TV Review The People Vs. O.J Simpson American Crime Story

The People vs O.J Simpson: An American Crime Story 

Directed by Ryan Murphy 

Written by Ryan Murphy, Jeffrey Toobin

Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., John Travolta, Sterling K. Brown, Sarah Paulsen

Release Date February 2nd, 2016

The People vs. O.J Simpson: An American Crime Story is the best thing I have seen on television in quite some time. This engrossing melodrama from the creators of American Horror Story takes viewers inside the O.J Simpson saga in ways we have only ever imagined. Moment to moment drama and tension build from O.J's limo driver seeing a figure crossing the lawn to the mansion just after the murders, to O.J's odd excuses for being late to that limo to the discovery of the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, the authentic, engrossing drama of never lets up. 

Cuba Gooding Jr. takes on the role of O.J Simpson and delivers big time with a powerful performance that captures O.J's arrogance, fear, and startling temper. Gooding's O.J is at first eerily calm and agreeable but quickly turns scattered and volatile like a wounded animal stuck in a trap. When the white bronco arrives in episode two, Malcolm Jamal Warner's A.C Cowlings only adds to the remarkable authenticity of the scene that will have you feeling as if you are in that Bronco as the legendary chase plays out. 

The cast of The People vs. O.J Simpson is uniformly fantastic. In an unpredictably great performance, John Travolta stars as Robert Shapiro, the celebrity lawyer O.J turns to before each agrees that a more cynical and calculated choice, Johnny Cochrane (Courtney B. Vance), is more suited to the defense they are planning. Travolta's Shapiro is canny and practical in the face of the incredible storm of media. David Schwimmer is equally great as the good-hearted Robert Kardashian, O.J's friend whose desperate hope for O.J's innocence becomes genuinely heartbreaking as the realization hits him. 

On the other side of the aisle, Sarah Paulson cuts a brilliant figure as prosecutor Marcia Clark. Paulson captures the humanity behind the professional and aloof manner many complained about in Marcia Clark during the actual trial. Yes, Clark is tough as nails with a cynical, angry, demeanor but Paulson also captures the crusading side of Clark who simply wanted to see a wife beating murderer get what he deserved. Bruce Greenwood and Christian Clemenson are perfect foils for Clark as equally cynical defenders of justice while Sterling K. Brown brilliantly captures the tragic figure of Christopher Darden who strived to be more than a token in the DA's office only to find himself shunted into the prosecution of O.J Simpson. 

Race plays a major role in The People Vs. O.J Simpson with Darden's visit to his father in Compton, California, a brilliant counterpoint to our modern conversation about race relations and police. The LAPD have long had a terrible reputation but the scripting here is fair to the LAPD while casting a wider correlative conversation about police mistrust among African Americans. This is edgy material and gives just that perfect extra kick of timeliness to a story that could have felt trapped in the 90's. 

The direction is top notch, the writing and acting are spot on and there is still plenty of room for the daring and salacious brand that the American Horror Story crew are known for in The People vs. O.J Simpson. Yes, when I say salacious I am referring to the Kardashian's who are background players in the O.J saga but play as a brilliant counterpoint to the intensity of the prosecution and defense. Did you know Kris Jenner was one of Nicole Simpson's closest friends or that she once dated O.J? We even get a glimpse of the Kardashian kids playing at Nicole's funeral, an especially eerie scene when O.J shows up to mourn. 

Everything about The People Vs.O.J Simpson An American Crime Story works and the show is among the best things TV has produced in years. This is historic television, capturing an event that millions remember in a brand new, shocking and even suspenseful way. This is a truly MUST SEE show.

Movie Review Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul

Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul (2022) 

Directed by Adamma Ebo 

Written by Adamma Ebo 

Starring Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown 

Release Date September 3rd, 2022 

In theaters now and streaming for Peacock subscribers

Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul is a deeply confused movie. The film, directed by newcomer Adamma Ebo, stars Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown as Trinitie and Lee Curtis Childs, the disgraced leaders of a massive mega-church somewhere in the American south. At first, Honk For Jesus Save Your Soul takes on the feel of a Christopher Guest movie about complete un-self aware characters revealing their absurd self-delusions to our gleeful schadenfreude. Then, from time to time, the movie grows deathly serious and as an audience member you are left scratching your head about how the movie intends for you to feel about what you’re watching. 

Context clues slowly reveal that Lee Curtis, behind his bluster and expensive suits, is a closeted gay man. The purported scandal that has seemingly decimated his church occurred when Lee Curtiis may or may not have been getting sexually involved with young male members of the church youth. Portions of Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul show the conniving married couple trying to use their vast wealth to make the scandal go away. Meanwhile, the couple is using the documentary being made about their downfall as a marketing tool to promote the big comeback of their church, much to the chagrin of the unseen documentary filmmaker who claims to only want to tell the truth.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Marshall

Marshall (2017) 

Directed by Reginald Hudlin 

Written by Michael Koskoff, Jacob Koskoff 

Starring Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell

Release Date October 13th, 2017 

Marshall stars rising superstar Chadwick Boseman in the role of legendary Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Set years before Marshall rose to be one of the most respected judges in the country, at a time when black people were still fighting for civil rights, Marshall is a terrific introduction to the man. Boseman, future star of Marvel’s Black Panther, demonstrates the supreme intelligence and charisma that Marshall no doubt possessed as he came up through the ranks of the NAACP to become a leader.

Marshall is set in 1940 when Thurgood Marshall was just getting started with the NAACP. In Bridgeport, Connecticut a black man named Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) stands accused of raping the wife of his employer, a woman named Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson). The story being told is that Spell raped Strubing twice before forcing her into a vehicle and driving her to a bridge where he threw her over the side. Strubing survived and managed to swim to shore and flag down a passing vehicle to take her to the police.

Marshall arrives in Bridgeport with plans of representing Spell but first he needs a lawyer to sponsor him with the Connecticut bar. Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) had no intention of being that lawyer, but when his brother volunteers him to help, Friedman finds himself thrust into the limelight. Things get further complicated for Friedman when a racist judge, James Cromwell, decides not to allow Marshall to be Spell’s lawyer and instead assigns the case to Friedman, who’d never tried a criminal case before.

With the odds stacked against them, Marshall and Friedman must become a team and find some way to defend their client against a system eager to wrap up the case and move on. As you can imagine, the fate of black man in court in 1940 accused of raping a white woman probably seemed like a lost cause, even in the supposedly progressive Northern states. A racist judge and prosecutor, who have a personal connection to one another that should disqualify them, only stack the odds further against our heroes.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal

Movie Review American Fiction

American Fiction (2023) 

Directed by Cord Jefferson 

Written by Cord Jefferson 

Starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown 

Release Date December 15th, 2023 

Published December 23rd, 2023

American Fiction is the sharpest American comedy of 2023. This brilliant deconstruction of writers, writing, society, and popular culture from Cord Jefferson fearlessly points an accusing finger at the audience while not letting its main character off the hook either. Featuring one of our finest actors, Jeffrey Wright, at his absolute best, American Fiction takes elements from classic literature and mixes them with a touch of the angsty self-analogizing of the formerly great Woody Allen, and crafts a near perfect comedy. 

Monk, played by Jeffrey Wright, is a dyspeptic college professor and long struggling author. Despite having published several books, he cannot escape the specter of being a 'black author' and he's desperately frustrated. After suffering a loss in his family and the decline of his mother's health, Monk gets drunk and writes the kind of novel that he despises. It's a novel filled with stock characters from popular culture centered on the supposed 'black' experience. 

It's written in broken English and Monk's fictional author, Stagg R. Lee, is supposed fugitive from the law. He hopes to use the book to shame those that claim this kind of book is 'important' and 'raw' and explores the 'black' experience. It centers on a gang member with a deadbeat dad and no mother. The book is cobbled together from every 'important' piece of black popular culture aimed at white liberal guilt of the late 20th and 21st century. And in what should come as no surprise, it becomes a massive hit when Monk's agent sends it out to white publishers. 

Faced with the conundrum of having written a book he despises and being offered big money to publish the book he despises; Monk begrudgingly takes the money. With his mother being in declining health and needing round the clock care and his brother, Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), being of little help as he drugs and sexes his way through a nasty divorce, Monk needs the money, even if it is coming at the cost of his self-respect. Where this story is headed, you will need to see for yourself. I can only tell you that it is an exceptionally smart and funny journey to get there. 

Writer-Director Cord Jefferson has written one incredibly nimble and lithe comic script. It bubbles with wit and a contempt for a culture that reduces people to stereotypes. At the same time, the keystone of the movie is revealed in a terrifically awkward and deeply uncomfortable opening scene. Here, Monk in his job as a professor is teaching about the work of Flannery O'Connor. When he writes the title of one of O'Connor's short stories on the board, the title of which I can't comfortably write in this review, the student, a young white woman objects. The title contains the N-word and while the young white woman expresses her discomfort at having to see the word, Monk becomes frustrated and berates her. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media