The Shape of Water was the big winner at the 90th Academy Awards, netting four Oscars, including Best Picture. Mexican directors have now won four of the past five years, with Guillermo del Toro joining his compadres Alejandro Inarritu (Birdman and The Revenant) and Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) in the elite fraternity. “I am an immigrant,” del Toro began his emotional acceptance speech suggesting that we should be “erasing the lines in the sand” instead of building walls, a thinly-veiled criticism of President Trump. He was not the only person to weigh-in on the issue. Earlier in the evening, co-presenters Kenyan…
Author: Kam Williams
Chadwick Boseman has already made quite a career out of portraying a variety of prominent African-Americans, from football star Floyd Little (The Express), to baseball great Jackie Robinson (42), to Godfather of Soul James Brown (Get on Up) to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (Marshall). The versatile actor’s efforts have been appreciated by the NAACP which has seen fit to nominate him for five Image Awards. Although Black Panther is a fictional character, the role is ostensibly of no less significance than the historical figures Chadwick has played in the past. That’s because black kids have rarely had a…
The Shape of Water is the early favorite in this year’s Oscar sweepstakes. The sci-fi fantasy about love across species lines was nominated for the most Academy Awards, 13, including in a half-dozen major categories: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Lead Actress (Sally Hawkins), Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer) and Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins). Writer/director Guillermo del Toro was ostensibly inspired by Creature from the Black Lagoon, a classic horror flick from the Fifties which spawned a couple of sequels as well as a comedic spinoff, Abbott and Costello Meet the Creature from the Black Lagoon. This variation on the theme…
by Kam Williams For movies opening January 26, 2018 BIG BUDGET FILMS Hostiles (R for profanity and graphic violence) Panoramic Western, set in 1892, about a veteran cavalry Captain (Christian Bale) who reluctantly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) from a fort in New Mexico back to his tribe’s ancestral lands in Montana. Supporting cast includes Rosamund Pike, Adam Beach, Ben Foster and Timothee Chalamet. Maze Runner: The Death Cure (PG-13 for action, violence, profanity and mature themes) Epic finale of the sci-fi saga finds Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and company making their way through a deadly labyrinth…
A Spirited Tête-à-Tête with the Talented Athlete-Turned-Thespian Trevante Nemour Rhodes was born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana on February 10, 1990, but raised in Little Elm, Texas from the age of 10. After excelling in sports in high school, he earned a scholarship to the University of Texas where he was an All-American sprinter as well as a running back on the Longhorns’ football team. After graduating, Trevante moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, making his big screen debut in Open Windows opposite Elijah Wood and Sasha Grey. A couple of years ago, he landed a breakout role as…
5-Time Winner Gracious Enough to Chat & Take Photo with a Couple of Big Fans By Kam Williams Like clockwork, every Tuesday evening, my wife and I watch Jeopardy on TV before rushing out of the house to play trivia in the weekly contest staged at Princeton’s Ivy Inn. But because the reigning champ, Gilbert Collins, lives and works in Princeton, as I turned off the set I mentioned that I’d like to meet and interview him someday. Little did I know how soon half that wish would come true. For, lo and behold, there he was among…
Film Review by Kam Williams Adaptation of Best Seller Chronicles Exploits of Special Forces Unit Deployed to Afghanistan A few days after 9/11, President George W. Bush visited Ground Zero where he delivered his iconic Bullhorn Speech standing atop a pile of rubble. Rising to the occasion, he assured the rescue workers and the rest of America that those responsible for the senseless slaughter would soon be held accountable. Less than a month later, the first contingent of soldiers was dispatched to Afghanistan. Their top secret operation, code named Task Force Dagger, called for them to be dropped off behind…
Film Review by Kam Williams Revisionist Biopic Recasts Disgraced Olympic Skater as Sympathetic Figure On January 6, 1994, while waiting to compete in the U.S. Figure Skating Championship competition, top-ranked Nancy Kerrigan’s (Caitlin Carver) knee was smashed by a billy club-wielding hit man named Shane Stant (Ricky Russert). After the cowardly attack in the halls of Detroit’s Cobo arena, the assailant quickly escaped with the help of a waiting getaway car driven by Derrick Smith (Anthony Reynolds). The two had been hired by Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), Tonya Harding’s (Margot Robbie) bodyguard and ex-husband,…
BIG BUDGET FILMS By Kam Williams The Commuter (PG-13 for profanity and intense violence) Liam Neeson stars in this suspense thriller as an insurance salesman who finds himself caught up in a criminal conspiracy on his way home from work after being offered $100,000 by a mysterious stranger to uncover the identity of a passenger hiding on the train. With Vera Farmiga, Sam Neill, Elizabeth McGovern, Patrick Wilson and Jonathan Banks. Condorito: La Pelicula (Unrated) Animated adaptation of the popular, Chilean comic strip revolving around the attempt of an anthropomorphic condor (Omar Chaparro) and his pals to save the planet…
The Post is a picture fated to be compared to a couple of classic newsroom thrillers: All the President’s Men (1976) and Spotlight (2015). Like the former, it’s set in Washington, D.C. in the Seventies and revolves around an attempt by the Nixon administration to prevent the publication of incriminating information leaked to the Washington Post by a whistleblower. And it’s eerily similar to the Best Picture Oscar-winner Spotlight in that they’re both ensemble dramas recounting an idealistic newspaper’s legal battle on behalf of Freedom of the Press. Risk-averse Hollywood honchos have a very predictable habit of parroting success, which…