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Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againPart 1: Early Cinema (Micheaux & 1920s)
Part 2: Civil Rights and New Black Nationalism (1950s -1960s) Part 3: Revolution and Blaxploitation (1970s)
Part 4: Nu Black Awareness and Planet Rock (1980s - 1990s)
Part 5: Urban Wasteland and Social Discourse (1990s - 2000)
Part 6: Millennial Black Cinema (2000s)
Part 7: 2012 Nu Blak Image (2012 - 2014)
Part 8: BLERDS in Paradise (2010s)
Final Chapter: The Next Generation
Reviews
Yakhanyeongung (2022)
Best K-Drama of 2022
The headline says it all --- the themes of this show are long overdue in its portrayal of the S. Korean HS life. Its the best show I've seen all year. Based on a Webtoon comic, Weak Hero is a unique take on the coming of age fighter tale as Yeon Si Eun uses his intellect and unbridled rage to fight and defend those who feel weak under the rules of society thus fall victim. Never has it been a clearer example of hurt people create more hurt people than in this incredible adaptation. Definitely a must watch for fans of South Korean Webtoon manhwas like Study Group, To Not Die and Viral Hit just to name a few.
Watchmen (2019)
Interesting Examination in the Juxtaposition of Heroes
I've been avoiding watching this series since I am a stan of Alan Moore's beloved comic but after binge watching this I have to say I was surprised. HBO's Watchmen is a very good series but it is not Watchmen, what I went in expecting was anything related to Moore's comic and what I got was an interesting fantastical deconstruction of American history, law enforcement and policing as well as systemic racism. I think HBO was trying to thread the needle between officers and heroes/ race and politics but this wasn't the material to do that with. Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero myth that we see from Marvel and DC, not a commentary on police which this was. It was interesting but its not Watchmen.
True Detective: Omega Station (2015)
A Disappointing Entry in a Modern Neo Noir Classic
When I heard the second season of TD was coming, I was totally obsessed. I racked my brain about who could pick up the mighty gauntlet of Fukunaga's dark and eerie yet powerful direction but what I got was something completely....different.
Its like fantasizing about a delicious Wendy's Baconator and pulling out the drive thru with sad Jr. Bacon, its still a bacon cheeseburger in its most simplest form but it isn't what you ordered. That's what I feel about this season, in its premiere episode all the groundwork was laid for something that could've been great but as every week passed it just got more stupid and convoluted with edgy nonsensical dialogue paired with a non-existent plot. I mean really what was this all about?
The hype bulldozed the material as grandiose ideas of a fictional city became the centerpiece of the show which was totally unnecessary. Kitsch, Farrell and Adams do some of their best acting but its nowhere near Harrelson and Mcconaughey's level. Vaughn is completely bat$*% and not needed at all. From new age cults, sex parties, corruption, EPA violations, Mexico drug cartels, abuse of women in various forms -- where is our story? At times I could see something "cool" there, like the weird Twin Peaks "black lodge" divey bar that Farrell and Vaughn opened the show with in a few episodes while other times it totally missed the mark.
I wont dishonor the glorious memory of the previous season by even referring to this as True Detective season 2, I look at it more like a spin-off ala Law and Order as True Detective: L.A Nights.
To sum it up, True Detective S2 works way too hard on its characters versus its plot.
If I wrote it I would've wanted to see a sexually motivated murder with classic crime motifs like the Black Dahlia that takes a worn city detective and a young paparazzi on a journey into the seedy underbelly of the entertainment industry. Incriminating photos, social media, Young Hollywood, TMZ, sex tape, scandal, dark characters, any of this would have been more interesting.
I was looking for Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights meets Mulholland Drive with touches of James Elroy and Coppola's musing of Hollywood ala Bling Ring.
This should have been like Nightcrawler, Drive, or modern L.A Confidential instead I got a over testosterone interpretation of classic film noir with monologues about bullshit, paternity tests and to be honest I dunno what else.
Also, WTF was with that piñata rooster mask? Seriously.
InAPPropriate Comedy (2013)
What the F**K!? Who told Sham Wow that he's a director
Y'know what...I don't know who told Vince Offer that a camera and Final Cut Pro makes you a director but someone needs to check Vince immediately. You have to love Hollywood, its the only place where a guy who sells Dollar Tree washcloths on paid advertising time when everyone is unconscious can become a director with film financing and US domestic distribution for a film that has the production values of a studio but the story development of junior high creative writing assignment. I've seen kids with YouTube channels who have better narrative structure than this piece of sh*t. The fact Vince Offer got any of this and award winning directors can't even get green-lit is mind boggling. Anybody who values their job security would have not appear in this terrible 80 min expensive YouTube skit. And Adrien Brody? WTF. Why are you here? You don't see Daniel Day Lewis doing National Lampoons? Y'know why? Because its beneath him...obviously not for you. So when Fingerhut is looking for a spokesman, they'll know exactly who to call. The hatred of this movie is so immediate and I am only 30 minutes in, its offensive and stupid without reference and social commentary. That Blackass segment, misspelled ethnic names...'Eh Vince, social commentary is to educated not further discrimination jackass.
The Act of Killing (2012)
A Mind Boggling View of Human Nature and the "Act" of Killing
Every once in awhile comes a film that leaves you more confused about the world before you began watching it. The Act of Killing is definitely that film. After just finish watching this unsettling documentary it calls to mind a quote from horror icon Tom Savini "The human mind is more capable of creating hideous horrors than anything I could ever make"... and rightly so. In this boundary pushing film, Joshua Oppenheimer really puts the method of in the "eye of the beholder" literally to work in allowing Indonesian executioners to recreate their crimes in the mass killing of supposed "communist" in which ever film genre they see fit.
That premise alone is shocking enough.
As we follow Oppenheimer and his film crew into the disturbed and insensitive mind of these killers, you can't help but be completely jarred by how candid and nonchalant they are in revealing their sins to the camera. Some of their statements were so sicken, I'm not even going to quote them particularly in reference to the Pacisilia village massacre scene. From the theatrical numbers, cross dressing, film noir torture sequences and Westernized ideals of power coupled with delusions of grandeur and insanity.
The Act of Killing boldly asks the questions that people for decades have ponder since the atrocities of the Holocaust, Nanking Massacre and the Khmer Rouge. Though its not completely answered, it does prove that some individuals can rationalize anything.
Anything.
Death Note: Desu nôto (2006)
If you put a YA Novel in a Blender with Seven and Silence of The Lambs, this would be it.....
This sh*t was mind blowing. Period. I watched Death Note in 48 hrs that's how intense this show is. I've always held anime on another level to Western TV series and Cable hour-longs but Death Note is a complex series because its the only anime besides Monster that can hold its own to some of most brilliant television shows ever written.
Death Note follows the arrogant yet charismatic Light Yagami, who in my opinion is one of the best written and created teenage characters in history. If you take Ted Bundy and give him Spacey's complex from Seven along with the good looks of a Japanese Robert Patterson you get Light. He is a piece of work if there ever was one. Determined to create a world in his own image, he goes on one of the most intense and complex modern reigns of terror the world has ever seen. But his reign soon becomes challenged by one of the most unique characters of all time, L, a Japanese crime profiler who makes Warhol look like the picture of etiquette. Eccentric and straight to the point, he is focused and infatuate with capturing the allusive "Kira" and bringing him to justice. The moves and power plays in this show are mind boggling and jaw dropping to say the least. But Death Note is the quintessential series because regardless of its medium: anime, animation whatever. Its the best thing you've haven't watched!
Taken 2 (2012)
Taken 2 or What I like to call Liam Neeson's Rosetta Stone of A** Whopping
Taken 2 is a satisfying sequel to the original Taken film, though this time around feels more Bourne Identity driven in global turmoil and adrenaline action sequences than the international espionage aspect and human trafficking of the first film. This is a theme that I did miss in this return to the franchise but the film clearly makes up for it in the form of high speed chases and heart racing suspense. Taken 2 still does hold on to the themes of a father/daughter bonding in the midst of total insanity and constant assassination attempts but to me it wouldn't be a Taken film without it. The film expands on the previous plot of the first film and wraps it up by the end of this one while delving into more background about the enemy and characters surrounding it.
Overall Taken 2 doesn't bring anything new to the series but continues to allow Liam Neeson to continue his international campaign of badassery to those who would even attempt to ruin his vacation and/or abduct his family members. Another volume in Liam Neeson's international guide of global a**kicking!
Super (2010)
One of the Best Movies of the Year!
Super is James Gunn's follow up to his crazy sick sci-fi flick Slither, which automatically made me a fan.In this film Super, Gunn is up to his same tricks when we meet Frank, a socially awkward guy who's wife leaves him out of the blue one day. Frank convinced "blindly" that she was kidnapped, takes on his super hero persona of the Crimson Bolt.He's out of his league at first, but perfects his own style of justice in Gunn's typical comedic gory style.But I think the highlight of this film is in the crazy performance of Ellen Page as Libby, a hyper-active crazy comic book store employee who joins Frank in his delusional holy war against crime as Boltie.At first going into this movie, I was expecting the typical jokes that I loved in his first film but came out with something much more. Super starts off as a wacky misadventure for Frank only further pushed by Libby, then in the final showdown it up and changes on you into a pretty sweet action flick with a almost sugary sweet emotional ending - I know that sounds crazy but this is one of the best movies this year I've seen, combining all the elements of genres to make a really authentic piece.