While I love musicals, I didn’t think La La Land was the fabulous movie I had heard it was going to be. It’s a love story with a clever title and a clever twist. It’s mostly uplifting and gives you “warm fuzzies” throughout the film. Mia (Emma Stone) meets Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) for the first time on a crowded highway, each going to their respective destinations. She flips the bird at him for his reckless driving and he keeps it moving. After continuously running into each other, they decide it’s time to strike up a real conversation. They become friends, then lovers — and so the romance begins. Mia is an aspiring actress that can’t seem to land a role and Sebastian is a jazz keyboardist who can’t seem to get his career on the right track. She continues to get turned down at every audition she tries out for…
View original post 369 more words
Manchester by the Sea is an intense movie but not for some time. You will sit though some pretty boring dialogue before you get to the real gist of what’s going on. I kept wondering, why all the rave reviews? Eventually, there came a time in the story when the events changed and as a result, everything else was effected, including my thoughts about how mundane I thought Manchester by the Sea was. It turned out to be a monster of a movie with brilliant acting, just don’t expect more than a good, sad story.
They’ve done it again. The producers of 24 have come up with another hit series, Designated Survivor. It’s every bit as exciting as 24 was. I am having a real blast watching this new drama with a more mellow character. No fighting, torture, jumping and running from building to building, just plain old fashion deceit, devious plots, murder, terror attacks and plenty of cover ups. Oh, and lets not leave out brains, meaning cleverness, logic and street smarts.
Hidden Figures is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Based on true events, Hidden Figures reveals history about the United States space program we knew very little about. I was shocked to know that Black women participated in the launching of the first US astronaut orbiting the earth, in space or that they contributed in any way to launching the first man on the moon. The trials and tribulations they went through broke my heart. This movie tells a story of profound contributions made by three highly educated master minds, toward the space race between the USA and the USSR to gain control during the space age in order to achieve peace, respect and privilege as the front runner and leader, as a nation. The film recounts the story of three African-American women who worked in professional positions at NASA and helped the United…
I heard Fences was somewhat theatrical, which it was and after seeing it, I also found it was a little slow. At times, I felt I watching a play but a very well written and a very well acted play. Never having read August Wilson’s play, I didn’t know where this story was going. Then all of a sudden, it took a turn for the better. I sat up in my seat and any boredom and any bad thoughts I harbored about having come to see Fences disappeared. Suddenly, excitement and intrigue entered the story. My emotions were coming into play and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. Was I dreaming or was this really happening? Was this boring, straight, hardly off the beaten path, Black man now full of sass and controversy with an exciting story to tell? Is he really standing here before his…
What a refreshing new series. While it’s not perfect, it is different enough in the category of hospital series to consider Pure Genius a keeper. I’m willing to bet most people feel when one is faced with a fatal disease, the FDA’s bureaucratic rules only stand in the way when there’s a potential treatment out there they won’t allow you to participate in because they haven’t done the years of testing they feel is necessary for approval. When you only have a few weeks or months or even just year to live, does it matter? If it does, say no, if it doesn’t, say yes.
Good Behavior is a sign of an excellent actress. The star role is a far cry from the famous Lady Mary Josephine Crawley from Downton Abbey, the popular BBC series that ended in 2016. When I heard Good Behavior was going to air in 2017, featuring a British actress from the Abbey series, I was thrilled. After watching the first couple of episodes, I was amazed. Good Behavior is about a drug dependent, alcoholic, thief, con artist and single mom, who will do what is necessary to get what she wants. Estranged from her son, Jacob Raines (Nyles Steele) because of her lifestyle and absence, due to bouts in jail/prison, Litty Raines (Michelle Dockery) is on a conquest to get her son back from her mother, Estelle (Lusia Strus) since she is fresh out of prison. In this series, Litty meets up with an assassin, Javier Pereira (Juan Diego Botto)
There’s no doubt in my mind, Jennifer Lawrence will go down as one of the greatest actresses of all time. She can make a crap script look good. Not that Passengers is a bad script, it was actually quite good. She made it look even better. The story was different and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Before the last Star Wars adventure, which was about finding Luke Skywalker, (who is also the last Jedi) for his help in saving his sister and the republic from being destroyed by a new device, there was a story waiting to be told. A new Death Star, a space station-based superweapon capable of destroying an entire planet was being developed by a research scientist, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) who is now hiding on the planet Lah’mu with his wife Lyra Erso (Valene Kane) and daughter Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones). Rogue One: A Star Wars Story goes back before The Force Awakens and tells us how it all came to be. Brilliantly acted, the story is excellent and to the point. The Force lives on.
This unusual psychological thriller is a story within a story that takes you on a surprising journey. Not knowing what to expect, I was delighted by how well Nocturnal Animals kept the audience fine tuned into the events as they happened, despite the constant flipping between the novel and the real life story of the reader.
