Sensational what-if conversation piece centered around 4 African American icons of the 1960s as they debate the different meanings of success, responsibility and fear that come with being black at that tumultuous moment in history, thought-provoking questions about identity and leadership and progress that must weigh on all minorities just as heavily 60 years into the future today.

I myself am a moth to the flame of any movie that purposefully zeroes in on people talking the whole time, but…

I want to call this the OG "There Will Be Blood" and draw further comparisons to the early-'80s psychedelia of Ridley Scott's "Legend" and true story of a famous unsolved murder with mob connections that predates both "Hoffa" (or "The Irishman" depending on which you prefer to credit) and "JFK" too, the summation of all of which would surely be a masterpiece, but each of those elements occupies only fractions of the disjointed movie itself. Gene Hackman plays a doggedly…

Pragmatic!

Is the best way to describe this scrappy, intense, black-comedy thriller from the rising master of scrappy, intense, black-comedy thrillers Jeremy Saulnier. Like his debut "Murder Party", this is a chamber piece, confining a young punk band to mostly one room of a neo-Nazi club they made the mistake of playing at, where they become sitting ducks after witnessing a murder. And close quarters suit Saulnier's modus operandi impeccably, as he once again tackles a succinct premise with an…

Oooh yeah! One of those movies that reignites my love for the medium, not that it was flagging or anything, but this actually thrilled me physically and as a (formerly) prospective writer myself. I never wanted to be avant garde or anything – my dream was to write and/or make smart but accessible entertainment like this (and preferably in genre territory), so to see it pulled off so expertly every now and then in movies like "10 Cloverfield Lane" feels…