‘What’s this groove becoming?!’ How The Harder They Come captured 70s Jamaica and blazed on to stage
The monumental soundtrack of Perry Henzell’s film, starring Jimmy Cliff, powered the best musical of 2025. Its creators discuss bringing their hit back after the reggae giant’s death.
Read the full article here.
HOLA MAMA
EXCLUSIVE: Canadian outfit APL Films is launching sales in Cannes on three-part docuseries, Hola Mamá, which follows first-time filmmaker Adrian Reamey, a Chilean-born adoptee raised in the United States, whose search for her birth mother uncovers a decades-long operation of illegal adoptions tied to political and economic policies implemented during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile.
Heralding from two-time Emmy nominated producer Jonathan T. Baker, the investigation “uncovers the power structures behind forced separations, including the role of the United States, revealing a network designed to conceal the truth—and the people now determined to bring it to light.”
Read the full article here
EXCLUSIVE: The Banker producer Jonathan Theodore Baker is taking meetings in Cannes on the psychological thriller Lake Of Torches, the English-language debut of Dutch filmmaker and concept artist Didier Konings whose genre title Heresy premiered in Rotterdam 2024.
Set against the backdrop of the 1990s Seattle grunge scene, Lake Of Torches follows a young band manager touring the Pacific Northwest who starts to unravel when the disturbing visions that tormented his mother bleed into his own reality.
Read more here.
THE DUTCHMAN now streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube
…Holland’s arresting and understated performance as an increasingly helpless man overwhelmed by a possibly imaginary woman’s sexual wiles — and by his own place in the universe as a Black man on a corporate, white-laid track to no place fulfilling — makes ‘The Dutchman’ a hypnotic watch. — IndieWire
…the film succeeds in being an unnerving odyssey over one New York night. — Screen Rant
…Gaines’ update of The Dutchman offers a hopeful thought — it’s never too late to change the narrative. — Deadline
...Andre Holland again proves he’s one of our most mesmerizing screen presences. — The Playlist
...the sheer creative gall behind the movie is worthy of note, making it a fascinating artifact of stage-to-screen translation. — Mashable
…a commercially appealing introduction to Baraka’s work. — The Hollywood Reporter
THE KNIFE now streaming: Amazon Prime, Starz, AppleTV, GooglePlay
With just a few subtle strokes, the screenplay underscores how everyone here is fudging the truth a bit, and its restraint is the film’s quiet strength.— The Guardian
“The Knife,” the wonderfully tense directorial debut of Nnamdi Asomugha, creates a juicy moral dilemma whose consequences are slowly wrung out, along with meditations on race and class. — New York Times
It’s masterful in developing a gnawing suspense that permeates the film, and never falters in engaging us from start to finish. — Screen Rant
The tension is relatable and relevant, with complexities of truth-gathering added organically until a nice little pot of motivational stew is boiling. — UK Film Review
The overriding suspense here is largely created by watching truth become negotiable, and through the small, plausible distortions of the truth that people come up with when survival instincts kick in. — Slant Magazine
PRIMETIME EMMY NOMINEE SYLVIE’S LOVE now streaming: Amazon Prime
“As soon as you hear Nancy Wilson’s version of “The Nearness of You” over vintage yellow cabs whizzing by old-school cafeterias, cigar shops and the Canadian Club sign in Times Square, along with the sight of Tessa Thompson looking positively radiant in a radioactively blue evening gown, you know exactly where and when you are.” - Rolling Stone
“It’s almost as if someone gently whispered “Old Hollywood” into your ear then, sweeping you off your feet, stole you away to the land of Douglas Sirk—or its 21st Century-made counterparts, … We realize in that heart-stopping moment that writer/director Ashe is about to give us something comfortingly tender with his sophomore narrative feature.” — Roger Ebert.com
“Ashe is using a familiar, long-derided film genre both affectionately and critically to explore the gleaming surfaces of life as well as the anguish that lies beneath.” — New York Times
“It’s a film that both looks and feels the part, a handsomely made love story that’s easy to fall in love with.” - The Guardian
“Sweeping and flawlessly produced, Ashe’s epic works as an inherently refreshing entry in the canon of a genre designed to make us sigh with knowing elation or tear up in misery thinking about our own bygone rendezvous.” — Los Angeles Times
“Sylvie’s Love” Revives the Art of the Classic Hollywood Romance” - The New Yorker
"Serving in Secret" feels like a living document and a vital part of our community's oral history. It also feels like unmissable information; as Secretary Buttigieg notes (and GOP lawmakers at the state and federal levels demonstrate on a daily basis with the greatest flurry of anti-LGTBQ+ bills in recent history), "No progress takes place on a one-way street.” If the battle to hold on to our rights has been joined, "Serving in Secret" is a mission-critical document.— Edge Media Network
“The film focuses on the history of LGBTQ discrimination in the military and the series of events leading to the overturn of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2012. It highlights the story of former Marine Captain, Tom Carpenter, and his experiences as a closeted service member who joined legions of others to advocate for LGBTQ equality in the Armed Forces.” — Yahoo! News
See the full list of GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS Nominees here.
“The MSNBC Turning Point documentary features key interviews including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Former Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, Former Under Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy, Rachel Maddow” - GLAAD
NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY NOMINEE THE ONE AND ONLY DICK GREGORY now streaming: Hulu, Paramount +, Amazon Prime
“The One and Only Dick Gregory highlights Gregory's particular knack for getting people to laugh with him, and more significantly, the sacrifices he made in pursuit of greater objectives than the roar of a crowd and that nightly paycheck.” - CNN
“Along with some very funny footage of a master of his craft, [The One and Only Dick Gregory] offers a convincing argument that while Gregory became famous for his comedy, what made him such a riveting cultural figure is what he did after he left it behind.” - New York Times
“The One and Only Dick Gregory is a memorable portrait, of someone whose story deserves to be better remembered.” - The Wall Street Journal
“The first-rate doc, written and directed by Andre Gaines, is a reminder to anyone familiar with Gregory of the breadth and prescience of his work; to the uninitiated, it will be an eye-opener.” — Variety
“The uncanny confidence of Dick Gregory comes through from the opening minutes of The One and Only Dick Gregory, and he only becomes more formidable as the film unfolds.” - RogerEbert.com
THE BANKER now streaming: Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Youtube TV
“It’s an earnest film graced with surprising glimpses of humanity amid persistent racist venality. The great value is in showing us a piece of history we don’t know but should, and as a terrific showcase for Mackie, Jackson, Long and Hoult.” - Movie Nation
“This is a film brimming with essential truth about the events at hand, and it delivers an impactful but also entertainingly resonant message. It’s also a crackling good, emotionally satisfying, old-fashioned thriller, with readily identifiable heroes and hiss-worthy villains.” - Chicago Sun Times
“The Banker spins a surprising and engaging yarn pinned to central elements... Its lively, positive spirit helps it over any number of speed bumps, the social backdrops play to its advantage and the top-line cast members pull their weight and then some.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“Thanks to the three strong performances at its heart — especially that of a wisecracking Samuel L. Jackson (who’s also one of the producers) — The Banker often is as entertaining as it is enlightening. It’s “Hidden Figures” with redlining instead of rocket fuel.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“The galvanizing story [The Banker] tells — like a last stand of rebel ingenuity before the Fair Housing Act of 1968 made discrimination unlawful — is a solid interest-earner.” - Los Angeles Times
SUNDANCE AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER CROWN HEIGHTS now streaming: Amazon Prime
“Like its protagonist, sensitively and shrewdly played by Lakeith Stanfield, the film is soft-spoken and thoughtful, with sweet, lyrical touches that alleviate some of the grimness without blunting the cruelty and injustice of what happened.” - New York Times
“Thanks to strong, unshowy performances from Lakeith Stanfield and Nnamdi Asomugha, the film does project the feelings of helplessness and frustration that come from fighting against such an immovable object.” - Variety
“Stanfield is a true movie star, radiating decency even as the character's shell hardens.” - RogerEbert.com
“Acted with gravity, emotion and a sense of the serious issues involved by stars Lakeith Stanfield, Nnamdi Asomugha and Natalie Paul, Crown Heights deals with the intensely human factors tragic events bring into play — perseverance and despair, love and longing.” — Los Angeles Times
“When the actors get their chances, Crown Heights rises above the routine.”- The Chicago Tribune