"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" Review: This Feels Personal
You can hear a pin drop in the first five minutes of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It’s intense and doesn’t let go of wrestling with loss, the cycle of violence and how we respond to it all throughout its running time. Even with that, this film is a vibe! It pays tribute, takes you in directions that you expect and does an intentional job of curving your expectations at the right time. This is one of the best MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) installments in a while!
The loss of Chadwick Boseman shook the world. It was a death we didn’t expect. He was a talented actor and better human being to all who knew him. He endured in silence, proving his quiet strength and giving us a lot to think about in hindsight. Whether it was not to make fun of a celebrity’s (or anyone for that matter) weight loss because you don’t know what they’re dealing with or his words in interviews, we all had to wrestle with his death. Writer/director Ryan Coogler and the rest of the cast had to do this as well. The original sequel script had to be re-written. It’s in the spaces of deep pain as a reflection of deep love that you can get a focused script like Wakanda Forever. It’s not a perfect script/story, but it’s deeply personal in every frame.
This is a spoiler free review, so I’ll only speak based off of what you can gather from the trailer. The world of Wakanda is familiar yet matured here after the Blip. Her people are dealing with the loss of their leader. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) is mourning as a mother would, with maturity and grace, while keeping the outside world at bay from using vibranium in a way that would harm others. Shuri (Letitia Wright) is going through it! Her grief is manifested in overworking and anger.
In the outside world’s zest to find vibranium, a new underwater nation called Talokan is awoken. With a desire to stay hidden, its’ leader Namor (Tenoch Huerta), will do whatever it takes to make that happen. Even if it means taking down Wakanda to do it. So Wakanda calls on her heroes Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Okoye (Danai Gurira), M’Baku (Winston Duke) and new comer Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne).
Ruth Carter’s wardrobe in the film is once again Oscar worthy. Part of the reason the film is a vibe is because of how cool the cast looks throughout the film. Whether they are wearing street clothes or traditional garb, Carter nailed it! The production and art design is incredible grounded in a tangible future. The music from Ludwig Goransson is haunting, inspired and sets the right tone for the film. Listen to the music playing in the lab while Shuri is working. It fits seamlessly to the point you might miss it because so much thought has been put into this world from head to toe.
There is an element of this film that we have to deal with. While the story does a great job of giving us Afro and Latino Futurism visions, the fact remains that the majority of the film is about two brown communities fighting each other. While the Talokan people are blue on land, they’re brown under water. They’re of Mayan origin. So it’s easy to forget this point. At a micro level, two brown nations are willing to go at each other in order to save themselves from colonizers out of fear of colonization. It’s not even guaranteed. It’s strategy for a possibility. Yet, it’s evident that they are two of the strongest nations in this world. There’s an invisible chain at play that just feels a little all too familiar for me.
That said, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a serious character drama with super hero action in the background. Their are noteworthy performances from Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright as the women take the stage in a way that feels lived in from my black experience! Equal to the performances are the character arcs of the protagonists and antagonist. Just as Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) was a great idealogical foil to T’Challa, Namor is another villain who could be considered a hero depending on the side of the coin you align with. It’s an entertaining film that will be remembered in the MCU due to the loss of Chadwick Boseman and the universal themes it deals with. There’s only one post credit scene, so you don’t have to wait until the credits finishing rolling this time!
Rating: B+
P.S.
Look for the male extra on the left side of the screen dancing in white in the beginning of the film. Someone should have been watching the dailies to remind him to stay in character! He was having too much fun I guess. If it wasn’t such a serious moment…I would have been laughin’!
"Soul" Review: The Reflection We Need In 2020
Pixar has a way with giving us films that speak to children, the inner child in adults, and adults. Their latest film, “Soul”, hits all three. While it has its moments of bloat and overly-complex narrative, there’s no doubt that it will leave you thinking about your life and the journey we all walk in finding our purpose.
Jamie Foxx voices Joe Gardner, a band teacher who has been waiting for his big break as a musician. He spends his time like most people do who aren’t working their dream job. He works at school, tutors after school to make ends meet, and plays gigs in his off time. So when he finally gets the opportunity to play piano for Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) he’s beyond ecstatic! Blinded by enthusiasm he misses the open man hole he walks into while talking on the phone.
Fresh out of his body, Joe is in a long line full of people going to The Great Beyond, but feeling that he was just about to finally make it, he fights to get out of impending doom. His actions land him in The Great Before, a place where souls are trained before diving to Earth to get a body and pursue their purpose in life. As Joe tries to find a loophole to get back to Earth himself, he’s paired up as a mentor for 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who does everything she can to not go to Earth. Amazingly, everything mentioned above is in the trailer.
If you can get past what feels like a seriously hard attempt to create a beautiful, bright new world that still addresses large issues like Pixar did previously with “Inside Out”, the bones of finding out our purpose in life are solid. Foxx’s Joe Gardner is a kind man with enough of a chip on his shoulder to make him oblivious to the truth that he matters to his community and has a good life. The film analyzes what makes a life “good” and worth living through the eyes of 22. Simultaneously, we see a refresher for Joe as he is able to see the world as 22 sees it.
“Soul” gives us Pixar’s first movie centered around a black character. Like “The Princess Frog”, Joe spends a considerable amount of time outside of his body, but fortunately at least half of the time we see an animated black lead. In fact, Pixar nails a lot of black culture in this film. From the jazz players (notably Angela Bassett as Dorothea) to Joe’s mother’s (Phylicia Rashad) seamstress shop, screenwriters Pete Docter, Mike Jones, and Kemp Jones hit the nuances that are uniquely black vernacular while still universal themes of connection and love. A beautifully captured scene where Joe gets his haircut in the barbershop is equal parts funny and true to life. The barbershop represents a space of education, humor, and camaraderie for black boys and men where conversations can go from the basketball game to how to be a better father in an instant. It’s so fluid with the rest of the film you could miss it, but I appreciated being able to ask my son if it looked familiar and he give a resounding “Yes!”.
We’ve come to have high expectations of Pixar Animation Studios and “Soul” won’t let you down. While it may not be as moving and profound as “Inside Out”, the film still poses big questions in an animated movie. While it doesn’t answer where we come from or where we go after life in our body ends, it does make you think about what you do while you’re living. In a tumultuous year like 2020, “Soul” is right on time to help us focus on what’s most important!
Rating: B+
"Queen & Slim" Review: A Must See
Looking for a thought provoking, unapologetic and unorthodox heroism movie? Then let me introduce you to Queen & Slim. Melina Matsoukas hits the ground running with her directorial debut, taking you on an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows equipped with twist and turns. Some may look at this film as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde but don’t let the sound bite from the trailer lead you astray, it stands in its own lane.
Imagine being on a Tinder date that’s not the one you run and tell your friends about. It's going down the “no serious connection and not really down for a second date” path before an aggressive cop pulls you for what should be a routine traffic stop. In the midst of the interaction, your date gets shot by the cop and you accidentally shoot and kill the cop in self defense. That’s the story of Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), taking off with them becoming two of America's Most Wanted. Once they decide to flee the scene and go on the run they become instant icons to some and hated by others. As the duo tries to find freedom, they find they have more in common than they thought.
Matsoukas sets a pace that gives perspective for black people of all ages in a crisis situation like this. We've seen the aftermath of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, for example, but not played out from beginning to end in cinema. This film gives detail, perspective and voice to these situations and the effects it has on the those involved and watching. At one point I felt like the third passenger in the car giving directions to Kaluuya and Turner-Smith. Their character performances are executed effortlessly. They both exude the emotional make up of two people not looking for trouble, who grow to become rebels fighting for their lives.
Overall, you'll learn something about being black in America from this film. The movie is a relevant timepiece that captures the current state of certain situations of black culture. Laced with an incredible soundtrack, this film is noteworthy and a must see. The last fifteen minutes alone make a heart wrenching argument for racial equality without preaching, but instead showing us the bleak reality of society today.
Rating: B+
*Edited by Kevin Sampson
"Frozen II" Review: Disney, Let It Go!
Perhaps much like the theme of the movie, the Frozen franchise is in its autumn. Frozen II offers up a change in its characters, settings and gives a form of growth to all. Suffering from the sophomore slump, while this film offers big numbers and beautiful scenery, it doesn’t quite capture the magic of its predecessor because it’s too busy trying to stand in the shadow of it.
Picking up shortly after the original, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) are leading the kingdom of Arendelle with Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and a newly permafrosted Olaf (Josh Gad) by their sides. Still trying to find herself, Elsa can’t ignore the voice she hears calling out to her. The voice may hold answers to the past as the kingdom tries to find answers to its future after the spirits of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water remove everyone from their homes.
Following the voice takes the group to an enchanted forest, which previously could not be entered by anyone. Inside they meet two factions that have been stuck inside for years and search for answers to the past to secure their future. Equipped with solo songs for each character throughout the film, like its songs, it’s forgettable. In fact, most of the songs help to move the struggling story along rather than being an extension of each characters’ inner feelings bursting out of them as musicals should do.
Another reason this outing isn’t as great as the last is because it’s missing heart and a true villain. The heart of the first film was the love between two sisters and the power that exists and can be cultivated from that love. Here, each character follows their own storyline and thus, as a whole, the movie suffers from meandering at times due to a seemingly forced narrative instead of the organic story in the first film. Without a true villain to physically go up against, these characters aren’t written well enough to display the true struggle of (wo)man vs. self that it whiffs at. There’s an opportunity for the film to explore what happens when a loved one smothers you with good intentions, but doesn’t realize they’re holding you back. There are decisions that some characters make that seem to be, well, out of character. It’s as though going from the beat sheet that five writers created for the story wasn’t quite filled in by Jennifer Lee’s screenplay.
On a positive note, Olaf steals the show as the lovable snowman who seems to be graduating from kindergarten to first grade metaphorically. He’s inquisitive about the world around him and his curiosity and zest for life is endearing. Olaf certainly provided most of the laughs that the children in the audience I saw the film with had.
Frozen II is an example of Disney’s machine over-cranking. While the film will undoubtedly be a money maker, lightning hasn’t struck twice. You won’t be able to name a single tune you heard upon exiting the theater. With glimpses of what could have been a solid, universal story, the writing is half baked and thus this film falls short. Your kids will love it though!
Rating: C
"Men In Black: International" Review: Neuralyze Me Now Please!
If you’re banking on the chemistry of Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth carrying the Men In Black franchise to new heights, think again. They may have been great together in Thor: Ragnorok, but Men In Black: International focuses more on spectacle than story. With foreshadowing bread crumbs more like muffins, the writing on the wall is easy to read for this movie and let’s hope it’s the same for the franchise’s demise.
Molly (Thompson) witnesses Men In Black agents visit her home as a child. While her parents’ memory was erased, her’s was not. She has spent her life, since that night, trying to find the secret organization. When she finally does, she’s taken in as a probational agent. She’s shipped to London to join Agent H (Hemsworth) on the latest mission to save the planet as a compact weapon that can destroy an entire planet makes its way through various hands.
Rather than focusing on an original story and character development, writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum focus more on familiar themes that made the franchise successful in the past. Production set pieces, aliens, and tech take the foreground over a plot and creating Agents M and H to be more than stereotypes. The fish out of water and the party boy get swallowed up inside the MIB world as forgettable people.
Director F. Gary Gray is one of the most underrated directors in Hollywood. While he has created notable films in the past, his presence in helming this film is absent. This feels like a studio driven film and a missed opportunity to have a talented director leave a mark.
This film reeks of not believing its audience is smart enough to keep up with its plot. Therefore, Men In Black International instantly becomes a forgettable entry in a franchise that has overstayed its welcome. If they could neuralyze me seeing this film, I’d take it now!
Rating: D
"A Dog's Journey" Review: The Forrest Gump of Dog Movies
A Dog’s Journey is basically the Forrest Gump of dog movies. While Forrest ran through a part of our nation’s history, Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad) serves the same family through various doggy lives. Ultimately, it gives a child-like look into a few generations of one family’s life journey. It’s the exploration of the good, the bad and man’s best friend’s role in our lives that make this a cute (corny at times) family film.
Picking up where A Dog’s Purpose left off with a now adult Ethan (Dennis Quaid), the film begins with the turbulent relationship between Ethan, his wife Hannah (Marg Helgenberger) and their daughter-in-law, Gloria (Betty Gilpin). Gloria is living on the farm with their granddaughter CJ. While the grands are the loving grandparents anyone would want, Gloria detests feeling like she’s under their constant monitoring. She splits with CJ and not knowing where CJ is going, Ethan asks Bailey to watch over CJ as he takes his last breaths.
Throughout the film Bailey reincarnates as a different dog and whether he has a long stint with CJ or a brief encounter, he knows his purpose. Each life teaches him new tricks, while life teaches the steady adulting CJ (Kathryn Prescott) new lessons as well. Whether she has to learn how to thrive in the world without her father, an absentee mother, an abusive boyfriend, or that love may be found in her best friend Trent (Henry Lau), CJ experiences the growing pains we all have.
While this film has touching moments that may cause you to grab a tissue, it’s drawn out. There are so many fades to black or white throughout the film that signify a closing or opening to a new chapter in the story that you can get restless after the fourth reincarnation. When the major points of our lives are compacted into a film it can serve as a great opportunity to reflect or give you perspective. This film will allow you to consider your own journey and think about the four legged friend in your life that may have helped you along the way.
Rating: C+
"Missing Link" Review: Something's Missing Alright!
You may not know the name Laika Studios, but you know their work. Movies like Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings are some their beloved prior films. While Missing Link is just as gorgeously handcrafted as their previous works, its missing the magic to elicit the warm fuzzies like its predecessors.
Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is an explorer and investigator of myths and monsters in the age of global exploration. He is fearless in his quest to find these creatures, but can’t seem to keep an assistant in doing so. After his latest assistant walks out, he receives a letter from Mr. Links (Zach Galifianakis), who turns out to be Big Foot. With the west being conquered by pioneers in North America, Mr. Links desires to find his long lost relatives, the Abominable Snowmen in Shangri-La. Not knowing how to get there, Frost and Links visit Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), a widow whose husband possessed a map to the mythical place.
Writer/Director Chris Butler is a master craftsman of the optics of the film. His attention to detail make for an entertaining watch. The light by the fireplace produces a warm orange on characters’ faces, an aerial shot in which the heroes travel by horse and carriage shows the shadows of the horses galloping along beside it, and the facial movements of the characters are so spot on that you can’t help but be swept away by the performances. The marriage between the actors’ delivery of lines to the crafting of their animated image is perfection! There is a grandmother the cast meets on the way to Shangri-La who is perhaps the funniest character in the film, but Butler shows her with a constant head tremor. It’s such a small detail, but it makes her character so authentic. The craftsmanship of the film must be honored!
While the visuals and voice acting is amazing in this film, the story is just plain dull. The screenplay doesn’t rise above stereotypical fare. You could argue that this is a film about the characters finding themselves on the harrowing journey to Shangri-La, but that’s boiler plate marketing. The screenplay gives little to care about by investing in the characters we see. So much of the film consists of watching the set production and waiting for the next bit of humor to break up the stodgy storyline.
Generally, I could give the stamp of approval for your kids enjoying the film more than you will, but I’m not so sure this time. The script and its’ jokes strike somewhere in between humor for kids and adult humor (and that doesn’t equal teenage humor), thus it gets lost in the middle of nowhere. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s some missing link to making this film great! As beautiful as it is, it may be best to catch this one after it gets out of the theaters.
Rating: C+
"Mapplethorpe" Review: A Living, Breathing Wiki Page of A Film
The first time I became aware of Robert Mapplethorpe was during a lecture in college for a History of Photography course I took that semester. The images that our professor showed us were certainly something, and my fellow classmates had some opinions, but it gave a sense of showing the world what kind of photographer he was. Generally, biopics can go one or two ways. For some, biopics can be an enlightening portrait of the person the film is covering to the point that it shines a new light on them. For others, biopics can often feel rushed, like seeing a Wiki page come to light to showcase the greatest hits. In many cases, those biopics failed to bring up why the people were engrossing to begin with. Sadly, Mapplethorpe falls into this realm. For such a provocative photographer, this biopic fails to do him justice. Better yet, it fails to showcase why he was such a compelling figure to begin with.
This latest biopic from filmmaker Ondi Timoner, making her narrative directorial debut after helming documentaries like 2004’s DIG! and 2009’s We Live in Public, covers the life of controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (Matt Smith). From his early beginnings as a struggling artist to getting his hands on his first Polaroid camera, Mapplethorpe begins to find his voice photographing nude figures, the BDSM subculture, and still-life, while coming to terms with his sexuality. As his works begin to hit the nerves of certain groups, we see how Mapplethorpe continues to rise and become the photographer that you either like or hate before his death in 1989 due to AIDS.
On the plus side, it’s interesting to see how Timoner seamlessly interweaves Mapplethorpe’s actual photographs into the film, and the ways that the film transitions to the photographs was spot-on. The acting was fine, but nothing special. The soundtrack that was curated for the film wasn’t bad as well. There were a couple of visual flashes that Timoner and her DP, Nancy Schreiber, came up with that really worked for me. In particular, a scene with Mapplethorpe getting rejected after beginning his career and when they show his life flash before his eyes. If the film had a more of a visual style to begin with, which these scenes made evident it could have had, then at least it would have had some flavor to it.
Unfortunately, for such a fascinating figure, this is a dull portrait of a film. The screenplay from Timoner and Mikko Alanne, working from an earlier screenplay by Bruce Goodrich, never gives you insight about Mapplethorpe or what was going on inside his head, but just assumes that you already know. Since it feels like a living, breathing Wiki page film, scenes bounce around without any cohesiveness to connect them, and rushes through important events in his life. Plot threads are introduced that don’t get further explored like his estrangement from his disapproving father (Mark Moses). Characters come and go as the screenplay dictates, but I wanted to see more with his relationship with Patti Smith (Marianne Rendon). Too often, the screenplay has that “been there done that” type of feel that we’ve seen from underwhelming biopics before.
Since the screenplay is weirdly constructed, there is no pacing, which makes the film longer than the 102-minute runtime it has. You also don’t really care for Mapplethorpe, or any of the characters for that matter, since there is no character development. While the visual style for the film gets better towards the end, the first two thirds is flat, and for the type of figure that Mapplethorpe was, you would assume that the style of the film would match his work, but that’s not the case. But hey, there’s a upside to all this, in that it became a fun game to see whether or not at a given time if Smith was using a wig or his actual hair, since it’s fairly obvious in some places.
Overall, I believe there’s a proper way to fully tell his story, but Mapplethorpe doesn’t cut it at all. It’s a misfire on all accounts that make the cardinal sin of filmmaking by being dull. By the time the film ended, I still didn’t know who Robert Mapplethorpe was as a person and what made him tick. If you’re interested in learning more, read up on him or look at his photographs, cause they tell you more about him than this film does. You don’t need to spend your money in the theaters watching this.
Rating: D+
"Fighting With My Family" Review
Fighting With My Family is the definition of a crowd pleaser. It’s light hearted, but has heart. It’s got the hero’s journey ingrained in it as it’s based off a true story. If you’re a fan of wrestling, this film is definitely for you! It’s a step above your average sports movie and a good bet for your venture to the theater this weekend.
The Knight family has wrestling in their blood. With a piecemeal amateur wrestling company, the family has been wrestling in their town of Norwich, England for years. While Ricky (Nick Frost) and Julia’s (Lena Headey) glory days in wrestling are behind them, it’s obvious that they put a lot of weight on the possibility of their children Zak (Jack Lowden) and Saraya (Florence Pugh) going “all the way” and become pro wrestlers in the World Wrestling Entertainment organization.
The film boils down to a central point of two conflicts: Saraya and Zak are at odds once she makes makes the cut for the WWE after they both try out, and Saraya has to wrestle with herself to find the drive within to achieve her dream in America with her family thousands of miles away. These conflicts drives the movie forward in a way that no matter where you’re from you can relate to the issues on screen. How do you put aside your feelings to support someone you love who is doing what you were turned down from doing? How do you continue forward knowing your loved one has to stay behind? Is your dream your dream or your family’s dream? What does the weight of your family depending on you make you do? Writer/director Stephen Merchant probes and answers these questions in a delightful way.
The ensemble cast is fun to watch. They bounce off of one another with dialogue and quips with ease. Most of the film’s depth rests on Pugh as she maneuvers through finding herself and place in achieving her dream. Pugh certainly pulls off the job of playing the loner who desires relationships and the girl who walks to her own beat. With Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing himself and Vince Vaughn as the tough but fair WWE scout, the film gives enough star power to believe in the wonder of climbing to the highest heights in wrestling.
This isn’t the greatest sports film to be made, but it’s certainly unique and great to see a true story based on the life of female wrestler Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis) on the big screen. It doesn’t have the macho action montages that we’re used to, but what it does offer is a nice change of pace, and genuine emotion for the genre. It’s certainly a good time at the movies this weekend.
Rating: B-