Chavales 

This powerful story shines with poetic animation, an exploration of deeper truths, and the protagonist's complex search for identity.

In Saudi Arabia, a little girl (Wadjda) is told she can't have a bike because she's a girl. Wadjda struggles to obtain a bicycle to race her friend, Abdullah, due to the gender inequality and cultural norms of Saudi Arabia.

An uncomplicated, family-oriented man struggles to adjust to an ever-changing world, especially after suffering a loss. Even for the early 1900s, a less complicated time in many ways than now, Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) is a simple man.

Over the last several years, I have had the privilege of being one of the critics having the opportunity to watch and review several films from writer/director/producer Marcellus Cox, whose efforts are never anything less but grounded, relevant, and steeped in unflinching glimpses illustrating the gripping, inspired, and ever-vacillating realms that make up the human condition.

Considering the runtime, I expected each scene to hit harder as opposed to a series of montages and vignettes. 

Fiction doesn't have to be the model for how our real-life pandemic plays out. Here's how we can avoid the dangers shown in "Contagion."