I love films. Love being in them, working on them, watching them and hearing about them in Q&As. I try to see EVERYTHING.

Summer is usually a challenge because I’m not into blockbusters. But this summer’s smaller films have touched me deeply… and have left me thinking about them long after I’ve left the theatre. Yeah, I still like seeing films on the big screen. I prefer watching movies with big audiences. Laughter’s contagious and more intense in a crowd, like the higher connection you feel when you’re at sitting in an outdoor amphitheater listening to a concert under the stars where the music’s really loud. It takes you to another place…

These three films took me to another place…

CIVIL RIGHTS infused with humor

BlackkKlansman –

Spike Lee couldn’t have picked a more important time to release this sly and chilling black-and-white expose.

With our country divided in such an ugly way right now, I wish everyone could see this film, In this true story, John David Washington (Denzel’s son) plays passionate undercover cop, Ron Stallworth who infiltrates the KKK on the phone, then drags an unlikely partner played by Adam Driver, into a courageous and crazy caper fooling members of the Klan and leader David Duke deliciously. Spike Lee’s film about racism, rebellion and working within the system forces us to face the realities of our past, present and future. Horrific scenes from Charlottesville remind us Ron Stallworth’s fight is far from over. BlackkKlansman is an important film to see. Really important.

Blindspotting —

Daveed Digs and Rafael Casal opening weekend in L.A.

Two life-long friends, convicted felon Collin (Daveed Diggs) and troublemaker Miles (Rafael Casal), try to get through the last three days of Collin’s year-long probation, when Collin witnesses a white cop shoot an innocent black man in cold blood and then ends up with a gun while he can’t stop thinking about what he has seen. Stars and Writers, Diggs and Casal, explore new and old worlds, racial biases, and the push-pull of an intense and complicated friendship set in the gentrification of modern day Oakland.  Loyalty and self-preservation clash in frightening situations with sweet moments. Blindspotting is unlike any film I’ve seen before. Worth seeing.  

COMEDY infused with anxiety

Eighth Grade –

Elsie Fisher and Bo Burnham in a Q&A at the Landmark in West L.A.

OMG! If I hadn’t already gotten through that grade in school, this film would’ve scared the s—t out of me! I’m sure I would’ve begged to be home schooled, ahaha!

Awkward with a capital “A,” Bo Burnham’s sensitive portrait of a shy middle schooler is stressful yet refreshing, lonely yet universal and depressing yet hopeful.  It’s like a real life horror movie that we can laugh at because we’ve been through it and survived. Eighth Grade is really good and btw, Elsie Fisher is the real deal, breaking out in more ways than one, ahaha.