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The English features a pairing uncommon in its genre < Back The English features a pairing uncommon in its genre Amazon Studios, 2022 51 minutes Creator: Hugo Blick Reading Time: 5 minutes 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock The English Heist (X2EIFVYLXVNFHFWM) 00:00 / 04:54 Rosemary Movies and TV shows with intense action Barley Movies/shows with a lot of dialogue Chris Chaisson 2022-12-23 If you’re a fan of westerns, you know how often they center around a tough-as-nails protagonist, sometimes forced to fend for themselves. Ninety-nine percent of them tell a story through the perspective of a rugged White cowboy, rescuing a damsel in distress from outlaws or saving an entire town. While there are plenty of tales of vigilante justice, they rarely consist of any other main character than the typical perpetrators of self-righteous violence. Given the rigid characterizations we’re used to, Hugo Blick’s new mini-series The English provides a refreshing change of pace. The English revolves around Cornelia (Emily Blunt), a British aristocrat venturing across the Great Plains in 1890 to avenge her son’s murder. Cornelia comes from privilege but is skilled in both riflery and archery. Along the way, she crosses paths with a Pawnee tribe member, Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), heading to Nebraska to claim land he is owed for his military service according to the Homestead Act. When Cornelia first happens upon Eli, she rescues him from a rancher attempting to kill him. While initially going their separate ways, they reunite and continue westward to complete Cornelia’s mission together. For much of the series, Cornelia seems to be a fish out of water. She carries a large bag of cash with her in a satchel on her horseback carriage. As if that didn’t make her enough of a target, she wears fancy, pristine attire and skillfully applied cosmetics, not hiding her wealth at all. Every character around her carries with them the toll of physical labor or combat on their faces and clothes. This is in stark contrast to Cornelia’s prim and proper appearance that leads everyone to underestimate her, which she frequently uses to her advantage in the face of danger. Even after committing gruesome acts of violence, Cornelia seems troubled and guilt-ridden. In a universe with a desensitizing amount of violence, she serves as a presence right on the threshold of civilized and barbaric behavior. In contrast to the expressive Cornelia, Eli remains a portrait of stoicism for much of the mini-series. Likely a product of his military training, Eli’s even-keeled nature conceals not only the grief he feels from lost loved ones, but the burden of the oppression he experiences as a Native American. Despite his service, he still finds himself as the game being hunted in many scenarios, surviving due to his own cunning and Cornelia’s loyalty. The supporting characters stand much more in line with the typical Western personas. Most of the villains throwing up obstacles for Cornelia and Eli have the typical conniving motivations, out for riches (of which Cornelia has plenty), property or scalps to put on display (gross). Many either operate by the code of “kill or be killed” or have deep-seated bigotry toward Native Americans, to the point of engaging in grand, faux-philosophical discourse with the reluctant protagonists. Unlike your typical vengeance story, the focus of The English turns out to be the bond forming between the two leads. The audience can determine this based not only on where the majority of the series is spent but where it picks up. We are thrust right into the midst of Cornelia’s journey, meaning we neither meet the villain that she is after nor see the inciting incident that spurred her on. Similarly, for Eli, his time with the military ends at the very beginning of the pilot, upon which he is reminded by a fellow service member, “In there, you’ve been one of us, but out here, you’re one of them.” The series’ focus on the friendship rather than the vengeance itself could be construed as a statement on the unfulfilling nature of revenge. Though violence is as second nature to some as it is unthinkable to others, payback rarely satisfies the seeker as much as they expect it to. A hidden message in The English may be that the best way to heal from a painful loss is to foster relationships with those that are still here. Though each belongs to a different broader genre, The English and Kill Bill are similar revenge stories. Cornelia, like The Bride played by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill , lost a child and seeks retribution, killing many other villains in gruesome fashion along the way. Both characters are greatly underestimated by some of their foes. At the end of each of their journeys, the chase and eventual slaughter left both characters less content than the time they shared with their close companions along the way. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Fool Me Once unveils the continuing spiral of interdependence < Back Fool Me Once unveils the continuing spiral of interdependence Quay Street Productions, 2024 50 minutes Creator: Harlan Coben Reading Time: 6 minutes 📷 : Used with permission, Netflix Fool Me Once Storm Before the Calm (N6J42VARUMKBN5UC) 00:00 / 06:19 Ginseng Suspenseful and intense thrillers Matcha Mysteries or whodunnits Reba Chaisson 2024-02-05 I find a lot of similarities in British television series. For example, each episode tends to end on a crescendo so you’re anxious to come back for the next. The crescendo in Anatomy of a Scandal is in the form of sharp and sudden slow motion special effects that gives us the sense of being hit in the stomach and getting the wind knocked out of us. While weird and over the top, it is effective at sending us into an anticipatory state – impatiently awaiting the next episode. Fool Me Once is similar, but thankfully it executes without such dramatic special effects. I need no reminders of sci-fi. (Sorry folks. With the exception of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back , I am just not feeling the genre. I do love some Yoda though!) Michelle Kegan plays Maya Stern in this 8-episode series about a recently widowed 30-something year-old determined to find out who is behind the murders of her husband, Joe Burkett, and her sister, Claire Walker. Complicating this is a covert effort underfoot to challenge her sanity. Although Joe is shot dead in front of her during a stroll in the park, she sees him playing with her 2-year-old daughter, Lily, on the child’s nanny cam several weeks later. Maya, a former Air Force captain already haunted by events that occurred during her service, suspects her wealthy and powerful mother-in-law, Judith Burkett, who heads the family’s long-established pharmaceutical company in Britain. Feeling her daughter-in-law was never good enough for her son, Judith neither likes nor trusts Maya. Their mutual disdain constitutes the main source of tension in the series. During her investigation, Maya must deal with the intrusions of the 50-something year-old Detective Sami Kierce, played by Adeel Akhtar ( Utopia , Sweet Tooth ). Detective Kierce’s idiosyncrasies bring “Lieutenant Columbo” to mind. Played by Peter Falk, Columbo is a smart, shrewd, yet quirky police detective in the popular 1970s series of the same name that ran for nine seasons. My parents loved this show because Columbo, in his iconic beige trench coat, always got his guy or girl because they dismissed him due to his unpolished appearance and quirky behaviors. Detective Kierce’s quirks and occasional clumsy appearance are like that of Columbo’s. He wears a trench coat in the beginning of the series, and at an upscale gathering, he is told, in a disrespectful manner, that his shoes are untied. Maya underestimates Kierce and often treats him like an annoyance, which, as we learned from the Columbo series more than 50 years ago, is never good practice. Fool Me Once is missing elements we take for granted in a murder mystery/police story. People brought in for questioning are neither harassed nor tricked by the police (yeah, right). In fact, doing so is frowned upon. When Detective Kierce reluctantly partners with the younger and impressionable Detective Marty McGreggor (Dino Fetscher), he confronts McGreggor about a story he told during their “interview” of a suspect. He asks McGreggor about the veracity of his story, and McGreggor laughs and admits it was a lie to get the suspect to talk. “It’s good policing,” he adds proudly. Kierce responds with seriousness, “Lying is never good policing.” McGreggor’s smile slowly fades. The exchange conveys the age divide in the detectives’ ideas of what constitutes good policing: Kierce’s sense of old-school ethics versus the young McGreggor’s belief in doing what is necessary to get information. The twenty or so years between them and their difference in perspectives convey the sense that adherence to traditional police behaviors in Britain is fading with each generation and will likely disintegrate altogether over the next 20 years if the generations before them do not put them in check. In murder mystery/police stories, we usually observe a lot of shooting or other forms of violence, but other than Joe and Claire’s murders, we don’t see this across the eight episodes of Fool Me Once . One reason for this is the absence of guns in Britain, as British police officers carry police batons. I am reminded of this when McGreggor happily gives Kierce a hug because of a compliment he paid him for an action he took. Kierce, clearly not wanting to be hugged, quips, “This is the real reason we don’t carry firearms.” The funny moment is presented as if series creator, Harlan Coben, wants us to know this “guns-free” tradition in the UK, hoping we ponder for ourselves the reasoning behind the superabundance of firearms in the U.S., particularly amid the high incidents of gun violence. Fool Me Once is an aesthetically pleasing production that takes us into Britain’s posh countryside and expansive estates to unravel a murder mystery. Having the threads pulled from an upper-class insider like Claire and an outsider like Detective Kierce gives a sense of balance to the show as she works from the top down and he from the bottom up. It helps us see how people across social classes are not as disconnected as they seem, that there is a strong web of interdependence among them. The degree to which wealthy families rely on their employees to commit wrongdoings for them is one example, and the impossible situations the workers find themselves in and so do what is asked is another. The degree to which people, out of greed, sell their souls for money and favors, or to remain in the good graces of their benefactors, are even more examples of these interdependent relationships. So, unlike the crescendo in Anatomy of a Scandal , we are not shocked or flabbergasted when we get a hint that makes us question, what could this person over here possibly have to do with this matter over there? We are, however, frequently blindsided, which makes each episode so tough to just stop there. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back Rez Ball presents Native American teens as just being teens Wise Entertainment, 2024 111 minutes Director/Writer: Sydney Freeland / Sydney Freeland, Sterlin Harjo, and Michael Powell Reading Time: 6 minutes Rez Ball Edge of Victory (ZOGDBQHT38I3VE25) 00:00 / 08:08 📷 : Used with permission, Netflix Masala Chai: Movies and TV shows about toughness and athletic competition Honeybush: Nonfamily dramas with strong adult and/or socioeconomic themes Reba Chaisson 2024-10-24 My husband often says that the thing about basketball is all you have to do is get a basketball, hang a hoop on a pole and you can play. Heck, Naismith first suggested a peach basket! Many great careers have been launched with this low tech, low overhead approach to playing basketball. Lebron James’s career is one of those. Heard of him? In addition to being a future hall-of-fame player, he is one of the producers of Rez Ball , a fictional story of high school basketball on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. Kauchani Bratt (nephew of Benjamin Bratt) plays Jimmy, the promising, contemplative star guard on the Chuska High School Warriors, who along with his best friend and team leader, Nataanii (Kusem Goodwind), make the Warriors the pride of the Chuska community. Like many young and gifted athletes, both kids aspire to play ball in college. But when Nataanii experiences a personal loss, he loses the joy and excitement teen athletes typically have when competing in sports. Still, Jimmy, his teammates, and the rest of the community are gut-punched when Nataanii takes his own life. There is a great deal of literature about the social ills on tribal lands; alcoholism, depression, and suicide are at the top of the list. The literature addresses, ad nauseam, the lack of money and resources in the communities. If this sounds cynical, it is because these problems were borne out of centuries of the dehumanization, colonization, and exploitation of Native Americans. Much of what is observed today are the remnants of what some researchers might describe as “ benign neglect .” Nataanii’s suicide in the film contextualizes the conditions of the rez. So too does Jimmy’s mother, Gloria, played by Julia Jones ( Wind River , Cold Pursuit ), whose primary role seems to be that of fatalist. Rather than comforting Jimmy when he loses his friend, Gloria blithely tells him that people on the rez are destined for disappointment and suicide. She then discourages him from getting his hopes up about attending college to play basketball because “The higher you go the greater the fall. The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.” To be fair, Gloria is struggling to cope with disappointments she has experienced in her life. But her words of caution for her young son, rather than comfort and encouragement, ultimately leave him to deal with his anguish (and even hopes) alone, depicting how one generation’s distress can become intergenerational despair without some intervention. Jessica Matten ( Dark Winds , Frontier ) plays Coach Heather Hobbs, a former WNBA player who has her own aspirations of leaving the rez and coaching a professional team. With no bites to her inquiries, she reinvests herself in the Chuska Warriors basketball team, enlisting her reluctant former coach, Benny Begay (Ernest Tsosie III), as an assistant. On Benny’s first day, he performs a traditional Indigenous ritual with the kids, while acknowledging their feelings of uncertainty resulting from Natanii’s death. He adds that they “descend from Warriors” and that “true [Warriors are] are not afraid to grieve.” This, along with Coach Hobbs’s encouragement, brings comfort to the players as she refocuses their energies on their cultural identities as fighters against their all too-familiar adversity. They dedicate the season to Nataanii and commit to win the state championship. The team then turns its attention to their top adversary, the Santa Fe Catholic Coyotes, where the boys are much bigger than they are. With the team having lost Nataanii’s size as well as their confidence in winning, Jimmy seeks ways to gain an advantage. He devises a way to leverage the Navajo language for their in-game communications, much like what the Navajo Code Talkers did in World War II to mask the U.S.’s war strategies. When this puts their opponents on their heels, the Warriors experience success again and believe in themselves. Will it be enough, however, to beat the Coyotes? Regardless, slowly but surely, the quiet, introspective half of the Nataanii-Jimmy duo emerges as the new leader in the locker room. We see Jimmy’s continual growth as a leader when he challenges his teammate, Bryson (Devin Sampson-Craig), for going on a bender the night before a game. Waking Bryson at his home late after the game, Jimmy admonishes him for being irresponsible. When Bryson calls him a “Nataanii-wanna-be,” the intense exchange escalates into a fist-a-cuffs. Bryson’s nonverbal cues later hint not only at his remorse for his role in the team’s poor game performance, but also his acknowledgment of Jimmy as the team’s new leader. The weight of intergenerational oppression is cumulative and heavy. Jimmy’s emergence as the team leader suggests that the resulting despair is something that can be overcome, but not without some intervention. With the support of the coaches, he and his teammates manage to pull their way through a painfully dark period in their young lives to see hope and experience joy once again. The underlying themes of Rez Ball may seem sappy or even weighty as indicated by the Honeybush tea designation. But the Masala Chai tag conveys the sense that the film is infused with intense game competition, meaningful family interaction, and vibrant community dynamics. While Rez Ball necessarily contextualizes the story of the Chuska High School basketball team, it avoids dwelling on the struggles of people who live on Native American reservations. Instead, writer/director Sydney Freeland forces us to live in the lives of the kids on the team. She presents the characters as teenagers playing a game that is accessible to them and dealing with many of the same issues and quandaries of most teens (i.e. drinking, teen romance, work-extracurricular activity conflict). In doing so, Freeland humanizes Native Americans as people who love playing and watching sports as much as anyone else. Rez Ball even presents the Chuska community as one that rallies around their high school team, much like many small towns in rural areas across the country. Rez Ball reminds me of Friday Night Lights , the five-season television series about a high school football team that is the pride of its rural Dillon, Texas community. The show stars Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, and oh yeah, a young Michael B. Jordan! Like Rez Ball , the kids in Friday Night Lights fight with their teammates during and after games because they miss a pass, don’t hustle enough, or fail to properly prioritize because they went on a bender the night before. And like Rez Ball , the best players aspire to play college ball and ultimately go pro. I have to say that it would be nice to continue to have frequent/regular exposure to representations of Native Americans on television like this, just doing what everyone else does, being normal. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back Greg Sgammato A Conversation with Film Composer Greg Sgammato Cup of Tea Critiques chats with Greg Sgammato, film composer and member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists Chris Chaisson 2023-06-02 Reading time: 18 minutes Few professions stand at the dividing line of two different industries quite like film composing does. Though many moviegoers love film scores and would readily acknowledge how much they enhance stories, most lack familiarity with the biggest names, faces, and details of the job. Greg Sgammato, film composer and former stand-up comedian, sat down with Cup of Tea Critiques to provide insight into how composers find work, manage around budget limitations, and foster a good working relationship with the film’s director. With so many aspiring musicians having to market themselves, the world of film composing is quite competitive. Greg spoke on how composers clamor for work opportunities. I'll have to do the pitch first. Usually, I'll find a project that's in production or pre-production. And I will usually pitch myself for projects that I find. We have a phrase that has come up in Internet communities called, “Do you need a composer?” We say DYNAC, for short. Anytime you see someone say, “I'm really proud of my short film,” or “I've written a script.” It's very likely you'll see under there, “Do you need a composer?” It's a weird field. Greg also revealed how he and others choose to rub elbows with their colleagues. What I normally find is we all spend time in the same spaces. It's a pretty active scene of networking with composers. But it's also, in my experience, been a little bit segmented. The more high-profile composers stick to themselves because they're doing the job at such a high level, and they want to talk shop, basically. Then you have the [other] composers talking about the feature film they just scored, or what two-hour deadline they had. There's not a lot of crossover. There's always that idea of, “Does this person want something from me?” My networking has been very passive. I just do what I like to do in my free time. I have collaborators now who I met playing soccer. I have collaborators now who came upon a funny thing I did on Instagram when I was into comedy. It's kind of that thing where it's a little bit more organic. Even from the start, I got into this accidentally. I was playing in a modern dance class. I was playing piano and drums to accompany the dancers. And one of my friends knew that I was doing that. He said, “Well, I have a short film I need to film before the final presentation; would you score it?” I'd never done that before. But early on, I just said, “Yeah, of course. I'll do that.” Then from that, I got referrals. And from there I scored more short films, and I decided, “I'll move to Los Angeles.” It wasn't well planned out. It's always these little snowball things. Push a domino over and see if any others fall. Artists are often unsure of how to forge their own career paths. Greg shared his thoughts on the best way to gain exposure for your work. Something that I learned while I was doing stand-up, especially at the open mic scene, was you can't wait for anyone to think that you're the person for them. You can't wait for someone to hire you. You always have to be thinking, “What can I make?” Just like with actors, if you want to get cast, write your own thing. Cast yourself. And for me, if I want to write music, just write music, write songs, write main titles and do podcast music. I did a bunch of that stuff and I just kept busy. Since around that time, I've always had something to do, whether it paid me or whether it was just fulfilling. I've always been busy. That’s been my experience networking, because I haven't done it in a business sense. I definitely think that's because sometimes the practice of networking can come off as inauthentic if you're not meeting in a way that’s [natural]. I found just being around people who enjoy doing what I do: in my acapella group, my soccer teams, my day jobs. If you're not all agreeing to be there for the same reason, it can feel a little bit unnatural. Some creatives choose to take on any project that they are offered while others aim to be known for one specific genre. Greg divulged his philosophy, why it works for him, and what his own preference for projects is. I don't say no to anything, and I haven't since I started doing this. I've written some things that I never thought I could write and some of it came off really well. I listened to a lot of music too. It's weird to try and distill yourself into an elevator pitch, especially in a social setting where you just want to get to know someone. I really want to work in the field of animation. Mostly, in family entertainment. But I also have a lot of friends and connections with comedy that are comedic writers. So that's the path I'm forging. I didn't really figure that out until I worked on an animated short film. And from there, it came so easy. I found that with animation, I was untethered from reality. I felt like there was nothing holding me back from taking chances or making weird things. I need a lot of variety in my writing. So especially with kids’ media being so dynamic, it always has to change, and quickly. You got to catch attention, but you also have to cater to sensibilities as well as if a parent is watching. You're entertaining all of these people, and you got to keep it moving. I've done a feature film, and fortunately, it was asking the same thing that's off the walls. It required me to sit down and write these same four themes in a ton of different ways for weeks. That's really taxing creatively, but it is really great because you get to develop and really think of it academically. I don't do a great job when people say, "Oh, you write music?” What do you do?" It's not quite like, "Oh, you do stand up? Tell me a joke.” But it is very similar in that you have to listen to it. I've also found that I have this great strength in writing super heartbreaking, ambient music, that really pushes and pulls and has this really natural quality. I have a bunch of film scores that I've done that I've been able to feature just because it's what the story needed. And those are my influences, that's what I like listening to, and that's what I like trying to recreate. Since many composers are not household names, Greg shared one of his sources of inspiration. There's a composer named Alex Summers, who writes really brilliant electronic and acoustic music, and I was just trying to emulate his stuff. I ended up writing something that I'm really proud of to this day for a documentary about stand-up comedy [ Laugh Now, Cry Later ] a few years ago. One of my friends made a documentary highlighting some female comedians in L.A. in 2020. I just remember writing it and I didn't ever think that I could write something that sounded this intentional, this beautiful, this reflective. When you think of film scores, you think of epic music or orchestral, giant, bombastic [music]. That's not my thing. It's never appealed to me. And it's something I can’t fake. If it’s satirical, I can absolutely do that. But it's not something that I was ever drawn to. A lot of people get into film music because they love film music. I got into film music because I was available and I said yes. I only knew John Williams and Hans Zimmer. I didn't know there was a whole history of people who had all these different takes on what it is. Now, I usually tell people, “I like to write music and songs for children's media and I work in animation.” That's kind of the shortest thing. Whether it's true or not, we'll see. Art can be all-consuming. Writers and performers find themselves thinking about their art non-stop and even being too “on” in social situations. Greg weighed in on whether his passion for film composing gets in the way of his down time. I’m definitely not thinking about it all the time. What I am thinking about is, “What am I going to do next?” I have to think about what's coming next. Because I feel if I just do this thing, and then call it a day, then it's going to end and I'm not going to be able to sustain this career. Sometimes I'm thinking, “Okay, I have a chance to slow down now and take a methodical approach at film scoring.” It's more logistical, more existential and not so much creative. I record something if I have a cool idea. I'll write something down if I have a song lyric. But it's definitely not something that I'm thinking about all the time, for which I'm very thankful because it's great to have work/life balance in my brain. Many in and outside the film industry are unfamiliar with the collaborative protocol between a film composer and the director who hired them. Greg answered whether or not there is typically a consistent back-and-forth involving several revisions on the soundtrack or if the process is more segmented. The biggest job of a composer, songwriter, or anyone in post-production of TV and film, is to take everything [the director] says, and that is your job. You remove ego and what you think is best. You can have some input, and you can creatively mix that in with their vision. But most importantly, everything is up to them. It depends on the person. Some [directors] want to be very involved. To the point where they're really directing the music, specifically, instead of directing the whole picture. And that can be troubling sometimes if they're thinking of melodic ideas, specifically, or if they're listing instruments, and maybe they don't know what they really want. I don't mind a back-and-forth. I love an in-person conversation, because we can get amped up about stuff. It's important for me to know which questions to ask. Sometimes I'm in a situation in which the director wants to take a lot of charge, and maybe start singing something, and I have to have some level of control over this. If not, they wouldn't have reached out to me in the first place. So, it's striking a balance between [not being] micromanaged, but also knowing that they're in charge. Sometimes people struggle with directors not knowing enough about music. I can't say I prefer it that way. But I think it's easiest, whenever a director or producer is thinking about their projects that they've been spending all this time with and just thinking about it, distilling it into words, distilling it into feelings. I think that's way easier to work with than them citing specific tempo, keys or chords. This is something I find working with some younger people. They don't want to hurt my feelings… it's not about hurting my feelings. I don't take this stuff personally. Let's get the best result for your film. And I always commend people when they say, “Hey, can you change this?” Even if it's a whole overhaul, I got to know. It's got to be your thing. And I'm just here to help you. Give me something I can go away and tweak for you. People will say, “Well, should I limit revisions on anything?” Don't do that. Don't put up walls… I want to get to where [me] and the director are comfortable working together, comfortable enough that I can assert my professionalism as a composer. And they can assert their vision and their leadership as a director. That’s where the ideal would be. Greg confessed his biggest hang-up when being hired to compose for a project. For me, it's nothing artistic. It is strictly business, strictly logistical. My biggest pet peeve is your budget as a filmmaker being some sort of secret. It really bothers me. It bothers me more than me not being paid. I've done so much free work this past year. I understand. I have a good gig. I'm very privileged in that [way]; I have a day job that I work remotely. I also work with a bunch of composers and songwriters. So I'm not worried about money like that. I just want to do good work with good people. I'm not bothered because my first thought is not being paid. I understand that people can't pay professionals. What I don't like is when people who are asking for your rate aren't very upfront about what they have to spend. My actual rate as of right now is $400 for a minute of music. Now that doesn't work well, in some cases, like a feature film, if I'm writing 50 minutes of music. I can't charge you that because I've never accepted a payment that large; I wouldn't know what to do with it. But I think if you want to know my rate, I need to know how much you're willing to spend. I just want to know how much you've spent on everything else so far. The feature film I did last year had an entire budget of $3,000. And they said, “We can offer you nothing.” And I took the gig, because they were very upfront about that. They spent $3,000 on locations. All their actors were doing it for free. And they got some big names. I trusted the vision. The director and I have a great rapport. He's trusted me with a lot of stuff before and he's paid me well before. So I didn't mind because it was very transparent. There wasn't a big demo for it, I didn't have to audition for it, which I do appreciate. Because sometimes you should be paid for that too. That's my biggest thing, tell me how much you have to spend on the film. It doesn't have to be your music budget, it doesn't have to be how much you're willing to pay me. But if you have $1,000, just for music, I'd say, “Okay, for my job, let's make something really cool with the rest of it. Let's get artists to come in and record. Let's get a string orchestra or something. Let's figure this out to make your film the best that it can be.” Be very clear about what you're willing to do and to spend. It will make the whole thing a lot better, because people will understand that they are valued and you have a clear vision. The subject of film composition brings to mind the presence of large orchestras and fancy rehearsal halls where artists do elaborate recordings. But Greg talked about the limitations and modest budget that the majority of film composers work with. I wish I could [routinely] hire a group of musicians. When I do work with live musicians, it's usually live vocalists. I hire a session vocalist if I'm doing a kid’s show demo, or a main title theme song. I'll hire someone and pay them the [Screen Actors Guild] rate. They have a special demo rate too. We have an agreement where if it does get picked up and shown on television, they’ll get X amount of royalties. [Screen Actors Guild] makes it both very clear and very complicated. Complicated in a good way, though, because they're taking care of their people. But clear in a way that I know what to expect if I'm hiring my friend who is a talented session singer. I will have to pay her $350 or whatever the rate is now. I can usually only hire one or two people if I really need it. The last time I hired musicians was last year [when] I worked on a short film, and I hired because it was a really tender, transparent score. There was really no hiding behind anything, and the samples that I was using were fine, but to me they weren't sounding as good as I wanted them to. So I hired two friends I knew from school who were professionals; one’s a professional cellist, and one's a violist. I just paid them and gave them a ‘special thanks’ in the credits. It was totally remote. I just sent them sheet music and gave them a click track. They sent me a couple of takes. And then I just laid it in my project, and it turned out really well. It's so rare. We have to get so good as composers at making a fake orchestra or a fake rock band sound like the real thing. And I've gotten ashamedly good at it, which is wild, but it's such a useful skill. It's also a lot easier to do now than it was to do 10, 20, 30 years ago. Every professional has their own communication style. Greg gave us a sense of the approach that works best for him - both from the director’s side and his own. What actually works best for me is when [the directors] talk about the characters, the color, the vibe. That stuff is really helpful for me. Usually, if I can see a solid logline or synopsis, that kind of stuff is really impressive for me. Because I know how hard it is to take this giant idea you’ve been working on and distill it down. That kind of stuff can be so difficult. So, I think talking about the characters and intention is a lot better. The weirdest thing I've had was a project that my name is not on. But it was one of the earliest things that I did in L.A. Actually, I’m proud of the music I wrote, but it was for an erotic ASMR [Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response]… This is before ASMR was a big thing. But it was a paying gig. And the director just said, I want it to sound like they're in a spa. And so I just wrote some Enya-sounding thing. That stuff that dominated the 90s when Enya was the flagbearer. I wrote something like that. I listen to it now and it was exactly what the director needed. It wasn't super high quality and I definitely could do it better now. And I would still take that gig today if they offered it. It's weird because it was ASMR, so it was audio only. I had to mirror that, how it ebbs and flows. As long as you have that vision as a director and you can say, “This is where this goes, this is how the story transforms. And this is how I want you to complement that or maybe work with it or work against it.” I think a good and experienced director would be able to succinctly say, “This is the story. These are the characters. This is where you fit in.” Greg is a member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) and the Creators Society . You can follow and connect with him at his website, www.gregcanhelp.com . Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

I May Destroy You exists simultaneously as a difficult viewing experience and a necessary step in preventing sexual abuse. < Back I May Destroy You exists simultaneously as a difficult viewing experience and a necessary step in preventing sexual abuse. British Broadcasting Company, 2020 30 minutes Creator: Michaela Coel Reading Time: 4 minutes 📷 : Pixabay I May Destroy You The South Downs (WYVXUC39XFEKF3QY) 00:00 / 05:12 Dandelion Movies and TV shows with heavy subjects Ginger Thought-provoking movies and TV shows Chris Chaisson 2022-05-22 Many television shows surrounding young people, specifically half-hour shows, highlight youthful exuberance. Viewed as the most care-free time of your life, single adults in their teens, 20’s and 30’s party, go on road trips and even goof off at their jobs. The most common issues (breakups, layoffs, roommate discord) resolve themselves hastily or trivially. The general messaging behind these light‑hearted tropes is that at such a young age, actions have minimal consequences and are quick to overcome. Plainly stated, this premise can be easy to scoff at, but it nonetheless influences how we think. Occasionally though, more serious shows illustrate traumatic experiences and the need to work through them. Though heavier in tone, these shows display the same youthful exuberance, as people who have suffered trauma still must live their lives amidst their coping. The fun and games simply take a backseat to the characters working through their suffering. Thus, a series like I May Destroy You exists simultaneously as a difficult viewing experience and a necessary step in preventing sexual abuse. The BBC production depicts the misconceptions that many young people have about sex, what it means, and the price many pay for it. They also show that processing your pain does not preclude living a full and enriched life. Created by the immensely talented Michaela Coel ( Chewing Gum ), I May Destroy You centers around Arabella (Coel), a promising young writer living in London. During a night out with friends, a stranger spikes her drink and assaults her. Throughout the twelve episodes, Arabella comes to grips with what was done to her while attempting to recoup the joy and freedom she previously felt. As she reevaluates her subsequent sexual encounters, the show also examines the dating lives of her two best friends, Kwame (Paapa Essiedu) and Terry (Weruche Opia). They each meet various sexual partners and rehash details of their encounters to one another. What stands out is how vital Arabella, Terry and Kwame’s talks are to their increased understanding of boundaries and etiquette. They all find themselves in the role of the aggressor and the submitter at some point. For instance, Kwame goes home with a straight woman without telling her that he is gay. When she finds out, she is incensed and throws him out. In reconvening with Arabella, she chastises Kwame and in doing so, helps him to see that he should be more forthcoming with his partners. I May Destroy You has about as heavy of a subject matter episode-to-episode as any show could have. It zones in on the mental condition of its main characters, often more sobering than the dynamic goings‑on in the real world. Many sequences depict Arabella and her friends in disoriented states, whether it’s at a party they don’t wish to be at or overindulging in social media engagement. This feeling of unease may speak to young viewers, who experience anxiety from the constant pressure of interacting with others while trying to deal with their own distresses. A consistent theme and important message of the show is the importance of communication. In showing these three young adults cope and lean on one another, as well as minor characters, for comfort, the series seems to be telling young people to keep talking and never believe that they must suffer alone. Additionally, playing different roles in different situations forces the characters to accept that even having been wronged themselves in the past, they still must take responsibility for hurting others. The show represents several different identities but stars a predominantly Black British cast of various sexual orientations. The series closest to this genre may be one of its popular contemporaries, Euphoria , about a group of high school students coping with an atmosphere filled with sex, drugs and violence. Though these programs do not always provide the escapism that many viewers seek out, their displays of sex- and drug-induced trauma may play a role in pushing young people to be more communicative and feel free and empowered to make healthy choices for themselves. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

The After highlights children’s intuition < Back The After highlights children’s intuition Neon Films, 2023 18 minutes Director/Writer: Misan Harriman / John Julius Schwabach and Misan Harriman Reading Time: 4 minutes 📷 : Used with permission, Netflix The After A Dark Past (WYJRMRUKNMDQSZB1) 00:00 / 04:01 Dandelion Movies/shows with heavy subjects Chris Chaisson 2024-02-06 Many of us believe that when we lose one of our senses, the others grow stronger. In the same way, younger children, due to their underdeveloped verbal communication skills, possess stronger nonverbal abilities and even an intuition of how others feel. As adults, we are frequently too distracted with our own problems and responsibilities to recognize a grieving person in front of us. Just the same, we can often be too desensitized or callous to care even when we do. In this sense, adolescents have an advantage over us, still having empathy and observational skills that have not dulled or hardened from life experience. Misan Harriman’s Oscar-nominated short film, The After , hints at this reality over the course of its 18 minutes. David Oyelowo ( Selma ) plays Dayo, a loving husband and father whose world is turned upside down after a stabbing attack that cost him his family. A year later, his career as a businessman is a distant memory, and he works as a rideshare driver while still grieving the sudden, tragic loss he’s endured. Dayo is not without a support system, as many friends call to check up on him, but he has trouble responding and keeping up with his grief counseling appointments. Over the course of a typical day, he provides rides to numerous strangers in London and becomes numb to the conversations occurring in his backseat. Most of his customers are adults who are either conversing with each other, arguing, or on their phones. Though unspoken, it is clear from Dayo’s demeanor that he is repressing a lot of his still unprocessed emotions in order to put on a face for his job. One day, a bickering couple and their silent child pile into his backseat for a ride home. The child sits in the middle, clearly affected by her parents arguing. However, she observes Dayo’s body language and facial expressions as he drives. When they arrive, the parents exit the car and head up their front steps, but the child remains in the car. Dayo asks her if she’d like to get out and go inside, to which she reluctantly obliges. However, before heading up the steps, she turns around and hugs him from behind. The parents, still wrapped up in their own argument, suddenly turn and run down to pry their child off Dayo as he falls to the ground sobbing. They leave him on the sidewalk, where he continues crying before pulling himself together and driving off. The After ’s opening sequence is jarring and tragic enough to make Dayo a sympathetic character for the rest of its duration. However, the interesting aspect of the short film is its display of children’s intuition. Despite all of the adult passengers Dayo has in his car, none seem to acknowledge or read him at all; to them, he is somewhat invisible. The first pair of passengers make this reality evident, as the father brags about his son’s soccer accomplishments while the son tells his dad that Dayo probably does not want to hear it. Being polite, Dayo denies any disinterest, even though deep down the conversation is white noise to him. What eventually cracks him open is the child of the bickering parents, who very clearly resembles his own deceased daughter. Often, films depicting a grieving parent begin after the death has already occurred. Witnessing the sudden and violent nature of his family’s death puts the rest of The After into perspective. In particular, it is easy to become detached from the grieving of other adults, as we not only hear about so much bad in the world but witness it for ourselves. Sometimes, it takes the innocence of a young, attentive soul to recognize another person’s hurt and reach out. The After reminds its audience that although we do not typically think of children as the teachers, sometimes it is good to follow their example. Available on Netflix Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back Biosphere takes a more docile, academic angle in the post-apocalyptic genre Duplass Brothers Productions, 2023 106 minutes Director/Writer: Mel Eslyn Reading Time: 4 minutes Biosphere Strange Science (DHJJSCGX4M4QFF6S) 00:00 / 04:14 📷 : Pixabay Barley: Movies and TV shows with a lot of dialog Ginger: Thought-provoking movies and TV shows Chris Chaisson 2023-08-02 Set in an apocalyptic future, Biosphere stars two lifelong friends, Ray (Sterling K. Brown, Black Panther ) and Billy (Mark Duplass, Safety Not Guaranteed ), who have witnessed the end of civilization and now co-exist in a self-sufficient biosphere. As they are both biologically male, Ray and Billy being the sole survivors would indicate the inevitable extinction of the human race. But is it that simple or is an unforeseen evolutionary change coming? Ray and Billy’s relationship sees its ups and downs as they debate their differing perspectives, reflect on their lives before the incident, and plan for what is to come. As one might expect from a two-character story, Ray and Billy have very glaring differences. Ray is the overachieving intellectual, having built the biosphere they are surviving in himself. Not only is he highly educated in biochemistry, but he served as an adviser to Billy’s presidency. What to some may be the most perplexing element of the story is that Billy was ever the President of anything, let alone the United States. Though charming, he appears to lack any leadership skills or authoritative presence, mostly deferring to Ray’s expertise. His character is most likely a satire of many leaders in real life, if not the entire idea that a leader knows any more than the average person. Billy serves as the voice of the audience, specifically those not well-versed in science or evolution, and reacts just as they would to hearing the volume of information that Ray throws out. Ultimately, Billy becomes a sympathetic character, as having a highly intelligent and accomplished friend could conjure up feelings of insecurity. Biosphere being a post-apocalyptic buddy comedy allows for it to present many interesting questions. One such question is where to turn to after an argument? In many post-apocalyptic films, there is one survivor who speaks to inanimate objects for a sense of socialization. However, Ray and Billy each have someone to talk to, but not anyone to moderate once they have verbal disagreements. One solution is the fish that they are growing (and eventually eating) in the biosphere’s pond. Ray talks to them for a reprieve multiple times after getting into it with his best friend. Though not exactly like Wilson in Cast Away or the mannequins in I Am Legend , we see that even with the presence of a human companion, situations dictate turning to other beings for conflict resolution. The movie’s main question pondered over the course of 106 minutes is “could an organism’s biological makeup change out of necessity in order to continue its species?” On this topic, Ray and Billy both must face changes propelling them to act in ways they never thought they would have to in a civilized society. What pulls the viewer into the story is that due to their lifelong friendship and confinement to a single space, the characters have candid conversations about who they are, how they have been raised, and how both factors act as mental roadblocks to evolution that they must figure out a way around. Writer/director Mel Eslyn’s film differs from many others in its genre. In most films with two friends struggling to survive, they are stranded in the wilderness or space, still with some faint hope of rescue. In many post-apocalyptic movies, there is either a sole survivor still able to traverse the wasteland for resources or many groups of survivors that form their own cliques (i.e. Mad Max ). Having two friends co-existing in a biosphere avoids the violence and tribalism that we often see from movies in this category. Instead, it goes the academic and largely comedic route. Pressed for a comparison, Biosphere bears some resemblance to the Oscar-nominated 2017 film The Shape of Water . In Guillermo del Toro’s critically acclaimed flick, a lonely janitor forms a relationship with an amphibious creature being held captive. Both films raise questions about how human beings adapt in the face of loneliness, desperation and, in the case of Biosphere , possible extinction. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Drone uses lifelike graphics for a funny, yet ominous glimpse into AI < Back Drone uses lifelike graphics for a funny, yet ominous glimpse into AI E.D. Films, 2023 15 minutes Director/Writer: Sean Buckelew Reading Time: 3 minutes 📷 : Used with permission, B&B Pictures Drone Solatium Mysterium (KKCUB6QA8KN9QZSR) 00:00 / 03:09 Ginger Thought-provoking movies and TV shows Saffron Movies and TV shows with great visual effects Reba Chaisson 2023-07-26 Drone is an animated short film by Sean Buckelew about a drone that grows a conscience. With the use of artificial intelligence (AI), a drone, dubbed “Newton,” is presented at a CIA press briefing to announce AI-enhanced drones as new military hardware. Demonstrating its capabilities during a livestream in front of the audience, the press secretary engages in a pleasant conversation with Newton, indicating the drone is ready to show what it can do. Things go awry when the drone fires a missile into an empty building, but then verbally acknowledges it committed a grave error when it detects that a person was killed in the explosion. Feeling guilty, the drone vows to “never inflict pain and suffering on anyone again,” and people around the country embrace him for it. Buckelew does such an exquisite job of presenting the drone as self-aware, that you are likely to find yourself referring to it by its name or pronoun. The drone is presented not as an “it,” but as an object personified with human emotions of happiness, sadness, and even guilt. It makes me wonder to what degree AI will eventually make us feel emotionally close to inanimate objects, beyond the guitars we play or the cars we keep in our garage. Drone is both a funny and important film with astounding graphics that presents racially and ethnically diverse, lifelike characters, who smoke and use social media on their smartphones. It is not only a joy to watch, but it imparts lessons about our social and political realities in the age of livestreaming and government arrogance. The political fallout for the drone’s mishap provides a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes when things do not go as planned, and agencies and leaders are embarrassed by what transpires in full view of the public. Drone also helps us understand how an outcome, even a tragic one, can be twisted into a pretzel to justify staying the course. The rationalizations make it clear that handshakes and signed contracts occur long before Newton and his cousins get their first bolt. We are a long way from the days when robots looked like painted cardboard boxes with eyes, or even when they were made of stiff metal, like “C3PO” and “R2D2” of Star Wars fame. They now resemble objects we have been in awe of, such as cars, mobile phones, and yes, airplanes. This is the first step to feeling a kinship or connection to robots, as they gradually begin to fit into our world. Giving them names and adding AI to put them in conversation with us normalizes them as belonging in our space. And who knows? Maybe, eventually, we will feel as if we need them there. Available on Film Shortage Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

The series examines the drug trade that centers around key dealers, corner boys, addicts, policemen and politicians in modern-day west Baltimore. < Back The series examines the drug trade that centers around key dealers, corner boys, addicts, policemen and politicians in modern-day west Baltimore. Blown Deadline Prod., 2002-08 60 minutes Creator: David Simon Reading Time: 3 minutes 📷 : Used with permission, HBO The Wire Wade in the Water (SIHXMHIW8JFP2XQP) 00:00 / 04:17 Barley Movies and TV shows with a lot of dialog Dandelion Movies and TV shows with heavy subjects Chris Chaisson 2021-07-25 In the wake of the overwhelming popularity of The Queen’s Gambit , it is fitting to discuss the figurative portrayal of chess that is The Wire . A series that examines the drug trade in modern-day west Baltimore, The Wire centers around key dealers, corner boys, addicts, policemen and politicians that play roles in the city’s condition. The show’s ensemble cast, along with the “hyper-realism” described in the show’s pitch bible, paint the picture of fictional characters that represent very real people. Not just in Baltimore, but in any city with all the same moving parts. Despite the lack of classical training, many of the actors across the five-season series depict solid portrayals of characters across the spectrum. Most interestingly, British actors Dominic West ( Chicago , 300 ) and Idris Elba deliver such strong performances that many fans of the show were unaware they hailed from across the pond. Where does chess come into play? Well, the show centers around cause-and-effect. City politicians reallocate funding for the purpose of their own reelection. Policemen circumvent rules to bring media attention to cases they’re tackling. Dealers team up with one another to get rid of a problematic player. Every move influences the next move, but it’s all part of the same game of chess. However, this particular game never runs out of pieces and the king is never truly mated. “Fighting the War on Drugs, one brutality case at a time.” “Girl you can’t even call this **** a war...wars end.” A frequent criticism of The Wire and shows like it is that they try to make “evil” characters redeemable. The dealers are not just dealers; some are violent sociopaths, or as one lawyer puts it, “[parasites] feeding off the despair of the drug trade.” However, they are also proud owners of pet fish or avid fans of basketball and boxing. Some TV audiences accustomed to archetypes castigate this type of character writing, believing that these figures should be portrayed as nothing but the worst. A counterargument is that humanizing characters like this is perfectly appropriate, as the most evil humans in the history of the world were indeed still human. Identities are rarely if ever one-dimensional. Acknowledging the complexity of the characters and forgiving them for their crimes and misdeeds are matters of personal choice. This choice could very well factor into your decision to binge-watch the series—or not. Another criticism thrown around about The Wire is that it “moves too slow.” This analysis is often lobbed at shows with a large ensemble cast and several storylines, but it’s not without merit. The perception that this particular series trudges along likely exists due to its multi-faceted subject matter. Examining education, politics, crime, law enforcement, print journalism and where these areas intersect takes time. Inevitably, these will include elements that are not guaranteed to be of interest to every viewer. Nonetheless, the many moving parts of The Wire make for great setups, payoffs, and well-rounded characters. Back to our chess metaphor, a move early in the game (castling, trading queens, etc.) can reverberate throughout the next 50 or 60 moves. In The Wire , the significance of a brief interaction can resurface two full seasons later. Does that make it boring? Slow-moving? Possibly. But it certainly means every detail matters. Though polar opposites in genre, The Wire may remind you a little of Game of Thrones . An abundance of characters, life-and-death stakes, and a far-reaching chain of cause-and-effect bring these two series together stylistically, despite one being pure fantasy. Sadly, there is a notable absence of fire-breathing dragons in west Baltimore, but an ensemble cast and the strategic moves of the main characters may be enough to draw you in. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Interviews Derek Magyar A Conversation with River of Grass Director Derek Magyar River of Grass Writer/Director Derek Magyar sits down with Cup of Tea Critiques Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 13 minutes Read More Greg Sgammato A Conversation with Film Composer Greg Sgammato Cup of Tea Critiques chats with Greg Sgammato, film composer and member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 18 minutes Read More Steven Renkovish Interview: A Talk with Writer/Director Steven Renkovish Interview with Writer/Director Steven Adam Renkovish on The Awakening of Lilith Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 18 minutes Read More Alain Fleury A Conversation with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Assistant Editor Alain Fleury Alain Fleury joined COTC to discuss the ins and outs of assistant editing for big-budget Marvel movies Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 16 minutes Read More Anton Deshawn A Conversation with The Untold Story of Mild Sauce Writer/Director Anton Deshawn Writer/Director Anton Deshawn joins COTC for a deep dive into his short film Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 11 minutes Read More Dani Abraham A Conversation with Murder, Anyone? Producer Dani Abraham Cup of Tea Critiques has a chat with Murder, Anyone? producer Dani Abraham Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 14 minutes Read More Alex Morsanutto A Conversation with Operation: Cavity Writer/Director Alex Morsanutto Cup of Tea Critiques sits down with indie director Alex Morsanutto Chris Chaisson Reading Time: 10 minutes Read More

< Back Fatale can leave viewers with conflicted loyalties Hidden Empire Film Group, 2020 102 minutes Director/Writer: Deon Taylor / David Loughery Reading Time: 4 minutes Fatale Timeless 00:00 / 04:37 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock Dandelion: Movies and TV shows with heavy subjects Ginseng: Suspenseful and intense thrillers Reba Chaisson 2021-07-25 Fatale is a story set in the southern California mountains about a wealthy, married man who struggles to extricate himself from the grip of a psychopathic woman, after sleeping with her in Vegas. Trying to do this without his wife learning about the one-night stand proves to be complicated to say the least. While the film’s plot is cliché and contains a few holes, it delivers as a suspense-thriller. Much of what is predictable about movies like this does not occur in Fatale . Part of it can be explained by the strong performances of Hillary Swank ( Million Dollar Baby , Boys Don’t Cry ) and Michael Ealy ( Takers , Barbershop ), who play Val Quinlan and Derrick Tyler in the lead roles. Another has to do with the viewers being left wondering which one was the ‘bad guy’ creating the conflict in the story. Movies about obsession tend to get lumped into the same category despite at least one strong distinction among them. The most fundamental is whether a real (versus imagined) intimate, consensual, physical relationship occurred between the obsessed person and the target of his or her obsession. In the 2009 release, Obsessed , starring Beyoncé and Idris Elba, with Ali Larter playing Lisa as the stalker, no actual physical relationship occurs between her and Derek (Idris Elba’s character). At the end, the audience is left with the dampened, simplistic view of Lisa as just another psychopath. A film that does involve a physical relationship is the classic 1987 release, Fatal Attraction . In it, Michael Douglas portrays a married man who has an affair with Alex, played by Glenn Close, who later obsesses over him. She inserts herself so deeply into his life that she endangers his family and even kills his little girl’s pet rabbit, leaving it in a pot of boiling hot water. The film, however, lets the audience get to know Alex as a competent career woman with a social life. This deepens Alex’s humanity and makes her character complex. As a result, viewers end up sympathizing with her rather than simply dismissing and hating her. Because of this depiction, she is viewed as a tragic character rather than a psychopath like Lisa. Fatale is much like Fatal Attraction in this respect. The film lets the audience get to know Val as capable and competent. So, she is deeper and more complex than a caricature who can be dismissed as psychotic. In some ways, she is an empathetic character because her experiences–the drivers of her mania–likely resonate with those of some audience members. In some regards, Val is also a sympathetic character who is even rooted for at times. But because the things she does are so over the top, this sympathy and empathy get stretched and shifted to Derek as the story evolves. How does this happen? How does it happen that our loyalties conflict at times? That our emotions are manipulated like this as a story unfolds? The questions themselves explain why Fatale passes as a thriller. As viewers, we are immersed in this story, given the protagonist, and then emotionally whiplashed. Afterwards though, we have to sit back and reflect. We have to ask ourselves, who is the protagonist in this drama? Who are we supposed to sympathize with when both are presented with complications? Perhaps an unintended consequence of Fatale is its fodder for discussion about the cost of stress on mental health. This includes noting the pressures to keep it all together with few options for help and no reward to look forward to in the end. The suspense part of suspense-thriller is clear–what will the climax reveal? But it’s the thriller part that’s the real kicker of Fatale . If you like edge-of-your seat thrillers with themes that cannot be easily dismissed, you might want to consider this one. Oh, and Michael Ealy’s in it too!!! Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back The Independent revs up mainstream and newsroom politics Anonymous Content, 2022 108 minutes Director/Writer: Amy Rice / Evan Parter Reading Time: 5 minutes The Independent Exploring the Unknown (1ZXT82ZUXBOWIIH0) 00:00 / 06:17 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock Barley Movies and TV shows with a lot of dialog Matcha Mysteries or whodunnits Reba Chaisson 2023-02-15 It has been a while since I’ve seen a film about journalism and the newspaper industry. The 2017 release, The Post , is probably the most iconic, though Spotlight (2015) and Absence of Malice (1981) come to mind as well. Nothing stands out for me more than the 2009 film, State of Play , starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams. Seeing movies like these takes me back to the days when I would buy a Chicago Tribune or “Sun-Times” from the El-station vendor on my way to catch the morning train to DePaul, where I attended undergrad. The smell of the ink, the sound of a page turning, and the feel of the paper in my hands as I read the stories from the front page to the Opinion section, made me feel connected to the city and acclimated me to the day. It also helped make me oblivious to everything else about the hour-long train ride, such as vendors moving from car-to-car yelling: “Got those socks!” “Got that rolling paper!” The creak of the doors seemingly opening every minute to let passengers on and off. And the blare of boom boxes playing the disco versions of Evelyn Champagne King’s “Shame” and Barry White’s “Ecstasy” too loud, too early in the morning (smiley face). Yes, The Independent took me back as it went inside the newsroom. It’s a story about a young Black female journalist determined to pursue stories that matter, like issues around politics and schools. Instead, her direct and confrontational style, it seems, leads her boss, Gordon White, to dismiss her ideas and relegate her to menial, unimpactful stories, like what people do for Valentines Day. While informing the team that the paper, now electronically published, has been acquired and that layoffs will ensue, he cynically asks for story ideas that could enhance the value of the paper, minimize the inevitable layoffs that occur when companies are bought, and keep the bosses happy. Undeterred by the cynical if not rude dismissal of several ideas offered by some of her older and more experienced colleagues, “Eli,” played by Jodi Turner-Smith ( Without Remorse , Queen & Slim ), bravely offers up a couple of ideas. The first one Gordon, played by Stephen Lang ( Avatar: The Way of the Water , Old Man ), declares as effectively stupid, but she persists in her second idea to cover the new Independent presidential candidate, played by John Cena, who is giving the Democratic incumbent and Republican candidate a run for their money. Gordon yields but instructs her to “hand over [her] notes” to Kevin, a slightly more senior colleague played by Andrew Richardson ( Killer Among Us , A Call to Spy ). Raise your hand if you have seen or experienced this before on your job. Nonetheless, this scene sets the stage in the film for seeing the difference that can be made in one person’s life or career by the decisions senior colleagues make. After he observes Eli being teased by the beneficiary of her idea, Nicholas Booker intercedes, sending Kevin off with his tail between his legs. He subsequently turns to Eli, stating “Send me your best work.” Played by Brian Cox ( Succession , Bourne Identity ), Booker is a 50-year seasoned and accomplished newspaper veteran who is highly regarded by bosses, colleagues, politicians, and others who have been on both the right and wrong ends of his work over the years. Ultimately, he and Eli collaborate on the forbidden project and enter a quagmire over who is stealing funds from the lottery to pay for their political campaign. Interestingly, while the film focuses on the political story, politics play out in the newsroom and corporate offices visited throughout the film. At the newspaper, a colleague with a level of experience similar to Eli takes immense joy in watching her stay mired in menial, low-impact stories. Meanwhile he is placed on a path for his career to progress and put in a position to make a name for himself. There is also the jaded and cynical senior editor, Gordon, who is preoccupied with maintaining the status quo by avoiding risks. He routinely lets go of people who dare to challenge, to make noise, and to do what newspapers set out to do centuries ago. In a scene at a corporate office, the head of Human Resources for a company expresses her discomfort to a senior colleague about a memo “suggesting” they contribute to a candidate’s political campaign. He nonchalantly advises her, “Do it to keep the ‘ol man happy.” Unfortunately, so much of politics – traditional and corporate – is about keeping those who control jobs and livelihoods happy rather than about doing what’s right, ethical, and what ultimately leaves people with their self-respect intact. Exemplary of this is when Eli, while clearly displaying her journalistic chops, reveals her inexperience when she unethically, if not illegally, acquires the information she needs for the story. Nicholas admonishes her for her grave lapse in judgment, stating that he did not get to the end of his career and achieve prestigious accolades to have it all diminished on the brink of his retirement. In other words, ethics count for something. While not necessarily an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat political thriller, The Independent’s bright and clean cinematography, strong messages about principles and ethics, and diverse representations of the characters make it a solid contemporary piece. The unusual mentoring relationship between a 30-something Black woman and a boomer-age adult demonstrates the value of wisdom, experience, and institutional knowledge, especially when there is a genuine willingness to share it with those of a different background who are equally willing to learn. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!