For ‘The Woman in the House,’ Escapism Comes with a Hefty Glass of Red Wine

Life’s ebbs and flows aren’t for the faint of heart. Even those with seemingly idyllic lives must navigate heartbreak, grief and other forms of trauma. Though this creates a shared human experience, we all deal with those pains differently. For Anna (Kristen Bell), the protagonist in The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, coping involves multiple carafe-size glasses of red wine, an engrossing novel, a half-dozen hefty chicken casseroles and some indulgent fantasies about her new, handsome next-door neighbor, Neil (Tom Riley). 

After her daughter’s tragic death, Anna’s incapable of moving forward with her life. Instead, she’s left clinging to the last pieces of her sanity. She’s in a great deal of pain, so verbally sparring with her judgmental neighbor, Carol (Brenda Koo), and hosting her overbearing sister, Sloane (Mary Holland), are the only elements that slice through the monotony of her day-to-day. She’s unable to continue her career as a painter, or find some other purpose, so she numbs herself with alcohol and pills. 

Continue reading at Netflix’s TUDUM.

'Dear White People' Vol. 2 Is Wittier, Bolder, Darker And More Impactful (Review)

Somebody is stirring up sh*t at Winchester University, and all of our faves are getting sucked into the storm. From the opening sequence of Dear White People Volume 2, it’s quite clear that the black students at the Armstrong-Parker House are about to confront much more than they did in the first season of the acclaimed Netflix series. Season 2 opens with an age-old debate, one that has started plenty of wars on Black Twitter and probably ended a friendship or two: salt versus sugar grits. The second season bangs on from there. Two weeks after the tumultuous protest against integrating Armstrong-Parker, and three weeks after Reggie (Marque Richardson) found himself staring down the barrel of a campus police officer's gun, Sam (Logan Browning) and the crew are struggling to pick up the pieces. It doesn’t help that they are now sharing their dorm with residents of the recently burned down Davis Hall. It's a change that has transformed their once safe space amid a predominantly white university into one fraught with microaggressions and disharmony. Apparently, the Caucasians find the scent of fried foods and Armstrong-Parker's choices in television programming offensive.

Mirroring the first season, Dear White People creator Justin Simien angles each episode of the 10-part second season from the perspective of one of the show's main character. However, this time, we go well beyond the surface, even stepping away from Winchester's campus completely. It’s not just Sam, Reggie or Coco (Antoinette Robertson) who get a spotlight this season. Lionel (DeRon Horton), Joelle (Ashley Blaine Featherson) and even Kelsey (Nia Jervier) get some well-deserved and much-needed fleshing out — giving new perspectives to the multiplicities and differences in the black diaspora.

Volume 2 of Dear White People is bolder. With the Trump election behind us, we're standing firmly in the midst of his presidency, batting a resurgence of white supremacy and racist rhetoric. Simien confronts it all head on. Though she’s used to her radio show "Dear White People" bringing forth criticism, it is now Sam herself who is under attack. A Twitter troll, @AltIvyW, is making her life miserable, assaulting her and the black study body with cruel tweets, abusive language and even threats to their safety. The mystery surrounding the identity of the troll is a thread that runs throughout the entire season. The relentlessness of being called everything from a monkey to a "half-breed bitch" is wearing down the most outspoken black woman at Winchester, and she's certainly not coming out of it unscathed.

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Netflix's 'Come Sunday' Will Strike A Chord In Even The Most Reluctant Among Us (Review)

Religion is one thing, but faith is something else entirely. In 1998, Pentecostal Bishop Carlton Pearson had a revelation about his faith and his understanding of the word of God that rattled him to his core. His new radical beliefs rippled through his life so abruptly that he lost everything he once held dear to him. Based on Bishop Pearson’s life and a 2005 episode of NPR’s This American Life entitled "Heretics," director Joshua Marston’s arresting Come Sunday forces its audience to look inward and evaluate what we truly believe. A superb Chiwetel Ejiofor takes on the cadence and stature of the Tusla-based minister who was able to fill the pews of his massive Higher Dimensions church each Sunday with both black and white parishioners. Deeply committed to capturing the period and the environment of the Bible Belt, Marston hones in on everything from the frenzy of the evangelical movement to the eclectic style of the late ‘90s. His attention to detail, even filming the bishop’s worn and written in Bible, made the film realistic. Religion can be a difficult subject for Hollywood to tackle, but in his beautifully nuanced portrayal, Ejiofor captures a man who risked everything for the chance to speak his truth.

Amid the Rwandan genocide and grappling with the death of his beloved uncle (Danny Glover) who never gave his life to the Lord, Bishop Pearson hears God’s voice and has an epiphany. He believes that everyone is already saved and that there is no hell. On the pulpit one faithful Sunday he declares, “The God that we worship, from the parts of the Bible that we focus on, that God is a monster … worse than Hitler.” At the time, Bishop Pearson was affectionately referred to as Oral Robert’s “black son” in his community. His revelation, therefore, would crack his world open.

It’s not just Ejiofor who is captivating in this film, Condola Rashad is masterful as his often overlooked wife, Gina Pearson. A reluctant first lady and an outsider, Rashad presents a woman who continually sacrifices her needs for the church. Subverting the image of the meek and docile wife, Gina voices her opinions and ideas even when they aren’t popular. Rashad’s restraint in the role is what allows Gina’s strength to shine. When everyone else abandons Bishop Pearson, Gina remains steadfast, loyal and at his side — urging him to press forward despite the obstacles.

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Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo And Director Olivia Newman Discuss 'First Match' (SXSW Interview)

The relationships that Black girls have with their fathers isn’t examined nearly enough. There are stories that center around absentee fathers, and the damage they do to their offspring. However, there are very few films about the heroic roles that Black fathers play in their daughters' lives from adolescence through womanhood. Set in Brooklyn’s notorious Brownsville neighborhood, writer/director Olivia Newman's First Match shines a spotlight on one young girl, Monique (portrayed by Elvire Emanuelle) who joins her high school wrestling team in a desperate attempt to win back the affection of her estranged father Darrel (portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Under the direction of her thoughtful coach (portrayed by Colman Domingo) Mo finds a different type of family. During the film's premiere at SXSW, I chatted with Newman and the cast aboutFirst Match and what the film means to them. Newman’s arresting tale was born out of her the short film she made for her MFA thesis. At the time, she was examining the growing number of girls who were joining all-boys wrestling teams in high school. Her research led her from the picturesque buildings of Columbia University to the gritty streets of Brownsville.

“When I made the short film, I was really focused on just the experience of being a girl participating in a full-contact sport in a coed context," Newman recalled. “I was just looking for the best wrestler to be in the short, and this wrestler Nyasa, that I cast, happened to be from Brownsville. We formed a friendship in making the film, and we stayed in touch over the years. The story for the feature really just evolved out of our friendship and getting to know her and her friends and hearing their stories.”

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Clare-Hope Ashitey Talks Netflix's 'Seven Seconds,' Imperfect Characters And Authentic Stories

The truth doesn't stay buried. Reality always seeks to reveal itself. Netflix’s new anthology series, Seven Seconds is an intricate work on police/minority relations and the culpability of our criminal justice system. Set in Newark, New Jersey, the series is told from the perspective of a heartbroken couple, Emmy-winner Regina King and Russell Hornsby, a corrupt cop (Beau Knapp) and a troubled assistant district attorney, Clare-Hope Ashitey. The series opens in the wake of a Black teen's gruesome accidental death at the hands of a cop and the stunning coverup that ensues as a result.

Exploring issues that are as glaring in our country as a pool of blood in the freshly fallen snow, Seven Seconds is visceral, painful, and raw. Ashitey received creator Veena Sud’s script a little over a year ago and was immediately intrigued. Ahead of the series debut, we sat down to chat about Seven Seconds and why she was compelled to step into ADA K.J. Harper’s shoes. “I read a lot of scripts, and they range from terrible, to mediocre, to fantastic, and this is a really good one,” the London native explained. “It was well put together, and the characters were really interesting. They were complicated, which is very attractive to me because when characters are archetypes of the hero or the villain, it doesn't feel like it's true, especially in a series. They're asking you to believe this is the real world and no one is straightforward and uncomplicated. The characters in this certainly weren't."

Though she was born and raised in London, England—the daughter of Ghanese immigrants, Ashitey has been well-aware of the continuous incidents of police brutality against Black and brown citizens in the States, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement which has been making strides to combat those types of injustices. “We get a lot of that news in the U.K., and actually quite a lot of coverage of it," she explained. “So it's something that most people at home are aware of, and there are lots of names that most people at home are familiar with, so it wasn't something that was new to me. It's in the news now, but it's been going on for a long, long time. I think the concept of tension, racial tension, in the American society, and also tension between the police force and the African American community, whether it's in the news or not, is never something that's a surprise to anyone.”

Though fictional, Seven Seconds could have certainly been ripped from the headlines. It’s Ashitey’s character K.J. Harper who stands at the center as the tormented, alcoholic ADA who is desperate to piece the case together. “I liked, that she was troubled and that she was struggling,” Ashitey said. “Watching people try to overcome adversity is quite an interesting thing to watch, and it's an interesting thing to play, as well — it's interesting to play with. I'm always more attracted to accurate depictions of people because I don't think it's helpful to have archetypes or stereotypes. I've been asked before about whether I thought it was difficult to portray K.J. as a Black woman, and if I was worried about issues of representation. I'm really not because I think portraying people as they are and not being one thing or another, and not trying to pretend that anyone is perfect is actually much more helpful to the conversation than trying to just put forward a perfect face or a perfect façade.”

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Renée Elise Goldsberry On Slaying In Netflix's Dystopian Series 'Altered Carbon'

In case you forgot that Renée Elise Goldsberry is a multitalented thespian who can literally do it all, you're about to get a reminder. It's a frigid morning in New York City, and Goldsberry has flown in from Paris for a few days to discuss her new Netflix project. An astounding series based on the 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon is a massive tale set in a future dystopian world where humans transfer their consciousnesses or souls between sleeves (bodies), but only the rich and powerful can truly live forever. A tale of betrayal, love, sex, and fear, Goldsberry stands at the center as warrior Quellcrist Falcone an Envoy or member of the military who was killed in the series prologue. (Once your consciousness is destroyed you cannot transfer sleeves.) And yet, Quellcrist remains a guiding light and a safe memory for Altered Carbon’s protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs (played by Joel Kinnaman) a former Envoy, and the last of his kind. Kovacs is awakened and resleeved after 250 years by billionaire Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) to solve Bancroft's murder. If the series sounds rich and complicated to you, that’s because it is, and even Goldsberry wasn’t sure what to make of it when she first received the script. “I did not know (the book) when this came across my desk," she remembered. “I was put on a phone call with Laeta Kalogridis, who is the showrunner, and I wasn't even looking for another job. I was kind of neck deep in Broadway doing Hamilton. I think, within three sentences she had me because she said, ‘My mission in life is to create worlds where the hero is a woman of color.’ I was like, ‘Where are we doing this?’"

Quellcrist is more than just a hero; she’s a warrior. Watching Goldsberry shed her Hamilton petticoats and vintage ’40 fashions from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for combat boots and guns was thrilling. “When you ask me about it, I start smiling because on paper that sounds really fun," Goldsberry says laughing. “It's always been my dream to be an action star. I can't believe it took this long for somebody to ask me to do it.”

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Netflix's 'Bright' refuses to take any real risks (Review)

Fans of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings have probably all wished at some point that they could arise one morning and walk amongst magical creatures. These mystical beings might make our world more enticing and adventurous or at the very least break up the daily monotony that seems to bog us all down. With his new film Bright, Suicide Squad director David Ayer unveils a futuristic graffiti laced Los Angeles where Orcs, Fairies, Elves, and Centaurs live and thrive amongst human beings. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton star as LAPD Officers Daryl Ward and a Deputy Nick Jakoby-- a human and diversity hire Orc respectively, who are reluctantly bound together as partners on the force. With just five years until he receives his pension, a weary Ward is clinging to his job and his life so that he might be able to provide a future for his family. However, retiring unscathed might be more difficult than he expected. In this world, racism looks different. Humans rank well below the glamorous Elves who have taken over the posh districts of the city. In contrast to Ward, Jakoby adores his position on the force, though he’s ostracized by other Orcs who turn their nose down at him for betraying their race. Things are also difficult for him on the job where officers berate, abuse, and distrust him. With glimpses of vicious Fairies, magic wands and the upper echelon of the Elf communities, Bright sets the scene for a nuanced and detailed LA that should be right out of a fairy tale. However, things don’t stay quite so magical.

Out on the beat one day, Ward and Jakoby stumble across Tikka (Lucy Fry), a young Elf with powers (called a Bright) in possession of a coveted magic wand. On their quest to get Tikka and the wand to safety, Ward and Jakoby must evade a diabolical Elf named Leilah, a witch who seeks the power of the wand for herself. The men are also up against their fellow police officers, Orcs, and LA gangsters who are also desperate for the potent artifact. This is where the storyline stops being riveting and fresh. Ayer who wrote the screenplay for the phenomenal Denzel Washington led Training Day, takes a significant trope from the older film --one so easily recognizable that it was almost comical to watch again, sixteen years later in Bright.

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Netflix's 'She's Gotta Have It' is bold, brilliant & black as hell (Review)

From the moment the Prince/ Notorious B.I.G. opening track rings out from the television screen, Spike Lee’s electric new Netflix joint She’s Gotta Have It springs to life. After much critique about his "woman problem" in some of his past work — Lee has gotten with the program. Tracy Camilla Johns’ 1986 Nola Darling, which was set against a crisp black and white Brooklyn background will always remain glued in my memory, but the film was ruined for me when our protagonist was viscously raped by her suitor Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). I haven’t gotten over it, and neither has Lee.In a 2014 interview with Deadline, he said, “It was just totally…stupid. I was immature.” We are in an age where women – especially Black women are laying themselves bare, and unapologetically demanding to be heard. With guidance from his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee who also serves as an executive producer on the Netflix TV adaptation of She’s Gotta Have It — Lee presents an image of a Black woman who is as refreshing as she is enticing. Shots Fired and Underground alum DeWanda Wise is center stage this time, delivering a brown-skinned Nola Darling whose the homegirl you love, envy, and are sometimes exasperated with. Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It is a complicated and multi-angled portrait of a millennial Black woman trying to make in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Nola’s got her men — Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony), Jaime Overstreet (Lyriq Bent), and Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos) all return in vibrant color with new layers and subtle personality changes. However, she’s also got her girlfriends Shemekka Epps (Chayna Lane) and Clorinda Bradford (Margot Bingham), a lady lover (Ilfenesh Hadera) and a bomb ass therapist (Heather Headley). Gentrification is rampant, money is tight, but Nola is living — and how she lives, who she makes love with, and the art that she creates is going to be on her terms.

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The S&A 'Dear White People' Interview

The highly anticipated film-turned-series, "Dear White People" has finally hit Netflix today, April 28. The series, which follows Sam White (Logan Browning) and the other Black students at the fictional Ivy League Winchester University, picks up where the film left off. This time around all of the students will be getting their chance to eviscerate racism and speak their truths, through this wonderfully written satirical piece. Ahead of the series premiere, I sat down with writer and director Justin Simien who wrote the film and all 10-episodes of the first season, Logan Browning who stars as Sam White (a role that Tessa Thompson originated in the film), and Brandon P. Bell who will reprise his role from the film as Troy Fairbanks.

We discussed expanding the world of the film into a series, what inspired Simien to write the film in the first place, and how our current political climate will inform the show.

Aramide Tinubu: Hi guys! Justin Simien: Shadow and Act! Y’all were the first ones to put out the “Dear White People” concept trailer back in the day. So we are forever in debt!

AT: So dope! You guys are awesome. So going from the film to the television series, why was that important for you to do?

JS: There was just so much more to say about these people. And, one of the reasons why being a storyteller is so important to me is I really feel like we need to see ourselves in stories. One of the things that is challenging about being a person of color in this society is that it’s so hard to see ourselves. There are so many shades of us. Just because you have a show with a Black woman in it, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it speaks to you.

AT: Exactly!

JS: With the movie, every single one of those characters are characters that I have not seen in anything before. With the show, we get to go even deeper into those characters lives and introduce some new characters that I also haven’t seen in anything before. So, anybody who felt like, “Gosh, I didn’t really get enough of the gay experience, or I didn’t get enough of the male experience or I didn’t get enough of the female perspective.” Whatever you feel like you didn’t get enough of in the movie, we’re giving it to you in this series! (Laughing) Every episode is from a different character’s point of view. So, you get to go home with Coco (Antoinette Robertson), you don’t just see her through the eyes of other people, you see her through her own eyes as she looks at her reflection in the mirror. I just think that’s so important because we aren’t archetypes, we aren’t these sort of ideas of people, we’re people. We have hopes and dreams and contradictions and flaws. A television show gives you the canvas to go that deep.

AT: Logan, you are picking up where Tessa Thompson left off with Sam White, but you’ve really made her your own character. What was that process like for you; looking at what Tessa built and then spinning it for yourself?

Logan Browning: I learned to relate it to theater, which was really fun because I personally haven’t had the joy of being in many theater productions. So, there was this great piece of work, and I saw someone perform brilliantly, and I got to absorb that. (Laughing) It almost feels like cheating, you know? You have so many things to go off of, and I went back to the screenplay, and that was really fun. Just seeing the stage directions, or seeing things that changed and to see them come to life. Reading the lines for myself from the screenplay and saying, that was Tessa’s interpretation as Sam, how does Logan feel about it? So, that was my approach.

AT: Brandon, you’ve lived with your character, Troy for a little bit longer because you were also in the film. So what shocked you about Troy that you didn’t expect coming into the series. What did you learn about him that you didn’t know previously?

Brandon P. Bell: A lot of things actually. Troy’s main relationships are with his dad (Obba Babatundé), Coco, women, Lionel (DeRon Horton) and his role within the Black community and the community at large on campus because he’s in politics. He’s the head of C.O.R.E., the Coalition of Racial Equality, and at the end of the film he was running for President. So for me, it was going deeper and exploring the toll that that’s going to take on Troy. We all know that he likes to smoke weed and write jokes by his lonesome in the bathroom out of a toilet paper roll. That is a part of Troy’s identity that he doesn’t share with anyone. For me, it’s how does he manage all of that but also maintain some sense of sanity and himself? Who is Troy? Without spoiling anything, there is a lot of things that I think the audience will love and get to discover. As an actor, you want that. You want to build and be challenged. Where Troy ends up is great. I couldn’t have asked for a better arc.

AT: All of you went to predominantly white universities, I did as well, and it was …interesting. (Laughing) So Justin how did you come up with the concept for “Dear White People” while in school? Was it because you felt isolated, did you feel like you didn’t belong?

JS: For me, it actually grew out of a conversation that I was having with my best friends at the time about the fact that we were hanging out with other Black kids from the Black Student Union, but we didn’t necessarily like all of them. (Laughing) We were just sort of like; we’re hanging out with these people because they’re Black and for no other reason. So, this conversation that we were having amongst ourselves, it just struck me as so funny that I’d never seen it in a movie before. It was like a conundrum of being Black in America that was never dealt with. Every time you saw a Black movie or a Black television show, magically everyone in the show was Black. The cab drivers are Black, the people working at the coffee shop were Black. My favorite thing about “Boomerang” is that everybody in New York was Black! My experience has always been one of few. My mother who is Creole, is a very light-skinned woman, so people didn’t understand why were holding hands through the mall. Just that feeling of being the only one who understood who you were; and not seeing yourself reflected back in the culture. I just felt like that was something that a lot of us were and are going through, and it just felt like doing a college satire was the perfect way to articulate that feeling. It felt like new territory. It was a jumping off point to get into all of these other issues. But, it all started with the sense of feeling like, “Why is it that I feel like I have to play a version of myself for my Black friends and then another version of myself for my white friends, and a version of myself in class?” Is that unique to the Black experience? Is that a human condition thing? Those were the questions that were on my mind when I started writing the film, and I don’t know if they’ve ever left.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

Review: 'Deidre & Laney Rob A Train' Is A Whimsical, Freshly Acted Tale Of Sisterhood & Sheer Determination

Though we are drastically different human beings, I trust my sister more than anyone else on this planet. Despite the fact that we are only two years apart in age, our life experiences have often been worlds apart. I’ve frequently felt stifled under the weight of responsibilities and decision making (our lives drastically changed the year I turned twenty, and she turned eighteen), and I suspect that she’s often felt cast aside and misunderstood. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that other siblings, particularly sisters, have had similar experiences. In her witty and amusing second feature film “Deidra & Laney Rob a Train,” filmmaker Sydney Freeland highlights these aspects of sisterhood, the desire to escape, and the overbearing weight of an unclear future. Shot almost like a comic book come to life, we meet Deidre (Ashleigh Murray) and Laney (Rachel Crow), teenage sisters living with their mother Marigold (Danielle Nicolet) and younger brother Jet (Lance Gray), somewhere in the middle of Idaho. Deidre, the eldest, is fiercely determined to use her brain to escape her tragically white and dull town for college. A consummate perfectionist, she rigidly plans out her entire life on three calendars that account for her tutoring sessions, the test answers she sells for extra cash, and her scholarship deadlines. In contrast, her younger sister Laney is angsty and often overlooked both at home and in school. Painfully shy in the face of anyone that is not her family, she and Deidre are often at each other’s throats, having throw down knock out fights to settle their disagreements. (Perhaps it was so amusing because I have literally been there.) Despite the chaos of their daily lives, the Tanner sisters seem to be trudging along until life blows up in their faces.

After suffering a breakdown and destroying merchandise at her place of employment, the Good Buy discount electronic store, Marigold finds herself behind bars. With no other source of income and as the only Tanner sibling of legal age, Deidre is forced to come up with a solution to keep child protective services off her back and to bail her mother out of jail. In need of $12,000 and a whole new weight of responsibilities on her shoulders, Deidre’s dreams of higher education suddenly fizzle into the air.

Desperate for a solution to her family’s financial woes, Deidre begrudgingly visits their deadbeat but charming father Chet, a mechanic on the railroads that run behind the Tanner home. Though Chet only offers up five dollars, Deidre is inspired to begin robbing trains. Enlisting Laney’s help, the girls hatch a legendary and nearly fool-proof plan of stealing merchandise off the train cars and fencing it through Deidre’s weed-dealing ex, Jerry (Myko Olivier).

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Review: 'What Happened, Miss Simone' Leaves Us Wondering What Happens When What You Love Most, Haunts You

Iconic cultural figures are often placed on pedestals. They remain mysterious to us and we are left to speculate about their lives and experiences. It is rare for someone who has been so revered and idolized globally to have the opportunity to share their own story. Using Nina Simone’s own words, interviews with her family and friends, as well as footage from her life, Academy Award nominated director Liz Garbus paints a portrait of a woman who was both a master, and a victim of her time. Nina Simone’s life was one of both unimaginable success and gut wrenching suffering.

Reflecting back on life is no easy feat, it’s often a painful task to undertake, leaving the subject vulnerable and exposed; their flawless image forever riddled with unpleasant truths. And yet, when these truths are brought to light, it is the humanity of that subject that shines through.

"What Happened, Miss Simone?" acts as an introduction for new fans of Nina Simone, while providing a deeper understanding of the songstress for long time supporters. The film chronicles Nina Simone from her humble beginnings to her modest end.

Garbus’ documentary works so well because of its structure. Simone was a woman who desired more than the world was willing to give. Garbus eschews typical documentary style filmmaking, allowing Simone’s own perspective on her own work and life to shine through. Though her voice was glorious, her real forte was her ability to embody revolution through her music. Despite push-back, Nina Simone’s musical contributions to society during the Civil Right’s movement, gave her drive and purpose.

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[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moOQXZxriKY[/embed]

Image: "What Happened, Miss Simone?"/Netflix