Nominated for Best Documentary Short this year at the Academy Awards, ‘The White Helmets’ takes the audience (especially in America) a front row seat to a place we hear about daily on the news but don’t actually experience. The White Helmets are a voluntary rescue group in Syria who go into the heart of […]
I want to stay away from the obvious cliches when I judge this film on its own and within the long view of Ava Duvernay’s career (‘this is an important film’), so I’ll try to find the right words at the end… The conceit of this documentary is that while the 13th Amendment abolished […]
I’m late to the party on this one but glad I eventually found it… Nelson George’s ‘A Ballerina’s Tale’ is a roughly 90 minute documentary that introduces many of us to the story of Misty Copeland, the first black woman to be cast as the lead ballerina by many international ballet troupes. Born in […]
So there’s the names you recognize because it’s been in the marketing. Baz Luhrmann. Nas. Nelson George if you’re a hip hop head. The name not as heavily promoted but who played a significant role of his own is my brother in many things in this life, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, officially credited as a […]
You all know who my team is. But as you see above, my favorite player from my generation never played for the Lakers. An undersized guy among Giants. Wears his flaws on his sleeve. A natural born underdog, rebel, and non-conformist. ‘Iverson’ gives you all the highlights of what made ‘the Answer’ so appealing to […]
I have to shout out my friends at Marvel. I was already looking forward to this; when I heard it’s coming out at the end of #MalikWeek2016, I couldn’t have been more flattered. Pretty sure this will be the first series where I stream the whole thing in one day. (No pressure Netflix…) And I […]
So the sizzle reel for ‘The Get Down’ came out this morning. On top of looking great on its own merit, my friend Aaron Rahsaan Thomas (director of ‘Trojan War’) happens to be one of the creative people behind the scenes helping to bring this series to light. So add that to the reasons you […]
Do I carry a certain amount of bias for ‘Master of None’ as a minority actor who favors the ‘silly love stories with a heart’? Sure, I guess I do. But I still think ‘Master of None’ is fantastic. As someone on Twitter brilliantly pitched it, this show is ‘a younger, less surreal version of […]
Fukunaga is the auteur and Idris is the name you recognize on the poster, but ‘Beasts of No Nation’ belongs to Abraham Attah. ‘The Wire’ and ‘City of God’ both excel in showing you how children with no hope can become stone cold killers. ‘Beasts’ asks an even more somber question: ‘What if it’s complete […]
I could tell you more about Nina Simone as a ‘symbol’ than I could as an actual person. ‘What Happened Miss Simone?’ is a nice in to her life story for those of you like myself. Archival footage and interviews with her musical collaborators and family fill out the story of this incredibly complex woman. […]
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