Tag: Racism

  • Just Mercy

    Just Mercy

    Reproductive justice. Climate justice. Food justice. Social justice. Append the word “justice” to any other word and you’ve got a ready-made brand platform for niche activism. As cultural forces shape the meaning of words over time, they risk losing their specificity and sharpness. The word “justice” risks dissipating into a partisan nebula. Depending which side…

  • Rashomon

    Rashomon

    We’re back! After taking February off for all things Oscars, Jon and Tim are ready to turn the page on 2018…by talking about a really old movie. Yes, that’s right — 2019 will have to wait. It’s a dumpster fire in movie theaters right now, so we thought we’d travel back in time to 1950…

  • Oscars 2019 – Who Should Win? (Part Two)

    Oscars 2019 – Who Should Win? (Part Two)

    Welcome to part two of our Oscar picks! Here’s part one if you missed it: Oscars 2019 – Who Should Win? (Part One) Remember, these aren’t the movies that will win, these are the movies that should win. Here are our picks for the most coveted categories of the night…   Best Supporting Actress  …

  • If Beale Street Could Talk

    If Beale Street Could Talk

    Barry Jenkins and Damien Chazelle both directed Oscar-nominated movies this year. The last time that happened was in 2017 when Chazelle’s La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner only to be supplanted by the true Best Picture winner — Jenkins’ Moonlight. The debacle was a distraction from what should have been…

  • Take a Giant Step

    Take a Giant Step

    “The truth is the truth and should be spoken at all times,” proclaims Grandma Martin (Estelle Hemsley), from the top of a stairwell, no less. It’s a bold mandate, especially arriving near the beginning, even for a script that boldly chooses some volatile subjects. But Hemsley, who also starred in the Broadway production of the…

  • True/False Film Festival 2018 Day 3

    True/False Film Festival 2018 Day 3

    After a difficult day two at the 2018 True/False Film Festival, there was a sense of lost time I was battling. Having only seen a handful of films in two days, I wondered if that time could be made up in the ensuing two days, busy days though they would be. There was a conflicting…

  • Oscars 2018 – Who Should Win? (Part One)

    Oscars 2018 – Who Should Win? (Part One)

    The 2017 Oscars will be a hard year to top. Not only did the two best movies of the year duke it out for Best Picture, but they were both handed the award in an unprecedented envelope mix-up. Unfortunately for La La Land, Moonlight was the true winner of the evening. But for those of…

  • Mudbound

    Mudbound

    As a child, like many others, I loved to play in the mud. We had a “sandpile” next to our barn that was about 25% sand with the rest dirt, which is to say it was mud as it was in the north shadow of our big, old, red barn. I would spend hours playing…

  • Suburbicon

    Suburbicon

    Suburbicon’s depiction of the 1950’s portrays an iconic American vision beneath the subterfuge of which lie corruption and moral decay. An uneven blend of social commentary and pulp fiction, the film attempts to connect two unrelated narratives by employing the visual motif of a fence that separates the homes of Gardner Lodge and Mr. and…

  • Paris Blues

    Paris Blues

    Paris Blues has many shades, but only one is visible to us: a whole crew wrote and rewrote the script, and in receiving the reports on these various drafts, there is much to mourn. Primarily, Sidney Poitier, “whose story this ought to be,”* dropping to third billing, after Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, cast as…