Art Comes To Dangerous Life In Velvet Buzzsaw

The main characters of Velvet Buzzsaw are just not good people. With the exception of supporting players Damrish (Daveed Diggs) and Coco (Natalie Dyer), most of the people we meet here are utterly rotten, acting selfishly for personal gain in their quest to get ahead in the Los Angeles art scene. Most prominent among these characters are art critic Mort Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Josephina (Zawe Ashton), the latter of whom gets her big break after breaking into a deceased painter's apartments and stealing some paintings that the painter wished to have destroyed. Josephina decides to go in a different direction and proceeds to champion them as an exhibit that immediately becomes massively successful.

Blindspotting Is A Beautifully-Realized And Richly-Detailed Achievement

Collin Hoskins (Daveed Diggs) is, like any human being, complex and full of layers, but to society at large, he's a felon first and foremost, he's always having to work overtime to prove his humanity to people that don't even know him. As he muddles through the last three days of his probation, during which he must adhere to strict rules including an 11:00 PM curfew he struggles with managing to re-establish his own identity beyond just being a guy who spent time in jail. This becomes especially challenging since the story of the fight that led to his felony charge in the first place has become something of a local legend and being a black man in Oakland, California means local police officers tend to think of you as only a criminal.

No Wonder Audiences Have Connected With Wonder, It's A Real Heartfelt Treat

Live-action family movies that don't star CGI chipmunks or aren't remakes of classic animated Disney fare have become a rarity in theatrically released American cinema to the point that Pure Flix (the studio behind God's Not Dead and other pieces of cinema of similar top-caliber quality) is the only studio in America these days regularly producing such films. That makes Wonder a rarity for sure as well as a reminder of how good these movies can be when produced right. Live-action family movies don't just have to be vehicles for CGI versions of 1960's cartoon characters to make pop culture references, they can instead be actually entertaining movies with heart.

Hamilton Rules The Tony Nominations Roost With 16 Nods

At this point, chances are you've heard of a little Broadway musical entitled Hamilton. Penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show has become nothing short of a pop culture phenomenon, its own album selling units to be given the "Gold" designation by the Recording Industry Association of America. And let's not forget about how hard it is to get tickets to this show, with every performance sold out seemingly until the end of time itself. And did I mention it's also nabbed, in addition to universal critical acclaim, it's also taken home a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album and a Pulitzer Prize For Drama. Plus, it now comprises for 90% of the music I listen to on Spotify.