Empire: My Review

My name is Yolanda, and I'm addicted. Addicted to what you ask? Fox's new midseason soap Empire. Yes, it was everything and more. Taraji P. Henson (Cookie) and Terrence Howard (Lucious) brought the heat in this hip hop drama helmed by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, (the team that brought The Butler to the big screen). With a soundtrack supplied by Timbaland, Empire managed to do what How To Get Away With Murder hasn't succeeded in doing just yet and that's delivering not only with the lead characters but the supporting characters as well. Jamal, the middle son of Cookie and Lucious is ridiculously talented but is shunned by his father for being gay. There is a flashback scene that absolutely breaks your heart, and it sets the tone for why the present day relationship of Lucious and Jamal is so strained. The other sons, college educated Andre and rapper Hakeem are interesting in their own right as well, but Jamal is the one who I feel had the standout storyline during the pilot episode.

From the looks of the previews Empire has a lot of big names lined up for appearances: Courtney Love, Jennifer Hudson, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Naomi Campbell to name a few. And on a final note it's nice to see Taraji in a role that she's obviously having major fun with. Cookie's crass ghetto fabulousness is something to behold!

Matthew McConaughey & Gugu Mbatha-Raw Land Leads In Civil War Film

Yesterday it was announced that Gary Ross will direct Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey  and rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw in  the Civil War drama Free State of Jones.

Matthew will portray Newton Knight, a Missisippi bred Confederate recruit who created the Free State of Jones and later married a slave.

This story has major dramatic potential, and I can see both Matthew and Gugu delivering stellar performances. Let's hope the script proves to be worthy of the talent involved.

Wild: My Review

Reese Witherspoon has returned to form with the film Wild which is based on Cheryl Strayed's memoir of the same name. Jean Marc Vallee, the man behind Dallas Buyers Club and the Oscar winning performances of Matthew McConaughey and (my boo) Jared Leto directed this film as well, and even though some parts of it dragged for me, it was still an interesting film. As someone who is extremely close to her mother, I understood Cheryl's grief but did not understand her need to walk the Pacific Coast Trail to get back to herself. Yes Cheryl got involved with drugs really badly and cheated on her husband numerous times, but walking this trail was supposed to be her come to Jesus moment? Anyway Cheryl did make some interesting acquaintances while on her hike, but I was more intrigued with the dissolution of her marriage and her heroin addiction than the hike itself. If the film had of focused on that more than maybe I wouldn't have been checking my Twitter feed at certain points in the movie. That aside, I will be reading the book this is based on because maybe some of the details I found missing in the film will appear in the book. Let's hope.

Obvious Child: My Review

Obvious Child starring comedian Jenny Slate is the art house hit critics love due to its handling of the hot topic of abortion and the star making performance of Slate, an SNL alum and co star of the FX series Married.

The movie starts with a breakup between Slate's character Donna Stern and her boyfriend Ryan who has been cheating on her with one of her close friends. On top of the breakup, Donna learns that the bookstore she has been working at for five years is closing down. After getting pissy drunk before her set at the club she does stand up at and turning the audience off by going on and on about her horrible breakup, Donna meets yuppie Max and a night of drunken sex leads to an unwanted pregnancy.

Slate's humor is crude at times and if you are easily turned off by that, then the jokes in the opening scenes will have you wondering why you rented this movie. But if blue humor doesn't bother you and you stick with the film you will find that the buzz surrounding Slate and writer/ director Gillian Robespierre is well deserved, and it has one anxious to see what is next from these two. Can I offer a suggestion? Maybe a sequel to Obvious Child because the ending left me hopeful for Max and Donna. Just saying!

50/50: My Review

Joseph Gordon Levitt as Adam in 50/50

I've been sleeping on Joseph Gordon Levitt,  and I could kick myself for doing so. After watching the magnificent 50/50  I must say I get the hype. I mean not only is Joseph a cutie, but a good actor to boot.  If you all haven't seen the movie, Redbox it, Netflix it, or wait for it to be shown again on cable.  Yes it's a tearjerker (Joseph's character has cancer, (hence the title) , but the movie also boasts some laughs and the cast which includes Anjelica Huston, Seth Rogan , Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anna Kendrick is stellar. 

If you've already seen it, post your comments below!

Jane the Virgin : TV Review

My timeline has been so full of love for the new CW fall show Jane the Virgin that I took some time on my off day last week to catch up on the show's first five eps to see if all the hype bestowed upon it by my Tweeples was well deserved.

I walked away hooked! Gina Rodriguez plays the titular character a virgin in her twenties who gets artificially inseminated by accident. Yes this premise sounds far fetched, but the cast and the writing makes this show one of the better series to premiere this Fall season. And I will go as far as saying I like it better than the much hyped How To Get Away With Murder, although I do watch that show as well. What sets this show apart is the cast, the writing, and the chemistry between the lead character and her two suitors (the fiancee and the millionaire whose baby she's carrying) both of whom are adorable and as the viewer one is torn as to who Jane should wind up with when the smoke clears. I am also impressed by the two actors who portray Jane's parents Andrea Navedo and Jaime Camil. Jaime's portrayal of Rogelio, the telenovela star who just found out about Jane is hilarious to say the least.

If you are not watching this show, my suggestion for you is to catch up on all the eps via the CW website before Monday's new episode.

Beyond the Lights: My Review

Great dramatic love stories with engaging leads of color are not always a quick sell in Hollywood, but they should be.  After seeing Gina Prince Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights today, might I suggest she be the go to writer/director if you want to tell this kind of tale right.  After impressing the hell out of critics and audiences with Love and Basketball, she followed up that film with The Secret Life of Bees, and now the wonderful Beyond the Lights, starring Gugu  Mbatha-Raw of Belle fame and Nate Parker who some say is the second coming of Denzel Washington.  Beyond the Lights has already been compared to the mega hits The Bodyguard and Mahogany, but it definitely can stand on its own. The story of Noni a pop star with an overt sexual image who just wants to sing and Kaz, the cop who saves her from a suicide attempt gets everything right from jump, and it doesn’t waste time getting the love story in motion.  The way Bythewood uses a flashback to set up the trajectory of a biracial child with an amazing voice who is virtually pushed into the limelight by a mother whose thirst for fame and riches outweighs thoughts of what's best for her daughter, lets the movie goer in as to how modern day Noni eventually winds up in the place of despair Kaz finds her in.

As a screenwriter, I studied the pace of the script and can honestly say the other reason for my going to see this film was not only to be entertained, but to also adopt some of the methods that makes Gina’s films work so damn well. It’s not easy being a writer and revising a script can be tedious, but after learning Gina goes through over 50 rewrites , you won’t hear any more complaints from me. If Beyond the Lights' many revisions resulted in what I saw today, then as one of the audience members that applauded the film as the credits rolled, Bythewood’s revisions netted the result she was looking for.