Tag: racism
Because pain often fuels creativity, one of the unintentionally positive consequences of the Trump administration's weaponization of intolerance, impropriety and disinformation is that it has provided plenty of fodder for provocative, sociopolitically inclined genre cinema, like the Purge franchise. In particular, the current culture of xenophobia has proven to...
For most of America (and the world, for that matter), the name Buckout Road means very little, but in and around Westchester County, New York, it’s apparently famous for being haunted. Or cursed. Or maybe both. Less famous than regional legends like the Headless Horseman and the Jersey Devil,...
Ma is two movies in one, and which one you experience may depend on whether you’re black or you’re white. Think of it as a racial Rorschach test.
On the surface, its plot doesn’t have much to do with race. It’s basically an intergenerational take on the “psycho stalker thriller”...
The original Tales from the Hood arrived in the midst of the "urban" cinema movement of the '90s, providing a genre spin on the racial and social consciousness of trailblazers like Spike Lee, John Singleton and Julie Dash. More than two decades later, as social consciousness has evolved into...
Square-jawed white guy Jake (Andrew Brooks Gagne) is having a bad day. First, he wakes up late for his job interview. Then, his car won't start, so he hops a train...and immediately falls asleep, missing his stop. Did I mention he’s also forgotten his phone? It seems punctuality and...
Every movie in the Purge franchise has been more overtly sociopolitical than the one before it, and The First Purge takes the series to new, gloriously radical heights in a powerful, if unsubtle, expression of the fear, frustration and anger of people of color in the United States. It's...
An unspecified amount of time after The Purge: Anarchy, Leo (Frank Grillo) is working as head of a security team guarding independent presidential candidate Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell). Roan has based her campaign around opposing the annual Purge, a cause that Leo can get behind -- or in...
A year after the events of The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy focuses on a group of disparate individuals in downtown Los Angeles on the night of the Purge of 2023. Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) are a couple on the verge of separating who are heading to...
In the year 2022, unemployment and crime are down to historic lows, thanks to an annual ritual known as the Purge. During the 12-hour event, which commences at sundown and ends at sunrise, all crime (with a few noted exceptions, such as assassinating high-ranking government officials) is legal, and...
Watching Get Out in the theater in 2017, I couldn't help but think about the movie The Invitation from the previous year. Both films have a similar setup: an interracial (specifically, black and white) couple heading to a remote get-together whose hosts turn out to have dark ulterior motives....
