“In Time” Wastes Time

Based on a very timely premise, the new film In Time ironically moves rather slowly over the course of its 109 minutes. Lacking a “time is running out” feel and failing to deliver an edge-of-your-seat “every moment counts” experience, the film instead plods along in its attempt to examine wealth disparity through the metaphor of [...]

Sex, Lies and Ballet

From now on, when someone claims that they were on the “edge of their seat,” I will always think of director Darren Aronofsky’s newest film, Black Swan, opening nationwide December 3. By the time the credits rolled, my hands were sore from gripping the armrests and my body protested with audible pops as I stood [...]

“Made in Dagenham” Recounts British Fight for Equal Pay

It’s not often that a blatantly feminist film is released to a wide audience. There are many films with characters who posses feminist qualities, but only a handful about the feminist movement itself in recent years. Actually, Iron Jawed Angels (released on HBO) and North Country are the only ones that come to mind. Made [...]

10 Things To Know About Ntozake Shange and “For Colored Girls”

Poet, novelist, playwright and high priestess of black bohemianism Ntozake Shange (b. 1948) is resurgent in 2010. She and her sister, Ifa Bayeza, recently released the novel Some Sing, Some Cry, and her first and best-known play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow Is Enuf has been turned into a feature [...]

Pixar’s One-Man Band

At the end of The Jungle Book, Mowgli’s love interest sings of her future daughter, “I’ll send her to fetch the water, I’ll be cooking in the home.” Some 43 years later, her metaphorical daughters populate not only Disney films, but also those of Dream Works and Pixar. Alas, not only do these animated daughters [...]

Can Tyler Perry Pull Off a Black Feminist Masterpiece?

The mediasphere has been buzzing with skepticism since Variety announced over a year ago that Tyler Perry would write, direct and produce the adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. The film is the first production for Perry’s 34th Street Films (a production division of [...]

Secretariat: A Housewife, Her Horse and Their Legacy

If you love horse movies, then you’ll probably love Disney’s newest, much-hyped Secretariat, which fits firmly in the genre of other recent triumphant equine epics–Seabiscuit (2003), Hildalgo (2004) and Dreamer (2005)–with one notable exception. Despite the film’s plethora of close-ups of the stallion’s deep, soulful eyes and its re-creation of some  of Big Red’s most [...]

We Heart: Temple Grandin

For an autistic woman who “thinks like a cow,” Temple Grandin has certainly affected millions of humans. Last Sunday at the 62nd Emmy Awards, Temple Grandin, the made-for-HBO movie about the bestselling author and livestock expert, won five Emmys, including best lead actress (for Claire Danes playing Grandin) in a mini-series/movie. Now, more than ever, Grandin is, [...]

Why “Vampires Suck” Doesn’t Totally Suck

It may not be brimming with hard-edged analysis, but the new parody of the Twilight series, Vampires Suck, is certainly more satirical than sucky. This parody, written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, has its share of what I would call “Twi-crit-light,” a nod towards serious social criticism that separates this film from [...]

I Heart Deadly Women

I can’t help but love Jane Greer and Barbara Stanwyck for their striking performances as femme fatales (deadly women) in the 1940′s film noirs Out of the Past and Double Indemnity. In Out of the Past, the youthful and provocative Kathie Moffat, played by Greer, is the Black Widow who travels alone, commits murder, and [...]

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