BKFC 48: Dodson vs. Ridge (2023)

As legal dramas go, we rarely see an African-American actor in the lead role. "The Burial" has several.

The Gates, John Burr’s new thriller film, is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of three Black twenty-somethings - Derek (Mason Gooding), Kevin (Algee Smith), and Tyon (Keith Powers), as they accidentally take a wrong turn into a gated community that’s more like a modern-day sundown town. The three friends witness a variety of crimes in their new surroundings, including an attempted homicide and an attempted rape. As they attempt to alert the authorities and do the right thing, they are thwarted at every turn by the worst horror stories of American conservatism - racist white suburbanites, reckless gun violence, corrupt police, religious mania, and a megalomaniacal pastor. 

Seven years after George Miller's previous film, 'Mad Max: Fury Road', he dives back into the scene with an equally daring movie. Although not nearly as action-packed, his newest film 'Three Thousand Years Of Longing' challenges the typical format of a film, giving you a well-known plot in an unexpected way.

What makes a person different, and who is considered normal? Based on a true story, The Unbreakable Boy follows the life of Austin LeRette, a young boy with autism and osteogenesis imperfecta, as he navigates daily life with optimism and resilience.

Stand and Deliver is an inspirational classic from 1988 starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, and his class of rag tag students in East Los Angeles. It’s the story of how a new teacher shows a motley group of students in the inner city with backgrounds as gang members, dishwashers, and mechanics — the power of self-determination. He teaches the teenagers to believe in themselves through algebra and calculus.

Although Fargo is not actually based on a true story, I do believe it is worth the watch. It has drama, suspense, and a mysterious figure to keep you engaged.