Share Is An Appropriately Hard Watch From Writer/Director Pippa Bianco

CW: Discussions of sexual assault follow

Native Son Updates A Classic Novel To The Modern Era With Solid Results

Native Son is an adaptation of a 1940 novel by Richard Wright, and like many seminal works of literature from the mid-20th century, Native Son has had its fair share of adaptations into other mediums of artistic expression. A stage play version of the story was performed only a year after the book was published while two feature films adaptations have been released in this past. This newest cinematic incarnation (which was an A24-financed production released on HBO) of Native Son arrives from screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks and director Rashid Johnson and brings the story from its original 1930's backdrop to the modern era of 2019.

O.G. Doesn't Shy Away From Confronting Weighty Material And Is All The Better For It

Director Madeleine Sackler has not shied away from tackling heady material in her works as a documentary director and that commitment to confronting pressing issues in modern society continues with O.G., her first foray into conventional narrative filmmaking. This time around, the weighty issue she's exploring revolves around the personal experiences of a man serving the last few weeks of a prolonged prison sentence for killing another human being. Certainly, this is not meant to be fluffy feel-good entertainment that would be found in an Illumination movie, but in its best moments, O.G. (which is now streaming on the HBO GO app) explores challenging material in a truly thought-provoking manner.

The Tale Provides A Haunting Glimpse Into Coping With Repressed Memories of Abuse

Content Warning: Discussions of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Everyone puts a piece of themselves into the art they create, frequently in a subconscious manner. Your likes and dislikes in all sorts of areas of your life find a way to be subtly imprinted on the art you create, though many artists go even further this and create works that intentionally reflect their own lives and experiences. Jennifer Fox has gone this particular route in directing the motion picture The Tale, which chronicles her process of coming to terms with the fact that she was sexually abused as a child. Her cinematic depiction of this event is so tied into reality that the main character isn't given a pseudonym, lead actor Laura Dern simply plays Jennifer Fox herself (though there text at the start of the end credits that does clarify that certain names and locations have been changed for this motion picture).

The Exciting Potential In A New Interpretation of Fahrenheit 451 Is Never Fully Realized

Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 has received a pop culture resurgence in recent years thanks to its relevance to modern-day political issue, making it an inevitability that someone would try and take another swing at giving the novel a feature film adaptation (Francois Truffaut was the last person to tackle this material in a 1966 motion picture). Taking on this material now is Ramin Bahrani, director of one of 2015's most underappreciated titles 99 Homes, who writes and directs the film which stars Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. Now that's a dynamite assemblage of creative artists! What a shame, then, that this new take on Fahrenheit 451 is more middling than captivating.

The Richly Written First Season of Barry Is Incredible

SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST SEASON OF BARRY FOLLOW 

Back in 2014, Bill Hader got to prove his dramatic acting chops in the high-quality film The Skeleton Twins. An excellent dramedy also starring Kristen Wiig, Hader delivered a terrific performance that redefined what I thought he was capable of as an actor. Nearly four years later, Hader's got another sublime dramatic performance to reinforce his versatility as a performer, and even better, it's a completely different character than the one he portrayed in The Skeleton Twins. The character is Barry, the star of the HBO comedy Barry. Who is Barry? Well, he's a hitman, a former Marine and...that's about it. Barry doesn't have anything to his life beyond just being a guy who kills people, his Uncle Fuches (Stephen Root) makes sure of that.

The Documentary Spielberg Looks At An Iconic Career In An Engaging Manner

This morning, the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards were announced and among the nine films nominated for Best Picture was The Post, Steven Spielberg's newest directorial effort. With The Post securing a Best Picture nod, this meant, as pointed out by Mark Harris on Twitter, that Spielberg has now had eleven of his movies nominated for Best Picture, the second highest amount of movies a single director has ever had nominated in Best Picture (William Wyler has the most with 13 of his features scoring Best Picture nominations). That's an astonishing accomplishment and it's far from the only place where Spielberg's career has been marked with great success as anyone who's been to a movie theater in the last four decades can attest.

True Detective Season One Review

Early on in the first season of True Detective, Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) tells his homicide detective partner Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) to be way of applying too much of a story to a crime scene early on in the investigation since you could begin to warp the crime scene to fit your narrative. Turns out, though, Rust's early intuition was a solid indicator for what kind of narrative was behind a vile murder that left a naked women tied up with antlers surrounded by various tiny wooden objects said to ward off the devil. Of course, it takes Rust a while to figure out that he's onto something, with the narrative that unfolds from the investigation he and Martin undergo managing to impact both men's lives in profound ways.

Film On The Television (10/12/2015): Scooby-Doo on HBO Family

In that bygone era of 2002, the novelty of beloved cartoon characters existing in our world via a mixture of live-action and CGI was as pure as America's love for Freddie Prinze Jr. Thus, it comes as no shock that Scooby-Doo, which brought that Great Dane to the "real world", proved to be a huge box office success. Co-starring Buffy The Vampie Slayer, Laura Barton and Mr. Bean, the movie proved to be a dream come true for Warner Bros. stockholders and a nightmare-inducer for children everywhere. 

The Time Has Arrived To Watch The Trailer For True Detective's Second Season

True Detective was one of the biggest TV shows of last year, and while I haven't watched it yet (I'll catch up on it on HBO Go before it's next season debuts, I promise), I'm still excited for the second season of the program, if only based on the cast. Rachel McAdams in anything gets me interested, but toss in dramatic Vince Vaughn and Taylor Kitsch and I'm totally in. The first trailer for this new season has just arrived, and you can watch it below.

John Oliver Is Coming Back For Two More Seasons!

In a short period of time, John Oliver has quickly become one of the most notable personalities on television, with his HBO program Last Week Tonight With John Oliver using the venue of late night television to address serious problems the world if facing in a humorous, but effective manner. John's an incredible dude, and I'm so happy to hear he's gotten not just a season renewal, but a renewal for two more seasons!

Editorial: The Evolution Of Television Has Only Begun

Yesterday, the inevitable announcement arrived; HBO Go would be released as its own separate service. No other details were released, but presumably a monthly payment for HBO Go would get you all kinds of big movies and TV shows like Game of Thrones or Girls on your mobile devices. Many had been awaiting this day for ages, but it still managed to be the gauntlet being thrown down in terms of the future of television. The dominance of Netflix now full recognized, corporations are now realizing that way of consuming entertainment is no fad. The only way they can survive is to adapt.

Editorial: Netflix is Making Films With Adam Sandler, But It Is Far From The End Of Cinema

It's sorta fun to see movie theater owners get all scared whenever a new way of experiencing cinema comes around. Back in late 2011, whenever Universal Pictures planned to put the long-forgotten comedy Tower Heist on Video-On-Demand services a few weeks after its release in select cities, theater owners refused to show the movie until the studio cancelled the plan. Universal wound up relenting, but a new disagreement between movie theaters and a studio seems less likely to end in a amicable manner.