Cleopatra (1963)

In an all-black community in Louisiana, a young girl learns her father has committed infidelity and turns to hoodoo to seek justice.

Despite everything it was capable of, all of these poor choices strung together amount to nothing more than a counter-productive film.

It’s fun, it’s energetic, but it’s also understated and vicarial. Zola is a modern black fairytale and future of black movies.

Released on Netflix this last July, Mile End Kicks, catches the eyes of those who are wanting to escape the disasters of 2026 and visit the era of peak Tumblr, unforgettable music hits, and iconic fashion trends—-of 2011. This coming-of-age film directed by Chandler Levack succeeds at portraying an accurate representation of what life was like in the early 2010’s.

These confines won’t really encourage you to read the film as a metaphor for the nerve-inducing experience we’ve all been through over the last year, however — and in the interest of maintaining your dignity, you probably shouldn’t. While the sociopolitical commentary may have worked for the similarly-themed Buried (2010), in which we find Ryan Reynolds on his own buried alive in the Middle East, but this futuristic take on the premise is best left as a piece of distracting entertainment. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is no less suffocating, literally and dramatically.

When it comes down to it, The English explores what happens when power is unchecked and how those who seem powerless, have more strength than most through their convictions for justice.