Brad Pitt has positioned himself as a serious contender for an Academy Award by virtue of his engaging performance in this delightful bio-pic. For he is simply sensational as Billy Beane here, in an emotionally-uplifting, David vs. Goliath saga revolving around the amazing run of the Oakland Athletics during the 2002 season. The iconoclastic, A’s […]
Author Archives: Kam Williams
Special to the AFRO
Posted inBooks
Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance
“Blacks in the segregationist United States of America of the 30s and 40s fought back with inherent toughness. If the white world could not see the nobility of their culture, black artists crowned themselves: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lady Day, and more recently, Queen Latifah… There is no finer demonstration of the black voyage toward […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Joy to the Queen!
Born Dana Elaine Owens in Newark, N.J. on March 18, 1970, Queen Latifah is an award-winning actress, rapper, singer, author and entrepreneur. She landed an Oscar nomination in 2003 for Best Supporting Actress, as well as Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations for her performance as Mama Morton in “Chicago.” In 2008, […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Female Empowerment Comedy Comes to DVD
Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) is a high-powered, Boston investment banker whose boss (Kelsey Grammer) is ready to recommend his rising star for a big promotion. Trouble is the new position will involve longer hours and frequent overnight stays in New York, and the job has already been taking a toll on the stressed-out workaholic’s […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Movie Reviews
Kam’s Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
BIG BUDGET FILMS Beauty and the Beast (G) 3-D re-release of Disney’s animated, 1991 adventure about a beautiful young woman (Paige O’Hara) imprisoned in a castle by a hideous monster (Robbie Benson) who turns out to be a prince. Voice cast includes Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach and Jo Anne Worley. Contraband (R for violence, drug […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Latent Lesbian Summons Courage in Out-of-the-Closet Drama
Seventeen-year-old Alike (Adepero Oduye) has been hiding a big secret from her parents, namely, that she’s gay. But that fact is becoming more and more difficult for the latent lesbian to suppress, given the raging hormones that have her yearning for a girlfriend. Lately, she has struck up a platonic friendship with Laura (Pernell Walker), […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Cruise and Company Go Undercover for Dangerous Assignment in Russia
Before he could intercept a courier carrying the activation codes for Russia’s nuclear devices, an American spy (Josh Hollaway) is slain in Budapest, Hungary by a blonde assassin (Lea Seydoux). She was working on behalf of Cobalt (Michael Nyst), a person of interest whose identity can only be determined by infiltrating top secret files located […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Kam’s Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
For movies opening January 6, 2011 BIG BUDGET FILMS The Devil Inside (R for profanity, disturbing images, grisly violence and sexual references) Found-footage horror flick about a young woman (Fernande Andrade) who enlists the assistance of two priests (Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth) to conduct an exorcism on her mother (Suzan Crowley) at the hospital […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Cynthia’s Synergy!
Born in London, to a mother from Ghana and a father from America, Cynthia Addai-Robinson was raised in the U.S. by her mom in a suburb of Washington, DC. A graduate of NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in theater, the emerging ingénue’s TV credits include guest starring roles on such […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Fincher Makes First-Rate Adaptation of Grisly Swedish Crime Saga
Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel Craig) resigns from his position as editor of Millennium Magazine after being unable to substantiate the incendiary allegations he’d made about a corrupt billionaire (Ulf Friberg). Fortuitously, the disgraced journalist is soon secretly approached by an intermediary representing recently-retired industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the mysterious murder of his beloved […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
The Best in Black Cinema
2011 proved to be another banner year in black cinema, with The Help emerging as the cream of the crop. Even though the adaptation of the Kathryn Stockett best-seller had detractors like Professor Melissa Harris-Perry questioning the historical accuracy of its depiction of Mississippi maids in the Sixties, there’s no denying that Viola Davis delivered […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
It’s Spy vs. Spy in Adaptation of John Le Carre Cold War Thriller
Dateline: Budapest, 1973. It is the height of the Cold War, and British spy Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) has been dispatched behind the Iron Curtain on a covert, anti-Communist mission. But when the operation is badly botched, and blood is shed, there are consequences back in London at MI6 headquarters where both the head of […]
