‘Scarlet’ (‘L’Envol’) Never Becomes the Fairytale It Seeks to Be [CANNES REVIEW]

Italian director Pietro Marcello’s French-set film Scarlet (L’Envol) is ambitious. Adapted from Russian writer Alexandre Grin’s 1923 novel Scalet Sails, the film centers on a young woman, Juliette (newcomer Juliette Jouan), through her childhood and into her early adult years. Juliette is raised in the French countryside of Normandy by her father, Raphaël (Raphaël Thiéry), and a caring widow Adeline (Noémie Lvovsky), who houses the father/daughter duo on her farm. Adeline steps into the role of a surrogate mother following the death of Raphaël’s wife.

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

Intense drama and new characters give Power Book II: Ghost a soap opera flair in season 2

Seven years ago, TV viewers were introduced to Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.), the 12-year-old son of drug kingpin James “Ghost” St. Patrick and his ride-or-die wife, Tasha St. Patrick, in Power. Throughout six seasons of the Courtney Kemp-created series, Tariq transformed from a precocious young tween into a grown man whose sinister and calculating demeanor is more like his father’s than he’d ever care to admit. Now in Power Book II: Ghost, which picks up directly after the events of the original series, Tariq is coming into his own.

The first season of the spin-off chronicled Tariq’s life in the days and weeks following his father’s murder. Determined to adhere to the conditions of his father’s will, Tariq enrolled in the prestigious Stansfield University to obtain his degree. However, with his mother on trial for his father’s murder, he found himself following in Ghost’s footsteps as a means of financial freedom.

Continue reading at The A.V. Club.

'Donna: Stronger Than Pretty' Is a Story About Resiliency Told Through a Feminist Lens

Each year, one in three American women experience domestic violence in their intimate partnerships. Within a patriarchal and sexist society, many women have endured this type of violence silently, pressing on and covering their pain and injuries in fear of further escalating the situation with their abusers. Though these stories have been brought to life in movies and TV series prior to the #MeToo movement, we are beginning to see the women at the center of these stories in a new light in the last several years. 

For filmmaker Jaret Martino, showcasing his mother's story has never been more important. Based on his late mother, DonnaMarie Martino, Donna: Stronger Than Pretty is an absorbing and inspiring film about a woman who refused to let the entrapments of sexism, an abusive marriage, or her perceived baggage get in the way of her dreams. 

Often, films centered on domestic abuse open with women in the middle of their abusive relationship, trying to determine the best way to navigate them or find their way out. However, Martino starts from the beginning allowing Donna (Kate Amundsen) to flourish and expand on the screen while enabling the audience to connect with her across the decades and before the abuse begins. Stronger Than Pretty opens in the 1960s. The audience meets a pre-teen Donna, who is clinging on to her dreams of college as her parents' marriage crumbles around her. 

As well all know, life has a way of upending our personal plans. We meet Donna once again in the late '70s as a young single mom. Her dreams have been deferred as she tries to balance the responsibilities of motherhood with her desire to be young and carefree. Therefore, when the handsome and charismatic Nick (Anthony Ficco) comes strolling into her life, it seems like fate. 

By unpacking the slow burn of Donna and Nick's relationship, as well as Nick's initial reverence toward Donna, Martino showcases how abusers gaslight, love bomb and manipulate their partners into feeling safe and comfortable. It's not until after they've eloped that Nick's violate and sinister side comes out through violence and financial abuse. As the years press forward, Donna's desire to get out of her marriage becomes front and center. Amid everything, she never cowers and stands resilient, examining her choices while striving for a better life for herself and her kid even when things appear helpless. 

While Martino grounds the film in various decades, carefully crafting the costuming and the settings, Amundsen never ages, forcing the audience to suspend just a bit of belief. However, the strong acting, tone, and pacing of the narrative aid in an engaging plot as the filmmaker honors his mother and other strong women like her as well as the loved ones and strangers who do their best to support and anchor these women. 

Using his mother's memories and recollections in the script adds to the film's realism and allow for the authenticity to shine through without glamorizing and putting a gratuitous lens on domestic abuse the way that some Hollywood films have done in the past. 

Donna: Stronger Than Pretty is an impactful feminist story about a woman who refused to give up her dreams even when they were nearly stolen from her. 

Donna: Stronger Than Pretty won a series of 2020 Film festival awards and nominated for many more. The film is currently available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.

Questlove's 'Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' Unearths A Crowning Jewel In Black History

Amid our current civil rights movement and a tumultuous year that has brought forth a great deal of struggle and hardship, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has given us a gift. With his directorial debut Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), he has unearthed an aspect of Black history that won’t soon be forgotten. 

The year 1969 was pivotal for Black people. While much of the world was concerned with getting the first man on the moon, the Black community was focused inward, still reeling from a turbulent decade that stole the lives of Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., and countless others. It was the final year of a decade marked by chaos, violence, and determination. It was also the year we shed the word negro and became Black.

Continue reading at ESSENCE.

'Effigy, Poison, and the City' Is a Thrilling Film About Two Women Determined to Break Free of the Shackles Of Their Time

Period pieces are meant to be snapshots of a past time, moments that may have previously been captured by photographs or words that have survived the ages. However, since cinema is a relatively new medium, we must rely on historians and our own understanding of yesteryear to bring these stories to life. Like anything else, some of these stories are more compelling than others, but when done well, they will leave you riveted and wondering. Set in 1828 and based on a true story, filmmaker Udo Flohr's Effigy, Poison, and the City is a gripping film about two very different women caught in the entrapments of a society that has tried to place them both in a box. 

An aspiring lawyer, Cato Bohmer (Elisa Thiemann), settles in the German port city of Bremen as a law assistant to Senator Droste (Christoph Gottschalch). Reluctant to open his criminal court office to a woman, the Senator entrusts Cato with menial work that she is more than overqualified for. Just as she finds her footing in the town and at her new position, whispers about widow Gesche Gottfried (Suzan Anbeh) begin to swirl about. 

Well-loved by the less fortunate and the men of the city, Gesche is called The Angel of Berman for her demure demeanor and because of her constant charity work. However, when she comes swooping through Senator Droste's office with accusations that she's been poisoned, Cato is quickly flagged that everything isn't exactly as it seems. 

As Cato begins to examine Gesche's accusations while retracing her steps, she quickly finds a slew of dead bodies in her wake, including Gesche's late husband, three children, and a handful of would-be suitors, among others. However, with the Senator's mind on the railroad he desperately wants to build in the town and the sexism that clouds his judgment, he and the men in town cannot even begin to wrap their minds around the atrocities that have so obviously occurred at the hands of Gesche. 

A masterclass in manipulation, Effigy is tightly paced with the tension between Cato and Gesche — who seems to recognize that the law assistant is on to her -- is masterful. There have been numerous accounts of women from the 19th century and before who have shocked the world by being at the helm of horrific crimes. However, because women were shoved in tight boxes and forced to live lives they may have had little interest in, they weren't often suspected, at least not right away. It's obvious from the beginning that Gesche's is drawn to Cato, a university-educated woman who has never had to deal with the unwanted burden of marriage or motherhood. Gesche had no choice in the matter, but she also found a way out, however heinous it might be. What she does not expect is her inability to manipulate Cato. 

Cato is equally fascinated by the criminally minded woman. Though she's disgusted by her behavior, she quickly discerns that The Angel of Berman is actually the Angel of Death. She even seems to understand Gesche's motives. It's the woman in the 42,000 citizen town that first sees Gesche for precisely who she is under the layers of beauty and flirtation. 

Beautifully designed and wonderfully acted, Effigy is a gorgeously crafted film about two women who refused to be victims of their time. Instead, however, boldly or heinously, they used the tools at their disposal, books and moose butter alike, to carve out lives that allow them to be set free. 

 Effigy, Poison, and the City will debut on VOD in 2021.

'Give or Take' Is a Charming Look at Truth and Grief

The truth is a combination of what you remember and reality. It's a lesson hard learned for many of us. In director Paul Riccio's charming dramedy, Give or Take, he explores the relationship between a grieving son and his father's boyfriend. Riccio unpacks all the ways the one person could be so very different to various people and at distinct moments within their lifetime. 

Martin (co-writer) Jamie Effros) is exhausted. A dissolution New Yorker, he's reluctantly returned to his childhood home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, following the death of his father, Ken. Distant from Ken for most of his life, Martin's animosity in the wake of his father's passing is apparent. From the moment the camera zooms in on his face, the audience knows he would rather be anywhere else. But Give or Take is much more than a film that examines grief. 

Instead of just a typical harrowing tale of a man getting his loved one's affairs in order, Martin is confronted with one aspect of his father's life that he's spent years ignoring. It's the reason why he's avoided Cape Cod for so many years and seems to have barely any interest in memorizing his dad. 

Ted (Norbert Leo Butz), Martin's father's long-term boyfriend, is barely holding it together. In the wake of his lover's death, he's desperate for something or someone to grab on to. Ted learns quickly that he won't be seeking support in his late partner's son. After all, Martin arrives, shouldering his anger, resentment, and distance. Instead of coming together, the two men resign themselves to co-exist n a bubble of icy civility. They tiptoe around one another, arguing over the funeral programming, and if the house --that is now going to Martin -- should be put up for sale. 

Grief, longing, and the desire to speak your truth are all challenging things to tackle on-screen. However, Riccio carefully paints a tapestry of realism — equal parts, pain, and humor in Give or Take. He doesn't allow Ted and Martin to sit in their distress and angst. Instead, he fleshes out their story with an assortment of illustrious outsiders. There's Cape Cod's realtor queen, Patty King (Cheri Oteri), an uproariously funny woman determined to get the house on the market. There's also Emma (Joanne Tucker), an old high school friend of Martin's, Terrence (Louis Cancelmi), an eccentric pool service guy, Lauren (Annapurna Sirimm), Martin's absent girlfriend who's "not a fan of funerals," and Colin (Jaden Waldman), the precocious little boy from next door who appears to have mastered the art of zen. 

Well-acted and with elements of silliness, despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, Riccio's film though occasionally predictable, is wholly atypical. He makes it clear that Martin's anger toward his father has nothing to do with his sexuality. Instead, it has to do with the facade Ken was trying to uphold that kept his son at arm's length and allowed them to truly bond. Though Martin returns home to say goodbye, hearing stories about his father and being confronted with Ted's overwhelming pain forces him to see his father's humanity— and himself in a new light. 

In the end, Give and Take is a film about the varying aspects of who we are as people. As Martin and Ted attempt to manage their pain and grief separately; eventually, it bubbles to the surface, exploding in a spectacular and slightly surprising way. 

'Akilla's Escape' Is a Masterclass in the Duality of Manhood

The past has its way of catching up with us. It’s something Akilla Brown (Saul Williams) has always known, and in many ways, he’s accepted his fate. In Charles Officer’s fast-paced neo-noir, Akilla’s Escape, the director turns his lens on two versions of the same man. In the present, Akilla flies through Toronto’s underworld as a notorious supplier, increasingly wary of his high-risk lifestyle. In the past, Akilla is a 15-year old living in Brooklyn in the ’90s, terrorized by his menacing gangster father, Clinton (Ronnie Rowe), and helpless to help his broken mother, Thetis (Olunike Adeliyi), find a way out. 

‘Akilla’s Escape’ forces the past to collide with the present

At 40, the exhausted drug supplier can sense that his time is running out; he just doesn’t quite know when. Though he’s making plans to shutter his Toronto-based marijuana farm to go legit and open a dispensary, his boss and business partners are not on board. Still, troubled by memories of his childhood and determined to move in a different direction than he’s done for the past 25 years, Akilla’s mind made up. Everything changes for him one night when his past comes barreling into him. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

Regina King's 'One Night in Miami' is Immaculate

Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X were towering men with different ideologies, but they were also good friends. In her feature film debut, One Night in Miami, Regina King reaches back some fifty-plus years in the past to extend her lens and capture these men at various points and stages in their lives. In a well-imagined, thoughtful, and beautifully shot movie, she pulls them inward toward one another on an ordinary evening just before everything changed. 

One Night in Miami opens in 1963. Ali — known then as Cassius Clay, is in the boxing ring in London raging against Henry Cooper. Halfway across the world, Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) can feel his star power starting to wane after a less than stellar performance at New York City’s Copacabana. Down South, Brown (Aldis Hodge) has returned home to St. Simons Island, Georgia, to seek advice from whom he perceives to be an old friend. In Queens, X is trying to determine how to distance himself from the Nation of Islam and his mentor, Elijah Muhammad. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

'Comfort Farms' Is A Stoic But Powerful Doc on the Veteran Experience

There have been many films that address the veteran struggle, from 1979's Apocloyspe Now to 1998's Saving Private Ryan and even Spike Lee's most recent film, Da 5 Bloods. These films tell the story of war heroes on and off the battlefield. Over the years, audiences have been captivated by the stories of these soldiers. We've watched them press forward during the war and into the eerily silent aftermath. Yet, despite our society's collective fascination with war, and the veterans returning home afterward, there have been very few films addressing their trials and triumphs from their own words. 

Director Carlisle Kellam gives the vets back their story in his stoic but compelling Comfort Farms. Though we praise our armed service members as heroes, society seems unable to grapple with how to help veterans truly return home and find their beat in their respective communities. Veterans Affairs in its current state was implemented during World War I. However, like any government agency dependent on funds and lacking resources, the VA can only provide so much help. In turn, many vets have had to find their own ways to cope with life-- and some of them have been incredibly destructive. That's where former combat Army Ranger Jon Jackson's Comfort Farms comes in. 

Named for Jackson's fallen Ranger brother Captain Kyle A. Comfort, the farm has become not just Jackson's sanctuary but one for vets across the nation. After attempting to take his own life following six tours oversees, Jackson decided to take back his narrative. He found purpose in the earth, in its dirt, history, and animals' life cycles. Set in central Georgia, the farm helps vets become butchers, farmers, chefs, and activists. Comfort Farms gives them something solid to lean into while they rebuild a sense of camaraderie and self that is often lost in civilian life. It also provides them with the opportunity to stretch their hands toward their community. The farm has become a new mission for these vets, one that teaches them how to eat, live, and thrive. 

One of the most profound things about Comfort Farms is Kellam's choice to intertwine the footage from the farms and the war zones. This allows the vets to reflect on their past and connect it to their present. Vets like Trenton Free, Forrest Giles, Scott Kennedy, Bryan Kyzar, and Cr Sabathne make it clear that PTSD shouldn't be a catch-all phrase for vets. It only affects some vets. For others, it’s a battle that they are fighting in everyday life.

The film might have been even more effective if the structure had been shifted just slightly, Setting the audience in the middle of the farm first before pulling us back on the battlefield, but it’s still a solid film.

Since this is farming, Kellam does not shy away from addressing and putting a spotlight on the butchering that comes with it. Still, as we watch Jackson reflect on the deaths of animals and even demonstrate it, it's done humanely and with compassion. It's not supposed to be comfortable. Instead, the Agricultural Cognitive Behavior therapy forces an emotional connection for the vets and the viewers. It's a feeling that may have previously been buried deep inside. 

Comfort Farms is not always an easy film to watch. In the beginning, as you're trying to sink into Jackson's story and the story of Comfort Farm, it feels at times unsettling. But that's precisely the point. By allowing these men to tell their stories, Kellam empowers these vets to take back their lives in a way that is healthy, active, and on their own terms, It's certainly not a pretty picture, but that's what makes it one of the most powerful docs on veteran experience out there. 

Comfort Farms won the  Grand Jury Prize at Film Invasion Los Angeles for Feature Documentary. It will be released this year on Video on Demand.

'Cicada Song' Is An Engrossing Assessment Of Greed, Homophobia & Racism in Middle America [Review]

Before the 2016 election, middle America wasn't spoken about much — and perhaps that is part of the problem. An entire population of people felt overlooked and neglected, which only furthered feelings of isolation and resentment. This left little room for a real reckoning about what is truly happening in these communities as a whole. It also further erased the marginalized people that live in these predominantly white spaces. 

In Cicada Song, writer/director Michael Starr dives into the core of the issue. Set in the picturesque rolling hills of Missouri — Starr centers two women and a community that has turned on itself. Karen (Lyndsey Lantz) is a non-nonsense farm manager, who has little patience for the people who once embraced her during her childhood, but turned their backs on her once she came out. However, she does have allies in her bosses — Judith (Kim Reed) and Kurt (Joseph Bottoms).

Though she's faced her share of adversity as a lesbian, Karen refuses to cower for anyone, especially after finding happiness with her live-in girlfriend, Annabelle (Jenny Mesa) -- a Cuban-born woman who works at the town's deli/gas station, Cowboys. Both women remain unyielding when they are bullied and harassed by a town resident who can't hide his disdain for them, and Richard (Rob Tepper), Annabelle's ex-boyfriend who continues to antagonize them. 

Though Karen and Annabelle deal with microaggressions daily, Cicada Song is about much more than that. When the migrant farmworkers on Karen's farm inform her that a child has gone missing, the life that she shares with Annabelle quickly unravels, revealing something more sinister than she ever could have imagined. 

Cicada's Song is striking because it intersects several things. Though the Midwest is often seen as an idyllic place, Starr uses the stunning backdrop to reveal some of the very serious issues that have long plagued the region. The farming crisis, along with xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and intolerance are all topics in this film. No matter how alarming or uncomfortable they are to watch, Starr refuses to shy away from these issues — forcing many Americans to see themselves in all of their nationalistic hatred. In addition to addressing these problems, Starr also puts a spotlight on immigrant communities who break their backs daily for our agricultural system with the fear of being discovered, deported or separated looming over them like a dark cloud. 

Though this is Karen and Annabelle's story, Starr doesn't shove the migrant workers in the background. Their stories and experiences are also focal points here. Though many Americans value the labor of immigrants over their humanity, those who have come to this country have still carved out close-knit communities, raised children, and pressed forward with their dreams. 

Cicada Song is much more than a commentary on things that need to be changed and adjusted — Starr also weaves in a mystery and a haunting thriller. As Karen digs, trying to retrace the steps of the missing child, she begins a race against time for her once calm and simple life. 

Though the film's ending is a tad too tidy for it to be a real gut-punch for the audience — Cicada Song is well-paced and wonderfully acted. Lantz is stirring to watch as she begins to piece this massive puzzle together. The interaction Karen has with her estranged father was beyond heartbreaking. Likewise, Mesa's quippy clapbacks and vibrancy also keep the audience rooting for her, especially as she combats rude people and her predatory ex. 

A film that centers the human cost of bigotry, greed, and racism, Cicada Song refuses to let rural America off the hook for its part in the issues ravaging our country. Instead, Starr asks his audience as a whole to look at ourselves and our own beliefs to consider just how far we're willing to go for our personal interest while stepping on the necks of others.  

Cicada Song is now available on Apple TV and Amazon.

Maïmouna Doucouré's 'Cuties' Confronts Betrayal Of Young Black Girls

Throughout the world, the pain, suffering and voices of little girls are often ignored and silenced. French filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré's debut film Cuties (Mignonnes) is an arresting assessment of the hyper-sexualization of young girls and grapples with the juxtaposition of this issue in a society where women are becoming increasingly sexually liberated.

The bold and disquieting film follows Amy, an 11-year old girl who moves with her mother and young brothers from Senegal to a jam-packed Paris housing project. While her mother, Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye), has become preoccupied with the devastating news that her husband has taken a second wife, Amy is left to parent her younger siblings. This includes everything from watching them, feeding them and doing the grocery shopping for the household. Similar to films like Beasts of the Southern Wild, Crooklyn and Eve's Bayou, Doucouré shines a light on how quickly Black girls are expected to stand in and complete tasks typically ascribed to adults. In contrast, little Black boys often basque in the attentions of their mothers, free of such expectations.

Though her mother has raised her as a devout, conservative Muslim, Amy soon gets her hands on an iPhone and begins to emulate the more provocative images of women she sees online and in music videos. An outcast in her plain clothing and large Afro puff, Amy soon finds herself fascinated with her classmate, Angelica, a Latinx girl who wears her slick straight hair and quick temper as armor. Angelica is fearless and volatile--the queen bee of her friend group that's dubbed themselves the Cuties. Eager to garner Angelica's attention and earn her place on the Cuties crew, Amy begins wearing her brother's t-shirts as crop-tops while intensely studying the Cuties' mannerisms and behaviors. What starts as an innocent desire to fit in and have a place in her new environment becomes a cautionary tale for not just young girls, but for the rest of the world that has decided that young girls (especially young girls of color) aren't worthy of protection.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ Coulda Been A Bad B*tch

It’s always intriguing to examine Disney fairytales through the perspective of the villains. Five years ago with her sharp cheekbones and spectacular horns, we fell in love with Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent. Now years later with this Maleficent: Mistress of Evil movie review–-we expected the “good girl” to go bad again. Unfortunately, instead of the diabolical dark fey that we grew to love–the follow up to Maleficent showcases the powerful fairy in a much more reserved light.

Picking up years after the first film–we find Aurora (Elle Fanning) living as the Queen of the Moors. There’s been peace for many years and with an impending marriage between Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) and Aurora, there is hope that the Moors and the prince’s kingdom might be formally united in peace once and for all. However, as we all know–we cannot simply skip to the “happily ever after.”

While Jolie’s Maleficent still gets rilled up when she feels threatened or when the connection that she and Aurora share is hanging precariously in the balance–she’s not actually the villain in this mistitled film. Instead, that honor goes to Prince Philip’s diabolical mother– Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer). Rather than centering the film on Maleficent and all of the ways she’s misunderstood–or giving her a better Achilles’ heel than iron– the villainous crown in this flick goes to Pfeiffer’s Queen Ingrith.

Continue Reading at STYLECASTER.

Image: Disney.

The Intensity Of 'Human Capital' Fizzles In The End

As human beings, we'd like to think that the decisions we make stand alone. We pretend that our choices in no way affect our loved ones or the strangers whose lives' circle ours. The truth is, our fates are more intertwined then we would like to admit. Based on Stephen Amidon's 2004 novel, Marc Meyers' Human Capital shows how the lives of several families can collide against one another. 

The film opens with a tragedy—a cyclist, someone's father and husband, is sideswiped as he's riding home from work. Though the motorist sees him—they ride off, living him for dead on the side of the road as if he were a squirrel or roadkill. Meyers then pulls us back in time, and we begin to meet the people whose lives are irrevocably changed as a result of the accident.

First, there's Drew (Liev Schreiber)— a middle-class real-estate agent drowning in debts and struggling to get by. Desperate to be more, make more money—or simply to feel included, he becomes enthralled, almost to the point of obsession with Quint (Peter Sarsgaard). Quint's son, Jamie (Fred Hechinger) is dating Drew's daughter. Shannon (Maya Hawke). With new changes on the horizon in his small family and with his wife, Ronnie (Betty Gabriel)-- Drew goes against the advice of everyone he knows, hastily investing in Quint's elite hedge fund.

Though the lives of the wealthy and elite often look pristine from the outside, we all know that they are typically cracked and fractured once you peer a bit closer. Quint's company isn't exactly having the best quarter. His long-suffering wife Carrie (Maresi Tomei) is sad, bored and lonely— and his son, Jamie is harboring a secret.

The first two acts of Human Captial are beautifully paced and measured. Meyers points his lens at each character, unpacking their motivations and desires while pulling the tension of the dramatic thriller tauter. It's enthralling to watch people dive headfirst into traps of their own making, allowing their very worse compulsions and instincts lead them. 

Amid a revelation from Jamie and her parents' own significant life changes, Shannon falls for a new guy, Ian (Alex Wolff) However, because we sit with Quint, Drew, Carrie, and even Jamie for so long in the front end of the film—when we arrive at Shannon's perspective in the final act, Human Capital falters. Though we understand a bit of Shannon's background through Drew, Ronnie and Jamie, Meyers does not sit with her long enough for the audience to connect with her--let alone Ian. 

Dark, bearded, and alluring—it's clear why Shannon is almost immediately enamored with Ian. However, their "romance" is stuffed in a quick handful of scenes that don't give the audience enough depth or time to connect with them. For her part, Shannon lacks boundaries and loyalty means nothing her, which makes empathizing with her difficult. Though she and Ian are both fragile people, their motivations remain unclear so the audience never really cares about either of them. Therefore, as things come to a head, the foundation that Meyers so beautifully laid out in the first hour of the film does not stand.

Dark, bearded, and alluring—it's clear why Shannon is almost immediately enamored with Ian. However, their "romance" is stuffed in a quick handful of scenes that don't give the audience enough depth or time to connect with them. For her part, Shannon lacks boundaries. It’s clear that loyalty means nothing her, which makes empathizing with her difficult. Though she and Ian are both fragile people, their motivations remain unclear so the audience never really cares about either of them. Therefore, as things come to a head, the foundation that Meyers so beautifully laid out in the first hour of the film does not stand. 

With 95 minute run-time, Meyers is required to do quite a bit in Human Capital. The sheer amount of characters in the film need a great deal of examination. However, the last act of the film does not have the intensity or character development that was so carefully laid out in the first two acts. Therefore, the film's climax doesn't really pay off. Instead, when the dust settles and all is said in done, we are left to wonder why were even supposed to be enthralled with these people to begin with. 

Human Capital premiered Sept. 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Image: Toronto International Film Festival.

‘Hustlers’ Is A Dazzling Display Of Women Betting On Themselves

Since the beginning of time, women have had to use their ingenuity and wits to survive in a world that often wants to keep them pinned down. Based on the viral 2015 New York Magazine article, “The Hustlers at Score,” Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers is a dazzling narrative. The film centers a group of women who decide to be active participants in their own lives. Instead of waiting for better circumstances to come to them– they choose to take what the need, and quite frankly what they deserve.

Hustlers opens in 2007–the year before the most devastating economic crash since the Great Depression. Wall Street was basking in its golden moment, and New York was the epicenter of it all. As Janet Jackson’s “Control” strums in the background, we meet Destiny (Constance Wu). A newcomer at one of the most exclusive strip clubs in the city–she hasn’t quite found her footing. She’s barely scraping by with enough money to help her ailing grandmother. The other girls have their regulars and their confidence–wooing clients into the backrooms and garnering thousands of dollars a night for their acts. However, Destiny still hasn’t quite learned how to “sell fantasy.” But there’s one woman who has.

Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) is the queen of the club. Vivacious, sexy as hell and enticing–she has learned how to work the club, and its men for well over a decade. When we first meet Ramona, swirling around a pole–she’s like a work of art. As thrilled as the club’s clientele is with her–Destiny is also dazzled. Looking for ways to advocate for herself–Destiny reaches out to Ramona who happily takes her under her wing (and into her mink fur).

A former centerfold, Romana eagerly shows Destiny the ropes. She teaches her how to reel men in, how to get them to fund her lifestyle, and she also teaches her some new tricks for the stage. In a role that is brief but hilarious —Cardi B stars as Diamond –a stripper from the Bronx who skills Destiny on giving an erotic lap dance. Under the tutelage of her new big sister–Destiny’s life changes for the better only to come to a screeching halt in 2008.

Continue reading at STYLECASTER.

Image: STX Entertainment.

‘Men in Black: International’ Is Charming, Witty & Mostly Fun

We all know that Hollywood lives for reboots and sequels. These days, original films and TV shows are almost an anomaly in the entertainment industry. Therefore, when Men in Black: International was announced, a film centering Tessa Thompon’s Agent M, and Chris Hemsworth’s Agent H–we were more than a little skeptical. After all, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones made the franchize iconic and walking in the footsteps of Agent J and Agent K was going to be an arduous task for anyone that wanted to follow. Thankfully, both Thompson and Hemsworth were up for the task. The pair had sizzled together on screen previously in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnorak and Avengers: Endgame. But putting them in the Men in Black Universe proved that their chemistry is transcendent.

Men in Black: International exists in the same realm as the first three films and follows a young woman named Molly (Thompson). As a child in the ’90s, Molly witnessed an alien creature wiggle its way into her Brooklyn home. Though the Men in Black quickly appeared to erase her parents’ memories, no one realized that Molly was awake to see the entire encounter. Some 22-years later, hyper-obsessed with the mega-secret alien-wrangling agency– Molly cleverly weasels her way into a black suit and those stunner shades.

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