Kerry Washington
TV Review: Kerry Washington Stars in Over-Written, Melodramatic ‘Scandal’
Submitted by BrianTT on April 5, 2012 - 8:54am.CHICAGO – Shonda Rhimes has made waves on network TV with her unique, stylized approach to characters on hit shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice.” She occassionally has a gift for pulpy TV and her latest, “Scandal” sometimes hits that nerve that wants an escapist soap opera after a long day at work. More often, it feels over-done, like someone trying to stir controversy with outlandish, unbelievable behavior.
Film Review: Nothing Nice to Say About Eddie Murphy’s Awful Comedy ‘A Thousand Words’
Submitted by BrianTT on March 9, 2012 - 10:15am.CHICAGO – The movie business is a funny thing in that EVERYONE involved with “A Thousand Words” has moved on and yet there are studio executives who still want you to care enough to open your wallet.
Blu-Ray Review: Tyler Perry’s ‘For Colored Girls’ Deserves Another Look
Submitted by BrianTT on February 14, 2011 - 9:37am.CHICAGO – Tyler Perry must have a bit of internal conflict. On one hand, he gets critically slammed for films that display little creative effort at all like “Madea Goes to Jail” or “Why Did I Get Married Too?” but those movies make money. Then he tries to do something clearly considered artistic with his adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” now truncated to simply “For Colored Girls” and recently available on Blu-ray and DVD, and it makes less than most of the films he’s directed.
Blu-Ray Review: ‘Night Catches Us’ Illuminates Overlooked History
Submitted by mattmovieman on February 10, 2011 - 10:37am.CHICAGO – Nominated right alongside buzzed-about features such as “Get Low” and “Tiny Furniture” in the Best First Feature category at this year’s Indie Spirit Awards is “Night Catches Us,” the impressive yet entirely overlooked filmmaking debut of writer/producer/director Tanya Hamilton. The film breaks no new ground artistically, but its historical backdrop has rarely been explored in cinema.
Blu-Ray Review: ‘Mother and Child’ Offers Riveting Showcase For Actors
Submitted by mattmovieman on December 22, 2010 - 7:42am.CHICAGO – No director treasures silence more than Rodrigo García. He doesn’t want anything to get in the way of the audience’s connection with his characters and the extraordinary actors who play them. With the invaluable assistance of cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet and composer Ed Shearmur, García has made some of the most brilliant and probing character studies in recent memory.
Film Review: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington Nearly Save ‘Night Catches Us’
Submitted by BrianTT on December 10, 2010 - 10:18am.![]() Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “They’re all around us. Ghosts. They’re everywhere.” People don’t talk like that. Especially kids. Especially not after a major revelation about their dad. It just doesn’t feel real. And that’s the problem with “Night Catches Us,” a well-intentioned drama with strong performances that somehow can’t find the realism at the heart of its story. Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington nearly rescue the piece but it just doesn’t come together into anything memorable enough to recommend.
Interview: Director Tanya Hamilton on How ‘Night Catches Us’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 8, 2010 - 7:23am.CHICAGO – In the 1970s, there was a period in history when the civil rights movement began to splinter and disintegrate. Government infiltration, internal divisions and lack of direction especially hurt organizations like the Black Panthers movement, a focus of Writer/Director Tanya Hamilton’s new film, “Night Catches Us.”
HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 50 Pairs of Chicago Passes to ‘Night Catches Us’ on Black Power
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on December 2, 2010 - 10:56pm.CHICAGO – In our latest drama/romance edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Night Catches Us” with Anthony Mackie (“The Hurt Locker”) and Kerry Washington (“Ray”)
Film Review: Cluttered, Melodramatic ‘For Colored Girls’ Never Comes Together
Submitted by BrianTT on November 5, 2010 - 8:24am.![]() Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” was a landmark event in 1974, giving voice to a segment of society rarely seen on the stage. It took 34 years for a filmmaker to tackle this remarkable work in film form and Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” retains some of the inherent power of it source and features some strong performances in the process but never finds the narrative cohesion needed to translate it to modern movie audiences.
Interview: Thandie Newton on the Passion of ‘For Colored Girls’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 3, 2010 - 11:19am.CHICAGO – The expansive and intuitive prose poetry of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” comes to life in Tyler Perry’s film adaptation “For Colored Girls.” Thandie Newton portrays Tangie (color Orange) and saturates the character with a precise truth.
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