Category: <span>Movie Reviews</span>

Summary Crooklyn is the story of a girl, Troy Carmichael, who is growing up in Brooklyn, the only girl in a family with four brothers. Troy falls somewhere in the…

Movie Reviews

“LA 92” is a 2017 documentary about the racial tensions that erupted into riots in Los Angeles in 1992. At the core of the unrest was the acquittal of four White police officers who had been caught on video savagely beating a Black man, Rodney King. The relatively light sentencing of a shopkeeper who shot and killed an unarmed Black girl who she thought was stealing also contributed to the unrest. The documentary explains these two contributing events but also explores the city’s decades long history of discrimination and ill-treatment of its Black population.

Movie Reviews

“Respect” is a 2021 film starring Jennifer Hudson as she portrays Aretha Franklin in a biopic about the life and career of the iconic singer and musician. The film features quite a number of big names but underperformed at the box office in part due to having its release thrown off to some degree by the COVID pandemic. But the film itself is also part of the problem in that it had great potential but suffered by some problematic casting and structural issues. It’s a missed opportunity as even with the film’s shortcomings there is a glimmer of what could have been in Jennifer Hudson’s performance.

Movie Reviews

“Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” is a 2019 documentary about the life and literary career of Toni Morrison. On a personal level the documentary follows Morrison’s life from her childhood in Lorain, Ohio to her impactful career as a visionary editor working at a major publishing company in New York City. But tying it all together are the stories of the inspiration behind her legendary novels and the importance of her transformative writing style.

Movie Reviews

“Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” is the first feature documentary about the life and legacy of Maya Angelou. Having began her creative career as a singer and dancer, Angelou later rose to to higher prominence as a poet and writer. Her illustrious career as a memoirist began with the classic “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. The Peabody Award winning documentary serves as a visual accompaniment to her collection of memoirs by telling the story of Angelou’s life with her voice and through photographs and video clips.

Movie Reviews