Movie Reviews

      With 2010’s Tangled, Disney Animation Studios launched what has now been deemed as the “Disney Revival Era”, an era that has brought great modern animated films like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and Moana. With this new era, Disney has revitalized itself as an animation powerhouse, turning out one great movie after another while also pushing their animation style and giving us great stories. With their latest film, Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney has another hit on their…

      There is a moment in Coming 2 America, the sequel to the 1988 comedy classic, where Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler), the bastard son of Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy), is having a conversation with Mirembe (Nomzamo Mbatha), a hair stylist who works in Akeem’s palace. A bond is growing between the two and they are getting to know each other. Labella asks Mirembe what kind of movies they like. Mirembe says that American…

        Billie Eilish bursted on to the music scene in 2019 with her monster hit “Bad Guy”.  Her silky, quiet voice over a catchy techno rhythm crossed genres and generations to make the song the biggest of 2019. Since “Bad Guy”, Eilish has blown up into one of the biggest music stars in the world at the young age of nineteen, having sold millions of records and winning countless awards.  With Billie…

Here are my reviews of Prisoners of the Ghostland, First Date, and Land from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.         PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND Though he’s an Oscar-winning actor, it feels like Nicolas Cage is more known for the amount of roles he takes and the insanity he brings to his movies.  Though one of our great actors of the 90’s and early 2000’s, Cage has spent the last decade starring in movies that allow him…

Along with all the feature films I watched throughout the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, I was also able to watch a number of shorts.  Though I wasn’t able to watch an entire shorts program curated by the programmers, these eight shorts were a diverse group of genres, styles, and topics.     THE AFFECTED The Affected looks at how a social protest affects every person on an airplane.  Set to take off with a refugee…

Here are my reviews for a trio of documentaries that premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival: Cusp, Misha and the Wolves, and Captains of Zaatari.   CUSP Cusp is a piece of Texas American in its purest, rawest form.  The film looks at a trio of high school teenage friends, Brittany, Autumn, and Aaloni, during a fever dream summer.  Throughout this summer, we watch as these free-spirited girls go through the struggles of girlhood while living in…

Here are my reviews for Eight for Silver, R#J, and Jockey from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.     Eight for Silver Within the first five minutes of Sean Ellis’ Eight for Silver we see body parts being amputated and bullets being graphically removed from a body all to the backdrop of World War I.  This immediately sets the tone for what we are about to witness for the next nearly two hours: a film that is brutal, violent,…

Here are my review of Strawberry Mansion, Mass, and A Glitch in the Matrix, which played at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.         STRAWBERRY MANSION   It seems like there is always somebody saying that films are not original anymore.  That movies are only franchises, remakes, or based on previous material.  These people would be wrong, and it is a movie like Strawberry Mansion that proves just how original films still are.  This is a colorful,…

Here are my reviews for How It Ends and On the Count of Three, which had their premieres at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.       HOW IT ENDS   How It Ends is one of the more unique end-of-the-world movies I have ever seen.  It’s a quirky, weird, often hilarious odyssey through Los Angeles filled with celebrity cameos and a sweet story. On the last day on Earth, Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) goes on a journey through…

Here are my reviews for the films CODA, Flee, and Censor, which debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.       CODA   The 2021 Sundance Film Festival kicked off in the best way possible.  Sian Heder’s CODA is an absolute delight of a movie.  A funny, sweet, beautiful family story with a huge heart and great performances. The film follows Rubi Rossi (Emilia Jones) a hearing child in a deaf family.  Because Rubi is the only in the…