Exhibiting Forgiveness is the directorial debut of Titus Kaphar, an artist, and he draws from what he knows. It stars the criminally underrated André Holland as Tarrell, a successful painter who is asked by his mother to finally reconcile with his father La’Ron. As we see in flashbacks, Tarrell has a lot of reasons why he should hate his dad. La’Ron has been a lifelong crack addict, and we see, through Tarrell’s eyes, how awful he was to his wife and Tarrell. Like most addicts, all he cared about was getting his next hit, and everyone else be damned. He drove Tarrell hard, and to make matters worse, to this day he seems proud of it, that his administrations made Tarrell the man he is today. We do eventually learn that as bad as La’Ron was, his own father may have been even worse, so obviously the cycle has yet to be broken, but Tarrell is out to do that, if he can get past the trauma. The film explores how different it is to forgive vs forget, and is as raw and emotional film as you’ll find. Holland is incredible as Tarrell, a man battling demons to rise above. ★★★★½
Sing Sing is director Greg Kwedar’s followup to 2021’s Jockey, another personal drama with a lot of heart that I enjoyed. This one stars Colman Domingo (who broke out as Victor Strand in the Walking Dead universe, but who also has a couple Tony and Oscar nominations under his belt, one for this film) as John “Divine G,” an inmate at the eponymous prison who has found purpose in a sanctioned theater troupe that rehearses and performs plays for their fellows (a very real program at Sing Sing in New York). John takes it very seriously, so he looks askance at newcomer Clarence “Divine Eye,” a life-long criminal who John thinks is just getting into the group for parole points. However, we learn that Divine Eye is really looking for a reason to open up; he’s built so many walls around himself that he is unable to make himself vulnerable to anyone. The safe space of an acting group finally provides that opportunity, if he is willing to do the work on himself. While all that is going on, we learn that John may actually be innocent of the crimes of which he was committed, and he is resting all of his hopes on an upcoming parole hearing. This film features just a couple pro actors, including Domingo and Paul Raci, with the majority of the cast made up of former inmates who went through the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing. Domingo shows off supreme acting chops in this movie and is riveting in every scene, especially on those close-up shots where the cameraman knows to zoom in and let Domingo do his thing. Very moving film. ★★★★★
I was excited to see Companion from the first trailer, so I’m glad I finally got the chance. The trailers made it look like a horror film with lots of blood, but it is more of a thriller with a lot of comedy thrown in. It begins on Iris (Sophie Thatcher, from Heretic and the show Yellowjackets) and Josh (Jack Quaid, from The Boys and his recent breakout film Novocaine), a couple on their way to a weekend getaway with friends. Iris laments that Josh’s friends don’t like her, an idea he poo-poos, but we see that her fears are indeed founded when she gets the cold shoulder at the lakeside house. Still, she only has eyes for Josh, so everything seems OK. Until, that is, another man tries to make a move on her, and Iris retaliates by killing him. Covered in blood, she returns to Josh and the others, who freak out, before Josh tells her to “go to sleep,” at which point her eyes go blank and she freezes. Turns out, Iris is a robot, the kind that Josh bought as an expensive sex toy, and she herself didn’t know it. There’s more to the story though, which unravels as the rest of the film goes along. The funny moments are what make this film, because the rest is fairly straight forward and a bit predictable. But overall it’s fun, and a decent film for a one-time watch through. ★★★
One of Them Days is a cute comedy about two women having a day they’ll never forget, though they wish they could. Dreux (pronounced “Drew”) and roommate Alyssa can barely afford the rundown apartment they live in, and when Alyssa gives their rent money to her deadbeat boyfriend, they are facing eviction. Dreux is smart but school debt and no job prospects have her waiting tables, and Alyssa is a talented artist but she seems to be fine coasting through life. Now, they’ve got until the end of the day to come up with rent money or they are out on the street. So begins a whirlwind day, where they try everything from the mundane (payday loan, where they are laughed out the door for having the lowest credit score the worker has ever seen) to the bizarre (donating blood for cash, on a day when the nurse is on her first day after leaving her last profession, a stripper). The film finds most of its laughs poking at the stereotypes of two young black women struggling to make ends meet in a world with limited prospects, and while the movie is pretty paint-by-numbers, there are plenty of funny moments. Even I, usually not a comedy person, liked it quite a bit, and others who are more into the genre may laugh harder. ★★★
A confession: I’d never seen 28 Weeks Later. I watched the first film in the series, 28 Days Later, back when it came out over 20 years ago, but didn’t much like it, so I wasn’t too worried about the sequel when it came out in 2007. I’ve since become more of a cinephile, and gotten into the original director and writer (Danny Boyle and, especially, Alex Garland, respectively), so I rewatched Days recently. Still didn’t like it (haha!). And while this sequel has a different team behind the camera (director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo), there’s yet another film coming out soon (28 Years Later) in which Boyle and Garland return, so I wanted to “catch up.” I actually did like Weeks better than Days, but it’s still not great. The virus that came out in the first film has run its course, and all the “zombies” or whatever they are have died from starvation. The USA has come to England to help clean up the mess, burn bodies, etc, and the country is quarantined. That is, until a survivor is found living outside the safe zone, the first new survivor found in months. Turns out she is a carrier for the virus, so while not crazy and eating people’s faces off, she can spread the disease, which of course she does. People go crazy again, and ultimately the film suffers from the same problems that made me not like the first movie, namely, shaky camera syndrome, with a frenetic look and feel that makes it too hard to see what is actually going on. I get the “why” of it, but give me a steady hand and clear picture any day. Not to mention, if all the zombies were dead, why are they all over the place again by the end of the film? I’m hoping for better results when Years comes out in June. ★½
- Book currently reading: Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan
Jons Movie Takes 