REVIEW: South of Heaven [2021]

Can you catch me a rainbow? Jimmy Ray (Jason Sudeikis) is twelve years into a fifteen-year prison stint for armed robbery. He pled guilty, so there’s no “you got the wrong guy” play up his sleeve when going before the parole board. He’s remorseful about what happened and has a whole speech ready to deliver in hopes they see it too. Before he gets the chance, however, Jimmy is told the tragic news that the woman he loves (Evangeline Lilly‘s Annie)—the woman who has been waiting for his release so…

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TIFF REVIEW: Skin [2019]

This is what I have. Bryon ‘Babs’ Widner (Jamie Bell) hears the buzz of a faulty electrical connection, triggering a transition to an operating table and screams as the tattoos covering most of his body start being removed. It’s a soundscape that’ll have you squirming in your seat, the close-up shots of scar tissue replacing ink as physical a transformation as the act is metaphorical. Because the art adorning his face, neck, and torso isn’t some elaborate supernatural fantasy with family memorials—it’s a map to the blackest center of his…

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REVIEW: Girls Trip [2017]

Better recognize ya blessings. The narrator of Girls Trip has a new book called “You Can Have It All,” a title describing her ability to be both a powerful entrepreneurial woman and a loving wife simultaneously. It’s a message that Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) has embraced as a brand alongside her former football player husband Stewart (Mike Colter), one that’s transformed her into an Oprah 2.0-type figure en route to a potentially lucrative endorsement deal from a high-end department store looking for their wholesome, successful image to speak for the…

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