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.

The Amazing Spider-Man

In many ways this film reflects the state of the art of superhero movies. Gone are the days of the genre's cheesy, low-rent flicks; the template is now well-established, and every entry in the field is competent (at least), entertaining, a little bit funny, action-packed, and a certain crowd-pleaser. But once we've gone through that ride a certain number of times, it's bound to grow a little old. So it is here--you can like this movie, but you also can see the template getting stale, too. I certainly won't say this film isn't worth watching, but I'm not sure you're missing anything if you skip it either.

The Departed

The good news: Scorsese put together a hell of a cast for this film. The bad news: it was Scorsese directing them. This movie neatly exposes and sums up the Scorsese problem: a technically fine film that lacks something, or is off-putting in some crucial way. That aforementioned cast is a case in point: as in all this director's movies, everyone throws himself too forcefully into his role; you can practically see the actors look at the camera and say, "Check out how intense I make this scene." The effect is not one of intensity, but of actors trying too hard (at best) or chewing the scenery (at worst). And it's up to the director to reel that in and hit just the right note. As usual, Scorsese doesn't do that here. And the movie is consequently less than it should be.

Catch Me If You Can

Almost a tough call; should you really recommend a movie about a criminal, especially one that celebrates its subject? Perhaps not, but apparently Frank Abagnale was not so bad, as criminals go. Some of this film is a little too cutesy--a Spielberg weakness--but most of it is just goofy fun. Overall, we have here an entertaining homage to cleverness, in all its forms, and that makes it worth it.

Spawn

There's been a lot of press about The West Wing lately, but this is how I like to see Martin Sheen play a politician: sleazy, and in serious need of an ass-kicking. Michael Jai White, as the titular super(anti)hero, ultimately provides the required foot. Plus John Leguizamo gets off a few good lines, and the effects are awesome.