Anna Cathcart Delivers Spunk and Whimsy to ‘To All The Boys I Loved Before’ Spinoff ‘XO, Kitty’: TV Review

Katherine Song Covey (Anna Cathcart), aka Kitty, is a Gen Z dream. Since she was introduced six years ago in the “To All The Boys I Loved Before” trilogy, the precocious younger sister to Laura Jean (Lana Condor) and Margot (Janel Parrish) has walked to her own beat. Steadfast, determined and slightly nosey, Kitty’s incessant meddling helped connect LJ to her long-term love Peter (Noah Centineo). With the new spinoff TV series, “XO, Kitty,” the youngest Covey sister is stepping into the spotlight and going after the life she feels she deserves, even if that means getting her heart broken in the process. 

Continue reading at Variety.

Nat Geo’s ‘A Small Light’ Is a Profound Take on Anne Frank’s Story: TV Review

The story of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who hid in a cramped attic with her family during the Nazi occupation in Amsterdam, is widely known, and amid the atrocities of the Holocaust, Anne’s diary presents a story of resilience and unrealized dreams. Nat Geo’s new limited series “A Small Light” isn’t Anne’s story, though the precocious teen’s legacy is embedded throughout. The brainchild of former “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunners Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, the series is a tale of resistance, activism and humanity. The narrative centers on one tenacious young woman, Miep Gies, Otto Frank’s secretary, who risked everything to save the Frank family, and countless others.

Continue reading at Variety.

Though the Boiled Bunnies Are Lacking, ‘Fatal Attraction’ Has Intrigue in Spades: TV Review

A curious Anne Archer lifts the lid off of a boiling pot only to discover the body of her young daughter’s mangled and bloated bunny. It’s a film scene that still echoes in the minds of cinephiles and physiological thriller enthusiasts alike. However, unlike the 1987 film starring Archer, Michael Douglas and the incomparable Glenn Close, Paramount+’s new series, “Fatal Attraction,” is void of boiled mammals. What it does have is a more intricately fleshed-out narrative of a pompous and ambitious district attorney Dan Gallagher (Joshua Jackson), whose tawdry affair with a young woman, Alexandra Forrest (Lizzy Caplan), quickly spirals out of his control.

Continue reading at Variety.

Netflix’s ‘Transatlantic’ Leans Into Glossiness Over Realism: TV Review

Piecing together pivotal historical events in a limited series in order to create a compelling narrative is a tall task. However, creator and writer Anna Winger is no stranger to this work. Her 2020 adaptation of Deborah Feldman’s 2012 autobiography, “Unorthodox,” which followed one Jewish woman’s liberation from her Hasidic community, received critical acclaim. With her latest series, “Transatlantic,” an adaptation of Julie Orringer’s novel “The Flight Portfolio,” Winger is again centering real-life figures fighting against oppression. From 1940 to 1941, literary journalist Varian Fry and American heiress Mary Jayne Gold were instrumental in helping pivotal Jewish writers and artists flee France amid the Nazi occupation. However, while Esty Shapiro’s personal journey to freedom in the contemporary setting of “Unorthodox” was sharp and captivating, “Transatlantic” lacks the same sense of urgency and precision.

Continue reading at Variety.

PRAISE THIS DIRECTOR TINA GORDON'S FIVE FAVORITE FILMS

For filmmaker Tina Gordon, bringing vibrant, compelling characters to the big screen has been her life’s work. Before sitting in the director’s chair for her 2013 debut feature Peeples, Gordon penned cult classics like Drumline and ATL. Now with her third feature film, Praise This, she once again puts music at the center of her story.

The story centers on a young woman named Sam (Chloe Bailey), who is uprooted from her life in Los Angles to go and live with her aunt, uncle, and cousin Jess (Anjelika Washington) in Atlanta. Angry, grieving, and determined to follow her dreams of becoming a professional singer, Sam reluctantly finds herself in the competitive world of Atlanta’s gospel praise team choirs. This new focus might be precisely what she needs to heal her spirit.

Ahead of the film’s debut on Peacock, Gordon spoke with Rotten Tomatoes about her Five Favorite Films, bringing Praise This to life, and why musicals have been the foundation of her journey as a filmmaker. “It’s funny doing a musical, because I realized [they were] my gateway into really loving films,” she explained. “They were mainly musicals. And I can’t sing a lick. The character Jess in this movie is me. I don’t know what piano bar I would be wasting my life away at if I could sing even a note, but that’s where I would be.”

Continue reading at Rotten Tomatoes.

HOW A.V. ROCKWELL'S A THOUSAND AND ONE PAYS HOMAGE TO A FORGOTTEN NYC AND ITS MOST VULNERABLE CITIZENS

In her feature debut A Thousand and One, writer-director A.V. Rockwell turns her lens on Inez (Teyana Taylor), a young woman recently released from prison who is determined to reconnect with her 6-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola). A product of the foster care system, Inez desperately wants more for her child, but in a city that moves at a dizzying pace, she has no one to rely on but herself. In a moment of recklessness, she kidnaps Terry from his group home, leaving the streets of Brooklyn for Harlem just as a newly elected Rudy Giuliani steps into the city’s highest office. As much as A Thousand and One is about a mother and a son, it’s also about a version of New York City that no longer exists and the citizens who got lost in the shuffle.

The film debuted at Sundance in January to rave reviews, going on to win the grand jury prize at the festival and earn a Certified Fresh 98% Tomatometer score from critics. Ahead of its release in theaters on March 31, we spoke with Rockwell about how she recreated 1990s New York City and why she chose to tackle subjects like gentrification, colorism, and the foster care system.

Continue reading at Rotten Tomatoes.

10 BLACK WOMEN FILMMAKERS WHO HAVE SHAPED THE CINEMA LANDSCAPE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

From historical dramas to romantic films that display Black love, Black women directors have offered varied narratives to the cinema landscape in the past two decades. These countless contributions center the Black female experience, offering moviegoers a unique perspective into Black womanhood while providing Black women and girls the rare opportunity to see themselves spotlighted on-screen.

Gina-Prince Bythewood ushered in the 21st century with her classic romantic drama Love & Basketball and more recently delivered the commanding and powerful historical drama The Woman King. Meanwhile, Dawn Porter has delivered rousing examinations of conservative attacks on women’s health care and a retrospective on the late Civil Rights activist John Lewis.

Continue reading at Rotten Tomatoes.

DeVon Franklin On 'Jesus Revolution,' Honoring His Gifts And What To Learn From The Moment In History The Film Explores

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, America was changing. Black people were demanding equal rights, women were taking a stand against sexism and inequality, and young people — no longer content to exist in the status quo, were looking for something to believe in. In their new film, Jesus Revolution, co-directors Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle spotlight the true story of Pastor Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammar), and charismatic street-preacher Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie). These men, from varied walks of life, came together to launch a radical faith revolution. 

In the film, DeVon Franklin portrays Josiah, a TIME Magazine reporter initially reluctant to cover The Jesus Movement. Ahead of Jesus Revolution’s theatrical premiere, Shadow and Act spoke with the producer, author and motivational speaker about standing in front of the camera, why this story is so impactful today, and what we can all learn from this exceptional moment in history. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

18 Wonderful Films About Black Girlhood and the Coming-of-Age Experience

For many of us, cinema is an awakening. It is revelatory in that it can showcase what is possible. The moving image acts as a mirror, showing us who we are and giving us glimpses of who we could be. But what happens when you can’t see yourself?

In a 2019 study, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media examined the representation of Black women in Hollywood. The organization determined that while Black girls and women are 6.5 percent of the U.S. population, only 3.7 percent of leads/co-leads in the 100 top-grossing films of the last decade fit that demographic. In short, for Black girls and teens, seeing themselves on screen is still a rarity.

As young women and girls have fought for representation in the cinema landscape for decades, Hollywood has offered up stories of pretty, posh girls like Alicia Silverstone’s Cher in “Clueless” or fierce warriors like Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games” franchise. Like many others, Black teen girls have felt a kinship with these figures, or have seen themselves in Cher’s best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) or the brave young tribute Rue (Amandla Stenberg) whom Katniss befriends.

Continue reading at Indiewire.

Perfectly Imperfect: 6 Layered Black Women Moving TV Forward

Respectability has been a pillar of Black American culture since Emancipation. Since Black people arrived on the shores of America, we have been subjected to hardships and cruelties based solely on our skin color. For centuries we’ve combated horrible stereotypes in our everyday lives and American popular culture. For Black women, in particular, being anything other than docile and likable meant that you could be seen as masculine, mean, overly sexual, asexual, and conniving. These terms were weaponized against Black people by outsiders and insiders like W.E.B Dubois, who touted his talented tenth, the most educated of the race, as the epitome of “good” Blackness and the embattled Bill Cosby with his “perfect” portrayal of the Black family in “The Cosby Show.”

Though respectability has been lauded as a tool for full citizenship in the Black community, it’s a falsehood. More than that, the performance of likability is exhausting. It forces a constant state of people-pleasing, one that often requires self-betrayal. Respectability won’t cause those who cling to their hatred, anti-Blackness, and racism to throw away their long-seated feelings of anger and disgust. It certainly won’t alleviate misogynoir. 

Continue reading at Indiewire.

10 BLACK WOMEN FILMMAKERS WHO SHAPED THE CINEMA LANDSCAPE OF THE 20TH CENTURY

As representation has expanded for Black women in Hollywood, both in front of and behind the camera, it might appear to some that Black women only recently began contributing to the cinema landscape. As we praise prolific directors like Ava DuVernay, Kasi Lemmons, and Gina Prince-Bythewood for their stunning films, which offer varied views of Black womanhood, it might seem as though there was a scarcity of Black women directors who preceded them. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Oscar Micheaux is noted as the most prolific Black American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century. The 1980s and 1990s paved the way for a new generation of Black male filmmakers like Spike Lee, John Singleton, and countless others, gaining the recognition they deserved for their gritty and telling depictions of Black manhood in the inner city. As a result, the contributions of Black women before and during this period have nearly been erased.

Continue reading at Rotten Tomatoes.

'Godfather Of Harlem' Season 3: Forest Whitaker On Embodying Bumpy's Code, Having A New Actor For Malcolm X And More

Harlem stood out like a glittering jewel when America was at war with itself. It became a Mecca for Black people who wanted to live, thrive, and love away from oppressive racism. Harlem was never perfect, but for many decades it was ours. Inspired by the real-life crime boss 

Godfather of Harlem, is an excellent gangster drama that centers on a rapidly changing nation, an expansive Black community, and a man that, for better or worse, held Harlem in his hand. 

Starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker as Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson,, Godfather of Harlem’s third season, will find Bumpy at a crossroads. With his massive shipment of heroin set ablaze amid the July 1964 Harlem riots, Bumpy is out of resources, and as always, the Italian mob is encroaching on his territory. With his reputation, family, and community hanging in the balance, Bumpy will be forced to seek new alliances.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

C.J. 'Fiery' Obasi's 'Mami Wata' Is Visually Profound, Even When The Narrative Falters (Sundance Review)

Nigerian director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi‘s Mami Wata is a festival first for Sundance. The exquisitely shot film, cast in black and white, is the first Nigerian film to debut at the festival. At the center of the film stands Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), a powerful priestess in the village of Iyi who acts as a medium to the water goddess, Mami Wata. 

Across the African diaspora, Mami Wata is known to be a patron of water, money, and beauty. However, in a society where matriarchs have ruled for centuries, Mama Efe no longer has the hold over the villagers she once did. It doesn’t help that her protegees, her daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh), and her second-in-command, Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen), are also having their doubts about Mama Efe’s waning power. Moreover, despite Mama Efe’s interventions, children are dying in the village. However, Efe continues to stall against modern staples like electricity and hospitals, causing the villagers to become increasingly frustrated. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'The Stroll' Review: Is A Beautifully Frank Documentary About Trans Sex Workers and The City Who Tried To Erase Them (Sundance)

There have been several films about the transgender community in New York. Paris Is Burning and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson are just two films that remain topical. However, a Black transwoman is rarely at the helm of these films, turning the lens on herself and history, enabling her to take back her narrative. With The Stroll, actress/ activist Kristen Lovell and her co-director, Zackary Drucker, examine the decade Lovell spent on The Stroll. This was a strip in New York City’s Meatpacking District on 14th street between Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River. From the 1970s until the beginning of the 21st century, transgender sex workers worked, lived, and died on The Stroll until it was paved over and erased. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'Kokomo City' Review: D. Smith's Doc, Which Centers Black Trans Women, Is Refreshingly Frank (Sundance)

Black transgender women are dying at astronomical rates, typically at the hands of Black men. However, no one talks directly to them about their experiences. With her directorial debut Kokomo City, Grammy-nominated producer, singer and songwriter D. Smith is turning her lens on Black trans women. These sex workers, living and working in New York City and Georgia, share stories about their upbringing, aspirations, violence and everything in between. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'Cassandro' Review: Roger Ross Williams' Narrative Feature Debut 'Cassandro' Is Quiet But Lovely (Sundance)

Revered documentarian Roger Ross Williams’ Cassandro is unexpected. It’s a lonely state of being to feel as if you aren’t present in your own life. For Saúl (Gael García Bernal), an amateur libre wrestler living in Juárez, Mexico, life seems to pass him by. When he’s not working at a carwash or helping his mother with her seamstress work, he participates in the low-end libra wrestling scene as El Topo, a faceless runt who consistently loses to the bigger, stronger wrestlers. Exhausted from being his married lover, secret, and dealing with his mother’s quiet resentment due to his father’s abandonment, Saúl begins seeking the life he deserves. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'A Thousand And One' Review: Teyana Taylor In A.V. Rockwell's Stunningly Honest Portrait Of One Woman's Fight To Give Her Son A Better Life (Sundance)

Since times of enslavement, it’s been up to Black women to piece together homes for their children— homes often made out of nothing but full of love. A.V. Rockwell’s profound debut feature, A Thousand and One, centers on 22-year-old Inez (an outstanding Teyana Taylor). Set in the early ’90s, Inez has been recently released from prison and thrust back onto the streets of Brooklyn. Determined to stop the scheming that got her incarcerated, she tries to restore her relationship with her timid 6-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola). After being abandoned on the street corner and pushed into the foster care system, Terry is initially distrustful of his mother. However, after he has an accident in his group home and lands in the hospital, the aspiring hairstylist decides to kidnap her son out of the foster care system, determined to give him the home she never had growing up.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' Review: Raven Jackson's Feature Debut Is A Visual Masterwork With Very Few Answers (Sundance)

Some films aren’t actually films. Instead, they are still portraits that come to life. A homage to Julie Dash’s 1991 film, Daughters of the Dust, Raven Jackson’s deeply textured film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt follows Mack (Kaylee Nicole Johnson and later Charleen McClure), a Black woman growing up in the late 1960s in Mississippi across four decades in her life. Jackson chooses not to orient her film in time or place. Instead, the non-linear feature, with its very sparse dialogue, forces the viewer to piece together Mack’s life experiences for themselves. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'Little Richard: I Am Everything' Demands To Be Seen (Sundance Review)

Society uses labels like Black, queer, disabled, or anything outside the “norm” to cast aside individuals. It’s easy to ignore people perceived as invisible, pushed into the shadows, or hidden away. However, some people burn so brightly that the labeling and the casting aside only make them shine brighter. No matter how society marked him, Richard Wayne Penniman, aka Little Richard, demanded to be witnessed. In her electric documentary, Little Richard: I Am Everything, on the originator of rock n’ roll, Lisa Cortés shines a spotlight on the mesmerizing musician whose complex legacy is infused in the DNA of American popular music. 

Typically when legendary figures are given the documentary treatment, the audience goes in knowing quite a bit about them. But so much of Little Richard‘s legacy had been whitewashed and wallpapered over that every scene felt like peeling back the history of the music industry and American society. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'Earth Mama' Review: Savanah Leaf Examines Motherhood, Shame And Longing In Directorial Debut For A24 (Sundance)

There is so much longing in motherhood. There is a deep yearning for the past and a desire for the future. For Gia (Tia Nomore), a pregnant young mother desperate to get her two older children out of foster care, the pining is nearly unbearable. 

Based on her short film, The Heart Still Hums, Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama follows Gia as she moves through the monotony of her day. She works 15 hours a week at a photo center, attends various court-ordered therapy and parenting courses, and races across town to visit her children for her weekly one-hour supervised visit. Exhaustion, guilt, and the whispers of her addiction weigh heavily on Gia, but her present circumstances seem permanent. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.