In 1972, the first-ever Black congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm, launched a trailblazing campaign to become the president of the United States.
Shirley is directed by John Ridley who has directed Cold Around the Heart (1997), Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013) and Needle in a Timestack (2021).
Shirley tells the story of Shirley Chisholm an American politician who became the first Black woman to be elected into the United States Congress in 1968. She also became the first Black candidate for a major party nomination for President of the United States. The film documents the 1972 presidential run of Shirley Chisholm.
There is absolutely no denying what Shirley Chisholm did broke many barriers and was truly inspiring, a lot of that is felt throughout the film, sadly however the movie does have a flaws that hold it back. The main one being this is yet another incredibly safe biopic that goes about as deep as a Wikipedia page, this is sadly a common trend among a lot of biopics and Shirley is no different.
Having that said there are positives which mostly comes from the performances. Regina King plays Shirley Chisholm and as usual knocks it out of the park, even with a lacking script Regina King is able to really turn a lot of the movie around and make certain scenes genuinely powerful. She nails down the accent, actions and mannerisms of Shirley Chisholm which truly is fascinating. Her commanding the screen at any moment she’s given is truly powerful and once again fascinating to watch.
Lucas Hedges returns (his last film performance was in 2020) he plays Robert Gottlieb which while he doesn’t have a whole lot of screentime, Regina King and Lucas Hedges work incredibly well together and actually deliver some charming moments. Hedges also really nails down his portrayal of Gottlieb quite well. The late Lance Reddick plays Wesley McDonald Holder (one of his last performances, there’s still three more film performances after this) does an excellent job and again shows how incredible he was as an actor. He works incredibly well with the rest of the cast and much like Regina King, he’s able to take a lacking script and turn into something really fascinating.
As I said before unfortunately Shirley is a very by the numbers biopic, the directing style is played very safe and falls in line with a lot of other biopics. Which is a shame because Shirley Chisholm’s story is very fascinating and deserves to be told with so much more power.
London broker Nicholas “Nicky” Winton helps rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in a race against time before the Nazi occupation closes the borders. Fifty years later, he’s still haunted by the fate of those he wasn’t able to bring to safety.
One Life is directed by James Hawes which is directorial debut (not counting TV movies). One Life tells the true story of Sir Nicholas Winton who helped groups of Jewish children in German occupied Czechoslovakia to hide in flee in 1938-1939 just before the beginning of World War II.
It’s a very true fact when they say that World War II created a ton of personal stories from many different people, one of those is Nicholas Winton who was just ordinary man before he decided to put his life on the line and save so many children who were going to be killed.
The film itself switches back and forth between Winton’s early life which includes him saving the children and the present where he is much older and is known as a hero. The film really does a fantastic job of going back and forth between times, it cuts to when Winton is an elder at the best times possible so that the historical moments can hit the viewer harder. When it cuts to Winton’s younger years it allows more information about him to be revealed nice and slowly without being overwhelming for the viewer.
Johnny Flynn plays younger Winton which he does such a fantastic job, he absolutely fits the role and really fits the part as a man who sees pain and hurt then proceeds to put his life on the line to save those in need. Combine his performance with the nice and smooth pacing and you have yourself some really powerful moments throughout the film.
The first two acts are your standard biopic, they are by no means bad in fact there are tons of excellent moments between them. There just isn’t anything mind blowing. What helps the first two acts is the hero’s journey type of element to Nicholas Winton, it’s incredibly inspiring to see and never leaves your head throughout the film.
When the third act comes in that’s where the film’s power comes in, I purposely saved describing Anthony Hopkins performance for last because it’s truly gut punching and absolutely powerful. Anthony Hopkins gives one of my favorite performances so far this year, he plays this honest and heartwarming performance who reflects on the events of Winton’s early life. Every single moment of Hopkins’s performance especially during the third act comes off as honest, it’s absolutely beautiful and will make you cry.
The third act has some of the children (who are now grown up) that Nicholas Winton saved meet with a now elderly Nicholas Winton to meet him. All of this takes place during a tv show called That’s Life. This is some of the film’s most powerful moments and it all comes down to the acting, between Anthony Hopkins’s quiet performance during this scene, to the absolute raw reveal and Hopkins tears. It’s truly some of the most beautiful and powerful moments from a film so far this year.
Overall One Life is a beautiful film, sure the first two acts might not be the absolute strongest but between the third act, performances and the great use of switching in time. It more than makes up for its flaws.
Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., dedicates his life to the quest for racial equality, human rights and worldwide democracy. However, as an openly gay Black man, he is all but erased from the civil rights movement he helped build.
Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe who previously directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). Rustin is a biopic of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the movie film also tells the true story of Rustin helping Martin Luther King Jr. and others organize the 1963 March On Washington.
What completely sells Rustin comes down to the performance and the impact they leave on the viewer, Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin is the clear standout and it’s honestly not even close. Domingo gives such a powerful and transformative performance where he completely turns into Bayard Rustin, between his actions and matching Bayard Rustin’s voice. There’s so much to Domingo’s performance that is truly incredible, the movie itself also goes for this old-fashioned prestige biopic framework that really matches what Domingo is going for here. George C. Wolfe much like in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) he does an excellent job of giving the cast extra power to their roles and moving each scene a long at a solid pace.
The rest of the cast are quite solid such as Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King Jr. the interactions between Ameen and Domingo are truly some of the absolute best moments of the film and really go to show just how important this March really was. There’s joy in seeing a large community come together at a huge scale and stand together.
The dialogue is a huge part where the movie shines, while at times there are some familiar biopic beats with the dialogue, for most of the film it focuses on wanting the viewer to feel the film’s strength. Whether that be through Colman Domingo interacting with the other actors and actresses in the film, or if it’s the film’s focus on standing together and power. George C. Wolfe directs the film in such a powerful and respectful way that makes the film all the more honest and show’s that Wolfe clearly has a lot of passion about the topic.
Rustin’s main flaw is falling a bit too safe with it’s politics, which if you know the true story of Bayard Rustin you will recognize that immediately, unfortunately Rustin does play it a bit safe when it comes to biopics and can feel a bit too traditional at times. But what makes the film work is the overall approach, where the film might not be saying or doing anything particularly new. But between the cast, Colman Domingo’s powerful performance and the direction from George C. Wolfe there is so much here to absolutely love.
In the 1920s, members of the Osage Native American tribe of Osage County, Oklahoma, are murdered after oil is found on their land, and the FBI decides to investigate.
Killers Of The Flower Moon is based on the 2017 Book of the same name, which is also based on the series of Oklahoma Murders in the Osage nation during the 1920s which were committed after oil was discovered on tribal land.
It goes without saying that Martin Scorsese is truly an incredible filmmaker, each of his films always brings something quite interesting to the table. Whether it be how the viewer looks at films in different ways, the way he discusses characters, different ways of telling stories. It’s always exciting to see what he is going to do next.
Killers Of The Flower Moon establishes it’s atmosphere almost immediately with the introduction to some of the characters such as Ernest Buckhart played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Ernest’s uncle William King Hale played by Robert De Niro. Right off the bat DiCaprio and De Niro absolutely nail down their roles, both of them work incredibly well together and they are quite different from the usual horrendous people that Scorsese has in his films. Scorsese instead has Ernest and William King Hale come off as people you would actually trust at first when in reality they are downright horrendous people that the film makes sure you know they are terrible.
Some people may see this as the film trying to get you to sympathize with Ernest when that’s not the case at all. Portraying Ernest or William King Hale as cartoon mustache twirling antagonists would be a complete disservice to the story being told (heck it would be a disservice to the real events that happened), the Osage trusted William King Hale and naturally trusted Ernest since his uncle is Hale. There’s a lot of betrayal in this story that is absolutely gut wrenching that makes the viewer so angry and it absolutely works.
When Lily Gladstone enters the film that’s when we get one of the best performances of the year, there is so much that could be said about Gladstone’s performance that you could write a 20 page paper about it. There’s so much heart, passion and many other emotions put into the performance that really elevates Lily Gladstone, it’s a heartbreaking performance that has tons of quiet moments and moments that are incredibly raw. Lily Gladstone plays Mollie who eventually marries Ernest and what follows is incredibly heartbreaking moments that only progressively get more and more disturbing as the film goes on. One scene in particular towards the film’s final moments alone makes Gladstone the absolute best performance of the film.
The rest of the cast are also phenomenal, part of what makes Scorsese’s films so exciting is his focus on side characters, even if some characters appear for about 5-10 minutes they are still a very integral part to the film. Killers Of The Flower Moon is no exception from Anna Brown (played by Cara Jade Myers) who gives such a powerful performance, Tommy Schulz who plays Blackie Thompson who gives such a fantastic performance especially during the last half of the film, Tantoo Cardinal who plays Lizzie Q, Mollie’s mother gives a very heartbreaking performance. Brendan Fraser has a few lines that he absolutely nails down in such a unexpected but raw way, Jesse Plemons who completely steals a lot of the major scenes he’s in, his performance really goes to show just how much he is one of the best working actors. His scenes with DiCaprio are some of the absolute highlights! There’s so many other performances that are fascinating, one thing these performances all have in common is they each bring something truly special to the film.
The writing is masterfully done, there’s so much carefully put together scenes that end up being so powerful and brutal as well. It’s a tough subject to really tackle but Scorsese does such a fascinating job he isn’t afraid to show the down right cruelty the Osage went through. Most of the violence is not shown which works in the movie’s favor, if anything it makes the whole story much more disturbing. You hear the desperation of the Osage people of wanting to find out who is doing this in the dialogue like it’s some of the film’s best moments as well as most heartbreaking.
I’m not going to spoil the ending since it’s absolutely something that really needs to be seen to get the full impact, but I will say that I was certainly not expecting it. Rather then ending with a traditional black screen that explains what happened to the people in the story, Scorsese goes for something completely different and it truly works. Mainly due to the fact that Ernest and William King Hale or any of the other people who helped them never faced any real justice, it’s a story that truly makes you angry and ending a heartbreaking film the way Scorsese did was just such an incredible note to end it on.
Overall Killers Of The Flower Moon is yet another masterful film from Martin Scorsese it’s a very important film that I highly recommend checking out as soon as you can!
Killers Of The Flower Moon is playing in theaters!
During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.
I saw Oppenheimer back a few weeks ago (July 29th to be exact) it took me a bit to review it because it’s one of those films where it sticks with you after watching it. I’m going to cut right to the chase Oppenheimer is a very powerful film that approaches topic of the nuclear bombs in a much different way than some people would expect.
Before that let’s get into the cast which nobody turns in a bad performance, everyone here does a fantastic job everyone also contributes to the film in their own way. The ones who standout for me are Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett and Tom Conti. Cillian Murphy plays Robert Oppenheimer the inventor of the nuclear bomb, throughout the film we follow Oppenheimer and in a very interesting approach we actually get to go inside his mind. We enter his mind when the bombs reach Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he gets the thoughts of him building a weapon of mass destruction. Thinking of the consequences and what will happen going forward.
This is especially brought up during the final shot of the film and with Tom Conti as Albert Einstein, even if Conti is only in a few scenes, he’s a very important part of the whole film. The scenes with Conti and Murphy together are brutally powerful capturing fear one of the main elements this film does a magnificent job of capturing. The fear comes from making a powerful weapon that could potentially destroy the planet which was actually somewhat of a main concern at the time, this is especially shown during the Trinity Test which was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It’s a very intense scene with powerful sound and incredibly raw acting that really makes you feel like you are right there.
After the nuclear weapons hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer becomes “the father of the atomic bomb” something he regrets as the destruction and mass fatalities haunt him. Oppenheimer tells Harry Truman played by Gary Oldman to restrict further nuclear weapon development which Truman dismisses while also calling Oppenheimer a “crybaby.” This is another part of the fear kicking, the fear of just realizing you created a weapon of massive destruction and it will keep evolving until it could actually destroy the world. Which leads to the ending of Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein together fearing that the weapons one day could lead to a nuclear holocaust.
The way Oppenheimer approaches the bombings is a very interesting one, rather than flat out showing you the destruction it goes with a much more atmospheric and psychological approach. We get glimpses of some of the casualties and damage Oppenheimer’s mind but never enough to take away from the film’s different approach. Instead the bombings are felt through the performances and atmosphere rather than just directly showing it. Oppenheimer has this brutal atmosphere that might not be brutal in the sense that you think of when you hear the word, but much more psychologically.
As far as acting, writing and directing goes everything is incredibly top notch here, Christopher Nolan takes a 3 hour long biopic and creates something truly different than you would expect, it’s a creative and masterful way to approach this subject. As I said at the beginning Oppenheimer sticks with you, perhaps it’s because of the very real message of one day one of these weapons will become so powerful that it will cause a nuclear holocaust, perhaps it’s the very raw performances that are both haunting and grounded or maybe it’s the final scene of Cillian Murphy and Tom Conti leaving the viewer with one of the most powerful scenes of the year. Whatever the case might be what is clear is that Oppenheimer is one of the best films of the year.
The turbulent life of WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden). The writer and soldier was a complex man who survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery but who became a vocal critic of the government’s continuation of the war when he returned from service. His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front, and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London’s literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality. At the same time, broken by the horror of war, he made his life’s journey a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion.
Benediction has a lot of strong parts about it, for starters the acting is very well done from everyone involved Jack Lowden as Siegfried Sassoon was quite fantastic, the end of the film is truly powerful and leaves with a very strong note in hand. The direction from Terrance Davies is very raw and quite powerful as well, the best part about the film is the film’s exploration of Sassoon as a poet and him as a person. Which leads to some quite fascinating moments that truly capture the 1920s during World War I, what mostly helps it feels like Davies’s direction feels a bit personal here. Which isn’t a first time occurrence as he sometimes does put some personal type elements in his autobiographical films, whether that be camera angles that really standout and are up close, parts of the writing that instantly connects the viewer to who the film is about in this case Sassoon, or the very raw acting that completely builds some of the strongest moments in his films. The pacing and the running time do slow the film back a bit, however it isn’t nearly enough to stop this film from being beautifully done and told.
A gang of young women in Brazil try to control everything around them, including other women, by roaming the streets and beating up those they deem too sinful.
There’s definitely a lot going on here thematically with Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa, there’s themes of beauty standards, physical and mental trauma for women and even some Greek mythology or tragedy Included as well. Unfortunately this is the type of movie where those themes aren’t explored all that well, the filming and visuals are at least quite captivating and at times hypnotic as well. There’s some solid acting bits here that give the characters some personality and give them time to shine. The main problem here is the running time it’s 127 minutes long, which you would think would give it more time to explore it’s themes. However it somehow ends up being very surface level at best and drags for the sake of dragging, the writing is nowhere near as strong as the movie thinks it is. It introduces themes, does a little bit with them and then moves on to the next idea. Medusa is definitely not a terrible movie as it is very well made but this is the very definition of style over substance.
An account of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon living in the south of France between 1941 and 1943.
Charlotte definitely has the right ingredients to b a really strong movie, there’s just many parts about it that hold it back from doing so. The voice acting is quite great particularly Keira Knightly who really tries the best she can with the script she’s given, the story itself is interesting and tells the true story of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon during World War II. The film itself is quite dark particularly the ending which is very sad and is very effective, there’s footage at the end of a small interview of Salomon’s parents it’s incredibly touching and quite powerful as well. The problems with the movie are the script being way too weak and the animation, the animation isn’t something I would call terrible. But it really doesn’t capture the life of Charlotte Salomon and what she was going through very well, the script lacked powerful moments which is something a film like this needs. There’s the ending yes but a lot of the movie’s script was very undercooked and was very rushed as well. Charlotte isn’t a bad movie just one that could have went a lot deeper than it did.
Two siblings who run a California horse ranch discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.
Jordan Peele continues to show how he can take the horror genre in several different directions, Nope is Peele’s third film having Get Out and Us under your belt is truly fantastic but how on earth do you top all of that? By creating something that may seem straightforward at first but is quite expensive and massive when you get into it. For starters the cast here are brilliant, Daniel Kaluuya is once again fantastic here and is a absolute powerhouse of an actor as usual, the exact same can be said for Keke Palmer. I believe I have said this before in one review but it needs to be said again, whatever role Palmer is in she always ends up delivering a fascinating performance and here is no different, in fact I would go far as to say this is her best performance yet. Steven Yeun is also quite great here even if he isn’t really a major character here, there’s a lot of moments with his character Ricky that are truly some of the best moments in the film and really expand his character. Lastly there’s Brandon Perea and Michael Wincott who are also really great as well, both play really fun characters and are actually quite hilarious as well. Nope is Peele’s biggest film yet it’s a massive film that explores quite a lot from the setting that the film takes place a horse ranch near a theme park in a desert, the atmosphere is masterfully done. It constantly has the viewer looking around for clues as to what’s going to happen, in fact while the movie does of course have a huge script there’s a lot of moments where the filming tells the story. A ton of quiet moments really put the film in the viewer’s mind to digest it all, the score is incredibly booming especially during the final act that really shows just how powerful the score is. Peele also does a fantastic job of combining several different genres and other directors as well as films like Jaws. Such genres include horror, sci-fi, western and thriller it’s not easy combining so many different genres but Peele and everyone involved do it effortlessly. The sci-fi elements are far different than what is usually done with the genre it’s impressive, as far as director styles or director inspirations there’s a huge mix of Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, M.Night Shyamalan, Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter. Spielberg mainly comes from the third act being a huge spectacle and the creature of the film sharing lots of similarities to Jaws. Hitchcock and Carpenter come in with the suspense of the film (some could argue the score is partly Spielberg and Carpenter), Shyamalan comes in with some of the characters and a few of the shots, finally there’s Kubrick who is definitely the cinematography (beautifully done here). But what makes this even better is Peele took each of those genres and directing styles I just mentioned and made every single one of them his own, that is something that is so hard to do. Overall Nope is truly a fantastic film that really reminds me on why I love film so much, it’s such a well done film that will keep you on the edge of your seat! See this film!!
Architect of the Final Solution, Adolf Eichmann, is finally captured and brought to Israel to stand trail for his crimes. Without enough evidence to prosecute him, Police Captain Avner Less is tasked with extracting a confession from the mastermind of the Holocaust.
Orders From Above is a very straightforward film that immediately gets to the point, the whole film is 15 years after World War II Israeli police officer Avnet Less interrogates Adolf Eichmann who was the person who came up with the Holocaust. The film is shot entirely in black and white which adds to the atmosphere to the film, it’s a very raw piece that explains Eichmann’s crimes. As Eichmann constantly denies that he was the mastermind behind the Holocaust, Less keeps pushing him and even showing videos of what he’s done. Richard Cotter who plays Avnet Less and Peter J Donnelly who plays Adolf Eichmann are both fantastic, they give powerful performances and the interrogation conversations are masterfully performed, when Eichmann is shown videos of his crimes (which are actual real videos and photos of Holocaust victims so be warned if you plan on watching this film it does get a bit disturbing), Donnelly truly knocks it out of the park with his performance. The writing is truly powerful with tons of striking moments that grab the viewer’s attention, overall Orders From Above is raw, powerful and disturbing. I highly recommend checking this one out!
Orders From Above is available on all VOD Platforms.
Jerome Reviews... 