What a beautiful meditation on family - parenthood and childhood (or rather, the duties of a child, which don't end at childhood) alike. Proof of the adage that a more specific story can be more universal (not least for anyone who has been a "translator" for their parents, whether due to practical disability, language, mental disability, etc). The tropes are there (and one or two stand out for slight rewrites), but the overall pace and plot still sing. The sort of movie that - at the right age and maturity, given (some of) the treatment of sex - I'd hope to rewatch with my children.
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Friday 1995
A very pleasant movie, and I see why it was so enduring / kept so many fans. But MAN Ice Cube's acting in this is not keeping up with everybody else (many of whom, in fairness, became deservedly famous - Nia Long, Tiny Lister, and Chris Tucker all have movies much higher on my personal list).
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Michael Che: Shame the Devil 2021
"Okay so if we lift the Chris Rock ATM joke, Dave Chappelle Woman of the Year joke, throw in some dick jokes and period jokes, drop a couple shock slurs, pad all that out with apologies and statements about how you're trying to be progressive, and do a little Trump stuff ..." "I'll be darned, that does get me to 58 minutes! Hey, do I need an ending?" "Nah."
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Cops and Robbers 2020
Style looks great, but somehow it makes the original poem worse in turning turns of phrase into a cartoon documentary instead of keeping them within a guttural scream. So it borders on asking you to take as literal what Two Distant Strangers takes as metaphorical - compare the way the Klan reference is amplified here here to the final monologue of TDS's cop - without persuading you that any artist involved with this project believes that.
Watch the original, or sit with Fr. Joseph Brown's poem on Arbery's murder.
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