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![]() Nina Simone’s name and presence had occasionally penetrated my consciousness and always piqued my interest. Happily, this well done documentary finally brought her consequential music and politics alive. Dubbed the High Priestess of Soul, she was a unique and uniquely transfixing artist, fusin…
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Liz Garbus on her Nina Simone doc
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![]() Barbershop: The Next Cut should be a Best Picture contender but won’t be. Not because it’s black, because it’s a comedy. Comedies get no respect from the Academy. Can I get a witness? Somebody? While LOL funny, Barbershop 3 is not your ordinary comedy. Instead, it bridges several paradoxes…
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Cube, Common, Cedric & Nicki, oh my!
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![]() The American hero who almost single-handedly defeated institutional racism personified his unique first name. Lots of Marshalls, just one Thurgood, which is why Marshall is a poor title for this stirring biopic. OTOH, Thurgood sounds like a thoroughly good historical drama about Thurgood Mars…
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Thurgood Marshall, American action hero
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![]() Uncle Drew has great timing, both when it hit theaters and how it rolls its comedy. It premiered on-time and on-target: three weeks after the NBA playoffs concluded, just as my basketball jones started to kick in. Plus, it’s populated with proven NBA superstars, including Shaquille O’Neal, Amer…
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Original Uncle Drew short films
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![]() Aretha Franklin was never even that close to being one of my favorite soul singers. There, I’ve said it. That’s now chang…
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The most sought-after concert film? Yes!
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Devotion is a poorly-titled twofer: a damn good war movie about a Medal of Honor recipient and his heroic squadron, plus a powerful biopic about the Navy’s first black fighter pilot. It’s triply good for reviving these true stories about the sadly overlooked Korean War. All in all, that makes i…
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NAVY Fighters in the Korean War
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![]() Wakanda Forever is maternal Marvel, and not just maternal but sisterly and resolutely female focused. Sisters doing it for themselves, IOW. The only men are supporting players, including the über villain, who’s not half bad but not man enough to give the movie balance. This is a serious flaw in…
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Sisters talking it out... too much.
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![]() 42 gives us a part of baseball history that fans and non-fans alike should see. As much as it is a decent baseball story, it is an even better story about American history. This glimpse into how Jackie Robinson made his way from a Negro league to the Brooklyn Dodgers was more complex than a simpl… |
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![]() Sidney Poitier takes on Southern racism and murder in an engaging and quite ground-breaking film – one which angers and satisfies in equal measure, and presents the very real struggle for civil rights in 1960s America.
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