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Be Water

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  • Title: Be Water
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Be Water movie reviewPremiering Sunday as part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, the documentary from director Bao Nguyen examines the life, philosophy, and legacy of Bruce Lee. Filled with interviews from family and friends who knew him best, Be Water also features an amazing amount of photographs and video from the Lee’s life. The director’s take on his subject is a deeply personal one as the son of Vietnamese refugees who saw Bruce Lee as a strong and vibrant Asian man far different from the usual depictions of Hollywood at the time. Over five years Bao Nguyen would trace the journey of Lee’s life culminating in the super-stardom which was only halted by his premature death.

Race plays a central role in Nguyen’s examination of Bruce Lee, as an Asian American who carved out a life for himself in America in opening martial arts schools and finding success on television. But as he struggled against the limitations Hollywood imposed on him, Lee had no choice but return to China in order to become a world star. Both the anti-Asian COVID-19 backlash and the Black Lives Matter movement make the film, and the examination of Lee as far more than just an action star, especially relevant today.

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How to Build a Girl

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  • Title: How to Build a Girl
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How to Build a Girl movie reviewAdapted from the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl introduces us to awkward and imaginative teenager Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein) who finds a way to take her writing talent and use it not only to support her struggling lower-class family, but also reinvent herself into music critic Dolly Wilde.

Along with Johanna, the family Morrigan consists of her equally socially-awkard gay brother (Laurie Kynaston), a mother (Gemma Arterton) whose attention is consumed by newborn twins, and a father (Paddy Considine) who has yet to accept he was a rocker who was never good enough to make it big.

Triggered in part by need to help her family, but also by a desire to escape her lonely life, Johanna breaks out of her comfort zone. First through a love of music, and later through ruthless criticism, Johanna is transformed into the sassy Dolly Wilde. How to Build a Girl is part coming-of-age story, part self-exploration, and part morality tale how a little power can corrupt someone so easily and completely (especially an unsuspecting teen).

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Charlie’s Angels

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  • Title: Charlie’s Angels
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Charlies Angels Blu-ray reviewCharlie’s Angels is a sequel (of sorts) to both the 70s television show and the movies from the early 2000s, Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. The Townsend Agency has gone global, there are now Angels in offices all around the world (and for reasons never explored, each has a support agent all of whom use the codename of Bosley). The team the film focuses on is made up of former heiress and thief Sabina Wilson (Kristen Stewart) and former MI6 agent Jane Kano (Ella Balinska) who are assigned to help programmer Elena Houghlin (Naomi Scott) who has uncovered some dangerous truths about her company’s new technology. After extraction, Elena’s skill set proves useful and she soon becomes one of the team.

The movie highlights some of the goofiness of the original television show in terms of disguises and planning, it also ratches up the action quite a bit. There are plots and subplots here, some making the main story more convoluted than necessary and others simply used as filler.

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Selah and The Spades

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  • Title: Selah and The Spades
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“They always try to break you down when you’re seventeen.”

Selah and The Spades movie reviewWritten and directed by Tayarisha Poe, Selah and The Spades offers a look at the cliques inside the private high school of Haldwell where its title character (played by Lovie Simone) reigns supreme by running the school’s drug-dealing faction known as the Spades. It’s highs are stronger than its lows, but Poe’s film has enough of each to undercut the storytelling at times leading to an uneven tale of the secret life of spoiled high school students after hours.

The film finds it strength in Simone as the out-going senior troubled by insecurities, rivals, and an overbearing mother (Gina Torres) who has her daughter’s life planned out, and Celeste O’Connor as the younger transfer student who Selah takes under her wing. While the film teases something more between them, in the end it’s hard to tell just what the two mean to each other (or if they even know). Also of note are Poe’s vision and the cinematography of Jomo Fray, both of which help frame the story as something apart from the majority of high school films. Even if the ending feels rushed and somewhat unsatisfying, enough of Selah and The Spades works to make it memorable in a year where that could be scarce.

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Star Wars – Attack of the Clones

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  • Title: Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
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There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic.

This separatist movement, under the leadership of the mysterious Count Dooku, has made it difficult for the limited number of Jedi Knights to maintain peace and order in the galaxy.

Senator Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, is returning to the Galactic Senate to vote on the critical issue of creating an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC to assist the overwhelmed Jedi….

Star Wars - Attack of the Clones movie reviewWhen ranking the nine movies of the “Skywalker Saga” there is never a question of which film comes in last. 2002’s follow up to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace jumps forward a decade when a Separatist movement threatens the stability of the Republic. Standing against allowing the rising tensions to turn to war, now Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman) returns to Coruscant. An attack on the Senator’s life will bring her back into contact with Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), and bring Anakin one step closer to his dark destiny.

Much of the film focuses on Anakin’s two primarily relationships. Though he loves and respects Obi-Wan, Anakin is bristling over not yet earning the rank of Jedi Knight. The seed of Anakin’s contempt for the Jedi Order buried in the first film continue to grow. His obsession for Padme is more simple, but there’s a darker side to it as well. Aside from such a relationship being forbidden by the Jedi, there’s also the manner Anakin peruses Padme, while assigned to protect her, through both guilt and seducing her into a relationship she knows is wrong.

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