When Raymond Carver died in 1988, he was mourned as a national literary figure and shortlisted for the Pulitzer prize yet only ten years earlier he was marooned in a drying-out clinic. From his experiences, his alcoholism, bankruptcies, years spent in trailer parks and motel rooms, BBC 'Omnibus' shows how Carver produced stories and poems about the other side of the American dream - about the people whose dreams go belly-up.
Sinister and suffocating, 2022's The Black Phone delivered more than just scares - it brought atmosphere, depth, and a villain audiences won't soon forget.
The new biopic 'Elvis' highlights the beginning and end of the career of this rock and roll legend. The audience is taken on this journey knowing the tragic ending but not so much about what led him there. A large topic of discussion is the influences on Elvis that made him who he was as a singer, musician, and performer, which were blues, gospel, and country. Many of the songs that rose him to fame were songs by Black artists he heard growing up in primarily Black settings.
An animated short film that never gets old, especially with iconic characters from the Disney series.
I came across Urchin by chance and decided to watch it because of the title. It made me think of the spiky animal that lives at the bottom of the ocean, and the old Dickensian novels, where an urchin was an orphaned, homeless child in shaggy and dirty clothes.
'The Mad Woman and the Feminist': This Spanish entry for the MiamisFF directed by Sandra Gallego handles a difficult conversation in a smart, memorable way.
Seeing that the film was essentially his first big, mainstream feature, and with garnering a leading role — portraying the revolutionary ball-player Jackie Robinson — Boseman, without question, delivered a performance that is still so incredibly moving, respectful, genuine, and true to the core of his obviously sincere, artistic heart; and with that, it is indeed so saddening to see him pass.
