Black Panther

Alright everyone, tonight I went and saw “Black Panther,” released nine days ago, a movie that is actually overhyped, but don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it. Here are my thoughts:

Following his father’s death, T’Challa is officially made Wakanda’s king and a superhero/protector. Soon – along with challenges to his style of royalty – the new Black Panther is defending his secretive, technologically advanced country from an infamous arms dealer and a former veteran with a mysterious past.

I agree with JimiFamurewa when he said in his review, “To say that Ryan Coogler’s films are expanding in scope and scale – more ambitious, audacious and pyrotechnically dazzling each time – would be to deal in wild understatement. After the wrenching, real-time intimacy of his debut, Fruitvale Station, and the franchise-jolting, bruised adrenalin hit of Creed, we now have Black Panther: a giddily enjoyable, convention-bucking 134-minute epic that somehow manages to simultaneously be a comic-book blockbuster, a pulsating espionage thriller and an Afro-futurist family saga.” Seeing how this is only Coogler’s third film makes it in every way more impressive.

We start in the past, on a huge starlit sky, with King T’Chaka (John Kani) telling a young T’Challa (Ashton Tyler) (along with the audience) about the vibranium meteorite that crashed into the country and goes to seal its future as a secretive, technological utopia. Famurewa noted, “Next, we jump to Oakland, California, in 1992 – the birthplace of both Coogler and, in an important thematic nod, the actual Black Panther Party – for a prologue that establishes the notion of Wakandan spies, identifiable by hidden, glowing blue tattoos on their lower lips.”

Famurewa continued, “It’s an important scene, not just because of the crucial plot seeds it sows, but also because of the contrast it offers between the outside world – all Public Enemy posters and makeshift basketball hoops – and Wakanda, a lush fantasia that’s every bit as otherworldly as Asgard.” After a present-day drop-off in Nigeria (where a Panther-suited T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) joins with Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o’s undercover agent), and saves a group of kidnapped women from Boko Haram-like soldiers), we finally get the full effect, flying down into the vibranium-hiding loner country.

Famurewa said, “These scenes around T’Challa’s coronation vibrantly establish the customs of his trippy sci-fi kingdom – the futurist spires and shirtless ritual combat, the brightly attired tribal leaders and power-giving purple plants – but they do also foster a tone that feels awkwardly caught between Marvel’s trademark quippy interplay and the rapt wonder of a djembe-banging broadcast from the Wakandan Tourist Board.” Our villains’ London-set introduction to villains Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and Boer-accented, cannon-armed killer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, not motion-captured and enjoying the role) feels similarly off.

Thank the Panther casters, then, for Letitia Wright as T’Challa’s playful, tech-loving little sister, Shuri. Famurewa said, “From the moment the British actress arrives – radiating charisma and cheek as the Q to her brother’s 007 – Black Panther finds its feet and its comic groove.” T’Challa, Nakia and Okoye (Danai Gurira from “The Walking Dead,” playing the bellicose tough leader of the all-female royal guard) go on an undercover mission to capture Klaue at a South Korean casino. It brings the Wakandans into the radar of the CIA’s Everett K. Ross, played by Martin Freeman, and starts an action scene that begins with, as Famurewa said, “a kinetically filmed brawl – watch out for Gurira topping Doctor Strange’s ‘cape-fu’ with a spot of ‘wigjitsu’ – and ends in a show-stopping, masterfully staged car chase through ravaged neon-lit streets.”

Famurewa continues, “And the action only gets more thrilling as Killmonger’s plan – a distantly rational, if ultimately megalomaniacal, desire to share Wakanda’s technological riches with the globe’s struggling black communities – takes shape, via a brutal, heart-in-mouth fight with T’Challa atop a rushing waterfall.” Looking at the performances, Jordan and Boseman are well matched, with Jordan’s natural, American arrogance contrasted by Boseman’s watchful dignity and pained, expressive eyes.

They’re capably backed throughout by an incredibly deep group of award-nominated actors – Daniel Kaluuya as a troubled tribal elder, Angela Bassett’s Queen Mother Ramonda, Forest Whitaker as shaman figure Zuri – all coming to the film of what is needed a plethora of black talent. Famurewa said, “But one of Black Panther’s greatest triumphs is to make you forget the barrier-breaking significance of its mere existence. By the time the climactic battle has broken out – set a world away from the customary razed metropolis of modern comic-book films – you’re too busy marvelling at its bottomless invention, its big-hearted verve, to truly consider the game-changing revolution playing out in front of you.” Long live the king, or as they say in this movie, “Wakanda Forever.”

Famurewa ended his review by saying, “Like Taika Waititi before him, Ryan Coogler gives the Marvel template a bold auteurist twist with an African extravaganza that packs a muscular intensity and challenges as much as it exhilarates.”

What’s different about this movie compared to the other superhero movies is that it’s not a straightforward, basic superhero movie. You know the simple punch, kick, superpower flashy show that we see all the time. This time, Coogler makes it about the characters engaging and relatable. On top of that, they sneak in humor when you don’t expect it. The action in this movie is actually nice, since there aren’t a lot of special effects used. Definitely go to the theaters and see this, it’s an absolute must. It’s not as good as everyone is overhyping it to be, but it’s still one that you must see. This makes another one of my favorite superhero movies and definitely is in the top five. The superhero movies are starting off with a bang and “Black Panther” is a great preparation for the upcoming “Avengers: Infinity War” movie, so let’s see how it goes from here.

Spoiler alert: in the mid-credits scene, T'Challa appears before the UN to tell Wakanda's true nature to the world. In the post-credits scene, Shuri helps Bucky Barns, reprised by Sebastian Stan, with his recuperation.

Thanks for joining in on my review on the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stay tuned for what I have in store for everyone in March.

Hidden Figures

Did you know that three female African-American mathematicians, working at NASA in 1962, were involved in getting the Mercury program into orbit and winning the U.S. space race against the Russians? Neither did I. That’s why “Hidden Figures” is such an educational and crazily entertaining 2016 eye-opener. There’s nothing really new about the filmmaking – director Theodore Melfi mostly follows the writing in the script he wrote with Allison Schroeder from the nonfiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly. However, it’s the smart method. This is a story that doesn’t need extras. Peter Travers said in his review, “It simply needs telling, and the fact it gets three dynamite actresses to tell it does poetic justice to both these women and the Civil Rights movement at large.”

Taraji P. Henson excels as Katherine Johnson, a math genius whose extraordinary talent got her to the NASA facility in Langley, Virginia in 1961. Soon to be a centurion, Ms. Johnson has lived to see a research facility named after her. Things were not anywhere to being open-minded, sadly, when she and her friends, Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer, pitch perfect), hit segregated Virginia to work on the space program. Travers said, “Known as "colored computers" – the latter word being the organization's term for employees who did low-level calculations – these women soon made their mark against daunting odds.” In a beginning scene, the three are car-pooling to NASA and are pulled over by a white cop, played by Ron Clinton Smith, who finds it hard to believe that they work at NASA or even that Dorothy is able to fix a Chevy Impala herself.

Katherine is first to be promoted to a job with the Space Task Group, where manager Al Harrison (Kevin Costner, getting everything right) sees her skill – even if he evidently favors her colleague Paul Stafford (Sheldon Cooper from “The Big Bang Theory” himself, Jim Parsons, securing the careless racism of the time). Still, it’s Harrison who takes action when he realizes she has to walk half a mile to get to a “Colored Ladies Bathroom.” “Here at NASA, we all pee the same color,” he says, ripping off the restroom-segregation in a part that lets Costner say the words with forceful power.

Mary has to go to court for permission to take nigh classes required simply to apply for an open job in engineering. Travers credited, “Monáe is terrific in the role, showing here and in Moonlight that she has the right stuff to launch an acting career to match her success in music. Best of all is Spencer, an Oscar winner for The Help, who is funny, fierce and quietly devastating at showing the punishing increments it takes for Dorothy to inch up the NASA ladder.” Her Caucasian supervisor, Mrs. Mitchell, played by Kirsten Dunst, refuses to give her a supervisor role even though she’s already doing the job. Spencer gives a priceless jab that pays brave respect to these boundary-breaking pioneers.

The drama finds little time for the personal lives of its main characters, however the widowed Katherine is given a romance with a National Guard officer, played with humor and heart by Mahershala Ali. The importance here is watching these outstanding women at work. Dorothy sees the future in the new IBM machines being tested to speed up the space program, and takes the right action. Mary tells a judge, played by Frank Hoyt Taylor, that ordering desegregation of the all-white school she needs to take classes at would make him a pioneer. Katherine goes up against the hardest obstacles, working against the NASA rule of denying security clearances to female employees. However, even astronaut John Glenn, played by Glen Powell, calls Katherine “the smart one.” Travers noted, “The story may be corny at times, even simplistic, but that doesn't stop you from wanting to stand up and cheer.” Lots of movies are called “inspirational” – “Hidden Figures” truly earns that term for its movie.

This is an absolute must to watch, especially if you don’t know the story, like I didn’t. It’s really an inspirational film that takes place around a time that still has some of the problems that have not completely gone away. However, we have to thank these three NASA mathematicians for going up against the odds so that they could secure their jobs and open up the doors for everyone who wanted the jobs at NASA. Definitely see this one if you haven’t, I really recommend it.

Well, that ends this year’s “Black History Movie Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed the movies I reviewed this year and I hope I gave great recommendations to everyone. Check in next month for what I have in store for everyone.

Dr. Strangelove

Producer-director Stanley Kubrick has with talent and courageous created a harshly satirical comedy on a subject as series as Top Security – a nuclear holocaust – in the Columbia Picture 1963 release, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” This is a perfect look at development, and might have done very well at the Box Office.

Dave Kaufman said in his review, “Nothing would seen to be farther apart than nuclear war and comedy, yet Kubrick’s caper eloquently tackles a “Fail-Safe” subject with a light touch.” Even though there are times when it hurts to laugh because there is a somewhat feeling that the crazy events in “Dr. Strangelove” could happen, it comes out as a really unusual combination of comedy and suspense.

Kaufman stated, “Screenplay by Kubrick, Peter George and Terry Southern, based on the book, “Red Alert,” by Peter George, is imaginative and contains many an offbeat touch. Some of the characters have a broad brush in their depiction, but this is the very nature of satire. Kubrick also directed the film by his own production company, and successfully captured the incongruous elements of “Strangelove” with a deft, professional touch.”

Everything starts when a Strategic Air Command general, a Republican whose similarities to people still living is more than passing, who on his own plan orders bomb-carry planes under his command to attack Russia. He immediately closes in the base, so that there is no way for the President or anyone else to contact him, not to reverse his orders, since he has given them in a top-secret code only he knows. From this point it’s a crazy, exciting series of events, changing between the General who has began everything, the planes on route to the USSR, and the Pentagon’s war room, where the Chief Executive is trying his best to call off the nuclear war.

Kaufman said, “Again it would seem no setting for comedy or satire, but the writers have accomplished this with biting, piercing dialogue and thorough characterizations. The climax is one with a grim post-script, as the Pentagon begins worrying about the mine-shaft gap in the post-nuclear era, while the Red envoy snakes some pictures of the War room. The moral is obvious.”

Peter Sellers is excellent, playing three different roles – a British R.A.F. captain assigned to the U.S. base where everything started, the President and the main character, Dr. Strangelove, a German scientist helping the U.S. whose Nazi mannerisms beat him.

George C. Scott as the heated Pentagon general who grabs on the problem as a way to argue for complete annihilation of Russia gives an excellent performance, one of the best in the film. Kaufman said, “Odd as it may seem in this backdrop, he displays a fine comedy touch.” Sterling Hayden is coldly realistic as the General who chooses on his own to send nuclear bomb-carrying planes to attack Russia. Kaufman said, “He is a man who blames the Communists for fluoridation of water, and just about everything else. As the cigar-chomping General, Hayden emerges a tragi-comic hero.”

There are regularly great supporting performances from Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones, Shane Rimmer, Paul Tamarin and Tracy Reed, latter the only woman in the cast, very good in a small role, as the Pentagon General’s mistress.

Production is sizably increased, with fine work by art director Peter Murton, Wally Veevers, special effects, Laurie Johnson’s music, and excellent photography by Gilbert Taylor.

You especially have to love the famous line, “Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!” This is definitely one of the best and one of the funniest movies ever made. Definitely see this one if you haven’t because it is a must. It actually is a funny movie to watch around President’s Day.

I apologize for posting this late, for I was out at my aunt’s house for lunch, but I ended up being there for a good majority of the day. With that said, stay tuned this Friday for the conclusion of this year’s “Black History Movie Month.”

Fences

Troy Maxson, the talkative main character in “Fences,” wasn’t written for Denzel Washington. However, the actor, who played the character in a 2010 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s 1983 play, populates him completely in the 2016 film adaptation.

Craig Mathieson said in his review, “Riding a rubbish truck in 1950s Pittsburgh, Troy is a showboat who dominates the conversation, pausing only for breath and to garner assent.” He doesn’t always see that he fails to get it, but keeps going nonetheless.

Mathieson said, “Fences is Washington's third film as director, and it never pushes to truly escape being stage bound.” The beginning parts, with Troy arriving home from work with his friend and coworker, Jim Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson), and meeting his wife, Rose (Viola Davis), are, as Mathieson describes, “Full of declamatory sentences looking for the back row. But they're rich, telling sentences, and they don't really need the occasionally ostentatious circling camera and crane shots that punctuate the story.”

Mathieson continues, “Troy's words reveal him as that 20th-century theatrical mainstay: the dictatorial, hypocritical patriarch.” A great baseball player whose prime years were before the game was desegregated, Troy’s disappointed knowledge is his reason to lecture others, most notably his grown son from his footloose youth years, hopeful musician Lyons (Russell Hornsby), and high school athlete Corey (Jovan Adepo). The son of a sharecropper, their father has little positivity about America and how it could better his family.

Despite Rose’s doubts, Troy puts boundaries in front of their son both small and major, whether it’s wanting the sour teenager help him build the fence that comes to represent the family’s divisions or refusing to sign university scholarship papers. However, Troy’s wants irritate him, mainly how he treats his brother Gabe, played by Mykelti Williamson, whose payment for World War II injuries that left him brain damaged paid for Troy’s home.

Mathieson said, “"Better get ready for the judgment," repeatedly declares Gabe, a kind of holy fool who speaks the truth, and no one has to remind Davis. One of the pleasures of Fences is seeing Washington's dominant technique – that swaggering walk, the hardening of his voice when challenged – get batted back by the visceral force of Davis' performance.” She’s one of the great film actors, and the strengths she takes Rose to balances the movie.

Mathieson said, “Davis has a stinging line that could be a fierce and fitting close to the story, but unfortunately there's a good 20 minutes tacked on after it. Fences not only runs long, it indulges a redemptive urge for Troy that unnecessarily softens his failings.” Washington’s film doesn’t need to give forgiveness to a character who never gave it to those who loved him.

I read Fences when I was a senior in high school, then I read it again in my last semester at Community College before I graduated and transferred to a Four-Year University. I really loved this play and I did see a couple of scenes on YouTube of the Broadway play. When I found out they were making a movie adaptation of it, I was excited. However, I didn’t see it in theaters, but as a rental from the library. This is actually a really good film adaptation of a play that, to what I can gather, never really had a film adaptation. We actually have Denzel Washington to thank for giving us an amazing film adaptation of this play. Definitely check this one out, especially if you have read the play. This is an absolute must for “Black History Month.” I think everyone will love this film.

Alright everyone, check in next week for not only the finale to this year’s “Black History Movie Month,” but also for this year’s “President’s Day Movie Review.”

The Princess Bride

Time to review another movie suited for Valentine’s Day. I’m really excited this time around because I will be reviewing one of my all time favorites, “The Princess Bride.” This is told as a story read to a sick little boy, and the boy is carefully doubtful – who wouldn’t be? Here is a complete fairy tale filled with imaginary characters, crazy adventures and a lot of other things that is definitely not for everyone. However, “The Princess Bride” has charm and honesty at its corner, and when it comes to fairy tales, those are major resources. It also has a great cast and a happy, serious style that turns out to be even more attractive as the film goes on. Even the little boy, who can be difficult, eventually likes it.

“The Princess Bride,” released in 1987, was adapted by William Goldman from his 1973 novel, which claims to be a suitably reduced version of a children’s book the author loved in his childhood. Janet Maslin said in her review, “The film version has been streamlined even more drastically, so that the heroine - an innocent beauty named Buttercup -has been introduced, disappointed in love and affianced to the wrong man before the first five minutes are over.” That’s all right. There’s a lot more of the story left, and the look-alike blond Buttercup (Robin Wright) and her true love Westley (Cary Elwes) are on the boring side anyway. Maslin noted, “In the world of fairy-tale royalty, that's very much as it should be.”

Buttercup then gets engaged to the splendidly arrogant Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), whose objectives are not the best and whose henchman, Count Rugen (Christopher Guest), delights himself on a “deep and abiding interest in pain.” However, before falling in their hands, Buttercup is kidnapped by three strange men: a happily evil gang leader, Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), Fezzik the giant (the late professional wrestler, Andre the Giant) and the elegant Spanish swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin from “Criminal Minds,” “Chicago Hope,” “Dead Like Me” and currently “Homeland”), who, like most of the story’s characters, is just too kindhearted for his own good. “You seem a decent fellow – I hate to kill you,” he tells one man. There starts a mighty swordfight to the death, but even this ends with a nice little punch on the head.

It’s hard to think that anyone besides Rob Reiner, whose other films have shown such an essential feel-good type, could have handled “The Princess Bride” so well. This stuff could have easily made itself to large parody or become too cute for its own good. However, Reiner makes it as a bedtime story, pure and simple. Maslin said, “Its look is modest - even the high-flying adventure scenes have a mild quality - but ''The Princess Bride'' has a unifying conviction.” Reiner looks like he understood exactly what Goldman loves about stories of this kind, and he shows that with clarity and warmth.

Maslin credited, “''The Princess Bride'' has been well cast, with each of the actors managing to remain within the bounds of the storytelling framework and still make a strong impression.” With maybe the exception of Wallace Shawn, whose comic looks in tough-guy roles are becoming so familiar, the actors are all perfectly matched to their roles. Mandy Patinkin, who is really good, turns out to be a skillful swordsman, although not a very smart one. Maslin noted, “His heroic presence is somehow only enhanced by a halfway-impenetrable Spanish accent.” Chris Sarandon, always a great villain, walks gracefully and shows his own type of evil appeal. Christopher Guest is the exact incarnation of cold-blooded villainy until one suddenly funny duel scene, and Peter Cook is in here briefly but memorably as a cleric performing a ceremony of, as he pronounces it, “mawwidge.”

Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, both looking like they are a collective age of about 400, fight so much as a miracle maker and his irritating wife. As the film’s other romantic duo, Robin Wright and Cary Elwes are properly pleasing. Among the film’s most pleasing elements are a score by Mark Knopfler and the nicely forward presence of Lieutenant Columbo himself, Peter Falk, who shows up as a grandfather reading “The Princess Bride” to his grandson, played by Fred Savage, and interrupts the fairy-tale action occasionally. Maslin ended the review by saying, “Mr. Falk doesn't do much more than make a great ceremony out of the act of reading, but that's enough.”

You shouldn’t have even been reading this blog if you haven’t seen this movie. Go out and see this movie right now because it’s an absolute must. You will love this movie, I promise you. Especially with such lines like, “Inconceivable,” “You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; prepare to die!” and the ever loving, “As you wish.” I give this film a seriously high recommendation.

Stay tuned Friday for the next installment of “Black History Movie Month.”

A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Well everyone today marks the 18^th year anniversary of the great Charles Schultz’s passing. In honor, I will look at the very first Peanuts film that I saw on TV today, “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” released in 1969.

Peter Canavese started his review out by saying, “In his half-century run as the writer-artist of the quintessential comic strip Peanuts, Charles M. Schultz reliably served slices of childhood psychology seasoned with surreality. In 1965, Schultz expanded his presence by teaming with producer-director Bill Melendez on the smash-hit animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. Within four years, the Peanuts gang starred in their big-screen debut, written by Schultz and directed by Melendez: A Boy Named Charlie Brown.”

Melendez was a good partner for Schultz. The animation perfectly shows Schultz’s comic-strip expressions, with sporadic visual delights (Canavese said, a visual highlight of A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a Fantasia-esque reverie to accompany Schroder playing the third movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13: "Pathetique"). The choice to cast inexperienced child actors gave the animated projects added charm, as did the jazz stylings of Vince Guaraldi (as arranged by John Scott Trotter, the A Boy Named Charlie Brown score secured an Oscar nomination).”

The story of the first Peanuts movie wanders beautifully through a number of the strip’s standards: Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) trying to fly a kite (look out for the Kite-Eating Tree!), the kids’ sorrowful baseball team, and the unanswered love of girls (Lucy (Pamelyn Ferdin) and Sally (Erin Sullivan)) for the boys (Schroeder (Andy Pforsich) and Linus (Glenn Filger)). Snoopy (Bill Melendez) even has one of his required nightmares, where he “dogfights” the Red Baron. However, the main focus of “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” is about the existential trouble of their protagonist.

Canavese said, “The appeal of Schultz's pop philosophy hasn't faded in forty years: this kind of sincerity can't be faked.” Look at the part where blanket-baby thinker Linus van Pelt helps Charlie Brown. Linus: “We learn more from losing than we do from winning.” Charlie Brown: “I guess that makes me the smartest person in the whole world.” Linus: “I think you just talked yourself into being a loser, Charlie Brown.”

A worrying Charlie Brown talks to Linus’ sister Lucy (“Psychiatirc Help 5₡”), but her stinking thinking shows a slideshow of his cons and a slow-motion instant replay of the famous football gag. Taking Linus’ supportive advice instead, Charlie Brown decides to adapt a can-do behavior. Charlie Brown sees he is capable of competing in the school spelling bees, but is it something he gets overconfident in?

Canavese noted, “The near-tuneless song "I Before E Except After C" seems to be a Schoolhouse Rock prototype. Infamous lyricist Rod McKuen wrote the words and music for this and a handful of unfortunately lame tunes ("Failure Face," "Champion Charlie Brown," and the title song). Putting aside McKuen's efforts, A Boy Named Charlie Brown has evergreen appeal for kids and cannot help but make adults smile.” Charlie Brown might say he “just can’t do anything right,” but he keeps his hope strong, a reasonable encouragement to every kid out there.

I highly recommend every Peanuts fan out there to watch this one; if they haven’t seen it and they love the shorts and strips. You will also fall in love with this one as well, I promise you. This film fits right for today, seeing how Schultz sadly passed away in the beginning of the new century. Take my word for it; you will absolutely fall in love with it.

Thanks for joining in on today’s review, look out for this year's “Valentine's Day Movie Review.”

The Secret Life of Bees

As a realistic showing of life in countryside South Caroline in 1964, “The Secret Life of Bees,” released in 2008, is dreaming. As a story of hope and love, it is delightful. Should it have been hurting, or a story? Roger Ebert said in his review, “Parable, I think, so it will please those who loved the novel by Sue Monk Kidd.” One critic described the film as sappy, syrupy, sentimental and sermonizing, and those are only the S’s. The same critic said that it is also “wholesome and heartwarming,” however you will never see “wholesome” used in a movie poster.

Ebert said, “I go with heartwarming. There is such a thing as feeling superior to your emotions, but I trust mine. If I sense the beginnings of a teardrop in my eye during a movie, that is evidence more tangible than all the mighty weight of Film Theory. "The immediate experience," one of the wisest of critics called it. That's what you have to acknowledge. I watched the movie, abandoned history and plausibility, and just plain fell for it. If it had been a bad movie, it would have been ripe for vivisection. But it is not a bad movie.”

Ebert goes on to say, “Above all, it contains characters I care for, played by actors I admire.” If a script doesn’t distract, a movie like that has just got to work. Queen Latifah, who combines confidence, humor and a type of splendor, plays August Boatwright, a woman about as believable as a fairy godmother, but who cares? Ebert describes, “She lives outside town in a house painted the color of the Easter Bunny and gathers honey for a living. Famous honey, from happy bees.” Living with her are her two sisters: June (singer Alicia Keys), a classical cellist and civil rights activist, and May (Sophie Okonedo), who you don’t want to tell any sad news to.

In a house many miles away, 14-year-old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) lives with her evil father (Paul Bettany). Her best friend and defender, the black housekeeper Rosaleen, played by the great Jennifer Hudson, tolerates the anger of the father, because she will not leave Lily alone. One day Rosaleen is so brave as to try to register to vote and is beaten by racists in the nearby town. Sadly, this ends with her getting arrested. Lily helps her run away from town, and they go on an adventure to the town of Tiburon, that she knows about because of something she found in her late mother’s, played by Hilarie Burton, belongings…the label for a honey jar.

Ebert noted, “As Lily helps Rosaleen flee from virtual slavery, it's impossible not to think about Huck and Jim, unless political correctness has prevented you from reading that greatest of all novels about black and white in America.” From what little we see of the residents in Tiburon, they’re as nice as the residents in Lily’s hometown were cruel.

They end up in front of August’s house. She welcomes them in, over fighting from the aggressive June. Here is where the right story starts, involving discoveries about the past, problems in the present and hopes for the future. These are perfectly dealt with over-the-top events that would not even dared be told here.

Ebert said, “Dakota Fanning comes of age in "The Secret Life of Bees" and in the somewhat similar but less successful "Hounddog." She's not a kid anymore. She has always been a good actress, and she is only growing deeper and better. I expect her to make the transition from child to woman with the same composure and wisdom that Jodie Foster demonstrated. Here she plays a plucky, forthright and sometimes sad and needy young teen with the breadth this role requires and a depth that transforms it.”

Then look at Sophie Okonedo, the London-born, Cambridge-educated actress who has no trouble at all playing a childlike, deeply sad country girl. The English have a little trouble with Southern accents. Ebert admitted, “Michael Caine explained it to me once. It has to do with Appalachia being settled by working-class Brits.” Her May is the main part of the film, because her own heart is so open. She has some sensitive emotional transitions to cross here and convinces us of them. Remember her in “Hotel Rwanda?”

The Alicia Keys character, June, is really too complex for a supporting role. Ebert said, “In the workings of the story, she functions as an eye-opener for Rosaleen, who has never guessed black women could be so gifted and outspoken.” The three sisters live in a peaceful household that must have taken a whole lot of honey sales, even then, to keep. That isn’t a problem. We believe it, because Queen Latifah as August looks watchfully on everyone in front of her, and nobody can smile like Latifah. Ebert credited, “If ever there was a woman born to be christened Queen, she's the one.”

Ebert ended his review by saying, “I have great affection for this film because it honors a novel that many people loved for good reasons. It isn't superior, nor does it dumb it down. It sees what is good and honors it. The South was most likely not like this in 1964. That was the year the Civil Rights Act was passed, and a year before the Voting Rights Act became law. The Boatwright farm, as I said, is really a dream. But in those hard days, people needed dreams.”

I actually read this book when I was a senior in high school and I actually really liked the book. I had found out from one of my high school friends when we were in Community College that they were going to come out with a film adaptation of “The Secret Life of Bees.” I never went to the theater to watch it, but my brother had recorded this on our DVR and I watched it. For an adaptation, this actually was faithful to the novel. If you have read the novel, then see the film, you will actually love it. If you haven’t read the novel, still see the film, it’s perfect for this month. After seeing this film, you will want to read the novel.

Sorry for posting this late, but it almost slipped my mind that I was supposed to blog today, so I apologize. Look out next week when I not only continue “Black History Movie Month,” but I review a classic film that suits Valentine’s Day.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Welcome to the sixth annual “Black History Movie Month.” I’m going to kick the month off with the 2006 inspirational, and another one of my favorites, “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

Belinda Elliott started her review out by saying, “Will Smith shines in The Pursuit of Happyness, a rags-to-riches tale about love, family, and pursuing the American Dream.”

Will Smith plays Christopher Gardner, a salesman struggling to make some money for his wife (Thandie Newton) and son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith). As the family’s financial problems increase, his wife gets under so much pressure and leaves Chris and their son.

Gardner’s life goes from bad to worse as he and his son are evicted from their home and live on the streets of San Francisco. The father and son are forced to move around a lot finding a roof wherever they can find one, even spending a night in a subway bathroom.

Things start to look good for Gardner when he applies for an internship with a stock brokerage firm. Despite the internship being unpaid, one of the 20 interns will be chosen to stay with the company full-time. Elliott is right when she said, “The ambitious salesman battles insurmountable odds to make himself stand out from his competitors in the hopes of landing the position.”

Smith and his real-life son Jaden bring an emotional power to the characters they play. The serious role of Gardner is definitely a change for Smith, who is known for his less serious roles fighting aliens in the “Men in Black” trilogy and playing a matchmaking “date doctor” in the romantic comedy “Hitch.”

Elliott stated, “He tackles the role with a determined precision and turns out a spectacular performance, which is already generating talk of an Oscar. Though most scenes in the film have a very solemn feel, Smith’s cautious optimism and ambitious nature make us want to root for him to succeed. In a role that could have easily been played syrupy-sweet, Smith instead chooses to let his raw emotions shine through adding a layer of realism.”

His son, Jaden, proves to also be a natural. Playing a child whose life and economic background is so completely opposite from his own doesn’t look like a challenge for the kid actor. He looks like he has a true understanding of the character’s emotional impact and expresses it easily.

Newton also gives a noteworthy performance as Gardner’s wife who becomes so emotionally depressed she makes the hard decision to leave her son. Elliott said, “While promoting the movie recently, Newton said she wanted audiences to identify with her character’s profound pain rather than flippantly writing her off as an uncaring shrew. Her depiction of the troubled woman walks a fine line between the two.”

While the story is an inspirational story about a father’s love for his son and working hard to chase dreams, it is more than that. “Pursuit of Happyness” is also an emotional of the problem of homelessness in the current world. Maybe what makes the film so powerful is that it is based on a true story. The problems that Gardner goes up against are problems that many go through in the current world every day.

Anyone who knows of Gardner’s story, which was shown on the ABC news show 20/20 in 2003, will not be surprised at how the film ends. Elliott noted, “However, I found myself wanting to see more from the latter part of Gardner’s life. I guess that is why the film is titled The Pursuit of Happyness.” Though we do see what he turned out to be, we never get to see much of the happiness that came from Gardner’s hard work.

For this reason, the movie is not a feel-good movie that will leave you with the warm feeling. Instead, it is an emotional fictional show of a problem that is too real. Chances are that this is not a film that you will quickly forget.

Don’t read this review, go out and see this movie right now. This is one of those fictional slice-of-life movies that will inspire you to work as hard as Gardner did to achieve his dreams and make something of himself. In my opinion, this is one of Will Smith’s best works.

Now we have talked about that, stay tuned next week for the continuation of this year’s “Black History Movie Month.”