Tag: Rating: 3.5

On the night of 25 February 1964, the greatest boxer ever walked the earth, Cassius Clay (Eli Goree, Race) won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston. In the aftermath of his career-turning moment, Clay celebrates the victory with three friends—all are prominent Black figures in the 1960s, musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr., Hamilton), NFL star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge, Straight Outta Compton), and the controversial Black activist as well as Clay's mentor, Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir, High Fidelity series). Four legends in One Night in Miami marks the directorial debut of Regina King, adapting a stage-play by Kemp Powers (Pixar's Soul) who also writes the screenplay. The celebration isn't merely a celebratory party or anything resembles it; instead, the four legends emba...

John Magaro stars in First Cow (2020). In the present day, Alia Shawkat walks her dog along the woods when she discovers remnants from the past that will transport the story back in the era of Oregon Country, an era of fur-trade competition between American and British companies. It's a harsh period; settlements were scarce and the pristine environment could be deadly to those unaware of the danger. Director Kelly Reichardt (Night Moves) and her collaborator, Jonathan Raymond, present a story about the age of opportunity—where friendship and early form of American Dreams take shape—in First Cow. There's a real cow with real milk; there are wildlife hunters; there's an aspiring cook and an immigrant with eye for business making a couple of unlikely BFFs taking the center stage. Relat...

A New York-based, British-Pakistani rapper, Zed (Riz Ahmed), is about to embark in his first world tour after years of struggle from scratch. Just before the supposedly career-defining opportunity, he decides to fly home to his family in London after being away for at least two years. What arrives to him, however, isn't what he's expected; instead, he shows symptoms of an autoimmune disease attacking his muscle. "Your body doesn't recognize itself, so it attacks itself," the doctor diagnoses—while, at the same time, alluding the inner conflict the protagonist bears: the lost sense of identity. (more…)