HollywoodandFine.com Ava Duvernay’s “Selma” couldn’t be more timely. Duvernay’s film (about the voting-rights demonstrations and protests of 1965) depicts black men and women standing up for their rights as citizens of the United States of America. You can’t help but be saddened by just how closely these demonstrations – and …
HollywoodandFine.com There are moments in “The Butler” – excuse me, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” – that make you cringe a little because they’re so on the nose. And yet I walked away from Daniels’ film deeply moved. As obvious as this film can be in its messages – bigotry and …
HollywoodandFine.com Quiet but compelling, emotionally buttoned-up and naked at the same time, Ava DuVernay’s “Middle of Nowhere,” opening in limited release Friday (10/12/12), is a film about holding still while trying to move forward. It’s not an easy trick; indeed, it’s impossible. Which is what the film’s central character, Ruby …
HollywoodandFine.com Lee Daniels received all sorts of accolades for 2009’s “Precious,” which seemed to announce a fiery new filmmaking talent. But the real indicator of Daniels’ sensibility may actually be 2005’s “Shadowboxer,” an overwrought and preposterous tale of professional killers (Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr.) who also happen to …