United States
writer, critic, film programmer
After the discourse around "One Battle After Another" and "The Drama," Jourdain Searles wonders: Can't we just watch films on their own terms?
As Black cinema experienced a renaissance in the mid-'90s, three films made space for the Black female experience.
"Girls Like Girls" is the kind of coming-of-age film that's just quiet enough to avoid the loud, broad cliches of the genre.
Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Janelle Monae, Erika Alexander and Mykelti Williamson also star in Aleshea Harris' debut feature, adapted from her own play.
Before Our Land (Nuestra Tierra), there is a solemn parade of quiet production logos. This is often the case with films of political and historical importance. The stories that are the most vital are often the most difficult to tell and almost always arrive at a delay.
The first thing we hear in Mother Mary is the sound of Michaela Coel's voice. She anticipates Mother Mary's arrival and warns us that this story is cursed. Anyone who has been watching television for the last decade could recognize the richness and clarity of her tone.
Some critics are going to say The Drama is not about race, or that if it is, this is simply an accident born of colorblind casting. There is a reveal-the reveal the entire premise hinges on-early in the film that would perhaps make more sense to people if it had come from a white person.
The 'Eighth Grade' star plays the protagonist of Fergus Campbell's feature debut, about a group of teens obsessed with cinema, time travel and each other.
Like many genre films this decade, “Heel” feels glaringly incomplete.
One terrorizes kindergarten girls, the other girlbosses for law students. But who moves on to the finale?
Alyssa Marvin, Margaret Cho, Elizabeth Marvel, Bill Camp, Molly Ringwald and Patrick Wilson lead the ensemble of NB Mager's Sundance-bowing debut feature.
Premiering in the Midnight section at Sundance, Vera Miao's film revolves around a young widow and her daughter attempting to start over in Wyoming.
Premiering at Sundance, the documentary is compiled from footage taken by director David Greaves and his late father, William Greaves, of a gathering of Black luminaries in Duke Ellington's home.
Olive Nwosu's first feature centers around a Lagos cab driver who accepts a gig shuttling her childhood friend and other sex workers around the city.
By expanding the play's world, Gaines opens himself up to new scrutiny.
On one of 2025's most dominant cultural forces: Stephen King.
Die My Love is a film driven by primal urges. The film, based on the novel by Ariana Harwicz and directed by Lynne Ramsay, often feels like a fever dream. When Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson) move into a rustic old house near the woods, they can't keep their hands off each other....
NewFest celebrates the 37th anniversary of its annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
Chronicling the Colorado poet laureate's relationship, work and battle with cancer, Ryan White's Sundance-premiering film is available to stream on Apple TV.
Oday Rasheed's drama 'If You See Something' revolves around a young Iraqi doctor (Palestinian actor Adam Bakri) seeking asylum in the United States.
The actor plays a pedophile who reunites with one of his former students (Kieron Moore) in this Mark Duplass-backed film written and directed by Elliot Tuttle.
The Currents begins with a curious, impulsive act. Lina (Isabel Aimé González Sola) is being recognized for her work in Switzerland when, suddenly, she completely disassociates. She can't absorb the applause or adulation. Lina walks out of the event and wanders over to a bridge, allowing herself to fall into the water below.
On three films out of the New York Film Festival.
As we learn more about three generations of Stillers, the film takes the shape of a family therapy session that just happens to be lovingly crafted into a feature documentary.
Both a recent tragedy and a tale as old as time.
Across two decades of crafting animated features, director Mamoru Hosoda has made both intimate dramas like Wolf Children and high-concept films like the science-fiction spectacle Summer Wars. In 2019, his family fantasy Mirai was nominated for an Academy Award, becoming the first anime feature not produced by Studio Ghibli to achieve such distinction.
Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots star in Nia DaCosta's reimagining of Ibsen's classic late 19th century play.
Featuring Nina Meurisse and Laurence Roothooft in the lead roles, Cato Kusters' film observes a couple navigating challenges both logistical and existential.
A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town.
Leslie Mann plays a woman auditing a poetry class and Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman the students vying for her attention in the TIFF-bowing film.
Early also plays the female protagonist, a chef who hides her eating disorder from her husband and friends, in this homage to classic TV movies.
The artist stars as a young woman whose romantic getaway is compromised by her reunion with an old friend in Pete Ohs' TIFF-bowing drama.
"Familiar Touch" is a gorgeous drama with an open, aching heart.
Materialists is a film with a classic screwball setup: a young, beautiful matchmaker meets the charming, rich man of her dreams on the same night she runs into her broke, handsome ex-boyfriend. But Celine Song's sophomore feature takes a more dry, dramatic approach to explore dating in the modern world.
"Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" is a romantic comedy for the quiet, thoughtful lovers who yearn for the sincerity of the past.
"The New Boy" depicts the pain and confusion of assimilation, through the eyes of young boy who can't even describe what's happening to him.
With the release of his decades-spanning new feature Caught by the Tides, filmmaker Jia Zhangke speaks with Jourdain Searles about the necessity to keep going, the freedom of karaoke bars, the popularity of Flash Animation and more.
"Summer of 69" is a fun, chill time.
There's an air of mystery to the film that Egoyan never quite resolves.
Jourdain Searles reflects on the power dynamics at play in David Lynch's seductive 1986 thriller.
In their dark, damp prison quarters, Malina (Tonatiuh) and Valentin (Diego Luna) only have each other for company. Valentin is a radical imprisoned for his revolutionary views; Malina is a window-dresser condemned for homosexual activities.
Ricky (Stephen James) has only been out of prison a few weeks, but the real world has already become too much for him. His parole officer Joanne (Sheryl Lee Ralph) keeps showing up at his house to berate him. His mother Winsome (Simbi Kali) treats him like he's already a lost cause.
It's always thrilling when a horror film explores the power and possibility of sound. Much modern horror is too quiet, missing the opportunity to create an immersive soundscape that fully transports viewers into its world.
Early in Michael Shanks' directorial debut Together, Millie (Alison Brie) warns her boyfriend Tim (Dave Franco) that if they don't "split up" now, it's only going to be harder later. She didn't know how right she was about that.
Many films, from the classic melodrama Mildred Pierce to last year's playful dramedy Nightbitch, have tried to depict the unique struggles of motherhood with a focus on the special intimacy of child-rearing. Mothers have long borne the brunt and most of the blame for how their children behave in the world.
Directed by Amanda Kramer, 'By Design' stars Juliette Lewis and Melanie Griffith n an absurdist comedy about a woman who becomes a chair.
The film revolves around a couple who reach an unexpected turning point in their relationship during a romantic weekend getaway.
A middle-class teacher in New York witnesses a sexual assault that could have lead to a murder investigated by an alluring detective.
Starring: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh As we celebrate Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog this awards season, The FOFIF looks back to her under-appreciated 2003 sexy psychological thriller In the Cut, in which she masterfully subverts the male gaze.
Join us for a screening of The Clock (Vincente Minelli, 1945), introduced by Jourdain Searles
After a young actress unknowingly eats her roommate's marijuana cupcakes, her day becomes a series of misadventures.
On the return of the fearless actress whose daring performances dominated the '90s.
In a society that still fears the female orgasm, movies can fill in the gap.
Using an overtly erotic visual language that verges on the puritanical, Fargeat bludgeons the viewer, reducing men to slobbering wolves unable to contain themselves in the presence of a youthful woman. The filmâs women have no artistic ambition beyond the thrill of being watched and fawned over.
Kinds of Kindness presents us with a world of women living at the mercy of petty men. But the men donât seem to know what theyâre doing either. Thereâs a childlike nature to all the male characters, driven by the desire to get what they want and be respected in order to keep their egos intact.
When Closer came out in 2004, the story of its star power overshadowed one of the sharpest character studies of its era.
An interview with Gregg Araki on the heels of Criterion's release of his Teen Apocalypse Trilogy.
In Love Lies Bleeding, Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian have explosive chemistry, gazing with an intensity that feels too soon and eternal.
The essay-like Netflix film from the 'Strong Island' director delves into the origins and implications of modern police violence in the United States.
In 'I Saw the TV Glow,' Justice Smith plays a teen who finds comfort in his friendship with a cool older girl and the television show they both love.
Titus Kaphar crafts "Exhibiting Forgiveness" with a soft hand, reminiscent of films like "Moonlight" and "The Last Black Man in San Francisco."
Shatara Michelle Ford's sophomore feature Dreams in Nightmares is a Black road trip film with a big heart, full of warmth, healing, and beauty. With their debut film Test Pattern, Ford announced themselves as an essential new voice in Black cinema, with a focus on the lives and struggles of Black women.
Annie Baker's directorial debut is as spare and contemplative as her writing for the stage.
Vera Drew's film was the subject of controversy at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival, where Warner Bros. Discovery tried to prevent it from being screened.
Director Alexis Manya Spraic traces the life and career of the eponymous songwriter, producer, visual artist, production designer, art director and social butterfly.
The actors co-star with Will Poulter, Diego Calva and Sasha Calle in Daniel Minahan's 1950s-set romantic drama about secret yearnings and societal pressures.
Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, and a scene-stealing Maya Rudolph lead the all-star cast of this cartoon comedy set in an intergalactic hospital.
Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross' narrative feature debut, is the story of a stubborn world, resisting change. Adapted from Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys, it's an experimental rendition shooting mainly through POV. We meet our protagonist not by looking at him, but by observing the world as he sees it.
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, alongside actress Jennifer Lawrence, produce this doc, which argues for reproductive healthcare as a national necessity.
'Daniela Forever' review: Henry Golding in a science fiction romantic drama by Nacho Vigalondo.
Less is less in the initially intriguing, ultimately frustrating Australian thriller "You'll Never Find Me."
Schwartzman plays a cantor in crisis and Kane the adult bat mitzvah pupil he grows smitten with in a film co-starring Dolly De Leon and Caroline Aaron.
"Dahomey" is a documentary that should be seen by all.
Fancy Dance reminds us of the ways communities take care of each other, regardless of the risk involved.
A high school basketball team rebounds from tragedy and gets in touch with their Navajo roots in this charming underdog story.
One of the largest sales of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, "It's What's Inside" is a midnight horror hit.
The first feature from writer-director Kobi Libii revolves around a young artist recruited to be part of a group whose mission is to ease white people's discomfort.
Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson star in Max Minghella's 'Shell,' a dark horror comedy about the entertainment and beauty industries.
Amy Adams is on great form in Marielle Heller's adaptation of Rachel Yoder's novel about a new mother who is alarmed discover she is turning into a dog.
By simply acknowledging the existence of patriarchy, does that make Barbie a feminist film? The internet seems to think so. It's a surprising amount of a debate for a film like this. Keeping in mind that this is a film made to be enjoyed by tweens and adults alike, it seems a bit unfair to give Barbie that ideological responsibility.
Household Saints is about the families lovers come from and the futures they build for themselves. It was a girl-meets-boy story with a âhappily ever afterâ complicated by the wheels of fate.
Tina Turner was more than a musician. She was also an actress, appearing in films sporadically throughout the decades of her life, and achieving a dream she wanted ever since she was a child.
'A Thousand and One;' features a Teyana Taylor performance bursting with energy and star power in every scene.
The actress plays a 17-year-old evangelical Christian who has an affair with her youth pastor (Lewis Pullman) in Laurel Parmet's feature debut.
Claire Denis adapts Denis Johnson's 1986 novel about love in a time of revolution, with fascinating results.
Romantic comedies have more to offer than just pristine white couplings, and this list of the best Black romcoms is proof of that.
Jeffrey Wright stars in 'American Fiction' [review], as a professor who writes a novel about Black life that's dumb - and guaranteed to be a hit.
Jodie Comer plays a woman struggling to raise her child after floods drive them from their home in Mahalia Belo's 'The End We Start From.'
'The Blackening' isn't quite 'Scary Movie,' but it's a far cry from the dread we've experienced in Black horror in the wake of 'Get Out.'
The bones of 'The Color Purple' story are the same, with a brilliant cast, and one major missed opportunity. Review.
The series strains to justify its run time, repeating phrases and images as if it's stalling until the big twist happens.
Revoir Paris has a sensitivity to it, a warm texture despite the abundance of cool blue tones.
Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones headline Maggie Betts' 'The Burial,' about a man who goes up against a corporate titan to hold on to his funeral home.
Caroline Suh and Cara Mones' documentary based on a New York Times article chronicles the downfall and comeback of the comedian in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.
Asante Blackk and Tiffany Haddish star in 'Landscape With Invisible Hand,' the latest from 'Thoroughbreds' and 'Bad Education' director Cory Finley.
The 'Succession' star plays a mother whose relationship with her young daughter takes a turn for the fraught in Daina Reid's film.
The actress plays a depressed musician who bonds with an older Polish woman (Margaret Sophie Stein) in Lisa Steen's directorial debut, which premiered at SXSW.
On three films that played at this year's New York Film Festival, including the latest from Alice Rohrwacher.
A final dispatch from NYFF on three more NYC premieres.
TIFF: Thea Sharrock's film follows a real "poison-pen" story, but doesn't have enough bite of its own.
Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk are co-helmers, writers and stars of 'Hell of a Summer,' about summer camp counselors being stalked by a killer.
In this romantic comedy set in Taiwan, a young American finds herself torn between a parent-approved boy wonder and a rebellious slacker.
The execution leaves us wanting something richer.
Alice is a half-bastardization of real events, half-genre experiment that is set to be one of the biggest disappointments of the year.
Get Out changed what the idea of a Black horror film could be. Here's to hoping Black horror breaks out of the mold it created.
Nikyatu Jusu's debut feature revolves around a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for a wealthy New York couple and haunted by frightening visions.
The 'Girls' star-creator's new film 'Sharp Stick' focuses on a sexually inexperienced young Los Angeles woman having an affair with her employer.
The Netflix documentary explores decades of Black representation onscreen, from little-known films to Blaxploitation.
Adamma Ebo offers a glimpse into Southern Baptist culture - specifically the corporate greed of megachurches and celebratory pastors.
A film about what it means to be alive and part of the wider social structure of the world.
Wendell & Wild premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. It'll be available to stream on Netflix October 28.
Daniel Goldhaber sophomore outing 'How To Blow Up A Pipeline' is riveting and exceptional look at environmental radicalism.
About five years ago, I had a troubling conversation with a romantic partner.
Jonathan Major thrives in 'Devotion,' a biopic about a soft-spoken but courageous Black man who deserves to be remembered.
Ignored and undistributed upon its debut in 1982, in the decades since, the film Losing Ground has slowly gained the recognition it deserves.
The Inspection, Elegance Bratton's directorial debut starring Gabrielle Union, Jeremy Pope and others, is now showing in theaters.
McKenzie's film takes us into the healthcare system to tell a story of a healing, transformative friendship.
Aubrey Plaza delivers a stand-out performance as a struggling artist with a criminal record who becomes involved with a credit card scam.
In Judas and the Black Messiah,' the Black Panthers are humanized, focusing on their work instead of white America's perception of it.
An online role-playing game sends a teenage girl on a path of self-exploration in writer-director Jane Schoenbrun's film 'We're All Going the the World's Fair.'
The actress Dominique Fishback plays Fred Hampton's fiancée, Akua Njeri in the film.
Les nôtres is a film that fails to dive into the depths of its subject matter, hinting at a dark underbelly that it never full explores.
'Zola,' which is inspired by the viral Twitter thread from 2015, is at its best when exploring its white characters as they perform Blackness
Originally published in Bitch Media on 6/18/2021
The neo-noir film starring real-life twins is a thriller, comedy and effective family drama all in one.
'Summer of Soul' shows how Black music from across the diaspora helped make the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival such a historical moment.
Lauren Hadaway's Tribeca Film Festival winner 'The Novice' follows a college student (played by Isabelle Fuhrman) driven by her obsessive fixation on rowing.
Originally published in Bitch Media on 5/7/2021
Originally published on Bitch Media on 12/1/2021
Director Perry Blackshear has a fixation on the quiet voices we often hear whispering into our heads. His debut feature, THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE, explores the mind of a man who believes that humans are being taken over by creatures only visible to him.
Playing at the Sundance Film Festival, the Brazilian drama will make you wonder if writer/director Iuli Gerbase is a prophet.
Rebecca Hall's directorial debut 'Passing,' which stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, is available to stream on Netflix.
Shatara Michelle Ford's film 'Test Pattern' follows a Black woman and her white boyfriend in the aftermath of her rape.
You don't have to be visually impaired to want clear subtitles when you stream TV and movies. Here, we rank 12 streaming services by the overall clarity and customization of their subtitles and closed-caption options, from Netflix to HBO Max.
The Inheritance is based on director Ephraim Asili's real experiences living with a radical Black collective.
Candyman is a film grasping for a sense of social and moral rightness that alienates itself from the original 1992 movie.
Despite lacking narrative intentionality, 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' has stellar performances, including Denzel Washington's Macbeth.
A restoration of Lizzie Borden's landmark 1986 portrait of sex and labor is coming to theaters.
Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney's 'Strawberry Mansion' is a futuristic fantasy-romance revolving around a man and the woman whose dreams he is tasked with auditing.
Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman's Afro-futurist science fiction musical 'Neptune Frost' centers on two misfits in Rwanda, a miner and an intersex hacker, who find each other through technology and dreams.
Lucile Hadžihalilović's English-language debut Earwig is another odd but assured film about the relationships between children and their guardians.
Dasha Nekrasova's feature debut 'The Scary of Sixty-First' revolves around two young women who unknowingly move into a Manhattan apartment that used to belong to Jeffrey Epstein.
Jenna Cato Bass's film is a reckoning both for her and all the clueless white children who never thought about the Black women who served them.
From Clayton Bigsby to Charlie Murphy's Hollywood stories about Prince and Rick James, these are the 20 best 'Chappelle's Show' sketches.
The collaborative feature interrogates the history - and future - of how Black subjects are captured on-camera.
THE RIGHTEOUS is a thriller in the style of Old Hollywood. Though cinema is oversaturated with stories of troubled, guilty, white men, sometimes a director comes along who knows how to make the story feel unique. Actor and first-time director Mark O'Brien achieves this by looking to the films of the past to tell a story with contemporary implications.
Wendell B. Harris Jr.'s debut feature 'Chameleon Street' won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990, then disappeared. Now, it's finally being released.
Zola director Janicza Bravo spoke with Okayplayer about the aesthetic influences of the film, her favorite comedy films, and more.
A reclusive fossil collector has her quiet life interrupted in writer/director Francis Lee's atmospheric coastal drama.
Originally published on Bitch Media on 4/24/2020 Stories about the female geniuses of literature and art are soul-affirming when done well. Alan Rudolph's Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) was the first time I felt like female genius was being taken seriously on film. I felt it again w
Originally published on Bitch Media on 1/10/2020
Inside a Film Forum series that's making an effort to rewrite a whitewashed cinematic history.
Miss Juneteenth is an empathetic portrait of the intergenerational ties and tensions that exist between a mother and her teenage daughter, set against the backdrop of a Texas town's annual Juneteenth beauty pageant. We hear from the film's director.
In a sea of Very Important Festival Films, there tends not to be much space for silly genre flicks. Even with the recent push to spotlight "women in film" has mainly lead to painfully serious, deeply complex efforts that are constantly engaging with the question: "What does it mean to be a woman today?"
Janelle Monáe plays a dual role as a sexually abused slave and a present-day writer in Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz's horror thriller.
An essay from Vogue's Love Stories series about the connecting powers of social media. Maybe the lovers of the future will only need TikTok?
Justin Simien's new horror movie 'Bad Hair,' which premiered on Hulu on October 23, falters as it tries to understand Black women as a collective.
From Lakeith Stanfield's Guy to Angela Bassett's Ana Spanakopita, these are the 15 best Black voice performances on 'Bojack Horseman.'
Why not watch some smaller LGBTQIA+ movies that haven't been talked to death by every website?
Some people believe that the fear of death is the only thing keeping society from collapse. But given the events of this year, it may be time to reconsider how much power looming death really has over us. Capitalist culture wants us to believe that death is a necessity to the fabric of society and...
Originally published in Bitch Media on 11/2/2020
Though produced in collaboration with creatives from around the globe, there's an unmistakable feeling that the film is meant more for Black Americans than the wider African diaspora.
Jessica Barden, Pamela Adlon and Becky Ann Baker star in Nicole Riegel's feature directorial debut 'Holler,' a coming-of-age tale set in working-class Ohio.
Grappling with his own loss of sight, Rodney Evans surveys the experiences of blind artists in Vision Portraits.
Thrillist is an online media website covering travel, experiences, and local neighborhoods. Thrillist was founded in 2004 by Ben Lerer and Adam Rich. Thrillist covers national and international travel, news, and, as of 2023, 18 cities across the United States.
It was fascinating to watch a young white woman enter the home of two gay women of color and make a concerted effort to support them, without centering herself or her own personal experience.
Kendrick Sampson, who plays Nathan on Insecure, discusses his work with Los Angeles' BLD PWR and the Black Lives Matter protests and how they align with his work as an actor on Insecure and the new film Miss Juneteenth.
Despite its shortcomings, 'On The Record' serves as a reminder of what Black women lose when they put Black men before their own safety.
At this year's Fantasia Film Festivals, filmmakers were intent on reflecting the anger and dread of our current times. Festival films like The Dark and the Wicked, Unearth, Undergods, Lapsis, and Sleep showed us a world in decay, overcome with environmental and societal rot. In a politically tense year, it seems like every film festival...
This adaptation of The Invisible Man joins 2000's Hollow Man in making its female characters the ones that count.
Despite the title, Netflix's adaptation of August Wilson's play is not about the legendary singer, but the men around her.
With everyone quarantined, there's no better time to have your own Black Film Festival at home. Here are the best Black movies you can stream right now.
David Gutnik's debut feature 'Materna' tells the story of four women bound by a violent altercation on the New York City subway.
Marginalized people are often used as liberal mascots. As a woman who checks off a lot of diversity boxes, I know this all too well. I have often experienced it regarding my race, but this sort of exploitation is especially notorious regarding disabilities. Due to my partial blindness, I found myself underestimated and tokenized from...
Originally published in Bitch Media on 9/3/2020
Amid an industrywide reckoning, Netflix's "Big Mouth" recast the voice of its Black lead just as the writers were giving her a racial-identity crisis. In August, it was announced that Jenny Slate would be replaced by Ayo Edebiri.
Regina King's directorial debut, set in 1964, centers around an ideological debate over Blackness that feels directly in conversation with the present.
Sam Pollard's documentary 'MLK/FBI' examines former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jessica Barden stars alongside Marcia Gay Harden and Henry Winkler in Kelly Oxford's coming-of-age/stoner comedy 'Pink Skies Ahead.'
With Mangrove, Lover's Rock, and Red, White and Blue, McQueen's Small Axe anthology emphasizes resilience and collective strength.
Originally published on Bitch Media on 4/17/2020
Originally published in Bitch Media on 8/30/2019
Originally published in Bitch Media on 1/16/2019
Originally published in Bitch Media on 11/11/2019
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Originally published in Bitch Media on 7/9/2019
Originally published in Bitch Media on 1/23/2019
Originally published in Bitch Media on 8/20/2019
A 40-year-old movie proves more progressive about relationships than one from 2019.
Originally published in Bitch Media on 12/17/2019
In the lead up to the screening of cult classic THE LAST DRAGON at Rio Cinema (11 MAY 2019), Ranjit S. Ruprai got in touch with lead actor Taimak who graciously agreed to an interview. We sent New York based writer and comic Jourdain Searles to meet and chat with the man himself.
Originally published in Bitch Media on 5/3/2019
Originally published in Bitch Media on 2/26/2019
Originally published in Bitch Media on 9/18/2019
Talking with 'Nightly Show' and 'The Rundown' alum Robin Thede about her new HBO sketch-comedy series 'A Black Lady Sketch Show,' how she assembled her writers' room, and how it's finally giving black women in comedy their time in the spotlight.
Originally published on Bitch Media on 2/20/2019
A discussion with Artistic Director Miriam Bale about the festival which spotlights community, discussion, and films by marginalized voices.
(Photo Credit: Playbill) BLKS is a play that feels like the pilot of a sitcom. It has the rapid-fire joke density of Living Single and the sexual frankness of the smash hit film Girls Trip, with a refreshing, overdue embrace of queer characters. It's the kind of play that makes you believe that media...
Originally published in Bitch Media on 3/15/2019
Director Julius Onah and screenwriter J.C. Lee explain the complexities of their new movie 'Luce.'
Originally published in Bitch Media on 7/5/2019
I felt a strong sense of deja vu watching Ari Aster's second feature film Midsommar. It's the story of a woman who has dealt with unbearable trauma and emotional pain that no one around her seems to want to understand. Her boyfriend has minimized her behavior to the rantings of a deeply insecure woman, painting...
The first trailer for Joker showed the DC villain interacting with a number of black characters. But what are the roles they play in the controversial film?
The fearsome thriller exposes the horror of unsupportive white partners.
A 40-year-old movie proves more progressive about relationships than one from 2019.
Cashing in on '90s nostalgia, Hulu's 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' miniseries doesn't really have much to say.
Neasa Hardiman's Sea Fever is a classicly inspired minimalist sci-fi thriller in the tradition of The Thing and most notably Ridley Scott's Alien. Like its predecessors, Hardiman makes expert use of small spaces, slowly building dread and suspense. With its soft colors, subtle score and naturalistic performances, its a slight film with a focus on...
Jane Campion's feminist erotic thriller 'In the Cut' is even better now than it was in 2003.
Originally published in Bitch Media on 12/9/2019
In praise of TV programs that gave black women a safe haven in an industry that didn't value their stories.
Spike Lee's 1988 musical-comedy 'School Daze' about Historically Black Colleges & Universities created a nuanced portrait that has yet to be matched.
Amazon Prime's 'Guava Island' isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
With rising talent like Ryan Coogler, Issa Rae, Ava DuVernay, Boots Riley, and Lena Waithe, it's a new dawn for acclaimed Black films.
Rose Glass's SAINT MAUD is a feature with the storytelling scope of a short film. That's not necessarily a bad thing - many genre films thrive fully on a simple premise with little exploration into the backstories of its characters. 2015's DARLING is such a film, tracing one young woman's descent into madness in an old New York City apartment.
Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), the protagonists of Olivia Wilde's directorial debut Booksmart, love each other. That much is clear. From scene to scene, they are constantly complimenting each other and hyping each other up all while looking deeply into each other's eyes. It's rare to see two teenage girls love each other...
Originally published in Bitch Media on 10/29/2018
Jennifer Jason Leigh has perfected the role of the melancholy, unfulfilled woman. She excels at playing characters fueled by longing and soul-crushing envy. Her characters lay themselves bare, unable to hide their hunger for love and validation. Leigh is at her best (and worst) when she's throwing her entire body into a performance.
Originally published in Bitch Media on 12/14/2018
Originally published in Bitch Media on 9/5/2018
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Originally published in Bitch Media on 7/16/2018
I saw Trainwreck the weekend it came out. For me, it was one of the most anticipated films of the year. When the day came to see it, it became clear that I wasn't the only one hyped for it. Showing...
As a Georgia-raised woman, Support the Girls has a homegrown familiarity to it that immediately endears me to the characters. I smile when introduced to Lisa (played with raw sweetness by Regina Hall), with her pressed and curled hair, Texas drawl and loud eyeshadow. She's the general manager of a Hooters-esque sports bar called Double...
Originally published in Bitch Media on 11/28/2018
Originally published in Bitch Media on 10/1/2018
Often when people say "it's for kids", it's an excuse for a film being of poor quality and therefore "only kids would like it". But in the case of A Wrinkle in Time, when I say it's for kids, I mean just that. It's a film directly and urgently about the emotional needs...
Beast is a delicious film. From the scenic location bursting with vegetation and rolling ocean waves, to the long lingering shots of our handsome leads. Jessie Buckley as Moll is stunning--her fiery red hair and piercing brown eyes create a hypnotizing experience. Pascal (Johnny Flynn) has a much more steely look.
Originally published in Bitch Media on 8/7/2018
The latest entry in the 'Driving Miss Daisy' School of Simplistic History and Sentimentality is larded with problems. Why do movies like this keep happening?
Bob Clark's 1974 film 'Black Christmas' defined slasher tropes years before 'Halloween' came out.
by: Jourdain Searles on September 24th, 2018 When a film's opening scene contains a bold line like "independence has no sex", it's clear you're in for something fascinating. Chanya Button's Vita & Virginia isn't simply a cinematic dramatization of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf's passionate correspondence and extramarital affair-It's also a meditation on the nature of...
When you're a woman watching an episode like "American Bitch" it really is just an excruciating countdown to dick. The last time Hannah was alone with an older man in a beautiful, expensive apartment, it was the strange and iconic episode "One Man's Trash". It was an episode that weird, dreamlike and oddly romantic- but...
(SPOILERS AHEAD) On the surface, there is nothing wrong with Logan. It's well-acted, well-directed and all-around well-done superhero film. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart turn in some of their best performances in the entire X-Men film franchise. Dafne Keen is an unstoppable force. She is one of the most gifted young actresses of our...
"Open up your pretty brown eyes and look the Hell around!" Chenille Reynolds (Kerry Washington) asks this of Sarah Johnson (Julia Stiles) in a pivotal moment of the film Save the Last Dance. She's explaining how white women are seen as a commodity to black men and they often weaponize them against black women.
In 1944's Gaslight, Ingrid Bergman fills the screen entirely. Throughout the film, she has complete control of your eyes. You can't simply watch Gaslight, it controls your viewing experience entirely. At times when I wanted to look down and jot a note, I found that Bergman's gaze wouldn't let me.
I remember the night Spongebob premiered. It was right after the '99 Kids Choice Awards. I was eating a strawberry poptart, sitting on the kitchen floor, looking up at a small TV on the counter next to the microwave. I was at my grandfather's house. I was there a lot when I was younger.
We should all know by now that the argument against female-led superhero films is rooted in sexism. However, I think hitting you with the numbers is a great way to illustrate how really, truly, madly ridiculous it is. In a previous piece I wrote about the 1975 Wonder Woman television series, I took an opportunity...
(SPOILERS ABOUND) The internet has been ablaze with discussion of Darren Aronofsky's most recent film, mother! Instead of reviewing the film proper, I have decided to say my piece in a format I haven't used before: A list. Lists are fun, right? All right, the truth is, I don't have much interest in writing a...
Witch tales are a one horror staple that puts strong, powerful women to the forefront of stories. Women are ever-present in horror, but rarely are they able to play characters in which they are in control and have the power to move their fate against an enemy.
When a film is released that has brutal depictions of abuse in a realistic setting, audiences tend to split into three factions: Those who find it to be powerful, those who see it as exploitation and finally, those who see it as so over-the-top that they view it as a comical.
As I walk into the historic Hattie McDaniel Theatre in Brooklyn, I felt strange. Rarely in my life have I had the privilege to enter a building named after a black woman. Black women helped build this country, but we are so often cast to the side.
James Franco transforms himself completely into Tommy Wiseau. His performance really does live up to the hype. He speaks in an almost unintelligible accent, his pronunciation of common words is distorted. He moves awkwardly, lumbering around like a Frankenstein-esque creature. He has no sense of boundaries or personal space.
I love Transparent. I've been obsessed with the show since it premiered, even while my brother (a trans man) showed no interest in it and was generally annoyed that it existed. In fact, most of my friends that are trans or gender non-conforming rolled their eyes at Transparent upon its premiere.
I don't think I will ever get used to watching expertly polished films about the poor, while surrounded by affluent, mostly white people in chic indie movie houses. Whenever I find myself in that situation, I can't help but notice the irony. Though I "speak the language", my presence in these spaces does not negate...
Directed by: Carly Usdin Written by: Brittani Nichols Last year, during his South by Southwest keynote speech, actor/filmmaker Mark Duplass said: "There's no excuse not to make films on weekends with friends". That is, of course, incorrect. There are plenty of excuses not to make films on weekends with your friends.
