Some well-meaning films, no matter how big or small in scale or scope, have the undeniable power to reveal truths however biting they may be. Noted Bay Area-based writer-director Boots Riley’s (from the political hip-hop group known as “The Coup”) dark satirical comedy Sorry to Bother You is just such one of those unassuming and…
Set in post World War II Mississippi, Mudbound — based on Hillary Jordan’s Bellwether Prize-winning novel — tells the story of Henry and Laura McAllan, a white farming family, and Hap and Florence Jackson, the black sharecroppers who live on and work their land. Both families have — among other similarities and commonalities — relatives…
First of all, despite the title, The Birth of a Nation, this film is in no way connected to the 1915 silent classic directed by D. W. Griffith. Secondly, I was led to the “Confessions Of Nat Turner” (the real jailhouse interviews in 1831, not the 1967 William Styron novel) from an article in “The…
Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings may be light on characterization and depth, but it is abundant in atmosphere and scene-to-scene, gripping drama. It’s biblical by nature, and although it does not delve as far as some would like into the lives of Moses or Ramses II, it is well-intentioned, thought-provoking and flashy. The CGI,…
The stories in the Bible are some of the best to bring to life on screen and Ridley Scott knows a thing or two about breathing life into pictures of epic proportions. The two meet in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming drama, Exodus: Gods and Kings. It starts as a personal tale involving the division of…
Paul W.S. Anderson might just be the very avatar of filmmaking mediocrity. Starting with the legendarily bad “Mortal Kombat” adaptation and working his way up a bit from there, he’s made a living off churning out genre films not awful enough to be memorable, but just bad in enough noticeable, glaring ways to make for…
If I didn’t read otherwise, I’d swear Roland Emmerich was the director behind FilmDistrict’s upcoming film Pompeii. Why? Well because it’s got his trademarks all over it, including his oft-criticized, over-the-top, CGIed-to-death disaster sequence. Apparently, however, Paul W.S. Anderson, director of such bombastic outings like “Resident Evil: Retribution” and “The Three Musketeers” asked to borrow…
