Ashley (Storm Reid) and Uncle Jack (David Oyelowo) have a close relationship. Her father, his brother, was once a screw-up. And though his life has mostly been on the straight-and-narrow ever since, Dad still isn’t a reliable phone call away. … Continue reading DON’T LET GO
It’s not easy being a high schooler, let alone a high schooler in a small town. It seems like everyone knows who you are. And if they don’t, then they at least know who your parents are. Sometimes that’s worse. For Haley (McKaley Miller), Andy (Corey Fogelmanis), Chaz (Gianni Paolo), and Darrell (Dante Brown), that means it’s hard to find someone who will buy you booze, and even harder to find a secluded place to drink it. For Maggie (Diana Silvers), it means moving back to your Mom’s hometown and inheriting her baggage. Erica (Juliette Lewis) left Ohio years ago, … Continue reading MA
The story of Us begins in 1986, on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with a young girl, Adelaide Wilson (Madison Curry), and her two parents. Dad’s a little drunk, but he does manage to win her a Thriller t-shirt and buy her a candy apple. Mom’s a little frustrated; this is probably not the first time he’s staggered around in public with herky-jerky foolishness. And, like most children, Adelaide silently watches. She doesn’t know what they are fighting about, but she knows they’re fighting. She’s seen it before, and like any child bored with their parents, she wanders off. First … Continue reading US
How do comic books work? M. Night Shyamalan knows, and he’d really like you to know. Not how comic books work; Shyamalan wants you to know that he knows how comic books work. It’s an important distinction (though I’m not sure why) but whatever it means to him, it’s just one of the many problems hampering his latest, and hopefully final, installment in the Eastrail 177 trilogy: Glass, a movie nineteen years in the making that could’ve benefitted from twenty. Shyamalan’s backdoor trilogy began in 2000, back when comic book franchises were still just a whisper. Hot off the heels … Continue reading GLASS
Get Out opens with a scene that might as well be ripped from a newspaper headlines. Well, maybe it was. Andrew (Lakeith Stanfield), a black man walks alone, at night, along a neighborhood street so quiet, so pleasant, so blandly cookie cutter, it must be a white suburban neighborhood. Andrew talks on his cell phone, trying to locate his friend’s house, when a White Trans Am rolls up on him, pulls a U-turn and slowly follows him. “Not today,” Andrew mutters to himself before doubling back. The scene is taught with racial tension — this is more than a simple … Continue reading GET OUT
