Tag: Social Commentary

If Beale Street Could Talk and The Audacity of Love

Loving someone is one of the most audacious, risk-taking things a person can do. When you love someone, you entrust them with your mental well-being, wagering that they will honor your faith in them and not lead you…

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Shoplifters is a Superb Family Drama Full of Mystery and Uneasy Moral Questions

************************This review contains spoilers**************************** Family plays an indelible mark in who we are as individuals. A good one can set a person up for life before they ever even leave the womb while being born to bad circumstances…

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In Thoroughly Examining Our Political Past, Vice Provides a Peek at America’s Future

“You chose me, and I did what you asked.” Vice is a retelling of the political rise of former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney (Christian Bale), from his Wyoming roots with wife Lynne Cheney (Amy…

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Much Like Its Setting, Green Book Feels Like a Backward Glance at a Bygone Era

Green Book follows a 1962 concert tour through the south for Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class black pianist being chauffeured for the duration by Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), a tough, boisterous bouncer with mob ties…

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Roma Examines The Societal Barriers That Separate Women and What Can Unite Them

************************This review contains spoilers**************************** “We are alone. No matter what they tell you, we women, we are always alone.” Roma follows a wealthy family and their nanny Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) in 1970s Mexico City as both try to…

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Widows Spins a Thrilling Heist Film into Social Commentary about Grief and the Mistreatment of Women

“The only thing that matters is to survive. Look around you, it’s like Custer’s last stand; kill, or be killed.” Widows follows three women in Chicago, Veronica (Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) after a…

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Boy Erased Explores the Crossroads of Love and Religious Repression

Boy Erased is a film based on the true story of Garrard Eamons (Lucas Hedges), the son of a small-town Baptist pastor Marshall (Russell Crowe), who is struggling with his burgeoning homosexuality and how it squares with the…

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An Emotional Portrait of Addiction, Beautiful Boy Captures Our American Moment

************************This review contains a mild spoiler**************************** “When I discovered drugs my world went from black and white to technicolor. I can never give that up.” Beautiful Boy is based on the real-life memoirs of father and son David…

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The Hate U Give Explores the Complicated Journey toward Identity for Black Youth

“Know your rights. Know your worth.” The center of The Hate U Give’s universe is Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg), a 17 year old high school girl with one foot each in a different world — the inner city,…

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Uniquely Shot and Constructed with a Dose of Social Commentary, Mandy is Why We Love Film

Mandy follows couple Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) who live in the remote wilderness of the Pacific Northwest in 1983. Their tranquil existence is upended when cult leader Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache) drives past…

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