Film & TV

When Julia hit the airwaves in 1968, much was made of the choice for that sitcom's titular lead character, a pre-Dynasty Diannh Carroll portraying another small screen first, a Black woman in a non-servile position.   In contrast to the revolutionary tone of the raging ‘60s, Carroll's Julia was a suburban single mother, nurse and Vietnam War widow who provided lighthearted laughs for three seasons.  This precursor to The Cosby Show helped Carroll make history as the first Black actress to earn an Emmy nomination as a lead actress in a comedy series.   

When Hollywood filmmakers find a successful formula, they can be counted on to revisit it, and that assured us of another film teaming Adam Sandler with Drew Barrymore. Unfortunately, “Blended” isn’t nearly as charming as their earlier hits, “The Wedding Singer” (1998) and “50 First Dates” (2004). In “Blended,” Barrymore plays Lauren Reynolds, a working mother recovering from a bad marriage. Sandler plays Jim Friedman, a single dad who is yet to recover from the death of his wife. 

A recent study from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism of the University of Southern California gives cause for more than just pause. One of the findings in a study on race and ethnicity in 600 popular films conducted by Stacey Smith, Katherine Pieper and Mark Choueiti is that while Latinas were more likely to be featured in popular films than any other race or ethnicity, no other race/ethnicity is more sexualized.

When Steven starts to ask questions, the Jewish community is happy to reintroduce and integrate him. As his rabbi cousin explains Kabbalah, Steven states that while some people are introduced by rituals, his motivation is to learn his heritage without any guarantee as to what he will do with that new knowledge. In fact, at the beginning of the documentary, Steven seems to be going through the motions of the rituals, just for the sake of experiencing something new, perhaps as you would try a new ride at the amusement park. 

As Peter swims through personal problems, his city faces a series of new threats, the most serious being an attack by Electro (Jamie Foxx), a supervillain capable of absorbing electricity and using it as a weapon. “Spider-Man 2” deliver’s Electro’s backstory while laying the groundwork for the appearance of two more Spidey villans: the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) and the Rhino (Paul Giamatti). 

“Muppets Most Wanted” picks up where its predecessor left off, with Kermit the Frog and company having saved their theater. Unsure what to do for a sequel, they take the advice of a shady manager named Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) and mount a world tour. In the meantime, a notorious criminal named Constantine escapes from a Siberian gulag. Since Constantine looks almost exactly like Kermit, he arranges a frame-up that lands everyone’s favorite frog in prison while he takes charge of the Muppets.  

The plotting of the book and movie centers on Beatrice “Tris” Prior (Shailene Woodley), a teenager who must choose her place in society. In her world, it is customary for youth to be tested for various personality traits, then asked to devote themselves to one of five related factions. When Tris’ test indicates that she could fit into several of these groupings, she is warned to keep quiet. 

At first blush, the idea of Darren Aronofsky directing a Biblical epic seems silly. The talented filmmaker – best known for “Black Swan,” “The Wrestler” and “The Fountain” – cut his teeth on independent cinema. Even his hits live outside the mainstream, so a big-budget Bible story is the last thing many film lovers would have expected. That just proves that no one should judge an artist by his back catalogue.