The film opens with the actual footage of Oscar Grant being shot in the back by cops and ends with a glimpse at Oscar’s real daughter Tatiana four years after losing her father. This was Ryan Coogler’s first feature film and it is done wonderfully. Michael B. Jordan is a fantastic choice for Grant, as he flows seamlessly from a man eager to fight for his future, to one torn by the difficult choices he has to make. What I appreciated is that Oscar Grant is shown as a three dimensional person as it would have been so easy to focus solely on his positive qualities. We see Grant in jail, fighting with his girlfriend and fighting to get back a job he lost due to his irresponsibility. Of course, we also see him as a doting father, loving son and overall friendly guy who wants more than anything to turn his life around. In Grant’s final hours, he chose to take the BART into San Francisco so he wouldn’t drink and drive after ringing in the New Year. Octavia Spencer as Grant’s mom is also incredible and her utter heart break at the end of the film is hard to watch.
Based off of the Broadway play of the same name, the film follows Kendra (Kerry Washington) and her estranged husband Scott (Steven Pasquale) as they reunite at a police station while they search for their missing son. While they wait for answers, tensions rise as they rehash issues from their marriage and race.
American Son came to Broadway in 2018 before being adapted into a Netflix film. Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale reprise their roles for the film as do Jeremy Jordan and Eugene Lee.
I never got to see this while it was on Broadway so I have nothing to compare it to. In terms of the film itself, the source material doesn’t work in this particular medium. There seemed to be little to no changes made when adapting it from a play into a film. This hinders it in this case as the action is stuck in one place for the whole film.
The action taking place in one area works for theatre, but in film, there has to be a way to keep the audience engaged. There are opportunities for close ups we don’t get when watching something live, different camera angles, a variety of techniques to emphasize the mood of the circumstances and none of that was used.
It’s tricky, because filmed stage productions work and this might have benefited from that instead of taking the stage script as is and calling it the film adaptation.
Again, I never saw the Broadway production so this could just be a script issue overall. It’s a shame because I was looking forward to watching it.
American Son is a play. There have been successful plays turned into films. In order for a play to become a film, things need to change.
Broadway plays as a whole need to become more accessible for the masses. I think this is a step in the right direction in making that happen, but this is also not the way to do it.
Sorry, went off on a tangent there, but I’m so frustrated by this. Kerry Washington is great and has the best performance of anyone in the cast.
In her documentary 13th, Ava Duvernay states that the 13th amendment never truly abolished slavery.
This isn’t a new argument, but by bringing it into a visual medium, it truly brings the argument to the forefront.
The film Birth of a Nation was used to continue vilifying Black people after the civil war. This vilification has continued over the years as Black people make up the majority of those incarcerated.
Throughout the film, the use of the word criminal is emphasized. It’s astounding how casually that word is thrown around, regardless of the severity of the crime.
The argument that slavery was never truly abolished becomes more clear as the film goes on. The most obvious example being the use of cheap prison labor. Inmates are made to work for little pay.
The war on drugs especially brought forth an unequal amount of Black men being incarcerated. They were incarcerated at much higher numbers than their white counterparts. The film brings forth politicians from both sides of the spectrum as well as a variety of different experts.
The documentary is a must see. It makes its arguments in a clear and concise manner.
Villains are fun. They get the best songs, the best lines and they’re deliciously evil. I don’t rule for the villains personally, but I love when they give the heroes a challenge.
Cruella is definitely not a villain I would root for she does kill innocent puppies after all, but she’s so iconic. She’s also so deranged and over the top fun.
Emma Stone plays Cruella in Cruella which is meant to serve as her origin story.
It’s fun, but not great. It can also be way shorter than it is.
Cruella was born Estella. As a young girl she was constantly getting into trouble, until ultimately she’s kicked out of her school causing her and her mom to move to London.
Not surprisingly Cruella ends up an orphan in a manner not meant to be funny, but honestly is. While on the streets she meets two other orphans Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry) and the three team up becoming petty thieves.
Cruella does what she must to survive, but her dream is to become a fashion designer and become as great as The Baroness (Emma Thompson).
In an unexpected turn of events, Estella is hired by the Baroness and thus begins her journey of going from Estella to Cruella.
The film is packed with long voice overs and way too long fashion montages and I wish the focus had been on just Cruella.
The film shows the evil Cruella we all know and love while also trying to prove that she’s not all bad. This is my main issue with the live action villain films we’ve gotten so far.
These films try to redeem these villains so much that they almost get rid of what makes these villains so fun. I don’t need to see that Cruella might be a good person underneath that tough exterior. I want to know how she became evil.
Thompson and Stone are both great, though. The Baroness is very one dimensional though.
Stone seems to be having an absolute blast in the role. She’s over the top, but quite nuanced and understated when she has to be.
The dogs are absolute scene stealers. The best character in the whole film is the one eyed chihuahua, Wink.
The costumes and the soundtrack also stand out for being absolutely phenomenal.
The film is entertaining. As it gets to the end though, it feels like it’ll never come to an end.
Cruella was better than I expected it to be, but a Cruella origin story it is not.
A Quiet Place Part II is a great sequel. The first scene is tense and the tension continues through the rest of the film. It doesn’t necessarily add anything new to the world we were introduced to in the first film, but honestly it doesn’t have to. Cillian Murphy becomes part of the main cast and he’s great. The original cast also continues to be great.
The film opens on the day the earth was invaded. John Krasinski briefly reprises his role as he and the rest of his family try to survive that initial day. The camera switches perspectives frequently making you feel as if you’re there in real time. While you know the family survives at least that day, it isn’t any less tense watching them and the rest of the town trying to make it out alive.
What’s also effective is that the day in question starts like any other day. There’s something in China that killed millions of people, but in this small New York town, everyone is gathered for a youth baseball game. Suddenly a fire ball appears in the sky and it all goes down hill from there.
It’s an effective way to feel uneasy right from the start and that feeling never quite goes away. It at least answers the question of when and how they arrived.
After the opening, the film begins immediately where the first one left off. Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and her children Regan (Millicent Simmons), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and the newborn baby leave the their home in search of help. Heading in the direction of the nearest fire signal, they find the warehouse where their old friend Emmett (Murphy) resides. Emmett is reluctant to help, but eventually gives in.
This film is plot wise almost exactly as the first. This time though, Regan splits from her family and she and Emmett head toward a radio signal that will hopefully provide them with a way to fight the aliens. Evelyn, Marcus and the baby stay behind in the warehouse and must try to survive until the other two return. Both teams experience their own perils and the filmmakers do a fantastic job making you feel as though no one is safe.
There are major plot holes, but everything else is so well crafted that it almost doesn’t matter. There are also other complaints that will hopefully be fixed in part III because with that ending, it’s Mose definitely coming.
