Legends of Tomorrow – Invasion!

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legends of Tomorrow – Invasion!
  • wiki: link

Legends of Tomorrow - Invasion!

I guess it’s not surprising that the the show with the biggest cast would be the one to deal best with the Invasion! crossover, even if that does mean that The CW’s weakest super-hero link provides the best episode of the quartet. The final episode reveals the motives for the Dominators‘ arrival and just what they have planned for the Earth’s meta-human population. The fact that Barry‘s (Grant Gustin) time-divergence is responsible for the Dominators, who after the reveal seem more like timecops than killer monsters, was a bit of a surprise. The demand that Barry turn himself over to the aliens or they would kill all the meta-humans on the planet is awkward (given their fear of meta-humans is there any reason to believe they would be satisfied with only Barry?). In much the same way the logic to beating the aliens is questionable (could they really be certain to get every Dominator?), but it does give Barry and Kara (Melissa Benoist) the chance for more tag-team goodness.

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Loving

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Loving
  • IMDb: link

LovingLove is color blind, except in the state of Virginia. Based on the true story of Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga), Loving follows the events which led to the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia after the Lovings were expelled from the state under threat of prison for violating the state’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited interracial cohabitation and marriage.

Leaving the legal maneuverings, motions, and trial to occur largely off-screen, instead writer/director Jeff Nichols focuses the film on Richard and Mildred. Despite a world that told them loving each other was wrong, the pair found each other and stood by each other in the years where hatred and bigotry did their best to destroy their love. The film’s title perfectly summarizes the pair’s relationship. Not out to change the world, simply understanding that their love couldn’t be wrong, their struggle is both emotional and inspirational. With so much of the film riding on their shoulders, Negga and Edgerton are terrific on-screen together in low-key but emotion-packed performances. It’s impossible not to root for them and it makes you sad for any world which would try to keep them apart.

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Danny Says

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Danny Says
  • IMDb: link

Danny SaysThe documentary Danny Says takes a look at the life and work of music manager Danny Fields who discovered signed, and managed a variety of noteworthy bands in the 60s, 70s, & 80s including Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, and the Ramones, and also worked with Jim Morrison, the Velvet Underground and the Modern Lovers.

Spending as much time discussing Danny’s sex and drug use than the music, Brendan Toller‘s documentary includes several photographs and recordings Fields has kept over the years. It may not be the in-depth look at the music scene of that time period I expected, but it is an intriguing (if completely self-congratulatory) glance at one man’s impact on the music scene. Presented entirely from Fields’ point of view, some of his stories (such as how he hid Jim Morrison’s keys) are more entertaining than others (such as him struggling to justify his role in the storm up after the Beatles “more popular than Jesus” remark”). Music fans and historians should get a kick out of it.

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Moonlight

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Moonlight
  • IMDb: link

MoonlightMoonlight follows the story of a single character from childhood to adulthood while struggling to find his place in the world. Told in three acts (with a different actor playing the role, and being referred to by a different name) writer/director Barry Jenkins‘ tale follows Little’s (Alex Hibbert) journey from a shy kid, to a teenage Chiron (Ashton Sanders) struggling to deal with his sexuality (and his schoolmates hatred of him), to a hardened drug dealer (Trevante Rhodes) given an unexpected chance to find something he lost years ago.

All three of the leads work well, although the fact that we are getting used to a different actor also responding to a different name does take some getting used to during the movie’s two big time jumps.

And the supporting cast is strengthen by the likes of Naomie Harris as our protagonist’s abusive mother, Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monáe as a couple who step in to try and help the boy, and Jharrel Jerome as the teenager responsible for giving Chrion the best and worst moments of his life.

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Eureka – Before I Forget

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Eureka – Before I Forget
  • wiki: link

Eureka - Before I Forget

For Throwback Thursday we take another look back to the First Season of Eureka. “Before I Forget” is an interesting episode as it highlights how one man ruined two lives without either victim realizing it. After the arrival of Henry‘s (Joe Morton) old friends Jason Anderson (Andrew Airlie) and his wife Kim (Tamlyn Tomita) odd events start happening where several characters are unable to account for small blocks of time. This situation comes to a head when Carter (Colin Ferguson) awakes in Cafe Diem after apparently shooting Henry but with no memory of the event or any reliable witness testimony. Realizing Jason must be responsible, Carter and Henry hope to expose him, but the pair are beat out by Kim who discovers her husband has been using his device on her for years, stealing her work, and keeping her from her true love – Henry, and decides to plan a little revenge.

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