*****

The Hate U Give

We both read the outstanding book by Angie Thomas upon which this movie was based, and did not expect a film to make a strong impact on us especially since we were anticipating all the dramatic moments. Much to our surprise, we were totally engrossed in the film and had a meaningful emotional experience as the two hours and twelve minutes running time flew by.

The story opens with a father giving his children “the talk” which is well known to most black families. We then see their worst nightmare unfold as Starr (Amandla Stenberg) and Khalil (Algee Smith), two black teenagers who have known each other since childhood, are driving in a car when they are pulled over by a white policeman. The teenage boy who was driving was asked to get out of the car and wants to know why he is being pulled over and is quite irritated. A minute later there were gunshots. The boy is dead and the girl is about to go through a life changing experience. The audience steps into her shoes, or should we say sneakers, and identifies with her through the wonderful screenplay adaptation of Angie Thomas’ novel by Audrey Wells who unfortunately passed away shortly before the release of this movie.

The movie was directed by George Tillman Jr., an African-American film producer, screenwriter, and director, who previously directed Soul Food and Man of Honor. Stenberg is stunning as the beautiful young woman who displays a wide range of emotion and an ability to relate to the people around her as well as to the tumultuous experience that she was going through. Russell Hornsby (who we understand is an accomplished Shakespearian actor) was excellent as her father. The supporting cast, which included two siblings played by Lamar Johnson and T.J.Wright were on target as was Issa Rae who plays an activist attorney. The rest of the cast was superb as was the realistic setting that was created. We were moved to anxiety and tears. This certainly was one of the best films that we have seen this year. (2018)

*****

Fences-sp

August Wilson is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who died in 2005 at the age of 60. He originally wrote Fences for the stage. Wilson had an unusual propensity for capturing accent and dialogue in all his plays. In 1987, James Earl Jones starred in Fences on the Broadway stage where it won a Tony Award. It was more recently recreated on Broadway and received critical acclaim starring Denzel Washington, Viola Davis and much of the same cast that now appears in this movie. August Wilson wrote the screenplay for this movie, but died before it could be brought to fruition as a movie. It was Denzel Washington who persisted and connected with Scott Rudin to produce this movie which he directed and co-starred with Viola Davis, and were joined by some of the other actors who played their parts on the stage.

As is characteristic of Wilson, the dialogue in this film is breathtaking. It wonderfully captures the life circumstances, the dilemmas and the character of so many people living in this setting. In this situation, it is a struggling, mostly black people in a poor but proud Pittsburg neighborhood in the 1950s. It is no easy task to not only capture the dialogue and nuances of the written word, but to also project the character of these individuals. There is no doubt in our minds that Denzel Washington and Viola Davis should be nominated for Oscars for their work in this movie. The cast of veteran stage and movie actors who played a close family friend (Jovan Adepo) as well as  family members  were Mykelti Williamson, Stephen Henderson, Russell Hornsby and Saniyya Sidney. They were all superb. The movie is 135 minutes long, but the story and setting will envelope you and you will be caught up in this wonderful intense and poignant production. (2016)