During one scene in Abi Damaris Corbin’s well executed Breaking, a disgruntled veteran (John Boyega) has just taken two bank employees hostage. In the scuffle to understand (and defuse) each other with the police amassing outside, a rattle at the locked front doors sends tensions even higher. It’s just an aloof customer trying to enter the bank, but it makes bank manager Estel (Nicole Beharie) … Continue reading Review: ‘Breaking’

I can remember one pre-teen summer where a group of friends and I rode our bikes several miles around town, traversing wooded dirt paths and spending the entire day wafting in the heat. It felt like we’d gone halfway around the world…. and the worried rants of our parents when we all returned home probably justified our perceptions that we had, indeed, pushed our allowed … Continue reading Review: ‘Summering’

In its relatively young lifespan, Amazon’s movie acquisitions can be described as safe. Ranging from the dramatic young adult/teen offerings to soft-hearted family and romance dramas (with a few psychological horror films thrown into the mix), the slate is confidently middle-of-the-road. It’s a strategy that probably looks good on the bottom line, but doesn’t quite set the avant garde cinematic heart on fire. With that, … Continue reading Review: ‘Don’t Make Me Go”

If asked, I’d have a very hard time placing Emergency, directed by Carey Williams, into a specific category. And that’s a good thing. From it’s solid buzz coming out of this year’s Sundance film festival to its (hopefully) successful purchase onto Amazon streaming services soon, the film is a potent hybrid of buddy comedy, dark humor, and biting social commentary whose seemingly simple idea far … Continue reading Review: ‘Emergency’