Nope

This movie takes its good sweet time getting into the meat of its story. That’s actually something of a throwback, since horror flicks in olden days didn’t put their monsters, chaos and gore out front and center until well into the running time. They generally worked the slow build, unlike much of today’s more hyperkinetic fare. So that’s not an inherent problem with this one; what causes some viewer consternation here at the start, more than anything else, is Keke Palmer's high-volume, grating presence in the otherwise quiet and ominous stage-setting early scenes. You almost want to walk away just to keep her from getting too much on your nerves. Thankfully, the plot and action soon rev up and begin to deliver the kinds of jolts that make her boisterousness relatively muted in comparison. A lot about the middle of the movie is appreciable, with some nasty surprises giving the narrative some high-energy moments. But then, the denouement leaves a bit more to be desired: the monster weirdly transforms, without necessarily becoming anything more particularly scary or alien in character, the characters go off into behaviors that don’t seem particularly rational, and the beastie meets its destiny in a way that does not make much sense. So there are good scenes in the middle, the direction and cinematography present rich visuals—a notable achievement considering the dry-as-dust desert setting of the story—and a lot of the film works ... but there’s also a tepid opening and a not especially compelling ending. You get just enough here to turn a "nope" into a "yes," but just barely—and you are hardly inspired to shout out that affirmative.

Judas and the Black Messiah

This one gets a soft PURR. That's to be expected; the Bad Cat is, after all, a black cat. The strength of this work lies in the performances of the two principal actors and their portrayals of the two main characters. LaKeith Stanfield does a solid job as informant Bill O'Neal, deftly walking the line of his role's ambivalence, while Daniel Kaluuya presents a powerful image as lead Chicago Panther Fred Hampton. Don't be surprised to see Kaluuya get an Oscar nod come this time next year. The only weakness of this film lies in its story, such as it is; what writer-director Shaka King presents is more a record of loosely connected events rather than a fully fleshed-out storyline. That approach leads the viewer to sometimes wonder where things are headed, rather than paying full attention to what is happening in the present scene. Nevertheless, many of those scenes are riveting in and of themselves, delivering a strong focus on the personal that informs the political. And King shows them with enough visual panache to make much of the tableaux interesting all the way to the film's gut-punch conclusion. As always with "based on" movies, it's hard to know how much of what we see here is factual and how much is interpretation; however, much of what is presented in the film's coda backs up what the whole work shows. (And the Chicago setting certainly gives portrayal a lot of credibility.). All in all, an interesting critique of yesterday, and today, and definitely worth a look.

Black Panther

I detect a metaphor, one that relates to a similar metaphor that first showed itself in...Casablanca? For sure, this is a radically different movie from that earlier production, but there is at least one element that unites the two stories: the question of whether isolationism is or is not a practical policy in today's world. I can't say this film answers that question definitively; all I can say is it gives you something to think about. Indeed, the thinking parts of this movie are its strengths; the contemplative stuff works, and makes a lot of the nonsense a little more human. The action stuff is the usual hodgepodge, and at this point has grown unimpressive. This film certainly gets credit for being visually stylistic and impressive; there's good world-building here, in fine detail all over the screen. And overall, it remains entertaining and holds the interest throughout. But then again, I walked away from the movie appreciating it, but also feeling thankful that I didn't pay to watch it. So good, sure, but nothing close to the masterpiece it was made out to be.

Get Out

Yeah, OK, but … There seems to be a tactical error here, specifically in how contrived the story's situation comes across as. The point--if in fact there is one--could have been made in a much sharper way had the setting been more realistic. As it is, this "set piece" version of interracial relations is too easy to dismiss because of that lack of grounding in reality. The movie still earns solid marks for the skill of the presentation; it's well put together, the acting is fine, nobody particularly throws up on himself here. But that contrived nature, plus some philosophical missteps that seem to undermine the narrative's credibility, just left me wondering. There's been a lot of love for this movie, and it's not bad, but I'm willing to express the, uh, minority opinion that this flick could have been a lot more--and better--than it actually is.