Shameless Self Expression

In the 70s, African-American cop Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is tasked with first infiltrating a Black Power rally, and later a Colorado chapter of the KKK. In order to pull off the ruse, Stallworth uses fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to be the physical stand-in whilst Stallworth chats to KKK members and even their leader David Duke (Topher Grace, entirely out of his element) over the phone. The kicker being that Zimmerman is actually Jewish. Laura Harrier plays a black student activist Ron falls for, Robert John Burke is Ron’s boss, with Michael Buscemi another colleague. Nicholas Turturro turns up briefly as a KKK man. I really do try with Spike Lee ( “Do the Right Thing” ), but aside from his masterpiece “Malcolm X” and the straightforward caper “Inside Man” aside, we’re completely worlds apart in regards to his films. This 2018 true-to-life flick from the director and his co-writers David Rabinowitz (who comes from a short background), Charlie ...

Mylene Farmer inherits her late aunt’s rural estate and takes her two daughters there. The horrors they experience change their lives forever. It’s a nightmare they may never quite shake. One of those films that you end up begrudgingly awarding a positive score, even though it does things that piss you off and prevent it from being the even better film it could’ve been. This 2018 horror pic from writer-director Pascal Laugier suffers from annoying and unnecessary Lovecraft name-dropping and a subpar performance by Mylene Farmer, apparently better known as a singer than actress. Laugier is the filmmaker behind the well-regarded but seriously unrelenting “Martyrs” . This one’s not nearly as gruelling, which is merely a statement, not a criticism/praise. It’s still got a lot more going for it than I expected going in (having not recognised Laugier’s name), and I’m not just talking about the unexpected twist midway through. It sure is a doozy though, I didn’t pick it at all and i...