories I took to heart comes from Karl Malden. When Brando was putting his directorial debut together, he called Malden to see if he would be interested, and Karl just said ‘Yep’, without knowing what the part was, let alone seeing the script. I’ve heard it repeated in […]
Quincy Jones has had a career and a life that just won’t me duplicated. EGOT. He opened the door for Oprah to go to the next level. He opened the door for Will Smith to go to the next level. Nearly any creative I know would feel like his 90th biggest accomplishment would easily […]
I don’t think Justin Simien will take any offense to me saying each incarnation of ‘Dear White People’ has been an improvement on the one before it. The latest season (or volume as it were) builds on Season 1’s re-introduction of the characters and settings of Winchester University, and creatively expands on them in […]
I understand (kind of) that Netflix can’t promote the living heck out of every single project they put up. I kept hearing about ‘On My Block’ by word of mouth, and I was only two episodes in before I started telling people around me, ‘You need to get involved with this,’ and now that […]
Do not let it be said we’re anywhere close to running out of fresh angles for genre stories… At its core, ‘First Match’ is a coming of age story. But here are just a few of the ‘not worn out’ touches… a) the protagonist is a young black girl b) she tries to bond […]
Even for someone like me who’s more or less the same age as hip hop, it’s hard now to imagine the early days, when even people who saw money couldn’t imagine millions of dollars. When it was a neighborhood thing and not a worldwide culture. ‘Roxanne Roxanne’ does an excellent job of reminding you […]
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