Directed by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah follows Fred Hampton, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who is the Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. His fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal, played by LaKeith Stanfield, is a predictable and sad story of one individual’s goal to help others.
Only the trailer is available without images or poster. As soon as they become available, I will post them.
Directed by filmmaker Dawn Porter, John Lewis: Good Trouble chronicles the life and career of the legendary civil rights activist and Democratic Representative from Georgia.
Using interviews and rare archival footage, Porter chronicles John Robert Lewis’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, healthcare reform, and immigration.
Using present-day interviews with Lewis, now 80 years old, Porter explores his childhood experiences, inspiring family and his fateful meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. In addition to her interviews with Lewis and his family, Porter’s film includes interviews with political leaders, Congressional colleagues, and others who figure prominently in his life.
Directed by Liesl Tommy and starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin, following the rise of her career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, Respect is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice.
The movie also stars Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Tate Donovan, Heather Headley, Skye Dakota Turner, and Mary J. Blige.
Kristen Stewart evolved into a talented actress since her Twilight movies. The camera shows her upbeat, charismatic, and determined. Jean Seberg is Stewart’s next role, and she’s embraced the character as the title role for the movie Seberg.
Directed by Benedict Andrews and inspired by true events, the movie follows Seberg as the French New Wave darling and Breathless star.
Directed by Benedict Andrews and inspired by true events, the movie follows Seberg as the French New Wave darling and Breathless star.
In the late 1960s, the FBI targeted her because of her support of the civil rights movement and romantic involvement with Hakim Jamal, played by Anthony Mackie, among others.
Andrews tells the thriller through a film noir style. His directing credits include remakes of two Tennessee William’s plays: A Street Car Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, Hoover’s overreaching surveillance and harassment to suppress and discredit Seberg’s activism destroyed her life and career.
The well-rounded cast includes Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, Zazie Beetz, Yvan Attal, Stephen Root, Colm Meaney, and Vince Vaughn.
The next three movie clips offer the main plot point of the movie, which was the government spying on her because of her strong stance in cultural issues in America.
Written and directed by Andrew Heckler, Burden is a true story about Michael “Mike” Burden, played by Garrett Hedlund, an ardent young South Carolina Ku Klux Klan member.
He rose to the rank of Grand Dragon – and walked away from all of it with the help of his new love and an unlikely ally, the African American religious leader and social activist Reverend David Kennedy, played by Forest Whitaker.
Mike Burden, rejected by his own racist family and raised by Klan leader Tom Griffin, played by Tom Wilkinson, becomes a pillar of the KKK and proponent of the divisive Redneck Shop, a Klan memorabilia store.
But then Mike meets and falls in love with Judy Harbeson, played by Andrea Risborough, a single mother deeply opposed to the Klan and Mike’s allegiance to the group.
Cut off from the only family he has ever known, Mike and Judy reach out to the Reverend, Mike’s former mortal enemy. In turn, Reverend Kennedy proves the power and conviction of his faith when he accepts Mike’s disavowal of the Klan and welcomes him into his home and church.
Together, they face down irate and vengeful Klan members and win over Reverend Kennedy’s skeptical parishioners, forming a genuine bond and forging a path toward redemption and forgiveness.
Heckler is known for directing Armageddon and the TV series Ally McBeal. Burden won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Sundance Film Festival 2018.
The second trailer tells more of the story and journey of this former Klansman and the priest.
The three movie clips show exceptional acting and directing skills.
Co-written by Swati Bhise, Devika Bhise, and Olivia Emden, with Swati Bhise also directing, The Warrior Queen of Jhansi tells the true story of the legendary Rani of Jhansi, played by Devika Bhise, a feminist icon in India and a fearless freedom fighter. Rani means Queen.
In 1857 India, this 24-year-old General led her people into battle against the British Empire, earning the reputation of Joan of Arc of the East. This real-life Wonder Woman’s insurrection shifted the balance of power in the region and set the demise of the notorious British East India Company and the beginning of the British Raj under Queen Victoria, played by Jodhi May.
The rest of the impressive cast includes Rupert Everett, Nathaniel Parker, Ben Lamb, and Derek Jacobi.
It’s hard to imagine this culture allowed women to fight in battles. How did it change to what it is today?
Written and directed by Scott Z. Burns, The Report story played out on the headlines and newscasters had a field day with the conspiracy behind the expose of the evil, brutality at CIA’s Detention Center and Interrogation Program. The movie is a far cry from A Few Good Men.
The Report is a gripping thriller based on actual events. Naive and unrealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones, played by Adam Driver, is tasked by his boss Senator Dianne Feinstein, played by Annette Bening, to lead an investigation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, which developed from the aftermath of 9/11.
Jones’ unremitting pursuit of the truth leads to dangerous findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation’s top intelligence agency went to suppress evidence, subvert the law, and hide a brutal secret from the American public.
The next trailer shows a pretty hard subject to explain in a matter of two hours.
The next six clips show what this man went through to get to the truth of what happened during the CIA’s interrogations of potential terrorists. Driver is so good at conveying the feeling that maybe all his work will be for not.
Directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin, I Still Believe, a faith-based movie follows the true-life story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp.
The tearjerker story follows Camp’s journey of love and loss that looks to prove there is always hope as long as you still believe in God.
Erwin brothers’ last Christian movie I Can Only Imagine did well at the box office for a faith-based film winning the 2018 GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Film of the Year.
The movie clip is simple but shows the love and support Camp received from his family.
Directed by Jay Roach, Bombshell focuses on the stories of multiple female Fox News employees. If you like following the headlines, then you should know about this story.
The movie follows three females, Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, and Kayla Pospisil, played by Charlize Theron, Nichole Kidman, and Margot Robbie, respectively. The movie focuses on their altercations with founder Roger Ailes, played by John Lithgow
The Blu-ray and DVD are available on Amazon, or you can stream it on your device as well.
Kate McKinnon, Malcolm McDowell, and Allison Janney also star in the movie written by Charles Randolph.
The casting is explosive, and the movie explains what the headlines failed to tell us correctly.
The next three movie clips are entertaining and heartfelt with a bit of wit and sarcasm.
The next clip is Lithgow as Roger Ailes, and he resonates as the news mogul.
Rightfully written and directed by Terence Malick, The Hidden Life follows the life of Franz Jägerstätter, which the Catholic church beautified in 2007, as a conscientious objector to World War II and Hilter.
Winner of Cannes 2019 François Chalais Award, Terrence Malick, masterfully guides August Diehl, who plays Jägerstätter, an Austrian. Known as a rambunctious young man and womanizer, Franz leaves the small town where he grew up to work in the salt mines.
He returns three years later, riding a motorcycle and a devout Catholic. He marries Franziska, played by Valerie Pachner, whose religious faith is almost as powerful as Franz.
Franz denounces Hilter and WW II, resulting in the small town cauterizing him. He continues tending farm alongside his wife and children.
Eventually, the Nazis sent him to prison for his religious faith and denouncing Hilter and the war, saying he could not be both Catholic and Nazi. They executed him in 1943, and Franz becomes a martyr and beatified by the Catholic church.
I invite you to take a look at Malick’s movie, The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Pen, and Jessica Chastain. He uses similar angles and tender moments to tell the story of a young boy growing up with an angelic mother and a spiteful father.
The trailer shows Malick’s talent for serene and pastoral countrysides of quiet long and buoyant moments of love and joy. Only Malick can tell the story of Jägerstätter’s tragic end to a blissful life taken by a strong belief and devotion to God.
The red carpet interviews at TIFF discuss Malick’s direction and the area where they filmed the farmhouse. The Jägerstätters lived in St. Radegund, a small village of 500 people in Upper Austria, near Salzburg and the German border. In the same province, where Hitler was born and spent his early youth–not far from Berchtesgaden, his mountain retreat during his years as head of the German state.
He arrives home, but the consequences of him being a conscientious objector will be a sad and frightful ending. The camera work and acting drive the scene forward with Malick’s direction.
The next two clips are Malick’s signature work, narrative with telling their story through his wife’s letters.