Till

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

Centered around Mamie Till (Danielle Deadwyler), Till examines the prelude and aftereffects of the murder of 14 year-old Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi after being accused of flirting with a white woman (Haley Bennett) in her parents’ store.

Director Chinonye Chukwu‘s gut-wrenching film is broken into two-halves, the first 4o minutes gives us the dark foreboding leading to events which take place off-screen after Emmett is dragged from his relatives’ home in the dark of night by armed men. The second-half of the film, which begins with the return of Emmett’s body to Chicago, would spur Mamie into action struggling to get justice for her son in Mississipi, and, failing that, starting the second-half of her life as an educator and activist in the Civil Rights Movement.

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The Fabelmans

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Fabelmans
  • IMDb: link

Steven Spielberg‘s semi-autobiographical Hollywood version of his childhood ends on a high note with one of the best scenes of the year (which I certainly won’t spoil for you here). The journey to that moment takes a little longer than it should and feels a bit like a greatest hits album rather than one coherent narrative, jumping around to important moments in the life of Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle & Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) which would mold him into the man and filmmaker he would become.

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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • IMDb: link

Disney’s live-action version of Pinocchio from earlier this year felt redundant and unnecessary. A shadow of the original animated film based on the classic story, the new version failed to capture much magic at all. Released only two months later, Guillermo del Toro‘s stop-motion version of Pinocchio breathes new life into the story you already know setting the Italian tale during the 20th Century when a grieving father’s wooden recreation of his son is brought to life. 

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Strangely Familiar World

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Strange World
  • IMDb: link

Opening with heavy pulp-themes before shifting into a story of fathers and sons set against an unremarkable 4os or 50s sci-fi background, Strange World, much like Pixar’s Onward (which also set sights on parental issues in a fantasy-sci-fi setting) is more underwhelming than anything else. While not a bad film, Strange World is simply okay thanks more to vibrant visuals of the hidden world discovered by our characters than the characters themselves or the plot they get wrapped up in. Without its visuals, Strange World would be as forgettable as many sci-fi films of the era it pulls from.

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