FIrst Rule of Movie Club is: you don't talk about Movie Club. But you do share, because sharing is caring.
Most likely, you're kind of like me when it comes to Little Richard: you grew up with his name floating around in the background of your music history knowledge: one of the rock n' roll pioneers, sang a few of those oldies you hear in movies sometimes, and you can probably guess that he got … Continue reading Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Symbols are such strange, odd things- nothing more than a squiggle or a doodle, they nevertheless hold sway over the human beings who believe in them. Be it a flag or an icon, symbols trigger emotions, start wars, rally people to a cause. We Westerners living on the chunk of dirt called America don't think … Continue reading We Don’t Need a Map
Made-for-TV Movies are a fascinating and forgotten artifact of American mass culture. Basically B-Movies "not good enough for the theater," they still took time and money to produce, still required name actors, and still basically all have the potential to be quality work, if only the scripts were better... but they rarely are. Steven Spielberg's … Continue reading T-Bone N Weasel
Back in the 90's, racism was old hat. To anyone who wasn't Black, all the signs pointed up- we all were quite aware of the Civil Rights movement, thank you very much, and our generation had moved beyond that. We had Spike Lee, Tribe Called Quest, and... well, things were pretty much on track for … Continue reading White Man’s Burden
It's hard to deny the accusation of systemic racism in Hollywood when you watch a film like Purlie Victorious- it's such a sharp criticism of America, done in such a hilarious way, and so clearly still-relevant today that the only answer to the question why have I never heard of this great movie? is so … Continue reading Purlie Victorious (aka Gone are the Days!)
While most people are falling over backwards trying to prove how not-racist they are.... excuse me, "anti-racist"... Spike Lee was forcing America to confront itself through the drama of human life decades before anyone uttered the word "woke." Jungle Fever is one of his best, the simple story of a Black Man and an Italian … Continue reading Jungle Fever
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