Director Nia DaCosta ("Candyman '21," "The Marvels") adapts Henrik Ibsen's 19th century theatrical play 'Hedda Gabler,' transplanting it to the 1950's, diversifying its all-white cast with Tessa Thompson ("Creed" and "Thor" franchises) in the lead, and changing the gender of a key character (Nina Hoss' Lovborg) among Hedda's past and wannabe lovers (some more queer than others) crowding a lavish society party. Unfolding during an evening of gradually increasing stakes for the care-free and unrestrained newlywed, "Hedda" oozes sexuality from every casual lighting of a cigarette, glances from horny men (Nicholas Pinnock) and liberated women (Imogen Poots, Mirren Mack) who can't conceive of the opposite sex as independent-thinking beings, and charged conversations sprinkled with suggestive dialogue. A Brad Pitt-produced prestige picture that wound up as a Prime Original, "Hedda" frees its black women director/star from horror/superhero movie jail to flex their dramatic/darkly comedic talents. The jazzy, drum-heavy percussion music (enhanced by ASMR vocals), gorgeous cinematography and exquisite production design go a long way to sell this as a potent "Great Gatsby"-meets-"Carol" combo... only a lot more black/queer than the originals. 4 CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES COOLING OFF IN THE ICY INDOOR LOBBY FOUNTAIN (out of five).
A trio of professional fashion shoplifters (Keke Palmer, Taylour Page and Naomi Ackie) live for their 'fashion-forward philanthropy' of reselling expensive clothes at affordable prices, even if it means living in an abandoned chicken restaurant without running water. After being bad-mouthed in the media by fashion designer and distinguished-by-the-press businesswoman Christie Smith (Demi Moore), the 'boosters' decide to get back at Smith by targeting her single-color coordinated stores for boosting, then the company itself by going after its low-wage earning Chinese suppliers. Just as he did with his impressive 2018 debut feature "Sorry To Bother You," Boots Riley has a very simple premise that could be easily spoiled without ruining the fun experience of actually watching it. It's the mad strokes of creativity Riley comes up with (Christie's heavily-inclined office building) while telling his stories (stop-motion gang of villains, miniature car chases, puppet monsters, etc.) that, combined with eye-catching production design (Christopher Glass) and a peppy soundtrack (by the Tune-Yards duo), that give "I Love Boosters" the feeling of being the second coming of Charlie Kaufman... only black. 😎 I'm not crazy about "ILB" for its pro-union, fashion-conscious, LGBTQ-friendly aspects... but the Boots Riley fun factor goes a long way to make them palatable. 3.25 30-SECOND LUNCH BREAKS (out of five).
Part road trip adventure through the US South, part bloody revenge tale and all African-American sisterhood bonding, Aleshea Harris' feature-film writing/directorial debut (based on her 2018 award-winning play) makes for a terrific thriller if you have the stomach for the dark places it goes to. Twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), the latter disfigured by a fire when she was little, are asked by their dying mother Ruby (Vivica A. Fox) to kill their father for beating her up and starting the fire that burned both mother and daughter. Anaia is hesitant to do as 'God' (their nickname for mom) asks of them, but Racine jumps into the plan and drags her sister along. Visualizing with subtitles how the sisters know what the other one's thinking or about to say (cute), the duo run into trouble (like trying to find out who their father is and where he lives) as they run into colorful-but-capable-of-violence people touched by the same man's darkness. Mykelti Williamson stands out as a lawyer who can point the sisters in the right direction. The denouement of "Is God Is" feels uplifting, which is odd given revenge proves to (a) not be worth it and (b) the key to the twins establishing their own separate identities. Great cinematic food for thought, and a damn good revenge flick. 3.85 ROCK 'EM, SOCK 'EM SWINGING SOCK ROCKS (out of five).
Emma Mae a.k.a. Black Sister's Revenge (1976, dir. Jamaa Fanaka)
Black teenager Emma Mae travels from the deep South to stay with her relatives in L.A. When her new boyfriend gets into a fight with cops and arrested, Emma Mae is determined to make enough money for his bail. When a car wash doesn't do the trick, she resorts to more drastic measures.
Fanaka fits a lot of ideas about Black culture, racism, gang warfare and more into one movie. So many, in fact, that as a pasty guy from Finland I feel totally unequipped to say much about this movie, other than that I liked it. Great performances across the board from a cast of mostly non-actors.
I went with another blaxploitation classic, Gordon Parks Jr.'s follow-up to Super Fly. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly are a trio of badasses who discover a diabolical plot to exterminate black people with science. Needless to say, they make sure the Nazi-coded secret organization behind it gets what it deserves. So many highlights here: cars getting wrecked and blown up with abandon (Hal Needham helped with that), multiple shootouts in cool industrial settings, three lady torture experts proudly displaying their special techniques, Kelly's slow-motion karate chops, Brown's giant gun, Williamson's cigar. Pure blaxploitation mayhem. Highly recommended, but you probably already knew that.
I adore this movie. Discovered it via a Jim Kelly deep dive during a Junesploitation a few years ago and to date i think its my favorite blaxploitation flick.
Ill be brief as im well documented on this one. Director Scott Sanders has created (in my opinion) the single greatest love letter to Blaxploitation cinema. Also one of the funniest movies ever made. This movie is pure cinema bliss and i only love it more with every rewatch. It begs the eternal question..."Why Black Dynamite...Why".
Starring Wesley Snipes and directed by Kevin Hooks, who played the young boy in Sounder (1972) and became a director as an adult. Snipes is just so cool in this. Good looking, funny, and bad-ass, literally kicking the bad guys to death. It was great that this 84 minute movie didn't waste any time on his backstory, or "world building" in preparation for a sequel. We know he's some sort of international badass, and he's going to kick ass.
The always awesome Bill Duke directed this as part of the American Playhouse series. It is the true story of Frank Custer (Damien Leake) a young black man who travels to Chicago after WWI to find work and ends up working in a slaughterhouse. The film details the racial and economic struggles between the workers, management, unions, politicians, etc. It was effective in that it kinda ruined my day. Strong and disturbing stuff. I was thinking this would make a good pairing with John Sayles' Matewan (1987) as they cover similar subjects while that film is much more lyrical and beautiful while Killing Floor is more a grungy and awful descent into hell.
Not sure if I'll watch it for Junesploitation, but I'll definitely check that out. I watched Blue Collar (1978) a little before Junesploitation, and it was very good, portraying the dynamics of being in a union.
I have Blue Collar on dvd and there is an amazing Schrader commentary. There were multiple physical fights amongst the leads. Pryor apparently punched Keitel and somehow didn’t instantly turn into a ghost.
Since it's a director day... directed by Ivan Dixon!
Cynical political machinations put pressure on the CIA to hire their first black agent. The CIA brings in a bunch of applicants, then tries to flunk them or get them all to quit. One man (Lawrence Cook) passes all the training despite the CIA's best (worst) efforts, and they stick him in the "Top Secret Reproduction Department" (the copy room). He plays along for five years, then resigns under the guise of taking a social worker job back home in Chicago, but what he really does is use all that CIA training to build an underground guerilla force and start a revolt against corrupt government, police, and the National Guard.
The movie goes pretty hard and follows through on its premise without blinking. I was more engaged watching the setup of dominoes in the first half than I was watching them get knocked down in the second half, but in 1973 those dominoes were explosive enough to get the movie pulled from theaters. Pretty good flick.
HARLEM NIGHTS (1989) Eddie Murphy himself directs an all-star cast, looking back at the glory days of a Harlem nightclub. The tone is all over the place, not quite a comedy, not quite a crime flick. I guess you could call it a hangout movie, just getting this cast together at once is enough. I like the atmosphere and the style (especially all the outfits!), but the movie never goes big as I expected. And for a movie about a Harlem nightclub, the music doesn’t play much of a role. I know people love this movie, and I really wanted to like it, but I’m left feeling it’s a mixed bag at best.
30 days of fan films, day 19: LAKESHORE SLASHER (2021) A family receives a Good Guy doll in the mail, and now our unofficial Chucky sequel is off and running. It’s pretty rough, with poor lighting and muffled sound, but co-directors Jeremiah and Karma Engel manage to pull off some spooky visuals here and there. I especially like the creepy Chucky faces seen in the security cam, looking like something out Paranormal Activity. And people must’ve liked this, because the Engels made three sequels!
Parks directs the hell out of this buddy cop romp inspired by real NYC cops known as Batman and Robin because of their record number of arrests and commendations.
A favorite movie of Edgar Wright, I don’t know how it’s taken me this long to see this direct inspiration for Hot Fuzz.
I gotta be honest I’m still kind of reeling from this one so I may ramble a bit. Twin sisters are sent by their mother (who they call God because she made them) to kill their estranged father, who many years ago tried to kill them and left them all deeply scarred, physically and otherwise. Of course if their mother is God because she made them…what does that make their father?
Their journey across the south to fulfill their mother’s wish is genuinely epic, from the dangers they face to the philosophizing that takes up much of the journey. This was based on a play and that blows my mind because it doesn’t feel stagy in the slightest and I can’t even imagine how it played out onstage. The leads (Mallori Johnson and Kara Young, both unknown to me) give the performances of the year in my opinion, they are compelling, funny, heartbreaking, and truly have the chemistry of twin sisters. Add in a brief but staggeringly good performance by Sterling K. Brown as their father and you’ve got a hell of an acting showcase. This examination of misogynoir is the film debut of writer/director/playwright Aleshea Harris and it is as confident a debut as I’ve ever seen. I absolutely cannot wait to see what she does next, I believe this is my favorite movie of the year so far.
Came for Delroy Lindo, but was won over by the adorable kid Zelda Harris. Good story, with Zelda's character learning life lessons and experiencing a different world down south as well. I was taken aback by the sudden squeezed image in the south, thinking my stream had messed something up. (Now I see it was a choice by Lee.)
I do wish that there was more of the neighborhood positivity in the opening sequence and less of the kids fighting and lying. But what's undisputable is this movie has an ALL-TIMER SOUNDTRACK!
Solid revenge flick. I enjoyed this, though it's a bit overly long. The initial set up lays it on a bit thick, but nice to see some Nazi's get their comeuppance.
BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL (1984, Chester Novell Turner)
Existing in a dimension of unadulterated oddness, BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL is an SOV blaxploitation horror hoot unlike any other. Unless, unbeknownst to me, there’s another movie with a Rick James-style ventriloquist dummy getting his superfreak on! Shirley L. Jones portrays Helen, and kudos to her for an heroic performance, enduring an eternal er()tic scene with the h~rny as hell dummy. Helen, an upstanding religious woman who has been suppressing her s*xual urges, loses her virg!nity and her religion after the dummy’s whack attack and develops a urge for more intercour$e. Unfortunately for Helen, nothing satisfies like the puppet!
Is the flick an anti-religious tract, encouraging people to loosen their bonds and get it on? Is it an observation that women ultimately are more fulfilled with masturb@tion and s*x toys than with men? Perhaps an allegory on addiction in general? Am I reading too much into this? Probably! You could ask Chester Turner, who also directed the incredible SOV anthology TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE, but apparently he’s turned his attention to the construction biz. A true loss.
I love psychotronic cinema, and I gotta say, BDDFH was one for the ages. Simultaneously hilarious and disturbing, with a killer Casiotone soundtrack (can some boutique video company come up with an ‘80s horror Casio compilation for us insane audiophiles like me, please?). By basic standards of cinematic competence and common decency, BDDFH is a criminal offense. To weirdoes like me, well, these types of flicks hit the spot like Helen’s degenerate dummy did for her. Only the paucity of wood-related jokes was a disappointment. Otherwise, an incredible, unbelievable, unsavory journey.
Postscript: Apparently, some preverts filmed an homage/remake of this in 2007.
I'm fairly certain this is the only feature length Spike Lee joint that I hadn't seen. I'm not sure how I missed this, but I'm guessing it had to do with the year it was released. I actually think this is one of Spike's better efforts. There is a great deal that doesn't work here, but I think it's because he is trying to do A LOT, and I'm someone who prefers a writer or director to take a big swing and miss rather than play it safe. On first viewing, I honestly can't tell how I feel about the Delroy Lindo performance. I'm torn between he's incredible in this, or he's overacting the entire time, and I think I will have to see it again to figure it out.
To understand Street Wars, you have to understand the man behind the curtain: Jamaa Fanaka.
He was part of the famous L.A. Rebellion at UCLA alongside guys like Charles Burnett and Julie Dash, but while they went high-art, Fanaka went straight for the exploit-o-meter. He gave us the Penitentiary trilogy and the absolutely mental, killer-dick classic Soul Vengeance (aka Welcome Home, Brother Charles). By 1992, Fanaka was frustrated with Hollywood and decided to make Street Wars.
Our guide through this madness is Sugar Pop (Alan Joseph), a deep-voiced, striking dude with piercing blue eyes who looks like a model but talks like a voiceover god. Any hero in a Fanaka movie gets a sugary name. Witness Too Sweet in those three prison boxing movies. As for Sugar Pop, he just graduated as the Top Gun of the Exeter Military Academy and is heading to West Point. His brother Frank (Bryan O’Dell) paid for it all. How? By running the local crack industry out of a spot called The Regal Social Club. A place with specials posted on a board and a drive-thru.
Frank’s right-hand man is Humungus (Clifford Shegog), a giant of a man. They belong to a secret council called The Knights of the Round Table, but they meet at a long, rectangular table. Forget logic. Anyway, when Frank gets taken out, Sugar Pop inherits the empire. Naturally, he rides around the hood on a scooter he rigged with a fire-spewing jet engine and applies military logic to running the streets.
Street Wars is torn between lamenting the neighborhood’s tragic conditions and treating Sugar Pop like a superhero. When he goes to war with rival gangs, the local news reports on him like a folk hero. At one point, the movie pauses the plot for Frank’s funeral, which turns into a full-blown gospel choir and choreographed dance number against a minimalist background. Real-life Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Muhammad himself shows up as himself to give a eulogy!
But nothing will prepare you for the third act. Sugar Pop’s ultimate plan to win the drug war? He trains his lieutenants to fly ultralight motorized gliders and hang out of them, shooting Uzis. The news calls them the Ghetto Air Force. As Sugar Pop’s paraplegic buddy enthusiastically yells, “Looks like fun to me! Up there, I don’t need no legs!” Fanaka, who served in the Air Force, wanted to pay tribute to WWII dogfight movies. Sadly, he didn’t have the budget of a movie like Red Tails, so the dogfights are just limited, choppy footage of gliders buzzing around.
It’s great.
There’s also a moment that cuts between Frank and Humungus having sex with their ladies in different rooms while a song called “I Wanna Sex You Down” plays, all while cutting back to a random kid playing a furious drum solo. Humungus actually lifts his girlfriend completely onto his head and carries her up the stairs while going down on her. This is a highly advanced, Olympic-level bedroom maneuver that I would not recommend to the weak.
If this whole movie feels like a work-in-progress, well, it was. Fanaka actually sued the distributors for accidentally releasing an unfinished version with terrible sound mixing and dubbing. But that just adds to the dreamlike, surreal charm. What other gang movie would have the good guys have a trans member, and no one even brings it up?
The movie ends with a text crawl saluting African-American filmmakers, listing everyone from Spike Lee to obscure exploitation directors like Dr. Roland Jefferson. Fanaka eventually got blacklisted by Hollywood for filing a massive lawsuit against the Directors Guild to force them to hire more women and minorities. He lost the suit, but he forced the industry to change.
Revisiting a movie that I haven’t seen since its release but I remember enjoying quite a bit. Released in 2002, a time when there was a chicken for every pot and a goatee for every chin.
The premise has Edward “I have a few notes” Norton as a drug dealer during his last hours of freedom before serving a 7 year prison sentence. The supporting cast is top notch from lecherous old friends played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper, girlfriend Rosario Dawson and Brian Cox as his father. Hoffman and Cox are both excellent. Everyone’s favourite corrupt senator from the Wire, Isiah Whitlock Jr shows up as a detective and literally drops his Wire catchphrase (“sheeeeeeeeeit”, for the unaware) not once, not twice but thrice. Between the weird angles, jarring closeups and dolly glides for everyone, Lee is definitely digging deep into the gimmick bag and a lot of it works. I had forgotten how heavily the shadow of 9/11 loomed over the story.
My memory of the “make me ugly” scene near the end was that it was sad and moving. This time around, I’m not sure if it went on for a beat too long but it had me snickering a little. Something about the way that he said “If they get one look at me, looking like this. I’ll be finished” as if he were Sydney Sweeney. It’s still a great scene, but I’m not so sure that the logic tracks. Full disclosure, my prison experience fortunately has been limited to 6 seasons of Oz, Bad Boys (the good one) and Shawshank. In my uninformed opinion, if you see a guy coming into prison beat to holy hell, you have a guy who will heal shortly and can’t fight for shit.
I enjoyed the rewatch and apparently Ebert loved it. That has to be worth something, right?
Trouble Man(2025 Dir Michael Jai White) MJW plays a fixer who sidelines as security at a nightclub owned by Mike Epps. When a singer is kidnapped Orlando Jordan hires MJW to find her. The singers boyfriend(Method Man) also joins the investigation. Found this to be a solid little DTV flick. Plays like a modern blacksploitation film with all the humor and Kung fu one would expect from the genre.
I have really fallen behind on Marvel movies, but this one was directed by Nia DaCosta so I figured I'd finally get to it. Definitely haven't seen everything that leads up to this movie (am I missing one show Disney+ or two? Is there another movie in there I should have seen?), but the film does a good job of catching you up if you are at least sort of familiar with the MCU.
I remember this film getting a lot of hate and honesty I don't get that. It was silly at times, but had a fun action bit with characters switching places...and the cats! So many cats.
A rendition of "Memory" from the musical Cats had me legit laughing out loud. If you watch MCU projects and haven't seen this one yet, give it a shot.
The 'Memory' cat scene had me howling from laughter😅, so much so that I annoyed the few people sitting around me that weren't laughing. Their loss, I liked "The Marvels" plenty... but I can see why Nia and Tessa Thompson would run away from the disastrous reception that got and immediately get to work on "Hedda." 😎
The D+ shows you're looking for are WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. They are actually among the better ones, so I'd soft recommend checking out both, especially if you found the other two Marvels interesting as characters.
Really cool neo noir. Everything comes together really nicely, not without surprises. Nails the period LA setting. Good performances and directing! Even the few minutes that Don Cheadle gets are made to count.
This movie surprised me in many ways! I didn't expect my favourite rapper (Q-Tip - really smart casting) to show up, Janet Jackson to be so good, the film to be mostly a roadtrip (granted, the poster should have tipped me off), or the verbal and physical outbursts that really ground the movie in its socioeconomical reality. I also didn't expect a cat to be named White Boy. It's always bittersweet to watch a Tupac movie, see how incredibly talented and unique he was in, well, pretty much everything he touched, including acting, and be reminded of the tragedy of his short life. But better to celebrate the career he did have than to grieve over the one we didn't get!
108.- HEDDA (2025, AMAZON PRIME)
ReplyDeleteDirector Nia DaCosta ("Candyman '21," "The Marvels") adapts Henrik Ibsen's 19th century theatrical play 'Hedda Gabler,' transplanting it to the 1950's, diversifying its all-white cast with Tessa Thompson ("Creed" and "Thor" franchises) in the lead, and changing the gender of a key character (Nina Hoss' Lovborg) among Hedda's past and wannabe lovers (some more queer than others) crowding a lavish society party. Unfolding during an evening of gradually increasing stakes for the care-free and unrestrained newlywed, "Hedda" oozes sexuality from every casual lighting of a cigarette, glances from horny men (Nicholas Pinnock) and liberated women (Imogen Poots, Mirren Mack) who can't conceive of the opposite sex as independent-thinking beings, and charged conversations sprinkled with suggestive dialogue. A Brad Pitt-produced prestige picture that wound up as a Prime Original, "Hedda" frees its black women director/star from horror/superhero movie jail to flex their dramatic/darkly comedic talents. The jazzy, drum-heavy percussion music (enhanced by ASMR vocals), gorgeous cinematography and exquisite production design go a long way to sell this as a potent "Great Gatsby"-meets-"Carol" combo... only a lot more black/queer than the originals. 4 CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES COOLING OFF IN THE ICY INDOOR LOBBY FOUNTAIN (out of five).
109.- I LOVE BOOSTERS (2026, THEATER)
ReplyDeleteA trio of professional fashion shoplifters (Keke Palmer, Taylour Page and Naomi Ackie) live for their 'fashion-forward philanthropy' of reselling expensive clothes at affordable prices, even if it means living in an abandoned chicken restaurant without running water. After being bad-mouthed in the media by fashion designer and distinguished-by-the-press businesswoman Christie Smith (Demi Moore), the 'boosters' decide to get back at Smith by targeting her single-color coordinated stores for boosting, then the company itself by going after its low-wage earning Chinese suppliers. Just as he did with his impressive 2018 debut feature "Sorry To Bother You," Boots Riley has a very simple premise that could be easily spoiled without ruining the fun experience of actually watching it. It's the mad strokes of creativity Riley comes up with (Christie's heavily-inclined office building) while telling his stories (stop-motion gang of villains, miniature car chases, puppet monsters, etc.) that, combined with eye-catching production design (Christopher Glass) and a peppy soundtrack (by the Tune-Yards duo), that give "I Love Boosters" the feeling of being the second coming of Charlie Kaufman... only black. 😎 I'm not crazy about "ILB" for its pro-union, fashion-conscious, LGBTQ-friendly aspects... but the Boots Riley fun factor goes a long way to make them palatable. 3.25 30-SECOND LUNCH BREAKS (out of five).
110.- IS GOD IS ('26, THEATER)
ReplyDeletePart road trip adventure through the US South, part bloody revenge tale and all African-American sisterhood bonding, Aleshea Harris' feature-film writing/directorial debut (based on her 2018 award-winning play) makes for a terrific thriller if you have the stomach for the dark places it goes to. Twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), the latter disfigured by a fire when she was little, are asked by their dying mother Ruby (Vivica A. Fox) to kill their father for beating her up and starting the fire that burned both mother and daughter. Anaia is hesitant to do as 'God' (their nickname for mom) asks of them, but Racine jumps into the plan and drags her sister along. Visualizing with subtitles how the sisters know what the other one's thinking or about to say (cute), the duo run into trouble (like trying to find out who their father is and where he lives) as they run into colorful-but-capable-of-violence people touched by the same man's darkness. Mykelti Williamson stands out as a lawyer who can point the sisters in the right direction. The denouement of "Is God Is" feels uplifting, which is odd given revenge proves to (a) not be worth it and (b) the key to the twins establishing their own separate identities. Great cinematic food for thought, and a damn good revenge flick. 3.85 ROCK 'EM, SOCK 'EM SWINGING SOCK ROCKS (out of five).
BONUS: 30 DAYS OF PINK PANTHER & FRIENDS, DAY 19!
ReplyDelete111.- THE PINK PANTHER: PINK PICTURES (10/21/1978, DVD). Streaming on YOUTUBE.
First 'Pink Panther' short to simultaneously debut on both television and theaters, which would gradually transition to TV first. The Panther walks through the woods trying to get nature pictures of animals in the wild with his camera, leading to not-great encounters with angry woodpeckers, hungry crocodiles, upset bees, a hissy butterfly, a disturbed bear and a Pepé Le Pew lookalike. It's typical Panther cartoon business, with the most notable difference from previous shorts being the music score by Steve DePatie. It's all over the place and appropriately goofy, but lacks the consistent quality of the music in shorts made from 1965 to 1977. 3.4 PINK PANTHERS TURNING BLUE FROM HOLDING BREATH UNDERWATER TOO LONG (out of five).
Emma Mae a.k.a. Black Sister's Revenge (1976, dir. Jamaa Fanaka)
ReplyDeleteBlack teenager Emma Mae travels from the deep South to stay with her relatives in L.A. When her new boyfriend gets into a fight with cops and arrested, Emma Mae is determined to make enough money for his bail. When a car wash doesn't do the trick, she resorts to more drastic measures.
Fanaka fits a lot of ideas about Black culture, racism, gang warfare and more into one movie. So many, in fact, that as a pasty guy from Finland I feel totally unequipped to say much about this movie, other than that I liked it. Great performances across the board from a cast of mostly non-actors.
Three the Hard Way (1974)
ReplyDeleteI went with another blaxploitation classic, Gordon Parks Jr.'s follow-up to Super Fly. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly are a trio of badasses who discover a diabolical plot to exterminate black people with science. Needless to say, they make sure the Nazi-coded secret organization behind it gets what it deserves. So many highlights here: cars getting wrecked and blown up with abandon (Hal Needham helped with that), multiple shootouts in cool industrial settings, three lady torture experts proudly displaying their special techniques, Kelly's slow-motion karate chops, Brown's giant gun, Williamson's cigar. Pure blaxploitation mayhem. Highly recommended, but you probably already knew that.
I adore this movie. Discovered it via a Jim Kelly deep dive during a Junesploitation a few years ago and to date i think its my favorite blaxploitation flick.
DeleteI can totally see that. I've only seen Kelly in Black Belt Jones before (also for a Junesploitation) and been meaning to do a deep dive as well.
DeleteBlack Dynamite (2009)
ReplyDeleteIll be brief as im well documented on this one. Director Scott Sanders has created (in my opinion) the single greatest love letter to Blaxploitation cinema. Also one of the funniest movies ever made. This movie is pure cinema bliss and i only love it more with every rewatch. It begs the eternal question..."Why Black Dynamite...Why".
Magical movie. I'm due for a rewatch.
DeleteAs much as I love I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (and I do) I think this one has supplanted it as the best blaxploitation parody. So great.
DeletePassenger 57 (1992)
ReplyDeleteStarring Wesley Snipes and directed by Kevin Hooks, who played the young boy in Sounder (1972) and became a director as an adult. Snipes is just so cool in this. Good looking, funny, and bad-ass, literally kicking the bad guys to death. It was great that this 84 minute movie didn't waste any time on his backstory, or "world building" in preparation for a sequel. We know he's some sort of international badass, and he's going to kick ass.
The Killing Floor (1984, dir. Bill Duke)
ReplyDeleteThe always awesome Bill Duke directed this as part of the American Playhouse series. It is the true story of Frank Custer (Damien Leake) a young black man who travels to Chicago after WWI to find work and ends up working in a slaughterhouse. The film details the racial and economic struggles between the workers, management, unions, politicians, etc. It was effective in that it kinda ruined my day. Strong and disturbing stuff. I was thinking this would make a good pairing with John Sayles' Matewan (1987) as they cover similar subjects while that film is much more lyrical and beautiful while Killing Floor is more a grungy and awful descent into hell.
Not sure if I'll watch it for Junesploitation, but I'll definitely check that out. I watched Blue Collar (1978) a little before Junesploitation, and it was very good, portraying the dynamics of being in a union.
DeleteGreat cast in "Blue Collar," an early Paul Schrader joint: Yaphet Kotto, Richard Pryor in a dramatic role, Harvey Keitel.🤩
DeleteI have Blue Collar on dvd and there is an amazing Schrader commentary. There were multiple physical fights amongst the leads. Pryor apparently punched Keitel and somehow didn’t instantly turn into a ghost.
DeleteThe Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
ReplyDeleteSince it's a director day... directed by Ivan Dixon!
Cynical political machinations put pressure on the CIA to hire their first black agent. The CIA brings in a bunch of applicants, then tries to flunk them or get them all to quit. One man (Lawrence Cook) passes all the training despite the CIA's best (worst) efforts, and they stick him in the "Top Secret Reproduction Department" (the copy room). He plays along for five years, then resigns under the guise of taking a social worker job back home in Chicago, but what he really does is use all that CIA training to build an underground guerilla force and start a revolt against corrupt government, police, and the National Guard.
The movie goes pretty hard and follows through on its premise without blinking. I was more engaged watching the setup of dominoes in the first half than I was watching them get knocked down in the second half, but in 1973 those dominoes were explosive enough to get the movie pulled from theaters. Pretty good flick.
HARLEM NIGHTS (1989)
ReplyDeleteEddie Murphy himself directs an all-star cast, looking back at the glory days of a Harlem nightclub. The tone is all over the place, not quite a comedy, not quite a crime flick. I guess you could call it a hangout movie, just getting this cast together at once is enough. I like the atmosphere and the style (especially all the outfits!), but the movie never goes big as I expected. And for a movie about a Harlem nightclub, the music doesn’t play much of a role. I know people love this movie, and I really wanted to like it, but I’m left feeling it’s a mixed bag at best.
30 days of fan films, day 19: LAKESHORE SLASHER (2021)
A family receives a Good Guy doll in the mail, and now our unofficial Chucky sequel is off and running. It’s pretty rough, with poor lighting and muffled sound, but co-directors Jeremiah and Karma Engel manage to pull off some spooky visuals here and there. I especially like the creepy Chucky faces seen in the security cam, looking like something out Paranormal Activity. And people must’ve liked this, because the Engels made three sequels!
THE SUPER COPS (1974) dir. Gordon Parks
ReplyDeleteParks directs the hell out of this buddy cop romp inspired by real NYC cops known as Batman and Robin because of their record number of arrests and commendations.
A favorite movie of Edgar Wright, I don’t know how it’s taken me this long to see this direct inspiration for Hot Fuzz.
Is God Is
ReplyDeleteI gotta be honest I’m still kind of reeling from this one so I may ramble a bit. Twin sisters are sent by their mother (who they call God because she made them) to kill their estranged father, who many years ago tried to kill them and left them all deeply scarred, physically and otherwise. Of course if their mother is God because she made them…what does that make their father?
Their journey across the south to fulfill their mother’s wish is genuinely epic, from the dangers they face to the philosophizing that takes up much of the journey. This was based on a play and that blows my mind because it doesn’t feel stagy in the slightest and I can’t even imagine how it played out onstage. The leads (Mallori Johnson and Kara Young, both unknown to me) give the performances of the year in my opinion, they are compelling, funny, heartbreaking, and truly have the chemistry of twin sisters. Add in a brief but staggeringly good performance by Sterling K. Brown as their father and you’ve got a hell of an acting showcase. This examination of misogynoir is the film debut of writer/director/playwright Aleshea Harris and it is as confident a debut as I’ve ever seen. I absolutely cannot wait to see what she does next, I believe this is my favorite movie of the year so far.
✌️😎
DeleteBeen wanting to see this! Thanks for the nudge!
DeleteHope you like it as much as I did!
DeleteCrooklyn (1994, dir. Spike Lee)
ReplyDeleteCame for Delroy Lindo, but was won over by the adorable kid Zelda Harris. Good story, with Zelda's character learning life lessons and experiencing a different world down south as well. I was taken aback by the sudden squeezed image in the south, thinking my stream had messed something up. (Now I see it was a choice by Lee.)
I do wish that there was more of the neighborhood positivity in the opening sequence and less of the kids fighting and lying. But what's undisputable is this movie has an ALL-TIMER SOUNDTRACK!
RZA's Spoon of Chocolate
ReplyDeleteSolid revenge flick. I enjoyed this, though it's a bit overly long. The initial set up lays it on a bit thick, but nice to see some Nazi's get their comeuppance.
BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL (1984, Chester Novell Turner)
ReplyDeleteExisting in a dimension of unadulterated oddness, BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL is an SOV blaxploitation horror hoot unlike any other. Unless, unbeknownst to me, there’s another movie with a Rick James-style ventriloquist dummy getting his superfreak on! Shirley L. Jones portrays Helen, and kudos to her for an heroic performance, enduring an eternal er()tic scene with the h~rny as hell dummy. Helen, an upstanding religious woman who has been suppressing her s*xual urges, loses her virg!nity and her religion after the dummy’s whack attack and develops a urge for more intercour$e. Unfortunately for Helen, nothing satisfies like the puppet!
Is the flick an anti-religious tract, encouraging people to loosen their bonds and get it on? Is it an observation that women ultimately are more fulfilled with masturb@tion and s*x toys than with men? Perhaps an allegory on addiction in general? Am I reading too much into this? Probably! You could ask Chester Turner, who also directed the incredible SOV anthology TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE, but apparently he’s turned his attention to the construction biz. A true loss.
I love psychotronic cinema, and I gotta say, BDDFH was one for the ages. Simultaneously hilarious and disturbing, with a killer Casiotone soundtrack (can some boutique video company come up with an ‘80s horror Casio compilation for us insane audiophiles like me, please?). By basic standards of cinematic competence and common decency, BDDFH is a criminal offense. To weirdoes like me, well, these types of flicks hit the spot like Helen’s degenerate dummy did for her. Only the paucity of wood-related jokes was a disappointment. Otherwise, an incredible, unbelievable, unsavory journey.
Postscript: Apparently, some preverts filmed an homage/remake of this in 2007.
Car Wash (1976), directed by Michael Shultz
ReplyDeletePicturesque '70s hangoutsploitation. Only 97 minutes but feels like it's eight hours long in the best way.
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain this is the only feature length Spike Lee joint that I hadn't seen. I'm not sure how I missed this, but I'm guessing it had to do with the year it was released. I actually think this is one of Spike's better efforts. There is a great deal that doesn't work here, but I think it's because he is trying to do A LOT, and I'm someone who prefers a writer or director to take a big swing and miss rather than play it safe. On first viewing, I honestly can't tell how I feel about the Delroy Lindo performance. I'm torn between he's incredible in this, or he's overacting the entire time, and I think I will have to see it again to figure it out.
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (88)
ReplyDeleteBlaxploitation parody with some fun references and great gags. Need to rewatch Dynamite to see which I prefer.
Street Wars (1991)
ReplyDeleteTo understand Street Wars, you have to understand the man behind the curtain: Jamaa Fanaka.
He was part of the famous L.A. Rebellion at UCLA alongside guys like Charles Burnett and Julie Dash, but while they went high-art, Fanaka went straight for the exploit-o-meter. He gave us the Penitentiary trilogy and the absolutely mental, killer-dick classic Soul Vengeance (aka Welcome Home, Brother Charles). By 1992, Fanaka was frustrated with Hollywood and decided to make Street Wars.
Our guide through this madness is Sugar Pop (Alan Joseph), a deep-voiced, striking dude with piercing blue eyes who looks like a model but talks like a voiceover god. Any hero in a Fanaka movie gets a sugary name. Witness Too Sweet in those three prison boxing movies. As for Sugar Pop, he just graduated as the Top Gun of the Exeter Military Academy and is heading to West Point. His brother Frank (Bryan O’Dell) paid for it all. How? By running the local crack industry out of a spot called The Regal Social Club. A place with specials posted on a board and a drive-thru.
Frank’s right-hand man is Humungus (Clifford Shegog), a giant of a man. They belong to a secret council called The Knights of the Round Table, but they meet at a long, rectangular table. Forget logic. Anyway, when Frank gets taken out, Sugar Pop inherits the empire. Naturally, he rides around the hood on a scooter he rigged with a fire-spewing jet engine and applies military logic to running the streets.
Street Wars is torn between lamenting the neighborhood’s tragic conditions and treating Sugar Pop like a superhero. When he goes to war with rival gangs, the local news reports on him like a folk hero. At one point, the movie pauses the plot for Frank’s funeral, which turns into a full-blown gospel choir and choreographed dance number against a minimalist background. Real-life Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Muhammad himself shows up as himself to give a eulogy!
But nothing will prepare you for the third act. Sugar Pop’s ultimate plan to win the drug war? He trains his lieutenants to fly ultralight motorized gliders and hang out of them, shooting Uzis. The news calls them the Ghetto Air Force. As Sugar Pop’s paraplegic buddy enthusiastically yells, “Looks like fun to me! Up there, I don’t need no legs!” Fanaka, who served in the Air Force, wanted to pay tribute to WWII dogfight movies. Sadly, he didn’t have the budget of a movie like Red Tails, so the dogfights are just limited, choppy footage of gliders buzzing around.
It’s great.
There’s also a moment that cuts between Frank and Humungus having sex with their ladies in different rooms while a song called “I Wanna Sex You Down” plays, all while cutting back to a random kid playing a furious drum solo. Humungus actually lifts his girlfriend completely onto his head and carries her up the stairs while going down on her. This is a highly advanced, Olympic-level bedroom maneuver that I would not recommend to the weak.
If this whole movie feels like a work-in-progress, well, it was. Fanaka actually sued the distributors for accidentally releasing an unfinished version with terrible sound mixing and dubbing. But that just adds to the dreamlike, surreal charm. What other gang movie would have the good guys have a trans member, and no one even brings it up?
The movie ends with a text crawl saluting African-American filmmakers, listing everyone from Spike Lee to obscure exploitation directors like Dr. Roland Jefferson. Fanaka eventually got blacklisted by Hollywood for filing a massive lawsuit against the Directors Guild to force them to hire more women and minorities. He lost the suit, but he forced the industry to change.
His movies are never boring, either.
Haven't seen this one, but I've watched Welcome Home, Brother Charles and the Penitentiary flicks. Will definitely check this one out!
ReplyDelete25th Hour (2002) Dir. Spike Lee
ReplyDeleteRevisiting a movie that I haven’t seen since its release but I remember enjoying quite a bit. Released in 2002, a time when there was a chicken for every pot and a goatee for every chin.
The premise has Edward “I have a few notes” Norton as a drug dealer during his last hours of freedom before serving a 7 year prison sentence. The supporting cast is top notch from lecherous old friends played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper, girlfriend Rosario Dawson and Brian Cox as his father. Hoffman and Cox are both excellent. Everyone’s favourite corrupt senator from the Wire, Isiah Whitlock Jr shows up as a detective and literally drops his Wire catchphrase (“sheeeeeeeeeit”, for the unaware) not once, not twice but thrice. Between the weird angles, jarring closeups and dolly glides for everyone, Lee is definitely digging deep into the gimmick bag and a lot of it works. I had forgotten how heavily the shadow of 9/11 loomed over the story.
My memory of the “make me ugly” scene near the end was that it was sad and moving. This time around, I’m not sure if it went on for a beat too long but it had me snickering a little. Something about the way that he said “If they get one look at me, looking like this. I’ll be finished” as if he were Sydney Sweeney. It’s still a great scene, but I’m not so sure that the logic tracks. Full disclosure, my prison experience fortunately has been limited to 6 seasons of Oz, Bad Boys (the good one) and Shawshank. In my uninformed opinion, if you see a guy coming into prison beat to holy hell, you have a guy who will heal shortly and can’t fight for shit.
I enjoyed the rewatch and apparently Ebert loved it. That has to be worth something, right?
Trouble Man(2025 Dir Michael Jai White)
ReplyDeleteMJW plays a fixer who sidelines as security at a nightclub owned by Mike Epps. When a singer is kidnapped Orlando Jordan hires MJW to find her. The singers boyfriend(Method Man) also joins the investigation. Found this to be a solid little DTV flick. Plays like a modern blacksploitation film with all the humor and Kung fu one would expect from the genre.
The Marvels (2023)
ReplyDeleteI have really fallen behind on Marvel movies, but this one was directed by Nia DaCosta so I figured I'd finally get to it. Definitely haven't seen everything that leads up to this movie (am I missing one show Disney+ or two? Is there another movie in there I should have seen?), but the film does a good job of catching you up if you are at least sort of familiar with the MCU.
I remember this film getting a lot of hate and honesty I don't get that. It was silly at times, but had a fun action bit with characters switching places...and the cats! So many cats.
A rendition of "Memory" from the musical Cats had me legit laughing out loud. If you watch MCU projects and haven't seen this one yet, give it a shot.
Bonus! Its under 2 hours!
The 'Memory' cat scene had me howling from laughter😅, so much so that I annoyed the few people sitting around me that weren't laughing. Their loss, I liked "The Marvels" plenty... but I can see why Nia and Tessa Thompson would run away from the disastrous reception that got and immediately get to work on "Hedda." 😎
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DeleteThe D+ shows you're looking for are WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. They are actually among the better ones, so I'd soft recommend checking out both, especially if you found the other two Marvels interesting as characters.
DeleteHow dare other people not laugh at the "Memory" scene! Maybe I'll get back into Marvel...after June.
DeleteDevil in a Blue Dress (1995, dir. Carl Franklin)
ReplyDeleteReally cool neo noir. Everything comes together really nicely, not without surprises. Nails the period LA setting. Good performances and directing! Even the few minutes that Don Cheadle gets are made to count.
Tak Fujimoto!
DeletePoetic Justice (John Singleton, 1993)
ReplyDeleteThis movie surprised me in many ways! I didn't expect my favourite rapper (Q-Tip - really smart casting) to show up, Janet Jackson to be so good, the film to be mostly a roadtrip (granted, the poster should have tipped me off), or the verbal and physical outbursts that really ground the movie in its socioeconomical reality. I also didn't expect a cat to be named White Boy.
It's always bittersweet to watch a Tupac movie, see how incredibly talented and unique he was in, well, pretty much everything he touched, including acting, and be reminded of the tragedy of his short life. But better to celebrate the career he did have than to grieve over the one we didn't get!