Hot Takes On Film

Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005 Republic of Tyler Perry) Tyler Perry stars as the colorful matriarch of a family keeping them all in line. This is Perry’s first film and this is the first in the Madea series. Madea would go on to make many more films making Perry a quadrillionaire. Madea is very maternal making this a film you would want to watch with your Mom or even take notes. Perry does a great job being maternal and being funny. It’s a great character. No wonder this franchise has made so much cash. Perry is based in Georgia which has not gone all Darth Vader level anti-trans/drag probably because of Perry. JK I have no idea but I do know Perry holds a lot of power. Last I heard he is negotiating buying BET. He rescued a prince and princess. He even flew a gospel choir on his private jet to serenade his god-daughter on her baptism. Perry is quite a guy and it really comes across in his films. Although, the story is actually a relationship drama about Madea’s granddaughter and her

  #MotherMayI. Its May already. This month we will be looking at mother themed films. What I love about themes like this is that it crosses genres a lot. I will focus on films with the mother archetype. It doesnt have to be the main theme just front and center. I love how so many are in the horror genre. What does that say about motherhood? I am terrible in the horror genre space but I will do my best. The archetype is generally bonded with their child, she is female or female identifying but not always. She makes decisions for her child but not always good ones. This is where the archetype can go really wrong. She is nurturing and trusted but that can go wrong too. We are drawn to this archetypes even as fully realized adults. We still need to see her. Here is a brief list of genres that I have seen this theme Horror SciFi Drama Comedy Thriller Animation Fantasy Even Noir Yeah that’s a lot I know. What’s funny is that sometimes, not all, we don’t even realize we are looking at a mothe

 Soul (2020 US) Pixar brings us this sweet story about a middle school band teacher who has a near death experience and then must figure out the meaning of life.  Yeah they really go there with the meaning of life theme. Jamie Foxx leads an all star cast as Joe Gardner. I loved the animation in this especially when Joe Gardner plays the piano. Animators painstakingly logged the exact key being played in the music and recreated it  visually. The result is pretty stunning. Soul was nominated for many awards including Oscars. I love the color work in this telling a story of its own. Each plain of existence has it's very distinct color pallet. Pixar consulted with an internal cultural trust made up of Pixar employees of color. The result is a multidimensional story with layered and complex characters. I really loved it but you will need the tissue box and not because of a tragic ending. It's just so darned sweet. Find it on Disney Plus for now and available to rent on most streamin

  Get Out (2017 US) A young black man visits his white girlfriends family. Secrets! So many Secrets. Jordon Peele won an Oscar for the script and the film was nominated in multiple categories including Best Picture. It lost to The Shape of Water a film about sexy fish. I'm a big fan of Jordon Peele's work including his TV skit show Key and Peele (I know you read that as "shit show" you stinker). I love his approach to black cinema and so did audiences who rewarded the film with a very profitable theatrical run. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya who was nominated for best actor. He lost to Gary Oldman for his Winston Churchill portrayal. At least Kaluuya was in the right category this time  (see my Judas and the black messiah post). The film also had LaKeith Stanfield who later played Judas to Kaluuyas Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. I cant say that The Academy made the right choices in their winner picks but I will say this that the film really resonated with

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021 US) This Best Picture nominee tells the story of Black Panther Fred Hampton. One of my favorite actors Daniel Kaluuya stars as Hampton. I first took notice of Kaluuya's work on the Black Mirror Netflix show. He is so intuitive and these characters just jump out of him with what seems like such little effort. In interviews he comes across as distant and unengaged until he gets a question and then you get this incredibly thoughtful answer from seemingly nowhere. He won best supporting actor at the Oscars that year. Why "supporting" when he plays the main character? I have no goddamn clue. But he won? Dominique Fishback played his wife Deborah Johnson. Fishback played opposite Samuel L Jackson in the limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. Jackson was well impressed by her. She came to work with binders and he felt the need to keep up with her. Now, Jackson is not a subtle guy and tends to steal the scene but Fishback was right there w

Its still #FemaleFilmmakerFriday and time for another brilliant film from Gina Prince-Bythewood. The Woman King (2022 US). I love Viola Davis and I cant get over just how bad-ass she was in this. I just love how much she and the other ladies trained and bulked out with muscle. Bythewood did a fantastic job directing this. There was just so much that stood out but lets break that down. The acting, led by Davis was extraordinary. The production design (costumes, sets, lights etc) were a Wow! Bythewood did a great job blocking the actors (movement) for maximum effect. There was a lot to say here. Surely the Academy would acknowledge this. Nada, Zilch, Zip. Completely snubbed. Surely it wasn't due to the controversy (glossing over hard truths) because Elvis had the same damn problem and look where it is (See my Elvis post). I will say it again "filmmakers are not required to make an historically accurate film". The Academy knows this and furthermore has decades of precedent i

  You People (2023 US) a young Jewish man (Jonah Hill) falls in love with a young black woman (Lauren London). This was directed by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris. Barris co-wrote it with Hill. This romantic comedy was very uncomfortable to watch…by design. Much of the movie was about melding the two Jewish and Black families together so the couple could marry. The jokes revolved around Jewish and Black Americans and how they brought their own biases and ignorance when meeting the other. Ooof that was rough and went about as well as you would expect. Barris and Hill did a great job of making you feel that discomfort as if you were in the room. I loved that Hill personified the audience and was desperately trying to avoid the looming train wreck. Look over there, what’s that? That’s actually good directing and writing. There was an awful lot of acting and comedy talent in this which was fun to watch. Rotten Tomatoes scored it at 42% and I’m thinking they once again missed the point and

  It’s Friday and that means it’s # FemaleFilmmakerFriday and todays entry is Love and Basketball (2000 US). This romance drama was directed and written by Gina Prince-Bythewood. When my daughter was a toddler she referred to basketball as spacketball. So anyway I do love spacketball and there were a lot of shots of the game including circa 2000 Lakers and Sparks. I felt like Leonardo DiCaprio in that meme. Omg look!!!! But we went through a phase where romance films had to have a loser (someone innocent and nice gets dumped) and often depicted unhealthy relationships. I really wanted to like this but it was filled with that. It was very well done with a killer soundtrack but when you spend the entire film shaking your head in disapproval of some of the characters choices it’s hard to stay in it. It’s very well directed but kind of dated. The spacketball aspect was awesome. Find it on HBO, Tubi and Amazon or for rent on most streaming. Please Like Share and Subscribe

  Loving (2016 US) Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton star in this Bio pic romance depicting Richard and Mildred Loving. For those that don’t remember or live outside the US this is the couple who were arrested in Virginia for having an interracial marriage. They sued and the case went to the US Supreme Court in Loving vs Virginia. In 1967 the court sided with the couple and interracial marriage became legal. I’m a big fan of Ruth Negga and she really did an outstanding job in this. The costumes also really stand out. I love biopics and what I loved about this was it depicted a loving relationship, not without its problems, but strong enough to overcome some very difficult intrusions in their lives. I could only imagine being arrested for something humans are hard wired to do, pair up. Ultimately, their bond made the lives of others so much better.  Find it on Netflix and available to rent on most streaming platforms.

 Nappily Ever After (2018 US) Based on the novel of the same name. Technically billed as a RomCom I saw it more as a RomCharm. It was endearing and charming. A woman, Violet, with a stick up her butt does not get a marriage proposal from her boyfriend as she imagined so dumps him and goes on a tear. In doing so she slowly pulls the stick out of her behind and has an epiphany along the way. The theme in this was similar too so many Christmas movies; redemption reconciliation. Also, X character does Y and learns to chill the F out. This had no XMas themes but did talk a lot about Black Female beauty standards and how off the charts they are. In this picture actress Sanaa Lathan is just about to shave her head, like, for real. She really does it. Very powerful moment cuz you can tell its real. This film was very much about finding what's real and it was wonderful to join the character Violet on that journey. I really enjoyed it. Find it on Netflix exclusively but should be available i