Continued from page 23 a documentary as you are likely to see this year. The picture was directed by Samantha Buck whose camera captures each of Janet’s pupils so intimately that you feel like you know them by the time that closing credits start to roll. Furthermore, as the tears stream down your cheeks, you can’t help but worry about how each might be faring today. If this movie’s aim is to find the deepest spot in the audience’s heart, then bull’s eye! A magnificent tapestry of touching relationships more like mother and child than student-teacher. When scientists figure out how to clone humans, they ought to start with Janet Mino.
Unrated Running Time: 85 minutes Studio: Argot Pictures Distributor: IFC To see a trailer for Best Kept Secret, visit: http://argotpictures.com/best_kept_secret.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V502yDDm4uA
http://bestkeptsecretfilm.com/videos Four
REEL ACTION
thoughts about succumbing to Dexter’s powers of seduction so easily, she talks him into taking her out for a ride. Meanwhile, her dad isn’t really away on business, but up to monkey business on the other side of town. Turns out Joe is secretly bisexual and has rendezvoused with a gay kid (Emory Cohen) he met online who is also in the closet but obviously inexperienced and needs to be shown the ropes. Thus unfolds Four, a compelling character-driven drama about a very eventful day-in-the-lives of four lost souls each searching for a little independence on Independence Day. The movie marks the auspicious writing and directorial debut of recent Columbia Film School grad Joshua Sanchez. A cautionary tale featuring spectacular Fourth of July fireworks of the emotional variety.
Rated: R for sexuality, profanity and brief drug use Running Time: 75 minutes Distributor: 306 Releasing To see a trailer for Four, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybjnRE 7VAfw Winnie Mandela
Four
Lust Leads to Ill-Advised Liaisons in Day-in-the-Life Drama
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t’s the Fourth of July in suburbia where we find 16 year-old Abigayle (Aja Naomi King) caring for her bedridden mother (Yolonda Ross) while her father Joe’s (Wendell Pierce) job has taken him out of town. Normally, Joe can trust his dutiful daughter to dote on her mom, but on this evening, for some reason, raging hormones have her hot and bothered to the point of distraction. After a little phone sex, she invites a guy she met in the mall over for what he arrogantly expects to be a 15minute booty call. Dexter (E.J. Bonilla) is a former, high school basketball star whose glory days ended abruptly when he graduated from high school. He’s been in a drug-fueled, downward spiral ever since, and all that he has going for him is an ability to charm gullible young girls out of their pants. But when Abby has second
Winnie Mandela
Jennifer Hudson Portrays Infamous Political Icon in Warts-and-All Biopic
dren.” So, it’s understandably hard to put a sympathetic spin on such an infamous political figure. That is the challenge tackled by director Darrell Roodt in Winnie Mandela, a warts-and-all biopic which focuses on its subject’s childhood, college days and marriage while making short shrift of her transition into a war criminal. Along the way, we learn that she was a headstrong tomboy who blossomed into the irresistible beauty that Nelson fell in love with at first sight. Sadly, the two were separated for 27 years while he was imprisoned on Robben Island for treason because of his call for an end to Apartheid. And perhaps that was what led Winnie to rationalize resorting to fighting the government and stool pigeons by any means necessary. As for the acting, Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard do their best to adopt appropriate accents, but they both sound fake since they’re surrounded by a cast comprised of actual South Africans. The production’s most glaring flaw, nevertheless, is that the poorlyscripted screenplay simply fails to give the audience much of a reason to invest in unlikable Winnie’s life story. Winnie Mandela, less an honorable “Mother of the Nation,” than a disgraceful, “bad mother-[shut your mouth]!”
Rated: R for violence and profanity Running Time: 107 minutes Studio: RLJ Entertainment Distributor: Image Entertainment To see a trailer for Winnie Mandela, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGn c4FP6eII Things Never Said
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innie Mandela (Jennifer Hudson) is a controversial figure in the annals of South African history. For not only was she the first wife of freedom fighter-turned-President Nelson Mandela (Terrence Howard), but she was also convicted of ordering numerous human rights violations. At the height of the anti-apartheid movement, she headed a goon squad which doled out street justice to blacks suspected of collaborating with the white establishment. With Winnie’s blessing, snitches would be sentenced to death by necklace, meaning by having a gasoline-soaked tire placed on their shoulders and set on fire. And after the fall of Apartheid, she confessed before the country Truth and Reconciliation commission to “the murder, torture, abduction and assault of numerous men, women and chil-
Things Never Said
Battered Wife Finds Strength in Poetry in Female Empowerment Flick
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iserably-married Kalindra (Shanola Hampton) hasn’t yet found the strength to leave her abusive husband, Ronnie (Elimu Nelson), even though the last time the creep put his hands on her, she ended up in the hospital. Trouble is, it’s hard for her to figure a way out of the situation, given
Denver Urban Spectrum — www.denverurbanspectrum.com – October 2013
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that she’s been struggling just to keep a roof over their heads on a truck stop waitress’ salary ever since her hotheaded hubby lost his job at a gas station after breaking a tardy co-worker’s (Yorke Fryer) arm in a fit of rage. Beleaguered Kalindra copes by crying on the shoulder of her BFF Daphne (Tamala Jones) and by secretly dreaming of moving alone from L.A. to New York where she hopes to make it as a spoken word poet. Meanwhile, she tries to summon up the courage to test out some of her emotional rhymes down at the local café on open mic night. Everything changes for Kal the day she meets Curtis Jackson (Omari Hardwick) at a slam. No, he’s not the rapper 50 Cent, but a gifted wordsmith, nonetheless, and willing to take her under his wings, literally and figuratively. Soon, the two are sleeping together, but the hunky Mr. Wonderful has no idea that his gorgeous new girlfriend has a husband with anger management issues. This recipe for disaster is the ominous point of departure of Things Never Said, a poetry-driven drama marking the directorial debut of veteran TV scriptwriter Charles Murray (Third Watch). Unfortunately, between the campy melodrama and cheesy sex scenes, the film unfolds more like a television soap opera than a feature film. Most problematical, however, is the lousy poetry that’s force fed on us at every turn. For instance, “Roses are red. Violets are blue. Get your ass up. I’m still working on the end.” Equallyunderwhelming was this variation on “This Little Piggy Went to Market.” “This little piggy’s brokenhearted. This little lady turns to stone. This little lady Cupid darted. This little lady’s alone. This little lady goes ‘Wee! Wee! Wee!’ all the way to the poem.” To this critic, the staccato-style of poetry performed in this picture is the equivalent of rap sans the music. Consider lines like “I am the wife of a piece of [expletive]” and “My [expletive for genitalia] does taste like chocolate.” So, if you have a strong stomach for crudity, the N-word and lots of cussing, this foul-mouthed flick might be right up your alley. An uplifting tale of female empowerment tarnished by its crude method of delivering a positive message.
Rated: R for sexuality, ethnic slurs and pervasive profanity Running Time: 111 minutes Studio: Ohio Street Pictures Distributor: Codeblack Entertainment To see a trailer for Things Never Said, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HMV67TdWA