Beandrea JULY

Rather than ignore such characters as the film industry has often done in the past, mainstream and indie directors alike explored their lives, and sometimes the results were astonishing.

‘Just Mercy’ and ‘Clemency,’ both out this week, right some serious wrongs in the prison-drama genre.

When “Unchained Melody,” also known as the music from the pottery wheel scene in “Ghost,” shows up in a movie, it’s clearly meant to evoke romance.

In the teen high school comedy “Booksmart,” a bubblegum-pop cover plays when Molly takes her bestie, Amy, to the airport to leave for a gap year. Having a crush is still part of the movie’s angsty teen equation, but the song choice signals something new: that deep friendship isn’t a fallback...

The slogan “listen to black women” emerged as a familiar refrain after the 2016 election, and with good reason. Some of the first people to decry Donald Trump’s actions as a political figure were black women, from the 94 percent of us who didn’t vote for him to Congressional leaders like Maxine Waters, who pushed for the now unfolding impeachment inquiry long before her peers. I couldn’t help but think about all this after watching Joker...

When the mournful Tracy Chapman song “The Promise” played toward the end of the new film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, I scribbled in all caps in my reporter’s notebook: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!
The touching movie takes on the ideals espoused by Fred Rogers, the beloved children’s television host from Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and feels like an intense group therapy session.

Kristen Stewart leads the titular trio of smart and confident female spies fighting to bring down an international criminal plot in this reboot directed by Elizabeth Banks.

With Burning Cane, Youmans became the youngest filmmaker to ever screen at Tribeca Film Festival, nabbing multiple awards and becoming the first Black director to win Best Narrative Feature.

Joining The Takeaway to discuss that controversy and weigh in on the film are Beandrea July, a freelance cultural critic, and Zeba Blay, senior culture writer for HuffPost.

“God don’t mean for people to own people,” declares Harriet Tubman to her enslaver as she holds him at gunpoint in the new biopic-meets-action flick Harriet. Here, co-writer and director Kasi Lemmons’ (Eve’s Bayou) new film invites us to go deeper than the sanitized versions of Tubman’s life that we may have picked up in high school history classes.

Director Bryce Dallas Howard explores the meaning of modern fatherhood in her new documentary.

Participated in the 1A Movie Club Panel on "Hustlers."

What's The Buzz At The Toronto Film Fest? John checks in with movie critic Beandrea July who's at the Toronto International Film Festival

Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu star in Lorene Scafaria's film about a group of New York City strippers conning their Wall Street clientele.

Teenage lovers reunite decades later in Tamar Shavgulidze’s Georgia-set feature.
Part exacting drama, part sci-fi romp, Tamar Shavgulidze’s Comets tells the story of two teenage lovers — Nana and Irina — who are now fiftysomethings and reunited in Nana’s backyard.