One Night In Miami (2020)

One Night in Miami is a fictional account of one incredible night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the civil rights movement and cultural upheaval of the 60s.

One Night In Miami is one of the most powerful films of 2020, Regina King absolutely nails it with her directional debut! The idea of having four different black icons (Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke) telling their thoughts on topics such as civil rights movement, the black community and much more makes a very interesting concept that results in a flawless execution. Although One Night In Miami is a fictional account, the movie still feels extremely raw and very believable as well, it stays as grounded as possible throughout its running time. The acting here is truly amazing Kingsley Ben-Adir kills it as Malcolm X (he deserves an Oscar nomination) he captures the spirit of him quite well to the point where you are at loss for words. Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge and Leslie Odom Jr also do a fantastic job in their roles as well. Each of them bring their talents and something unique to the table and completely deliver, the writing is masterful there’s no other way to put it. There’s tons of powerful moments here that really stick with you, One Night In Miami gets even stronger when all four have a discussion with each other. Sharing their agreements, disagreements and topics they feel neutral on, it really explores who they are and what they ultimately think about the topic. The four sharing very different viewpoints and ideas is truly fascinating, One Night In Miami is truly a fascinating film that I absolutely recommend! It’s truly one of the best films of 2020 and one of the most powerful! I truly hope this gets some Oscar nominations.

10/10 A+

2020 Movie Catchup: Herself (2020) and Fatale (2020)

This is the story of young mother Sandra who escapes her abusive husband and fights back against a broken housing system. She sets out to build her own home and in the process rebuilds her life and re-discovers herself.

Herself is a slight disappointment when it comes to telling a story, however that’s not to say it shines in other areas because it really does. As far as character building it does a really great job of giving a ton of character development to Clare Dune’s character Sandra, you as the viewer start feeling towards her character it’s beautifully done. Speaking of Clare Dune she’s another highlight of the movie, she really delivers in her role and gives a raw performance that reaches to the viewer. The last scene is also quite great, it’s a great way to wrap up the film! The rest of the movie left a bit more to be desired, as I said earlier it does disappoint when it comes to telling a story, it feels like a bit of a mess at times and has so many different ideas that it can’t focus on a few of them. It’s at its best when it focuses on characters rather then the story itself. With that said it is a solid film that I do recommend checking out!

7/10 B

After a one-night stand, a successful married man finds himself entangled in a cunning police detective’s latest investigation.

It’s amazing to me how Deon Taylor is still finding work, he’s the director of Chainletter, Meet The Blacks, Traffik and The Intruder (all are terrible) long story short this is another Fatal Attraction clone, just like The Perfect Guy, No Good Deed, The Boy Next Door, When The Bough Breaks and several others. Only this one throws in a few extra ideas that I guess is a little different. But that’s really not saying much because the movie itself is still terrible. Hillary Swank and Michael Ealy try their best with a script that’s very poor, the movie tried to throw in several different twists that just didn’t work at all, a lot of them were very predictable and the others just felt out of place. The ending definitely felt like the writers ran out of ideas and quickly just came up with something hoping it sticks. I say this every time I review these types of movies but what else do you want me to say? It’s exactly some of the movies I previously mentioned with a few extra ideas thrown in. The best compliment I can give this movie is that it could have been a whole lot worse.

3/10 D-

Most Anticipated Films Of January 2021!

Those of you who have followed me or have known me for awhile know that I used to do these types of lists quite a lot! Unfortunately yesterday got completely messed up with everything getting delayed or just refusing to come out I had to stop the lists for awhile. Luckily this year I can finally continue!! So here is what to look forward to this month!

The second part of the Euphoria special is my most anticipated, I absolutely loved the first part and I seriously can’t wait to see what they do next with it! There’s a few award season films coming out this month such as Pieces Of Woman, One Night In Miami, and MLK/FBI. All of which I hear are really good! The Euphoria second special premiers January 24th, Pieces Of Woman streams on Netflix January 7th, MLK/FBI goes on VOD January 15th and One Night In Miami goes on Amazon Prime Video January 15th

HBO Max’s first film of the Warner Bros 2021 deal is this month which is The Little Things, which looks incredibly solid and has a lot of potential to be quite interesting! The Little Things premiers on HBO Max January 29th

Surprisingly the Wrong Turn franchise returns with a reboot, but is one night only on January 26th!

Rest of the films and their release dates

The Reason I Jump – January 8th (Virtual)

Herself – January 8th (Amazon Prime Video)

#Like – January 8th (Virtual) also January 26th (VOD)

Hunted – January 14th (Shudder)

Downfalls High – January 15th (VOD)

Our Friend – January 22nd (VOD)

PG: Psycho Goreman – January 22nd (VOD)

Penguin Bloom – January 27th (VOD or Netflix) it’s kind of unclear.

Supernova – January 29th (Theater)

The Night January 29th (VOD)

Palmer – January 29th (Apple TV+)

The Dig – January 29th (Netflix)

Sylvie’s Love, We Can Be Heroes, Death to 2020 (2020)

A woman working at her father’s record store in Harlem in the late 1950s meets an aspiring saxophone player.

Sylvie’s Love could have certainly tried to play a little less safe, but the film itself is still quite great. It’s a throwback to classic romance movies, what stands out about the film are a couple different things, the performances from Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha are both fantastic, both give raw performances that lead to several beautiful moments in the film. The film also feels like a time warp back into the 50s. from the scenery and the feel of the movie it’s all there. It’s a genuine love story that truly is beautiful. Sure it may not have a lot to it but it’s a simple one that is truly worth checking out!

7/10 B

When alien invaders kidnap Earth’s superheroes, their children must team up and learn to work together if they want to save their parents and the world.

When I heard they were making a Sharkboy and Lavagirl sequel I refused to believe that the movie would actually happen, well turns out it did happen and sort of came out unexpected too! It’s no surprise that the movie itself isn’t good but I will say, that this is completely harmless for kids. I can definitely see kids loving this movie to death the way many kids loved Sharkboy and Lavagirl. There’s a few jokes in here that do work and Pedro Pascal saves the movie with a entertaining role, the jokes that do work end up being the ones that poke fun of the superhero genre, besides that everything else is just sort of there. I’ll give the movie credit it was a lot better then I expected and it’s definitely better than Sharkboy and Lavagirl however I don’t think it’s going to be as memorable due to the movie being very below average. It’s fine for kids not so much for adults.

5/10 C

As the year we all want to end finally does, take a look back at 2020’s mad glory in this comedic retrospective from the creators of “Black Mirror”

Death to 2020 really does not have much going for it. It’s basically a summary of what happened during 2020 with Samuel L. Jackson (by far the best part about it) and a few others making commentary. There’s some jokes here that work, where I found myself laughing at them. But then there’s the moments where it’s trying way to hard to feel relatable and try to become some sort of meme. It’s a fantastic idea in concept and I truly do think something like this can work. Death to 2020 just wasn’t that movie, it really does not have much in it and overall feels very empty, you are pretty much left with a very below average mockumentary that doesn’t offer that much.

5/10 C

I’m Your Woman (2020)

In this 1970s set crime drama, a woman is forced to go on the run after her husband betrays his partners, sending her and her baby on a dangerous journey.

I’m Your Woman definitely has it’s highlights and then it’s downsides, the cast and the filming are easily some of the best things about this movie. Rachel Brosnahan does a fantastic job in her role as well as Marsha Stephanie, the filming gives this movie sort of a POV type feel like we are being put into Jean’s (Rachel Brosnahan) mind. Which is pretty interesting and leads to some pretty great scenes, the problem however is the pacing feels incredibly uneven. Once I’m Your Woman hits the middle of the film it just comes to a stop, the middle drags on for quite sometime which ultimately does hurt the movie. It’s not that the middle of the film is bad it’s just not as interesting as the other sections of the film. I’m Your Woman does end on a high note with some well put together scenes that do standout. I do wish I’m Your Woman took a few more risks but for what the movie is it’s worth a watch.

7/10 B

Alex Wheatle (2020)

Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole), from a young boy through his early adult years. Having spent his childhood in a mostly white institutional care home with no love or family, he finally finds not only a sense of community for the first time in Brixton, but his identity and ability to grow his passion for music and DJ’ing. When he is thrown in prison during the Brixton Uprising of 1981, he confronts his past and sees a path to healing.

Alex Wheatle is the fourth of the five part series of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe Series…and it’s hands down the weakest. The story itself is interesting and it’s based off of a true story, the problem is the movie itself really isn’t as powerful as the other movies in the series. The acting from Sheyi Cole is really strong and everyone else in the film does a fantastic job as well. Which ultimately does help Alex Wheatle stand, one of the major issues is the fact the film is way too short. It has a runtime of 66 minutes which is barely enough time to really do anything really special, especially if you are going for a topic like the true story of Alex Wheatle. Lovers Rock got away with using s small runtime of 70 minutes mostly do to it’s story being more expansive, it wasn’t about a particular person. So it could really expand on anything it wanted, plus a shorter runtime definitely helped that movie out. Here the shorter runtime just doesn’t work for Alex Wheatle, while yes it is a very decent movie that I still recommend watching it is just nowhere near as good as the previous three movies in the series.

6/10 C+

Sound of Metal (2020)

A heavy-metal drummer’s life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing.

Sound Of Metal is truly eye opening it really shows how much we take for granted in this case with hearing, losing your sense to hear is truly devastating it’s something that can truly make your life much harder especially when your at a very young age such as the main protagonist, Riz Ahmed plays Ruben a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing and slowly realizes how much his life is changing since he lost his hearing, first off I really think it’s incredible that Riz Ahmed was taught sign language from people who are experts at it, I truly find that beautiful. Plus the film also casts actual deaf actors and actresses in the film as well! Olivia Cooke and Paul Raci are both fantastic in the supporting roles I’ve been a huge fan of Cooke for awhile now and I truly hope this lands her a best supporting actress role. Riz Ahmed is truly something special, every single moment he’s on screen he does a fantastic job, he gives one of the most raw and emotional performances of the year and should be a lock for a best actor nomination. Something that absolutely needs to be mentioned is the audio there’s tons of moments when there’s muffled audio, complete silence, the audio being extremely loud and more. It gives the viewer a POV of being what it’s like to be going deaf and slowly losing your hearing. It makes the film realistic as possible and at the same time scares the viewer. The filming is absolutely beautiful, it goes for this realistic style that is just captivating and some of the most beautiful filming of the year. The film shows how losing something you truly need for a career or for basic interaction can go away and how much harder your life can be. We often take these things for granted, I spent days thinking how powerful Sound Of Metal really is, it’s something that absolutely everybody must see. Hands down one of if not the best film of the year!

10/10 A+

Red, White and Blue (2020)

Spotlights the true story of Leroy Logan, who at a young age saw his father assaulted by two policemen, motivating him to join the Metropolitan Police and change their racist attitudes from within.

Red, White and Blue is the third of five films in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, It might be the weakest so far of the series but that doesn’t really mean anything when all the films so far have been incredible. John Boyega gives his best performance of his career so far, he really does a fantastic job of really diving into Leroy Logan. The film itself is incredible from the acting and writing to showing tons and tons of corruption, that’s one thing I do find very interesting Mangrove focused on the court, Red, White and Blue focuses on inside the police department and shows the corruption and racism. The writing feels incredibly raw and shows that not really much has changed at all, I do feel the film does kind of rush towards the end. But even then the message is loud and clear, Steve McQueen as always hits it out of the park when it comes to getting the messages and topics across and here is no exception. As I said it might not be as good as Mangrove and Lovers Rock but it’s still one of the best of the year.

8/10 B+

Lovers Rock (2020)

A single evening at a house party in 1980s West London sets the scene, developing intertwined relationships against a background of violence, romance and music.

Lovers Rock is the second of the five parts of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” series, Lovers Rock is one of the most beautiful films of the year! There’s so much to absolutely love about this film, first off the acting is perfect Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn Michael Ward’s chemistry is quite honestly some of the best I’ve seen in a film this year. It’s raw, emotional and just downright beautiful. In fact that’s the best word to describe this film beautiful, it goes above and beyond to show how beautiful the setting, filming, the writing and so on are. The music is another key factor for this movie, it brings so much emotion and a lot of fun to the movie! The music also tells a lot of the story which I absolutely love, I really haven’t seen a film do that like Lovers Rock in a very long time. All of this is done in just 70 minutes, those 70 minutes are some of the most compelling it truly delivers on every single level! Overall Lovers Rock is something that must be seen, please give this a watch if you haven’t already!

10/10 A+

Uncle Frank (2020)

In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch’s funeral, they’re unexpectedly joined by Frank’s lover Walid.

Uncle Frank is another film from Sundance I was very excited about watching, it’s definitely going to be one of those movies where it doesn’t get anywhere near the amount of attention that it deserves. Uncle Frank shows the reality of being gay in the south especially back then, Paul Bettany and Peter Macdissi both have beautiful chemistry, you believe their relationship and really care about their characters. The acting all around was really solid combined with the writing there were some incredibly powerful moments, especially the final act when events turn into some really powerful moments and emotions are high. Alan Ball’s direction is also spot on, the build up towards the final act is fantastic. Which is mostly due to the steady pacing of the film, overall Uncle Frank is pretty fantastic and definitely something I recommend giving a look!

8/10 B+