#28DaysofBlack Review: "HARRIET" and Cynthia Erivo Are Magnificent

[A powerful historical Black woman deserves to have her story told powerfully.  Harriet Tubman, the face of the Underground Railroad, gets that in director Kasi Lemmons' 2019 film, “Harriet.”]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 of 2021 (No. 1759) by Leroy Douresseaux

Harriet (2019)
Running time:  125 minutes (2 hours, 5 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic content throughout, violent material and language including racial epithets
DIRECTOR:  Kasi Lemmons
WRITERS:  Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons; based on a story by Gregory Allen Howard
PRODUCERS:  Debra Martin Chase, Gregory Allen Howard, and Daniela Taplin Lundberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Toll
EDITOR:  Wyatt Smith
COMPOSER:  Terence Blanchard
Academy Award nominee

BIOPIC/DRAMA/ACTION/HISTORICAL

Starring:  Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, Clarke Peters, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Jennifer Nettles, Janelle Monáe, Omar Dorsey, Tim Guinee, Zackary Momoh, Henry Hunter Hall, Deborah Olayinka Ayorinde, and Rakeem Laws

Harriet is a 2019 biographical film and historical drama from director Kasi Lemmons.  The film is a fictional depiction of the life and work of Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), a black woman who was an American abolitionist, a suffragette, and the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.  Harriet the movie tells the story of the runaway slave who transformed herself into one of America's greatest heroes by helping to free other slaves.

Harriet opens in Bucktown, Maryland, the year 1849.  A black female slave named Araminta “Minty” Ross (Cynthia Erivo) is newly married to a freedman, John Tubman (Zackary Momoh).  Minty is a slave on the farm of Edward Brodess, along with her mother, Rit (Vanessa Bell Calloway), and her sister, Rachel (Deborah Olayinka Ayorinde).  Minty's father, a freedman named Ben Ross (Clarke Peters), approaches Edward Brodess about gaining freedom for Rit and the children she bore based on an agreement made by Brodess' father, but Brodess rudely declines.

Shortly afterwards, Brodess dies, and his son, Gideon Brodess (Joe Alwyn), decides to sell Minty down the river, which mean down into the deep south, the worst place for a slave.  Minty suffers “spells” since being struck in the head as a child, but they are also visions from God.  The spell that Minty suffers after Gideon decides to sell her is the vision that Minty believes is telling her to run away before she is taken to the slave auction.

Fearing that she could endanger her husband and family, she leaves them behind and, after a long journey, makes her way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  A year later, Minty has renamed herself Harriet Tubman and makes her first journey back to Maryland.  There, she will either take her first steps to free other slaves, or she will be returned to a cruel fate at the hands of an evil owner.

In Harriet, writers Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons fashioned a story that captures the horrors of slavery in a manner similar to that of the 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave.  However, 12 Years a Slave is the tale of a free black man trapped in hell of chattel slavery who is determined to survive until a miracle arrives.  Harriet is the tale of a black woman born into slavery who takes her fate into her own hands and runs through a hell's gauntlet to find freedom.

To that end, Kasi Lemmons as director creates a film that moves that narrative via action and opportunity.  Characters take action and take advantage of the opportunity to gain freedom.  As Harriet says at one point in the film – “God was watching me but my feet were my own.”  Harriet's lead character is a pistol-packing, action movie heroine every bit as stalwart as Captain America and as ruthless as actor Clint Eastwood's most famous roles in Westerns.

Actress Cynthia Erivo, as Harriet Tubman, is the center of this film's holy trinity.  Erivo's Harriet is a force of nature and the wrath of God against slavery.  In the film's quiet moments, Erivo presents Harriet as thoughtful and contemplative, but she maintains the roiling storm within, the elemental forces that drive her to return to the land of slavery time and again to free other slaves.  Erivo seems to transform Harriet's spells and visions into a living thing that devours fear and cowardice and the evil that is slavery.  One can believe that this Harriet was the star of the Underground Railroad, the network of secret routes and safe houses in the United States used by enslaved black people to escape from slave states and into free states and Canada.

Erivo's almighty performance earned her an Oscar nomination for “Best Actress.”  It is a shame that she did not win, and it is a shame that Harriet did not receive more Academy Award nominations than it did.  This film has good supporting performances, an excellent musical score, and costume design that created costumes for the cast that look like the real deal.  However, it is Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons, and Cynthia Erivo that drive Harriet into being what may be the best film of 2019.

10 of 10

Wednesday, February 24, 2021


NOTE:
2020 Academy Awards, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Cynthia Erivo) and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Cynthia Erivo and Joshuah Brian Campbell for the song “Stand Up”)

2020 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations:  “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Cynthia Erivo) and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Joshuah Brian Campbell music/lyrics and Cynthia Erivo-music/lyrics for the song “Stand Up”)

2020 Black Reel Awards:  6 nominations: “Outstanding Actress, Motion Picture” (Cynthia Erivo), “Outstanding Director, Motion Picture” (Kasi Lemmons), “Outstanding Supporting Actress, Motion Picture” (Janelle Monáe), “Outstanding Cinematography” (John Toll), “Outstanding Costume Design” (Paul Tazewell), and “Outstanding Production Design” (Warren Alan Young)

2020 Image Awards (NAACP):  7 nominations:  “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Cynthia Erivo), “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Leslie Odom Jr.), “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Janelle Monáe), “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in a Motion Picture: (Cynthia Erivo), “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Kasi Lemmons), and “Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard)


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Negromancer News Bits and Bites from April 19th to 25th, 2020 - Update #26

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Support Leroy on Patreon:

CORONAVIRUS/COVID-19 NEWS - Hollywood and Beyond:

From YahooNews:  Why does COVID-19 kill some people and hardly affects others?

From YahooNews:  Yahoo has a dedicated page of links updating news about COVID-19.

From Deadline:  The news site "Deadline" has a dedicated page for news about coronavirus and the film, TV, and entertainment industries.

From TheNewYorker:  The venerable magazine has a dedicate COVID-19 page free to all readers.

From YahooNews:  Re: the federal government's response to COVID-19: What if the most important election of our lifetime was the last one - 2016?

From YahooNYT:  COVID-19 may have been spreading throughout the United States much earlier than originally thought.

From Truthout:  The US’s Failed Response to the Pandemic Is Rooted in Anti-Blackness.

From THR:  "Better Call Saul" actor Bob Odenkirk talks about his son, Nate's bout with COVID-19.

From Variety:  Saturday, April 18th's star-studded "One World: Together at Home" concert raised $127 million for health care workers and coronavirus relief.

From YahooEntertainment:  Actor Tom Hanks recalls he and wife, actress-producer Rita Wilson's struggle to recover from COVID-19.

From YahooMoney: (4/17) - American are applying for "Food Stamps" in droves.

COVID-19 OBITS:

From MSN:  Donald Reed Herring, the oldest of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren's three brothers, has died at the age of 86, Tuesday, April 21, 2020 of complications related to COVID-19.

From THR:  American cinematographer, Allen Daviau, has died at the age of 77, Wednesday, April 15, 2020, from complications of COVID-19.  He was a five-time Oscar-nominee for best cinematography - three for his work with Steven Spielberg ("E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "The Color Purple," and "Empire of the Sun") and two for his work with Barry Levinson ("Avalon" and "Bugsy").

From Billboard:  Celebrated jazz saxophonist, Lee Konitz, has died at the age of 92, Wednesday, April 15, 2020 from complications of COVID-19.  Konitz was known for his association with the "cool jazz movement" and for his participation with Miles Davis' "Birth of the Cool" sessions.  In fact, Konitz was the last surviving performer of those sessions.

COVID-19 STIMULUS CHECK NEWS:

From YahooMoney:  What to know about the mailing of COVID-19 stimulus checks.

From YahooFinance:  (4/19) Here is why you aren't able to track your stimulus money.

From YahooNews:  Deceased people are getting stimulus check... and the heirs and spouses may be able to keep them.

From YahooNews:  This article updates information on COVID-19 stimulus checks, including the introduction of a web tool that will let people track their checks.

According to the Washington Post, here is the timetable for when the IRS will start issuing checks to those who will receive their checks by mail:

Taxpayers with income up to $10,000: April 24
Taxpayers with income up to $20,000: May 1
Taxpayers with income up to $40,000: May 15.

The article has information about mailing dates after May 15th.

REGULAR ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

ANIMATION - From CartoonBrew:  The new series of Looney Tunes cartoon shorts that were originally announced back in 2018 will debut on HBO Max streaming service when it debuts on May 27th.  They are being packaged as 80 episodes of 11 minutes in length.  Each episode will by comprised of animated shorts of varying lengths.

From CartoonBrew:  This link will let you see one of the shorts, a Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd short entitled "Dynamite Dance."

STREAMING - From Variety:  Warner Media will launch its new streaming servie, "HBO Max," May 27th, 2020.

ANIMATION - From Deadline:  Warner Bros. has decided to release its upcoming theatrical animated feature film, "Scoob!," on VOD (video on demand) and premium digital ownership.  The film had been slated for a May 15th release in theaters.  The film details how Scooby-Doo and Shaggy first met and how they joined Fred, Daphne, and Velma to form "Mystery Inc."

MARVEL - From THR:  Marvel has terminated showrunner deals with Steve Lightfoot (Netflix/Marvel's "The Punisher") and Paul Zbyszewski ("Helstrom").

SEX - From BET:  Comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish explains why she prefers men with small penises.

MOVIES - From GamesRadar:  Director Colin Trevorrow posts the first image from "Jurassic World: Dominion," the third film in the "Jurassic World" franchise.

MOVIES - From THR:  Lionsgate will begin work on a "Hunger Games" sequel film that will be based on the upcomig prequel novel, "The Battle of Songbirds and Snake" (May 19th).

STAR TREK - From Newsarama:  Actor LeVar Burton says that he is in talks to reprise his "Star Trek: The Next Generation" role of "Jordi La Forge" for season two of streamer, CBS All Access' "Star Trek: Picard."

STREAMING - From Deadline:  Netflix pays $20 million dollars for "The Starling," which stars Melissa McCarthy and is directed by Ted Melfi.

STREAMING - From Variety:  Apple may be about to make a $200 million+ risk on Martin Scorsese's next film, "Killers of the Flower Moon," which will star Leonard DiCaprio.

SPORTS - From Variety:  Jennifer Lopez and her fiance, former Major League Baseball great, Alex Rodriguez, may be working on a bid to buy the New York Mets baseball team.

MOVIES - From Variety:  Hot off "Harriet," Kasi Lemons will write and direct WWII drama, "The Shadow King."  It focuses on the women soldiers of Ethiopia who fought against a German invasion, but were left out of history.

OBITS:

From THR:   The film, TV, and stage actress, Shirley Knight, has died at the age of Wednesday, April 22, 2020.  She was a two-time best supporting actress Oscar nominee ("The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," and "Sweet Bird of Youth").  She was a three-time Primetime Emmy Award winner, and won a Tony Award for her performance in "Kennedy's Children."

From THR:  The actor, Tom Lester, has died at the age of 81, Monday, April 20, 2020.  Lester is best known for playing the lanky, wide-eyed, easygoing farmhand, Eb Dawson, on the CBS comedy series, "Green Acres" (1965 to 1971).  He was the last surviving regular cast member of the series.  

From Deadline:  The Indian/Bollywood actor, Ranjit Chowdhry, has died at the age of 64, Wednesday, April 15, 2020.  He crossed over into American films and television, beginning in the early 1990s.  He appeared in such American TV series as "The Office" (NBC) and "Prison Break" (Fox).  His most prominent American role was probably in the 2006 Queen Latifah film, "Last Holiday."

From Syfy:   The illustrator, animator, and comic book artist, Gene Deitch, has died at the age of 95, Thursday, April 16, 2020.  He directed the Oscar-winning animated short film, "Munro" (1960,) with the Oscar going to the film's producer.  In 1964, two animated short films Deitch directed earned Oscar nominations.  Deith may be best known for directing and creating the "Tom Terrific" cartoon shorts for the legendary children's TV series, "Captain Kangaroo" (CBS).  Gene's three sons are prominent figures in the Underground Comics movement, especially Kim Deitch.

Review: "Fear of a Black Hat" Has Fun with N.W.H.

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 165 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fear of a Black Hat (1994)
Running time:  88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive strong language, and for sexuality
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Rusty Cundieff
PRODUCER:  Darin Scott
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Demps, Jr.
EDITOR:  Karen Horn

COMEDY/MUSIC

Starring:  Mark Christopher Lawrence, Larry B. Scott, Rusty Cundieff, Kasi Lemmons, Howie Gold, G. Smokey Campbell, Bobby Mardis, Brad Sanders, Faizon Love, and Kurt Loder

Fear of a Black Hat is a 1994 comedy and music film from writer-director, Rusty Cundieff.  The film is a mock documentary or “mockumentary.”  Fear of a Black Hat chronicles the rise and fall of a controversial hip-hop group, NWH, simultaneously examining the evolution of and the state of hip-hop music in America.

The early 90’s saw two This is Spinal Tap-like parodies of hip hop culture.  The first to make it to the screen was the Chris Rock starrer, CB4, but the funnier of the two was Rusty Cundieff’s Fear of a Black Hat.  Anyone familiar with the culture of rap, especially the rap music and artists of the late 80’s and early 90’s, will find this satire and parody extremely entertaining.

Fear of a Black Hat begins when Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons), a college graduate student, decides to do her thesis on a rap group.  She chooses Niggas with Hats, or N.W.H. as the subject of a documentary film.  Her film follows the vulgar trio:  Ice Cold (Rusty Cundieff), Tasty Taste (Larry B. Scott), and Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence) from their underground success to their ride as one of the top hip hop acts to their obligatory break up and subsequent reunion.

The acting is mostly very good, and the parody is dead on.  Like some rap music and hip hop culture, Fear of a Black Hat is vulgar, rude, insipid, ridiculous, and very fun.  Cundieff is sly.  On one had this is not taken too seriously; on the other, he’s making a lot of pointed commentary about racism, bigotry, and opportunism, and he’s especially skewering how entertainers use violence and hate in crass attempts to gain attention, money, and fame.  Cundieff seemed to understand that rap was often just Black America doing a self-parody of urban African-American culture – the civil rights activism, self-hate, misogyny, bigotry, and violence to make a point and cash.  Not only do the costumes, settings, and characters reflect that, but also the songs by Cundieff and his songwriting collaborator, Larry Johnson, that really hit upon the culture.

Even people who don’t like hip hop or don’t know it could find Fear of a Black Hat uproarious; some of the stuff in here is just absolutely outrageous and can’t help but elicit laughs.  Those who remember the time period that Fear of a Black Hat reflects will laugh as well as feel a little sentimental, maybe even missing acts like N.W.A., Public Enemy, and Ice T, who represented for an invisible American subculture and showed it off to the world.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Friday, August 14, 2015


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Review: The "Candyman" Can... Still Scare

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 132 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Candyman (1992)
Running time:  98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Bernard Rose
WRITER:  Bernard Rose (based upon the story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker)
PRODUCERS:  Steve Golin, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, and Alan Poul
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Anthony B. Richmond, B.S.C.
EDITOR:  Dan Rae
COMPOSER:  Philip Glass

HORROR/THRILLER with elements of fantasy and mystery

Starring:  Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa Williams, and DeJuan Guy

The subject of this movie review is Candyman, a 1992 horror film from director Bernard Rose.  The film is an adaptation of “The Forbidden,” a short story by Clive Barker that first appeared in Barker’s short story collection, Books of Blood Volume 5 (published in the United States as In the Flesh).  Candyman tells the story of a grad student who is skeptical of stories about a local boogeyman until the boogeyman attacks her.

Stand in front of a mirror and say his name five times, and Candyman (Tony Todd) will appear behind you.  When someone calls his name, Candyman usually arrives to gut his caller from groin to gullet, but it’s all a children’s ghost story – an urban legend to scare the simpleminded.  That’s what Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), a Chicago-based graduate student, believes when she comes across the tale of Candyman while doing research for her thesis on modern folklore.

However, when she hears that Candyman haunts Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green projects, Helen thinks that she has a new angle for the thesis upon which she is working with her partner, Bernadette “Bernie” Walsh (Kasi Lemmons).  Still, Helen can’t really accept that Candyman exists.  Her actions and investigations also lead to an arrest that seems to put the Candyman tales to rest… until the legend himself appears and ignites a series of gruesome and bloody murders for which Helen gets the blame.

Thirteen years before earning the Oscar nomination that would revive her career (for 2004’s Sideways), Virginia Madsen was a scream queen – the heroine in a now-cult favorite horror movie entitled Candyman.  Based upon legendary horror/fantasy writer, Clive Barker’s, tale “The Forbidden,” Candyman took the unusual narrative approach that the final result of the film had to be that the heroine, in this case Helen Lyle, die in order to save the day.  Not only is Helen fighting a monster, but she’s also fighting a story that wants her dead.  Madsen was perfect as the doe-eyed beauty who swoons from one scene to the next, her plump, semi-Rubenesque body awaiting the fearsome savagery of Candyman’s hook.

Writer/director Bernard Rose (who would go on to direct Immortal Beloved, with Gary Oldman) moved the action from the housing projects of Liverpool, the original setting of Barker’s tale, to Chicago’s then-40-year old, decaying housing projects, Cabrini Green.  Rose’s choice was an excellent one, as he was able to make Cabrini an even more darkly mysterious setting for chills and thrills as good as any haunted house.  Rose makes the first half of the film a quietly, chilling suspense thriller, but he transforms the second half of the film into a dreamy and trippy dark horror/fantasy that only stumbles a little as it waltzes to the end.

The film also features a small role by Kasi Lemmons, who would make a name for herself in Hollywood as both a script doctor and as a director with the acclaimed, independent film hit, Eve’s Bayou.  Tony Todd became something of a horror movie/sci-fi cult actor (kinda like Bruce Campbell) appearing in episodes of “Stargate:  SG-1,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine” and also in the Final Destination horror film franchise.  Here, Ms. Madsen, Ms. Lemmons, Todd, and Rose put together a small, mesmerizing horror treat that bears many repeat viewings.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, August 22, 2005

Updated:  Sunday, October 13, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.