CANNES PICKS 2025 — HIGHEST 2 LOWEST
CANNES PICKS 2025 — HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Spike Lee.
African American Cinema
AMERICAN FICTION
2023 stands as perhaps the best year for satire. “American Fiction” puts a fine point on that fact with a…
RUSTIN
Academy Awards, African American Cinema, Agitprop, Biopic, Capsules Blog, FIVE STARS, LGBTQ, Politics, sex, True Crime, War
Welcome! Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…
DJANGO UNCHAINED — SHOCKTOBER!
African American Cinema, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
You know from Tarantino’s audacious choice of intro music — the haunting theme song from Sergio Corbucci’s iconic 1966 Spaghetti…
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD — SHOCKTOBER!
African American Cinema, Agitprop, American Independent Cinema, Black and White, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
In the context of a social revolution boiling around the ongoing war in Viet Nam, George A. Romero made a…
PERSON TO PERSON
African American Cinema, Capsules Blog, Coming-of-Age, FOUR STARS, Independent Cinema, LGBTQ, Women's Cinema
Writer/director Dustin Guy Defa creates a gem of a New York City chamber piece with “Person To Person.” Cole Smithey.
IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU ?!?
Thorough as it is lean, Elvis Mitchell’s telling of Black American Cinema is an essential documentary. Cole Smithey.
BODY AND SOUL — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Add to this Jim Crow-era film’s inventive time-flipping structure, interracial familial underpinnings, a pair of identical twins (played by Paul…
DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
Craig Brewer’s biopic valentine to the great Rudy Ray Moore is a romping hoot.
KING RICHARD
Academy Awards, African American Cinema, Biopic, Capsules Blog, Sports Drama, Women's Cinema, ZERO STARS
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO WILL SMITH’S INEXCUSABLE BEHAVIOR AT THE OSCARS. MAY NEITHER WILL SMITH, NOR HIS…
ATTICA
Authorities rewriting history as its being made is nothing new. What do you know?
CLAUDINE — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
African American Cinema, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Independent Cinema, Romantic Drama, Women's Cinema
More social layers than three Ken Loach movies put together. Richness of humanity has nothing to do with money or…
THE BANKER
Entertaining stuff of legend. Cole Smithey.
SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
Hot. This thing is real on every level. Cole Smithey. You say you like fun. But, do you really like…
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
African American Cinema, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, Drama, FIVE STARS, Music, Political History, Politics
Barnburner. It speaks volumes that the two best films of 2020 were based on plays (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and…
QUEEN & SLIM
Dig the groovy vibe of this stunning independent gem. Think Bonnie and Clyde, but with a lot more style, sex,…
SEBERG
Worthy. Screenwriters Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel do a respectable job with the impossible task of condensing the complex character…
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
A dream-team ensemble (Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Jeremy Shamos, and Taylour Paige) bring director…
POLICE BEAT
A poetic character study etched in its primrose Portland, Seattle locations, “Police Beat” is a clear-eyed dissection of the immigrant…
GREEN BOOK
“Green Book” excels as a white/black bromance crafted to fit release at the start of the holiday season. Not every…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
