David Oyelowo

A Most Violent Year Review

A Most Violent Year (2014)

Dir: J.C. Chandor

What’s in a title? The slow-burning procedural A Most Violent Year is a misnomer on par with Naked Lunch (especially in light of some people’s literal interpretation), although it does evoke a particular unease that is sustained throughout. Writer-director J.C. Chandor’s third feature film takes place during the winter of the most violent year on record in New York City, 1981, and traces the Horatio Alger-like birth of The American Dream for one enterprising couple. (more…)

Selma Review

Selma (2014)

Dir: Ava DuVernay

Sometimes films capture the Zeitgeist by being prescient or forward-thinking, and sometimes they simply luck into the role. Last month The Interview became an unlikely lightning rod for freedom of expression when North Korea sought to stymie its release and the public pushed back (whether the end result was worth the battle is debatable), while 12 Years a Slave proved that in 2013 race was still very much an issue in Obama’s America (and elsewhere), and there are still important and untold stories from U.S.A.’s checkered past. (more…)