Stamped from the Beginning
SimilarI've Always Liked You (2016), Shrek (2001),
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022),
Barbie (2023) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Dune (2021), Inception (2010), Joker (2019),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Suicide Squad (2021), Wonka (2023),
The Netflix documentary uses historical evidence and modern scholarship to demonstrate racism's continued role in US society.
At the start of the new documentary Stamped from the Beginning, filmmaker Roger Ross Williams asks his various interview subjects, “What is wrong with Black people?” Considering that all the interviewees in question are also Black, it is unsurprising that the question’s seeming hostility initially throws many. However, once they recognize the context of that query—Williams is asking for a historical context as to what Blacks have done to deserve centuries of institutionalized racism and violence—they are more than willing and able to discuss the subject at length throughout this strong and often provocative film.
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s book of the same name inspired the Williams’ film, a karmic debt the director pays back by including the doctor among a number of knowledgeable Black female scholars and activists. Together, they discuss how the twin stains of racism and white supremacy permeate American society in ways that continue to fester today. They explain how the concept of deeming people as greater or lesser by the color of their skin was born out of slavery. The aim was to simultaneously remove enslaved people’s distinguishing characteristics to make them seem like one undifferentiated mass and drive a wedge between them and white “indentured servants” to prevent the groups from joining forces against their common enemy, the wealthy landowner. Continue Reading →
Trolls
SimilarAbout a Boy (2002), Aladdin (1992), Batman Forever (1995), Batman Returns (1992), Billy Elliot (2000), Bugsy Malone (1976), Chicago (2002), Dances with Wolves (1990), Dirty Dancing (1987), Dr. No (1962), Enchanted (2007), Fantasia (1940), Forrest Gump (1994), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), From Russia with Love (1963), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Ice Age (2002), Italian for Beginners (2000), La Vie en Rose (2007), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), Mary Poppins (1964), Momo (1986), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Muriel's Wedding (1994), My Own Private Idaho (1991), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Princess Mononoke (1997), Ronia the Robber's Daughter (1984), Shall We Dance? (2004), Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), The Avengers (1998), The Big Blue (1988), The Butcher Boy (1998), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), The Terminal (2004), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Studio20th Century Fox,
The Trolls movies continue to indulge in their best and worst impulses in a third installment.
The poster for this past summer's R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings had a reasonably clever tagline to explain the strained dynamic between the film's two leads. Against an image of Jennifer Lawrence squeezing Andrew Barth Feldman's cheeks, a single word is placed on top of each person's face: "Pretty" and "Awkward." Nothing revolutionary in design, but it gets the job done. Best of all, that tagline also makes for an apt descriptor for Trolls Band Together.
The third entry in the Trolls trilogy (based on the popular 80s dolls), Trolls Band Together does indeed live up to the phrase “Pretty. Awkward.” The animators at DreamWorks keep coming up with gorgeous-looking environments for the titular critters to inhabit that look like they emerged from the wreckage of a craft store explosion. Unfortunately, the writing remains as stilted as ever. Continue Reading →
You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
SimilarAbout a Boy (2002), Bring It On (2000), Closely Watched Trains (1966), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Lolita (1962),
Manhattan (1979) Mary Poppins (1964), Sahara (2005), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), To Die For (1995), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Wonder Boys (2000),
You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah has a simple premise. Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) wants her bat mitzvah, only a few weeks away, to be perfect. Using that premise, the film takes off, exploring the growing pains of middle school. Continue Reading →