REVIEW: Jane [2017]

I wanted to do things men did and women didn’t. It was 1960 when Louis Leakey enlisted his animal-loving secretary Jane Goodall to spearhead a one-person study of the Kasakela chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. She had no formal training or experience with the task, but that was part of her appeal. Leakey didn’t want preconceptions and misguided expertise to cloud what would have to be objective research. The only way to truly know the chimpanzees’ capabilities and by comparison those capabilities of our own early ancestors was through an outsider…

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REVIEW: O.J.: Made in America [2016]

“I’m not black. I’m O.J.” I was enjoying the summer between 6th and 7th grade when O.J. Simpson and A.C. Cowlings infamously drove a white Ford Bronco down a California interstate. Despite being only a year removed from the Buffalo Bills’ four straight Super Bowl loses, my lack of local football knowledge here in the Queen City made “Juice” just another name. I quickly learned he was one of the greats and proved it right where Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas attempted to bring home glory decades later. If I…

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REVIEW: Amy [2015]

“Love is a losing game” I think perhaps I’m tapped out where it comes to stories about musicians’ tragic lives. Binging on “Behind the Music” during my teens probably doesn’t help matters and seeing Montage of Heck earlier this year carries no favors either. Asif Kapadia‘s Amy seeks to do the same thing Brett Morgen did on that Kurt Cobain documentary with Amy Winehouse, but it doesn’t find the same impactful intrigue. It’s weird because I do feel like this is a very similar film to his previous effort Senna…

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REVIEW: Cobain: Montage of Heck [2015]

“You better buckle-up because you are not ready for this” The mythos surrounding Kurt Cobain will never be contained. Revered the world over, his suicide at twenty-seven proved a devastating event in music and pop culture history—more so even than Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin whose deaths preceded him at that same age. Conspiracy theories have been set and quasi-biopics full of atmosphere and tone released to acclaim, but until now nothing has arrived with the blessing of those who knew him best. Unsurprisingly it was his widow Courtney Love…

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