Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Claudia Puig and Amy Nicholson review this weekend’s new movie releases.
FilmWeek: “His House,” “Madre,” “The Donut King” And More
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Claudia Puig and Amy Nicholson review this weekend’s new movie releases, including:
- " His House " on Netflix
- " Madre " on Laemmle's Virtual Cinema & VOD (Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes & Vudu)
-
The Donut King
" showing at the Regency Theaters in Santa Ana,
Laemmle's Virtual Cinema
& VOD (Google Play)
- For more on the film and Ted Ngoy's life story from LAist food editor Elina Shatkin, click here
- " Us Kids " on Alamo Drafthouse on Demand
- " Come Play " showing at the Van Buren Drive-in (Riverside) & select theaters in Orange County (check local listings)
- " Kaali Khuhi " on Netflix
- " The True Adventures of Wolf Boy " on VOD (FandangoNOW)
- " Radium Girls " on Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema & VOD (Google Play)
- " Spell " showing at the Mission Tiki Drive-in (Montclair) & VOD (Google Play, FandangoNOW, iTunes & Vudu)
Our FilmWeek critics have been curating personal lists of their favorite TV shows and movies to binge-watch during self-quarantine. You can see recommendations from each of the critics and where you can watch them here .
Guests:
Amy Nicholson , film critic for KPCC, film writer for The New York Times and host of the podcasts ‘ Unspooled ’ and the podcast miniseries “ Zoom ”; she tweets
Claudia Puig , film critic for KPCC and president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) and senior programmer for the AFI Film Festival; she tweets
As Black Horror Enters Its Golden Age, Tracing The Genre’s History And How Contemporaries Are Pushing Its Boundaries
If the releases of Jordan Peele's critically acclaimed "Us," Justin Simien's "Bad Hair" or HBO's "Lovecraft Country" tell you anything about present-day Black horror, it’s that the genre has entered its golden age.
Throughout the lengthy history of horror cinema, Black people often had little representation in the genre’s films, both on and off-screen. Black actors mainly took on roles as background characters in the early to mid 20th century. While Black actors' roles in 1980s and 1990s horror films evolved to have more substance, they often played sidekicks, a casting decision informing the "Black characters die first in a preyed upon group" cliché.
But Jordan Peele's critical acclaim of his 2017 film "Get Out" and 2019 film "Us" shows the viability of Black horror cinema in engaging broad audiences. Peele's success is an example of a new wave of horror storytelling that shows films created by Black people and starring Black people as protagonists.
Today on FilmWeek, we talk with horror expert Robin R. Means Coleman and film critic Tim Cogshell about the history of Black horror and the circumstances that led the genre to enter its current renaissance.
Guests:
Robin R. Means Coleman , vice president and associate provost for diversity and professor of communication at Texas A&M University; she is the author of the book “ Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present ” (Routledge, 2011), which was the basis for the 2019 documentary “ Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror ”; she tweets
Tim Cogshell , film critic for KPCC, Alt-Film Guide and CineGods.com ; he tweets