Review: Will Smith's Oscar hopeful "Emancipation"

please welcome new contributor Ankit Jhunjhunwala...

Will Smith stars in "Emancipation"

by Ankit Jhunjhunwala

It is arguable that all movies benefit from a theatrical experience - though some do more than others. The benefits are not merely technical (superior audio & video quality) but also behavioral. A paying public in a cinema is a captive audience and usually sticks with a film to the bitter end. At home, on streaming platforms, abandonment is easy and, by all accounts, frequent. This latter practice is likely to hurt Emancipation, which concludes with a sensational Civil War action set piece that is sure to rouse audiences. Only they have to get through 90 minutes of airless tedium to get to it.

Emancipation is a project undoubtedly born out of noble intentions. The infamous Whipped Peter photograph, showing the horrifically lacerated back of a Black man, remains a powerful contemporaneous record of the unimaginable cruelty suffered by Black Americans at the hands of white slave owners...

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Review: "Infinite" on Paramount+

By Abe Friedtanzer

There are those who believe in reincarnation, the idea that, when people die, they return eventually in another life. If, somehow, those who had lived before were able to recall what they had been through, they might be able to take lessons from it and create a better world. Yet it’s just as likely that, given the opportunity to dwell on centuries or millennia of knowledge about how society functions, many would attempt to exploit or destroy it for their own aims. That’s the setup of Infinite, a film with a bold concept that relies very little on logic to play out its all-too-familiar story.

To explain the premise of this film shouldn’t be all that difficult, but I’m not sure I can offer a coherent breakdown of how it’s all supposed to work. Basically, people called Infinites are able to recall their past lives, but they have to be reminded of everything they’ve experienced before...

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Review: "The Magnificent Seven"

by Chris Feil

Drawing on the original iterations of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and the 1960 American remake by John Sturges, Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven arrives as another attempt to reanimate the American western.

Denzel Washington leads this bursting cast as Chisolm, corralling a ragtag mini-militia to help protect a small town from a violent and overbearing tycoon (Peter Sarsgaard). There are familiar faces (Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Vincent D'Onofrio) and emerging talents (Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier) rounding out the Magnificent bunch with more shared attention to each player than you might be anticipating...

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Podcast: Ant-Man and Southpaw

We're spoiling you with two podcasts this week. Yesterday we talked 1995 (to tease the Smackdown). Now, conversations about Marvel's Phase Two ender Ant-Man with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas, and Michael Peña, and the new boxing drama Southpaw starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel McAdams.

Contents (43 minutes)
00:01 Marvel's Ant-Man
27:55 Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw
40:00 Coming Attractions: Mistress America & The Finest Hours

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversation!

Southpaw & Ant-Man

10 Questions I had while staring at that pic of Jake Gyllenhaal

Manuel here voicing the various queries I had upon staring at this new pic from Jake Gyllenhaal’s upcoming Antoine Fuqua directed flick, Southpaw.

1. Did the Prince of Persia get on a shredding regimen?
2. Is Jake the new Christian Bale in terms of weight loss/gain yo-yoing?
3. A troubled teenager, a paranoid reporter, a gay cowboy, an easily scared interviewee, a James Baldwin connoissieur, and now a jacked middleweight champion; is there anything Jake can’t do?
4. Is Jake still this ripped? Will he look like this as he makes his Broadway debut?
   Related: do you think the Gyllenhaal siblings made it a point to be on Broadway at the same time?
5. Between Prisoners, Enemy, Nightcrawler and now Southpaw, will we need to come up with a portmanteau for his resurgence? Jakeaissance? Gyllenhawakening?
6. Where are his co-stars Naomie Harris and Rachel McAdams?
7. Related: why does IMDb’s “star meter” (also: what is IMDb’s star meter?) rank McAdams higher than Gyllenhaal in the Southpaw credits?
8. Will Fuqua’s Southpaw follows the likes of The Fighter, The Wrestler, Ali, Million Dollar Baby, Rocky and Raging Bull at the Oscars and nab Jake a nomination? Weinstein is behind the pic so Oscar is bound to factor into the conversation to some extent.
9. Is this Jake’s version of stealth campaigning, showcasing his range after picking up an Indie Spirit nom for Nightcrawler?
10. And of course, I can’t not leave you with this question from Glenn:

Would you rather Jake Gyllenhaal in NIGHTCRAWLER or SOUTHPAW? I'm actually not sure I know my own answer.

— Glenn Dunks (@glenndunks) November 30, 2014

I honestly would stick with Jarhead Jake, but I’m curious where everyone else lies: do you like Gyllenhaal’s latest look? I can’t be the only Gyllenhaalic in the room so, do you have any answers for my questions above?