Posts Tagged ‘Spike Lee’
Top 15 Films of 2018 – Allen’s Picks
The beauty of cinema is how it works as a reflection of our society – our hopes, our fears, and our desires. Films are a timestamp of who were, who we are, and what we could possibly be. A thousand years from now, people can…
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Film Review – The Hate U Give
Charlottesville, Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Grey; the headlines are filled with it. And those are just some of the most famous names. There is a staggeringly sad litany of incidents of unarmed black people being killed by police. Let’s face it,…
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Film Review – BlacKkKlansman
The great revelation of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018) is how imagery can be used as powerful motivators, cultivating the way people feel and act. Throughout his entire career, Lee has been deeply concerned with racism in our society and how it has survived and evolved…
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SXSW Film Review – Us and Them
Us and Them (2017) starts out seemingly as a biting satire about class warfare. You know the story: a person of low economic stature feeling like they got the short shrift out of life butting heads against a rich person who savors all the privileges…
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SIFF Film Review – Southside With You
I kind of hate it when movies are about real people because you can never really get rid of the baggage that comes with a recognizable name. No fictional movie is 100% factual (no matter what the filmmakers want to you believe) because things inevitably…
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An Appreciation – Do the Right Thing
In preparation to write on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989), I ran across an interview where Lee described being asked why he went with an ambiguous ending rather than providing straight answers to the problem of racism. Lee, understandably, responded with confusion. If…
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SXSW Interview – Jon Matthews – Surviving Cliffside
Spencer interviews director Jon Matthews from the documentary Surviving Cliffside at SXSW 2014.
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SXSW Film Review – Surviving Cliffside
According to IMDb.com, Jon Matthews, the director of Surviving Cliffside (2013), has a unique story of his own. Growing up in West Virginia, Matthews initially studied law, and was practicing for nearly seven years. At the age of 31, he decided to change careers, enrolling…
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