Merle Dandridge On 'The Flight Attendant' And That Mysterious 'Greenleaf' Spinoff

In their new comedy-drama thriller, HBO Max has reimagined Chris Bohjalian's The Flight Attendant for the small-screen. The compelling miniseries follows Cassie Bowmen (Kaley Cuoco), a first-class flight attendant who wakes up hungover in a swanky Bangkok hotel room with a dead man next to her. As Cassie tries to piece together the previous evening, she attempts to go on about her life as if nothing happened. As her co-workers and good friends, Shane (Griffin Matthews) and Megan (Rosie Perez) become increasingly suspicious; the FBI begins putting their case together. 

Tasked to solve this murder mystery, Greenleaf alum Merle Dandridge stars as FBI agent Kim Hammond, a whip-smart woman who suffers no fools and has even less patience for Cassie's convoluted story. Ahead of The Flight Attendant's debut on HBO MAX, Shadow and Act chatted with Dandridge about the series' twists and turns, and why portraying Kim has been a breath of fresh air. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'Mr. Marvelous' Is an Intriguing Short About Power and the Past

Like public servants and other figures in society, we often see mall Santas as larger than life figures. In some ways, we strip them of their humanity and see them as accessories present only to bring joy (and sometimes terror) to children worldwide. 

In his short film Mr. Marvelous, filmmaker Evan Falbaum reminds us that everyone has their secrets under the costumes and masks we wear. Mike Marvelous (Mitch Landry) is glad the holiday season has come to an end. Stripping off his Mall Santa costume and taking home his final pay, he’s content to be isolated in his neat bungle, with a beer and a modest Christmas tree, hoping that his daughter invites him over for Christmas Day. 

As Mike moves through his evening, showering and awaiting a call back from his daughter, some introducers come storming into his house, looking for money. However, as the thieves attempt to humiliate Mike, they discover much more than they bargained for. 

Beautifully filmed, Mr. Marvelous is an intriguing film about how to reconcile your past with your present. It’s a movie about loss, second chances, and the will to get back in touch with your inner power — a strength that goes well beyond any costume that you might slip into.

Mr. Marvelous was an official selection at the Omahu, Kansas City, and San Antonio Short Film Festivals is has been released on Vimeo.

'L'Autre' Is a Quiet but Powerful Film About the Consuming Pain of Grief

Out of all of the emotions and states of being, grief is perhaps one of the most challenging to articulate and replicate clearly on-screen. For those of us who've experienced profound loss in our lives, there are various ways of navigating that feeling. However, most people will understand the dark, suffocating cloud that seems to hover over them due to that loss. Often times, it can feel like it will always be there. 

In her gorgeously quiet and powerful film, L'Autre (The Other), French filmmaker Charlotte Dauphin follows Marie (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), a talented ballerina who become despondent and lost following the sudden death of her beloved father (Jean-Louis Martinelli). Unable to continue on with her life as she knew it, Marie leaves the dance world behind and begins to isolate herself from the life she once knew. 

Unable to cope with his absence, Marie insists on leaving her father's apartment exactly as he left it, desperate to connect with him through memories and the words he left behind. However, life has a funny way of tilting and shifting us when we least expect it. An unexpected photo shoot with a photographer named Paul (James Thierree) ignites something within Marie that she assumed died with her father. It continues to call to her even as she burrows further into her depressive state. 

L'Autre isn't some revolutionary story that we've never seen before. However, the way that Dauphin chooses to unveil the narrative on the screen is what makes it so fascinating. Without stuffing the plot full of overbearing and robust dialogue, the director gives her actors room to breathe. It's Berges-Frisbey's devastating looks and silences as Marie, set against a quiet Paris cast in grey, that sets the tone here. It allows the audience to fully connect with Marie's pain. 

The pain that drives Marie is also carefully unfurled. Though her choices are sometimes eye-raising, we understand quite clearly why she creates the dream world that she forms around her. It's a state of being where she can still lean on her father, discovering aspects of his life that she never knew existed. Through her mental state becomes increasingly more fragile at some points in the film, it was refreshing in some ways to see Marie lean into it. 

So often, women, in particular, are asked to put on a brave face and to press forward in life as if everything is OK. Her father's death nearly breaks Marie, and instead of fighting against that, she allows herself to lean into that feeling for as long as she needs to. As she begins to connect with Paul on a deeper level, warring against two versions of herself, who she is, and who she might become, the film starts to fill with color.

In addition to L'Autre being an eloquently told story, it offers something to the viewer something that very few films on the subject have failed to provide in the past, the ability to sit in the sheer awfulness of death on their own terms. After all, the loss of a loved one is one of the most painful aspects of being human. We should all be allowed our anguish, no matter how dark and grey it might look. 

 L'Autre is currently being shown at film festivals.

'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.

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' showcases the triumphs of Black people, not just our burdens

In recent historical features about the Black experience in America — like "12 Years A Slave," "Hidden Figures" and even biopics like "Ray" and "Ali" — racism and oppression are through-lines in the narratives; anti-Blackness becomes a character all its own.

The perils of white supremacy make their way into every plot even though the Black experience is at the core of these films, seeping (as it can in reality) into the characters' everyday lives. While these films are historically accurate, modern-day Black filmgoers then often lament the prevalence of "slave films" and the inherent tragedies at the center of these stories, asking to see more Black joy and less Black sadness.

Continue reading at NBC Think.

Between The World And Me creates a tapestry of history and art from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ words

With his critically acclaimed nonfiction work, Between The World And Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates laid himself bare. Writing the book as a letter to his then 15-year-old son, Coates unearthed memories from his boyhood in West Baltimore, then moved to his son’s birth and into the present day. Between The World And Me was published in 2015, just before Trump gave new life to the United States’ rotten core. In the years since, social media and the ubiquity of cameraphones has amplified Black death in the media. Police brutality, unyielding anti-Blackness, and an exhausting presidential election cycle have dominated our day-to-day lives. With history at his back and the events of his own Black life embedded in his memory, the journalist could not have predicted our current state when he first published his manuscript. Still, the author ended up pretty spot-on. Coates was brutally realistic about Black life, even then. In HBO’s film adaptation of the New York Times best-seller, his words echo across the screen, burrowing into our past and leaving hints about the future of Black America and this country.

Continue reading at The A.V. Club.

Netflix's 'Jingle Jangle' adds Black girl magic to the Christmas family film pantheon

Family Christmas films have been staples in popular culture, full of whimsy, holiday cheer and hijinks, from 1946's "It's a Wonderful Life" to 1947's "Miracle on 34th Street," the cartoon heydays of the 1960s and '70s ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "A Year Without a Santa Claus," among others) and well into the 1990s and the 2000s with "Home Alone," "The Santa Clause" and even "Elf." But while many people across all backgrounds have been delighted by these films, David E. Talbert's "Jingle Jangle," now out on Netflix, delivers a magical winter wonderland with something different: Black faces at the center. That alone is something worth celebrating.

Continue reading at NBC Think.

'Spark: A Burning Man Story' Is A Fiery Display Of Community

For many of us over the last 30 years, Burning Man has been somewhat of a legend. The cultural event has expanded exponentially since it was founded in 1986. It now stretches out into a multi-day adventure that draws in upward of 60,000 participants. While society has focused its attention on mainstream events like Coachella, Burning Man remained mostly mythic until the sheer size of the event began to demand a different type of infrastructure and, in turn, a lot more visibility. In their 2013 documentary, Spark: A Burning Man Story, Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter peel back the layers of Burning Man, turning his lens on the founders, the machine behind the event, and the community that keeps it alive. 

To understand what Burning Man has become, Brown and Deeter take a careful look back at its history. We hear from the founding members, Crimson Rose, Harley K. Dubois, the late Larry Harvey, Marian Goodell, Michael Mikel, Will Roger, and John Law, who left Burning Man as it began to expand and the need for more structure became apparent. For the founders who joined the group at various points, Burning Man is much more than an event. Throughout the film, we learn why they find themselves in the 100 plus degree heat in Nevada's Black Rock desert, transforming it into Black Rock City each year. 

Spark is set in the months leading up to the 2012 event. At the time, Burning Man was curated by Black Rock City, LLC, a for-profit business put into place at the turn of the 21st century to circumvent the size and liabilities that come with producing such an event. Built on 10 principles, including gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, and civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy, Burning Man had become more cumbersome then any of the owners or the attendees could have dreamed of. 

Though there are no voyeurs allowed at Burning Man, the nature of the film and Brown and Deeter’s lens allows an audience that would have never seen the event's inter-workings a bird's-eye view. From the whimsical costuming, the stunning structures, and even the organized chaos leading into the opening day, it's clear almost immediately that without the organization backing it, Burning Man would become dangerous and implausible. 

Spark works well because it doesn't merely chronicle Burning Man's origins; it also pulls back the curtain on the event, including its missteps and mishaps. The 2012 event moved to a lottery ticket system that inadvertently locked out some of the long-time supporters of Burning Man — a scandal that eventually made its way into the New York Times. Furthermore, it juxtaposes the paths of those genuinely committed to Burning Man's original message, versus those who choose to attend for pure spectacle. As the community has expanded, many people have chosen to participate for an Instagram photo or a unique backdrop. 

While the founders certainly can't control everything, they have taken steps to reevaluate and reset as the event has gained traction. Since 2013, they've moved back to a non-profit format — Burning Man Project. Moreover, various smaller events across the United States and internationally guided by the Burning Man principles have allowed those who might not be able to get to the Nevada Desert a similar experience. 

In Spark, Brown and Deeter neither elevate nor ridicules Burning Man for its past or its present. Instead, he allows the event and the people at its core to present themselves to the audience. He enables us to see what Burning Man was meant to be as the founders have struggled to continue those same rituals and customs. More than anything, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as people have been forced to become more isolated and alone, it is a spectacular reminder of the communities that will be there to embrace us when this is all over. 

Spark: A Burning Man Story is available on VOD, Amazon Prime, iTunes and VUDU.

'IRL' Gets to the Heart Of Modern-Day Dating

Dating has always been a challenge, but with the advent of technology, social media, and dating apps, hopeful singles have had to find new ways to connect and get to know one another. There are clear upsides to dating online. We can connect with thousands of people from across the globe, whom we wouldn't otherwise connect with. However, the purpose of online dating is to interact and connect with someone offline eventually. Without that physical connection, you can feel as though you're talking to a ghost. 

In his drama IRL, Ricardo Perez-Selsky follows Ian (Chase Hinton), a 30-year-old aspiring painter living in Los Angeles. Though he does graphic design on the side, Ian feels like he's running out of time, both in his professional and personal life. Desperate to find a connection, Ian spends his time crafting and redrafting his statement on a dating app and wining and dining the women who respond to his long eloquent messages. Despite his efforts, finding the "one" is proving to be much more challenging than Ian ever could have expected. When he seems to lose all hope, he matches Sofia (Johanna Sol), with whom he instantly connects.

Though her profile lists her location as LA, Sofia explains that she's 1,000 miles away caring for her. Though hesitant at first, she and Ian strike up and text and phone relationship. Though they seem desperately in sync, the longer the pair goes without actually meeting one another, Ian becomes increasingly frustrated and suspicious that Sofia isn't exactly who he thought she was. 

Though a bit slow-moving, Perez-Selsky's film accurately portrays the hope and disappointment that most online daters have experienced before. He captures that need to stand out and feel special while still staying true to yourself. Unfortunately, as things begin to evolve with Ian professionally, he and Sofia start to drift apart slowly. 

Even with technology, long-distance relationships can surely take a toll on anyone. When the increasing complications of life seep in, finally getting to the same place can feel hopeless and nearly impossible. 

IRL is not a traditional love story; it's far too honest for that. Instead, it's a story about taking a chance and putting your heart on the line even when the odds seemed stacked against you. More than that, IRL is full of surprises; having seen many romantic dramas, audiences will undoubtedly expect the narrative to move in one particular direction. However, they will soon discover that Perez-Selsky and writer Chase Hinton Lead's message is far more creative than that.  

IRL has been released on Pay-per-view and streaming VOD platforms.

‘The Boy Behind the Door’ Is a Terrifying and Realistic Journey

From the moment The Boy Behind the Door begins, with a bird’s eye view of a lone car gliding its way down a forested road somewhere in South Dakota, a sense of dread settles over the film. That sharp feeling only intensifies when the trunk of the car is opened, revealing two terrified young boys, Bobby (This Is Us‘ Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey). Sweaty, breathless, and bound and gagged together, their kidnapper appears suddenly, ripping Kevin from the vehicle, leaving Bobby behind. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

‘Really Love’ Is a Smoldering Dream

There has been a resurgence of films with majority Black casts across all genres coming from mainstream studios, and independent films. Romance films starring Black people have returned to the screen after a near-total erasure since the ’90s. Recent films like The Photograph, Moonlight, and If Beale Street Could Talk have reminded audiences about Black tenderness and intimacy, even when these moments are brief and fleeting in the narrative. However, with Angel Kristi Williams’ Really Love, a film centered squarely on a romance, we are reminded of the gentleness of Black love and that Black women, in particular, deserve big grand gestures and declarations. 

Set in gentrifying Washington D.C., Really Love follows Isaiah (Kofi Siriboe), a struggling painter vying for representation and a solo art show. Watching his peers and his mentor (Michael Ealy) continue to soar is beginning to weigh on Isaiah’s self-esteem. His astounding talent is clear — even if his own family doesn’t entirely support his career choices.

Stevie (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing) is also at a crossroads in her life. Stepping into her final year at Georgetown Law School, she’s torn between the activism work that tugs at her heart and the bigwig law firms that are vying for her attention. If it were up to her mother, she’d be commanding a corner office in some big city sky-rise, but Stevie isn’t so sure. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

A Woman Discovers Exactly What She’s Capable of in the Sharp Crime Drama ‘I’m Your Woman’

In crime dramas, the focus is usually on the criminal. The narrative follows their motives and mishaps. Very little attention is paid to the people who absorb the most significant repercussions of this nefarious behavior. Namely, the women often left in the wake of bad men are given very little screen time. We saw this displayed in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather saga when Michael Corleone’s wife Kay wanted to escape her volatile marriage. Then it was depicted more recently in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman as Frank Sheeran’s daughter slowly learns his true nature. However, in Julia Hart’s I’m Your Woman, the filmmaker puts women back front and center, reminding them of their power. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

'High On Heels' Is An Informative Snap-Shot Of A Polarizing Shoe

There is something regal about a high heeled shoe. Without ever having to say a word, a woman wearing a stunning shoe shows up in the world in a certain way, commanding power and certain spaces that women are still trying to access today. In his documentary short, High On Heels, filmmaker Adelin Gasana explores the history of heels, which stretches back well into the 16th century. Their origins began in Persia on the feet of men who rode horseback. High On Heels also explores how modern-day women feel about the gorgeous and often painful footwear as we continue to navigate various spaces while shattering sexist practices and behaviors. 

Most women know that heels aren't practical. As little girls, many of us admire the sleek stilettos and the women around us who effortlessly glide around in them. However, when the time comes for us to step into our own pair of shoes, pinched toes, painful heels, blisters, and ankle twists often follow. Still, despite the ramifications, many of us are continually drawn to this style of shoes. 

Using historian Lisa Small's overview of the history of heels, Gasana also pulls in anecdotes from women of all walks of life, including dancers, models, anchors, actors, and a variety of others. Because of the film's rapid pace, there was little time to dive into the fashion industry or examine how heels have played a role in women's "professional" dress. Also, though the interviewees' title cards and professions eventually appear on-screen, it would have been more helpful for them to appear as soon as the interview began to give the film more authority and structure.

Nevertheless, Gasana paints an informative and well-rounded portrait of a polarizing shoe. He gathers quotes from doctors who have seen the damage that heels have on the feet, women who would much rather be wearing flats, and those who wouldn't be caught dead in anything less than a three-inch heel. 

High On Heels is now streaming on Amazon Prime. 

Grand Army pushes past teen tropes into compelling storytelling

Set in early 2020 in Brooklyn, New York, Grand Army begins with a bang of Cardi B. lyrics, a city-wide emergency, and a flurry of notifications lighting up Grand Army High School students’ cellphones. Just a few minutes into the show’s premiere, the student body finds itself under lockdown following a suicide bombing attack in the community. In a frenzy of fear and crazed excitement, the students merge in stairwells and on classroom floors, waiting for the chaos to calm. This might seem far-reaching for a teen drama, but considering the times we’re in, it’s sadly typical.

In the ’90s, the short-lived teen drama My So-Called Life got to the heart and truth of the high school experience. More recently, HBO’s Euphoria cast a blazing light on Gen Z, a generation of bright-eyed humans witnessing more and discovering things quicker than older generations could have ever imagined. Based on her Slut: The Play, Katie Cappiello’s Grand Army joins the few projects that give us an authentic view of teenhood and the emotional saga of high school without exploiting its young people or hiding behind a glaze of Hollywood tropes.

Continue reading at The A.V. Club.

John Boyega Is On Fire in ‘Red, White and Blue’

Though set in the 1980s like Lovers Rock, another movie in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, the tone of Red, White and Blue feels much more familiar to Mangrove, a film set in the ’60s. In its short runtime, the gripping drama chronicles the early career of real-life former superintendent Leroy Logan (John Boyega). A young forensic scientist growing increasingly weary of his days locked away in a lab, Leroy decides to fulfill a childhood dream of being a police officer.

Though he’s well-aware of racism and injustices, having even experienced some first hand, Leroy is determined to shift the Black community’s perception of the police while calling out racist treatment and politics within the force. If that sounds like a naive endeavor for a 20-something Black Londoner in the 1980s, it’s because it is. 

Instead of breaking through and shattering the mold, Leroy finds himself pigeonholed and ostracized from his fellow police officers who remind him at every turn that he’s not really one of them. More painful than the enraging treatment he faces at work is what Leroy deals with at home. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

'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. 

'Mangrove' Will Leave You Enraged, but That's the Point

Like Lover’s Rock, Mangrove, the first film chronologically in Steve McQueen‘s Small Axe series, begins with a song. Based on a true story, the film opens in 1968. We meet Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), a self-assured Black man who smokes and plays card games in a vibrant room with other men. The liveliness and color he’s initially surrounded with fade into a muted neutral color as he descends up into London’s streets and walks forward into the community of Notting Hill.

Frank is on a mission. Having closed his previous establishment that appeared to be a catch-all of questionable activity, including numbers running and a meeting place for alleged criminals, he’s ready to open his Mangrove restaurant. A Trinidadian-born Londoner, Frank is proud to serve dishes and deliver ambiance so near and dear to him. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.

Janelle Monáe: ‘Antebellum’ Is a ‘Kick in the Stomach’ to White Supremacy

Making Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum was always going to be a challenge. Films set in the plantation South press against open wounds that are still present in the 21st century. The film follows Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe), a race scholar who finds herself trapped in a horrific dream where she lives out her days as an enslaved woman named Eden living in the Civil War period.

Haunting and brutal scenes from the period are juxtaposed against the picturesque Southern landscapes in direct contrast to the late 19th century’s reality. Antebellum is a mind-bending narrative that presents the country’s racial horrors as they truly are and what Black women, in particular, have had to endure for survival.

Monáe’s spellbinding performance as a woman caught between two worlds has never been more timely at a moment when everything for Black people is at stake. It’s a searing reminder that our stories must be told in all of their vast nuances, no matter how painful they might be.

Continue reading at Zora.