“Judas and the Black Messiah,” the bio-pic about Fred Hampton, head of the Black Panthers in Illinois in the sixties, comes to us from a dynamic team. Director Shaka King (“Newlyweeds”) had met Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) in 2013 at Sundance.  Coogler (“Black Panther”) approached Warner Brothers with 50% of the film’s financing in hand to back the picture, directed by Shaka King (“Newlyweeds”) from a story by the Lucas Brothers. They already had the cast in mind and Shaka King had connected with screenwriter Will Berson, who had been researching Hampton for some time.... Read More

Director Christopher Nolan started tinkering around with the concept of time many years ago on a much smaller budget with 2000’s “Memento.” I liked it so much that, on a visit to the Twin Cities, I took a girlfriend and her husband to see it, my second time through it. It was unique, original, interesting, exciting and it didn’t run 150 minutes. It was even nominated for Best Original Screenplay at that year’s Oscars. We’ve now been treated to “Memento’s” successors from Christopher Nolan: “Insomnia (2002); “The Dark Knight Trilogy” (2005-2012); “The Prestige” (2006);... Read More

A teenager who can see the worlds of demons and the paranormal around us that others cannot is the protagonist of Sean Leary’s critically-acclaimed graphic novel series, “Exorcising Ghosts” The book is available worldwide and in local bookstores. Leary wrote and illustrated the series when he was a teenager and the books seem ripped from the diary of a teen, featuring various perils of growing up, including family issues, relationship breakups, friend squabbles and more, but with an added twist. The anti-hero of the story, Colin Drewry, is a recovering alcoholic and addict who... Read More

“Running with Beto,” the HBO documentary that will air on HBO in early spring, was screened at its World Premiere at the Paramount Theater in Austin this morning (March 9) and a rapt crowd of supporters got to see Beto O’Rourke, his wife Amy, and their daughter Molly up-close-and-personal during a Q&A after the film screened. I was seated in the third row on the right when a large group of people began ascending the stairs that lead to the stage there. The tallest of the group, hunched over so as not to block the credits then running, was Beto O’Rourke, who managed a small wave to those... Read More

“Office Space” is that rare film that grew from a less-than-stellar opening to become one of the most loved (and rented) films in history. It has gained fans around the world, its popularity spreading via word-of-mouth, since the unfortunate “Big Bird” poster advertising the film was considered a major faux pas at the time. (It depicted the character Milton with yellow post-it notes all over his body.)   On the occasion of “Office Space’s” twentieth anniversary and also in conjunction with inducting Director Mike Judge (“Beavis & Butthead” creator) into the Texas Hall... Read More

In preparing a list of “the greatest” of anything, you are limited by your own exposure to the films (i.e., ‘Did you see these movies?”)  If you did see them, do you remember all of them? Fortunately for those of you longing for a political fix that isn’t nauseating (but actually entertaining), I have personally seen every single movie on this list—some of them more than once. I concentrated on the American political experience, not that of another country. For that reason, films like “Z” by Costa-Gravas, or his equally impressive “Missing” (Chile) or Helen Mirren’s“The... Read More