Revealing Biopic Examines Roots and Rise of World-Class Williams Sisters

Venus & Serena

In Theaters: May 10, 2013 Limited
On DVD: Jul 1, 2013

Rated: PG-13,
Running time: 1 hr. 39 min.
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Documentary, Special Interest
Directed By: Maiken Baird , Michelle Major

Richard Williams was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana where he was left traumatized by having a railroad spike driven through his leg for refusing to behave deferentially towards a gang of white racists. Understandably, that experience played a significant role in shaping the youngster into the highly-ambitious and fiercely-overprotective father he would later become.

In fact, well before his daughters Venus and Serena were even born, he hand wrote a 78-page game plan for their lives. Its foundation was laid in childhood, where they would not only be homeschooled but forged into professional tennis players.  Read the full film review

Blue-Collar Beau Meets Bourgie Fiancee’s Family in Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy

Peeples

In Theaters: May 10, 2013 Wide

Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality and drug use)
Running time: 95 minutes
Comedy
Directed By: Tina Gordon Chism
Written By: Tina Gordon Chism

After dating for over a year, Wade Walker (Craig Robinson) is head-over-heels in love with his girlfriend, Grace (Kerry Washington). He’s ready to pop the question, and has even purchased a ring, but there’s a slight problem: he still hasn’t met her parents yet.

An amusing, if not exactly original, African-American-oriented variation on Meet the Parents.  Read the full film review

Reformed Gangsta Seeks Redemption in Modern Morality Play

King’s Faith

In Theaters: Apr 26, 2013 Limited

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.
Animation, Comedy, Special Interest
Directed By: Terence Nance
Written By: Terence Nance
Distributor: Variance Films

Brendan King (Crawford Wilson), a kid raised in the foster care system, was sent away at the age of 15 after being caught dealing drugs and running guns as a member of a notorious gang known as Avenue D. Upon parole a few years later, the juvenile offender was released to the custody of Vanessa (Lynn Whitfield) and Mike Stubbs (James McDaniel), a couple still struggling with the loss of their police officer son in a senseless act of violence while he was on duty.

Carefully crafted with Evangelicals in mind, this modern parable will certainly resonate with the faith-based demographic as well as secular individuals interested in an entertaining, wholesome family flick with a sobering message. The cinematic equivalent of a thought-provoking Bible study likely to ignite further discussion about a variety of real-life challenges folks face today.  Read the full film review

Annoying Narration Ruins Jay-Z Produced Romantic Romp

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

In Theaters: Apr 26, 2013 Limited

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.
Animation, Comedy, Special Interest
Directed By: Terence Nance
Written By: Terence Nance
Distributor: Variance Films

When a gangsta rapper like Jay-Z decides to dabble in filmmaking, it only makes sense that the flick might remind you more of his genre of popular music than a typical movie. That’s precisely the case with An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, an unorthodox romance drama produced by the incomparable hip-hop icon.

Written, directed, edited, scored, narrated by and animated by Terrence Nance (How Would You Feel?), the surreal adventure co-stars Renaissance Man Nance opposite Namik Minter as friends in a platonic relationship on the verge of turning venereal. The ambitious, multi-media undertaking not only mixes cartoon and live-action images, but it also walks a fine line between drama and documentary.  Read the full film review

Jackie Robinson Biopic Recounts Historic Breaking of Baseball’s Color Barrier

42

In Theaters: Apr 12, 2013 Wide

Rated PG-13 for PG-13 for epithets, ethnic slurs and mature themes
Running time: 100 minutes
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Drama
Directed By: Brian Helgeland
Written By: Brian Helgeland

From its formation in the late 19th Century until well into the 1940s, Major League Baseball operated in accordance with an unwritten rule that the sport was to remain strictly segregated. The tacit understanding among the owners stipulated that no blacks were to be signed by any clubs, thereby frustrating the aspirations of many African-Americans who dreamed of playing professionally.

In the wake of World War II, however, this untenable state of affairs came to rankle Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), a man who fervently felt that to remain the national pastime, baseball needed to integrate. After all, thousands upon thousands of African-American soldiers were returning home to widespread discrimination based on skin color despite having been willing to die for their country in the conflict overseas.  Read the full film review

Adulteress Wife Shamelessly Violates Vows in Latest Tyler Perry Morality Play

Temptation

In Theaters: Mar 29, 2013 Wide

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexuality and drug use
Running time: 112 minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Drama, Comedy
Directed By: Tyler Perry
Written By: Tyler Perry

I’ll be honest, when I heard that Lionsgate wasn’t screening Temptation for critics, I really expected it to be a dreadful mess. But after entering the theater with very low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the latest morality play from Tyler Perry.

No advance peek meant I had to wait until opening day to see the melodramatic soap opera, which in my case was in a sold-out house with a crowd that was about 90% black and female. As far as what the sisters thought of the picture, all I needed to hear was the chorus of Amen’s and the robust round of applause during the closing credits.  Read the full film review

True Story of Four Aboriginal Girls Who Risked Their Lives Entertaining the Troops during the Vietnam War

The Sapphires (2013)

In Theaters: Mar 22, 2013 Limited

Rated PG-13 for violence, profanity, sexuality, smoking and mature themess
Running time: 98 minutess
Distributor: The Weinstein Companyy
Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Comedyy
Directed By: Wayne Blairr
Written By: Tony Briggs, Keith Thompsonn

As young children, the McCrae sisters, formed a promising singing group with their cousin (Shari Sebbens). But the ensemble barely got off the ground before Kay was seized by the authorities.   You see, the girls were growing up in Australia at a time when the law allowed fair-skinned aborigines to be taken from their mothers and placed with Caucasian families so they could be raised in accordance with the “White Ways.” Consequently, half-caste Kay had virtually no further contact with indigenous culture or any of her relatives over the next decade.  Read the full film review

12 year-old Endures Host of Horrors in Haunting Coming-of-Age Drama

War Witch

In Theaters: Mar 1, 2013 Limited

Drama
Directed By: Kim Nguyen
Written By: Kim Nguyen
Unrated
In French and Lingala with subtitles
Running time: 90 minutes
Distributor: TriBeCa Film

KKomona’s (Rachel Mwanza) life was irreversibly altered at the tender age of 12 when rebel forces led by the Great Tiger (Mizinga Mwinga) rampaged through her tiny African village. The unfortunate girl was forced at gunpoint to kill her own parents (Starlette Mathata and Alex Herabo) before being abducted and brainwashed into joining the cause.  Read the full film review

Senegalese Peasants Set Out for Spain in Seafaring Tale of Survival

The Pirogue

In Theaters: Jan 23, 2013 Limited

Directed By: Moussa Touré
Written By: Éric Névé, David Bouchet
Distributor: ArtMattan Productions
Rated Unrated
Art House & International, Drama
In French with subtitles
Running time: 87 minutes

You might find the title of this movie a little misleading, since to most people a “pierogi” is a puffy Polish delicacy stuffed with potatoes, sauerkraut and ground meat. However, the similar-sounding “pirogue” is also the name of the flat-bottomed, wooden boat used by West African fishermen for centuries.  Read the full film review

Ex-Slave Exacts Vengeance in Tarantino Variation on Spaghetti Western

Django Unchained

In Theaters: Dec 25, 2012 Wide

Western, Drama
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
Written By: Quentin Tarantino
Rated R for profanity, nudity, ethnic slurs and graphic violence
Running time: 165 minutes
Distributor: The Weinstein Company

Hollywood has also promoted a set of stereotypes when it comes to the depictions of black-white race relations during slavery, with classics like The Birth of the Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939) setting the tone. Consequently, most movies have by-and-large suggested that it was a benign institution under which docile African-Americans were well-treated by kindly masters, at least as long as they remained submissive and knew their place.  Read the full film review

Civil Rights Documentary Recounts Landmark Supreme Court Decision on Interracial Marriage

The Loving Story

In Theaters: Dec 10, 2012 Limited

Unrated
Running time: 77 minutes
Distributor: Icarus Films
Documentary
Directed By: Nancy Buirski
Written By: Nancy Buirski, Susie Ruth Powell

Soon after Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving tied the knot in Washington, DC on June 2, 1958, they decided to move back to their tiny hometown of Central Point, Virginia to settle down and start a family. The groom, a bricklayer by trade, even purchased a plot of land where he promised to build his bride a house. Read the full film review

Hero Pilot Participates in Cover-Up in Special F/X-Driven Legal Thriller

Flight

In Theaters: Nov 2, 2012 Wide

Drama
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
Written By: John Gatins
Rated R for drug and alcohol abuse, nudity, sexuality and an intense action sequence.
Running time: 139 minutes
Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Co-pilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty) is at the helm of SouthJet Flight 227 from Orlando to Atlanta only because the plane’s captain, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), has passed out after a night of debauchery devoted to drinking booze and snorting coke while carousing with one of his stewardesses (Nadine Velazquez). But when the commercial airliner unexpectedly encounters severe turbulence and starts losing altitude, the concerned rookie immediately rouses the senior officer out of a deep sleep for assistance. Read the full film review

Halle & Hanks Co-Star in Adaptation of Sci-Fi Best-Seller

Cloud Atlas

In Theaters: Oct 26, 2012 Wide

Rated R for violence, profanity, sexuality, ethnic slurs, nudity and drug use.
Running time: 172 minutes
Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Directed By: Lana Wachowski , Tom Tykwer
Written By: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures

Based on David Mitchell’s groundbreaking novel of the same name, Cloud Atlas offers an intriguing and visually-captivating cinematic experience that’s well worth the investment for its unorthodox narrative alone. Be forewarned, however, that you would be well advised to arrive at the theater already familiar with the cryptic best seller’s inscrutable plot structure, if you hope to have a decent idea about what’s going on.  Read the full film review

Wife Weighs Absentee Hubby’s Worth in Introspective Tale of Female Empowerment

Middle of Nowhere

In Theaters: Oct 12, 2012 Limited

Rated R for profanity.
Running time: 101 minutes
Drama
Directed By: Ava DuVernay
Written By: Ava DuVernay
Distribution: AaFFRM

Middle of Nowhere is a cinematic masterpiece reminiscent of those rare treasures that have managed to capture an authentic slice of African-American life, ala such black classics as Love Jones (1997), The Best Man (1999), The Visit (2000) and Brown Sugar (2002). However, this introspective tale of female empowerment simultaneously touches on a number of universal themes apt to resonate with an audience of any demographic. The picture was written and directed by rising star Ava DuVernay, this year’s winner at the Sundance Film Festival in the Best Director category.The story revolves around Roberta “Ruby” Murray (Emayatzy Corinealdi), a med student who’s on the brink of becoming a doctor when her husband, Derek (Omari Hardwick), is sentenced to 8 years behind bars for a drug conviction.  Read the full film review

Moving Documentary Recounts the Tragic Railroading of 5 New York City Teenagers

The Central Park Five

Writen and Directed by:
Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon
Documentary, Unrated, 119 min

Filming Locations: New York City
Production Compay Florentine Films
Distributors: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS, USA, TV), Sundance Selects (USA, Theatrical), PBS International (Non-USA, all media)

Cast: Angela Black, Calvin O. Butts III Natalie Byfield, David Dinkins, Jim Dwyer, Ronald Gold, LynNell Hancock, Michael Joseph, Saul Kassin, Ed Koch, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Sr., Raymond Santana,

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE tells the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.  Read the full film review.