Movie Reviews – Danii Gold

American Skin: Harsh Reality of Being Black in America

January 18, 2021September 10, 2022Danii Gold

Nate Parker did it again. He wrote and directed yet another great film–American Skin. Like Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker premiered American Skin at a film festival in 2019 and it was released over the weekend on Apple TV.

This film portrayed the story of Lincoln Jefferson, a black man and father who was wrongly pulled over by the police with his son. The officer asked for his license, insurance and registration; asked if he lived in the neighborhood where he was coming from. The officer told Linc that his insurance was expired and proceeded to ask him if he was on parole or had any warrants–not relevant to him being pulled over but that’ll be addressed later. The officer asked him to get out the car and he complied. As he was doing so, his son Kajani was getting his phone out to start recording. The second officer felt threatened and told him to put his phone away and get out the car.. Kajani did get out the car but did not put his phone away. He proceeded to get out of the officer’s way and he was shot and killed in front of his father, Linc.

A little background information on Kajani, he was a non-troubled teenager. He started attending a better school due to his father getting them a pass due to him getting a job at the school. Kajani learns that you can resist arrest from police officer but what Linc had to teach him is that it only applied to people who aren’t black. Kajani didn’t understand but he heard his father .

A year later, a few college students hear about this story and decided to reach out to Linc to do a documentary. While they are following Linc and his family around, a verdict is finally reached and the officer is found not guilty and is able to return to work. Linc being a hurt father and a black man wants his pain to be felt amongst others, so he kidnaps the police captain of the department and rallies up some close family and friends to hold the police department hostage with workers and officers inside, including the one who killed his son.

Linc decided to hold a trial of his own by selecting the jury as inmates at the jail, which is a jury that doesn’t consist of “peers” like a normal trial would have, along with other non-officer hostages. The hostage officers watched the process and gave their input of what goes on situations like this, race and black people in general. The trial starts with officer Randall recalling the night of the murder. He states that he and his partner saw Linc’s car speeding down the street and that’s what prompted them to pull him and son over. Officer Randall says he didn’t clock them but he used to judgement to pull them over. While Linc was asked to get out the car, Kajani started recording the incident on his phone; Randall states that since Kajani didn’t stop recording, he pulled him out of the car and even was prompted to kill him.

The “trial” got intense when the officers started to talk freely about “getting the bad guys” and the statistics of black on black crimes being more crucial then black people getting killed by the police, which IS NOT relevant to the case. A police officer killed an unarmed teenager. PERIOD. Randall claims that if the insurance was not expired, then he would have let them go, but when Linc wanted to get an the updated insurance card from the glove compartment, Randall and his partner wouldn’t let him. After much antagonizing, Randall says he profiled Linc and Kajani because they were in a nice area with a beat up car. This is a normal act for officers–profiling.

The jury deliberated and found Officer Randall guilty of murder. Instead of being sentenced, Linc decided that the consequences would be shooting him. The room was in a frenzy as Linc aimed the gun at Randall, and when he pulled the trigger, no shot was let out. It was an experiment to show Randall what his life has been like since the killing of his son, waiting on a jury to determine Randall’s faith and just the overall anxiety of it. Luckily, all of this was still captured on film by the college students. Once it was done, Linc decided to let everyone go and even walk out with Randall.

While walking out, Randall announced that Linc was unarmed and to not shoot but the SWAT team decided to shoot him anyway. Partial moral of the story: being unarmed will still get you killed. Another unfortunate reality is the reports of situations like this. The news claimed that Linc had PTSD, dealing with Islamic extremists, and that he possibly committed suicide—then went on to a sports segment to talk about a black basketball player. There was no sensibility at all and it is the harsh reality of America, being American and having black American Skin.

What are your thought on the film??

“The Photograph”: Generational Behavior

March 2, 2020March 16, 2020Danii Gold

Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield starred in the romantic comedy The Photograph and it was a beautiful love story, but with a deeper meaning.

Mae, played by Issa Rae, lost her mother at the start of the movie. She didn’t know much about her mom’s life until she left her a letter explaining things. Mae’s mother Christina was invested in her work and less into love and emotion. She didn’t show much emotion around Mae and in her defense….it was because her mother didn’t show her much love.

When Christina, played by Chante Adams, was dating Mae’s father Issac, played by Y’lan Noel, her mother discouraged her from dating him because he was content where he was in life and wasn’t making much money. Her mother gave her the impression that she needed to be with someone who could take care of her…so she could move out the house. Christina’s mother told her she was getting too old to be living with her. That is what pushed her to move out the house, better yet the state and pursue her photography career in New York. Christina’s mother lacked emotion with her and felt that being taken care was more important than love.

Image result for the photograph — thephotographmovie.com

Once Christina had Mae, of course she’s going to teach her daughter what was mimicked to her, which is how to NOT properly love someone and somewhat be scared of commitment. Since Mae wasn’t shown much love as a kid, the feeling of commitment scared her. Mae said she broke up with a guy because he proposed to her. She is/was more content with living in the moment and not being married. She had a change of heart eventually once she got to know Michael, played by LaKeith Stanfield. He and Mae connected when was doing a story on a man who worked in the oil industry during the oil spill and he came across pictures shot by Mae’s mother and even a picture of her. The guy used to date Mae’s mother Christina. Michael was intrigued by Christina’s photos that he decided to find more of her images, and when he did, that’s how he met Mae.

Image result for the photograph movie christina — thewrap.com

When Christina passed away, she left Mae a long letter and another to give to her father. Mae learned so much about her mother in a letter, than she learned about her her whole life. In the letter, she found out who her real father was and their love story. The man whom she thought was her father, wasn’t and the man who is her father was the man whom Michael did a story on, Isaac– hence, the reason why he had a picture of Christina in his home. Unfortunately, Isaac didn’t know that Mae was his daughter but they started to form a relationship towards the end of the movie. Christina had left her hometown in Louisiana to pursue a career in photography in New York. She left without telling Isaac and months later when she returned for her mother’s funeral, Issac had married someone else (HOW QUICK IS THAT!)

Where the generational behavior comes into play is the fact that Christina’s mother didn’t really seem affectionate with Mae and showed her tough love. Don’t get me wrong, tough love is fine but when it’s more tough love than affectionate love, that can have a long term affect on you and how you raise your children. Christina lacked some form of emotion when it came to her relationship with Mae, due to the way her mother was with her. Mae recalled a time when she was going away to school and her mom was too busy to take her to the airport. Mae’s step father told her that when he came home from dropping her off at the airport, Mae was crying in a corner because she was sad to see Mae go but she had a hard time showing emotion and was not good at goodbyes. Her mother was also a workaholic and expressed in her letter to Mae, “I wish I was as good at love than I am about working;” meaning, her mother was more into her work than she was with being present and transparent in her relationships with people such as Mae and even Isaac.

Image result for the photograph movie christina and mae — where-i-look.com

Luckily Mae learned from her mother’s mishaps in relationships and decided to break the generational disconnect of loving someone and showing it with Michael. This movie is a prime example of “be who you want your children to be.” Tell them to learn from you mistakes and show them how. Leaving your child lost and left with question is not the way to go. Don’t hold back, show them love, be transparent with them.

What are your thoughts on the movie?

Comment below and let me know.

Joker Movie Review: Villain or Misunderstood?

October 9, 2019January 6, 2020Danii Gold

The Joker movie came to theaters last week and I decided to go check it out. Seeing the movie from beginning to end, it made me feel sorry for the Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix. He was picked on, set up, lied to and even abused. How could you not feel sorry for the man.

For starters, in the beginning of the movie Joker, he was beat up on the job. (Trigger #1). Then he returns to work and his boss doesn’t believe him (Trigger #2). His co-worker gives him a gun at work, which will later be an issue. He sees a therapist, but she doesn’t really take in what he’s telling her (Trigger #3). Joker is beat up YET AGAIN, just for laughing hysterically at two guys. [Disclaimer: Joker has a laughing condition]. In order to defend himself, Joker kills the two guys [Trigger #4]. His coworker lies on him about giving him the gun (Trigger #5). Joker wants to be a comedian, so he does stand-up and no one laughs. He catches the eye of a popular TV show host Murray Franklin, played by Robert De Niro, and is invited on the show.

In the midst of all this, Joker finds a letter that has him thinking that a well-known politician is his father. Once he finds out that the man is not his father, he also finds out that he’s adopted and his mother has been lying to him his whole life and even tried to harm him as a baby (Trigger #6). By the time he finds all this out, his mother is in the hospital recovering from a stroke. Joker goes to the extreme and kills his own mother.

Fast forward to Joker making an appearance on the Murray Franklin show. He admits to killing the two men and even calling out Murray for making fun of his stand-up act and that being the reason that he was invited on the show. Triggered once again, Joker kills Murray and causes an even bigger riot in the city. He was looked at as a hero for murdering the two men which was the original start of the city riots.

The point in all this is, you never know what people are going through and if someone seems like they are already suffering from a mental illness, it’s probably best not to trigger them. Joker had countless incidents, that made him want to snap and after so long…he did. It’s crazy how the villain in these movies are more sympathized with than the actual heroes. For example, Killmonger in Black Panther was looked at as an antagonizer more than an actual villain. He lost his father at a young age by his own uncle and had to grow up a struggle life vs his family who grew up royalty and all he wanted was his fair chance at king.

Joker was a man who suffered from mental health illnesses, being made fun of, lied on, talked down on and more. After so long, he justified his behavior. Should he had killed all those people? Absolutely not. Did he seeker proper health? Yes, he seen a therapist but eventually the office was closed down, so the help didn’t last long but it could’ve helped him long term. He felt ignored and even walked over; it’s a sad case. The moral of the story is, listen to people’s cry for help; everyone has triggers; and be kind to people, even the “crazy ones.”

What are your thoughts on the movie?

Movie “Hustlers” Teaches Consistency, Motivation and New Strategies While Running A Business

October 3, 2019October 9, 2019Danii Gold

The movie Hustlers, which is based on a true story, is more than women robbing men blind. It’s about being about your money and having motivation behind your purpose. One of the main characters Destiny, played by Constance Wu, needed money to help her grandmother so she was dancing at the strip club. She wasn’t the best so she got help from Ramona, played by Jennifer Lopez. Ramona gets her hip on the kind of guys to scout and from there, she starts making good money.

Image result for hustlers movie — cosmopolitan.com

Sidebar: The ladies went after guys who worked on Wall St since they had money and there was a wide range of them.

With the mindset of needing more money, Destiny was motivated to learn new business tips in order to support her family. In the midst of meeting new guys, Destiny meets a guy, who becomes her boyfriend; they have a daughter together. During that time, she stops dancing to raise her daughter. After two years, her boyfriend decides to leave. At this point, she has two people to take care of so she decided to go back to dancing.

Once Destiny returns, the club is different and she has to try harder to make her money. She reunites with Ramona and to up their game, they think of a strategic way to make more money. They come up with the idea to meet guys at bars, slip some “happy powder” into their drinks, lure them into the strip club, take their credit card, and charge it at the bar and have the bartender eventually cash them out or they’ll take the card to the ATM.

YES, all the scamming they did sounds CRAZY; they were dedicated to making money because they had families to feed. Destiny and Ramona looked at this scam as a business and when operating a business, you think of new way to better your business, new strategies. The ladies were consistent with their strategies and did whatever it takes to get to the top. Ramona didn’t care about scamming the Wall St guys because they screwed over America and crashed the stock market, so in her eyes, why should they sympathize with them.

Of course they were caught; Destiny took a plea deal and Ramona had to serve little time but more than anything, they did what it took to have a successful business. They were motivated by making money, which made them consistent in finding the right men to get money from, which made them find better strategies to get money from them. As crazy as it sounds, the more scheming they did, the more money they made. Was it worth it in the end? Yes, because they grew a great business mindset. Men can over sexualize and even skeet women but when women get their extra moneys worth out of men, then we are forced to go overboard at times. Was it right what they did? No, but as Ramona said ..

“This country is a strip club. You got people throwing the money and people doing the dance”

And that tailors more to life and politics than just dancing.

What are your thoughts on the movie/real life depiction?

[Spoiler] The Lion King Movie Review

July 19, 2019September 19, 2019Danii Gold

After 25 years, Disney released the live action version of my childhood favorite movie, The Lion King. This cartoon movie shows real life lessons, such as taking the responsibilities of your father and in translation, being the man of the house; but in Lion King terms, being the king of Pride Rock. The movie also portrays family jealous and disloyalty. It shows falling in love with your childhood friend (but really Nala’s his sister, but that’s a story for another time). So many life lessons in an animal talking cartoon movie can be accounted for in real life. The original movie grossed over $700 million worldwide, it was translated in 44 languages and made $9 billion on Broadway. Now let’s get to the movie review.

The Cast

As we all know, Beyonce plays older Nala and Donald Glover plays older Simba. I was hoping that Beyonce wouldn’t over sing her parts and speak her parts wrong, (because let’s be realistic…she can’t act that well) BUT……….. she didn’t disappoint. I feel like James Earl Jones (Mufasa), could’ve been more passionate. I love how Simba (JD McCrary) improvised his lines such as “I got this” to make the film seem more modern. Nala (Shahidi Wright Joseph) played her part well and has a beautiful voice just like JD. Zazu (John Oliver) could’ve been more comedic to me. Rafiki (John Kani) was more of a serious wise character instead of the energetic, silly, semi-crazy wise character in the original. Scar sounded less intimidating but looked just as scary in the real life depiction.

Image result for the lion king 2019 — empireonline.com

Image result for the lion king 2019 cgi — deserectnews.com

Donald Glover played older Simba well, so well that he almost didn’t sound like himself during the fight scene. The hyenas weren’t comedic like they were in the original film. I expected Keegan Michael Key to be more funny buuuuuuuuuuut he wasn’t. I will say that Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) held the standard for their roles and were indeed funny.

The-Lion-King-2019-Box-Office-Predictions movieweb

What I Didn’t Like

Of course the film was good but it wasn’t GREAT! I didn’t like how some of the characters weren’t as passionate in the original. One of the factors of that is…the characters don’t have facial expressions. Since this is a real-life depiction of The Lion King, it kind of reminded me of a show on Animal Planet. There is little mouth movement which is understandable for the film but it’s still weird.

What I did like

The music! The new versions of “Hakuna Matata”, “Can You Feel The Love Tonight”, “Circle of Life” and “Remember” are EVERYTHING. The best characters throughout the movie are of course Simba, Timon and Pumbaa. I like how it is 70% the same as the original. I love how authentic everything looked. I respect the effort and time it took to create such a realistic film.

The Power of CGI!

The fact that the scenery, animals and even the skyline looked like I could physically be there, was amazing!! John Favreau did a damn good job on that. I watched Can You Feel The Love Tonight Special With Robin Roberts earlier in the week and John, and the cast, talked about how they used virtual reality gear to depict the actual scenery.

I would go see the movie again, just in case there were things I didn’t catch the first time. I would rate this movie a 7.5. It is a classic film but it was as realistic as we wanted it to be.

What are your thoughts?

Comment them below and let me know!

Toy Story 4 Review

June 24, 2019July 26, 2019Danii Gold

If you’re a fan of the previous Toy Storys, Tom Hank, Tim Allen and childhood humor, then you’ll love this movie. Originally, I thought the movie was going to be trash because it was about a spork BUT I thought wrong.

Spoiler/Synopis:

The movie is about Woody’s new kid, Bonnie. She makes a spork in class on her first day of kindergarten and deems it as her favorite “toy.” Forky is his name and he doesn’t understand the concept of being a toy, but instead being trash, since that’s how he was created. In the midst of a road trip, him and Woody get lost from Bonnie and just when they find her, they go into an antique shop, where they find Bo Peep’s lamp. Woody thinks he can find her in there but instead he finds Gabby Gabby, the “villian” of the movie. She wants Woody’s speaker box because hers is old, and if hers is newer and fresh then a little girl would want to take her home. Woody wasn’t originally down with that swapping so he tried to escape from her and he does but Forky gets left behind. While Woody is trying to think of a plan to get back Forky, and keep up with where Bonnie is, he finds Bo Peep. She’s out exploring the world, being an independent woman and importantly not tied to a child. She helps Woody rescue Forky and also opens his eyes to the world and that there’s so much to see outside of a kid’s bedroom. The movie ends with Woody rescuing Forky and making it back to Bonnie in time before she heads home. Woody decides to stay with Bo and leave Buzz, Jessie and and the whole squad.

What The Movie Captured

For starters, Woody isn’t the head huncho in charge anymore. He had to take the back seat on being the sheriff in Bonnie’s room. Another doll is in charge and Woody also isn’t the favorite anymore, which is out of the ordinary. The movie also captured Woody really going out of his way to make Forky feel welcomed as a toy and explaining to him his worth as Bonnie’s favorite new toy.

Sidebar: Each movie has a villain or antagonizer, for example; Sid was crazy creeper kid in the original Toy Story, Stinky Pete was the sneaky one in Toy Story 2, Lotso in Toy 3 and now Gabby Gabby in this movie.

I like how the writers captured Bo being independent and not following behind Woody. Her character hit a full 360 from being quiet nurturing Bo, to being exploring-the-world-not-attached-to-any-child Bo Peep.

Image result for toy story 4 — indiewire.com

The comedy that the movie brought was awesome! Jordan Peele and Keegan Key playing Bunny and Ducky and doing their typical chemistry comedy. Keanu Reeves playing Duke Caboom. Forky just being new to life and not having a clue was adorably funny and Buzz Lightyear getting in touch with his inner thoughts but really it’s the programmed catch phrases on his body.

Image result for toy story 4 ducky and bunny — hollywoodreporter.con

What I would’ve liked, especially with this being the so-called last movie, is for Woody to find Andy. Andy could have a family now, Woody could make an appearance in his life, creep him out a bit by talking, show him some love, then go back to exploring the world with Bo.

Overall, I loved the movies, even thought I didn’t think I would and it brought out my inner childhood.

Have you seen the movie? If so, how did you like it?

Danii Gold out!

Aladdin Review

May 29, 2019July 20, 2019Danii Gold

If you’re a 90’s baby like myself, then you truly loved and enjoyed Disney movies, one in particular Aladdin. During that time, Princess Jasmine was the closest thing to a Disney brown skin princess besides Pocahontas, which was nice to see, me being a woman of color. This movie would make you feel like a kid again.

The intro starts off pretty similar to the original movie, except Disney added the genie, played by Will Smith, telling the story of Aladdin in the beginning. Genie also was telling the story to his two children which will be a significance at the end of the film. Of course the real life action movie couldn’t be an exact replicate of the original but that’s what made it so great! The fact that the story line was still in tact plus Disney showcased the Arabian culture with their clothing and dancing style which was good because it’s nice to see the lifestyle of other cultures.

Image result for aladdin 2019 culture — fastcompany.com

Image result for aladdin 2019 dance — youtube.com

Disney addressed women’s right in a sense. When Jafar wanted to take over and be the Sultan, Jasmine brought up the fact that she could be the Sultan. Of course the idea was shot down but towards the end of the film she got the respect she deserved as the female Sultan.

Will Smith is dope! Of course that is obvious but I had to say it. He didn’t try to be like Robin but instead, he acted like his normal goofy self. Will is usually a great big ball of in energy, especially when his character as Fresh Prince. He played a sentimental role and honestly, the film wouldn’t have been comedic or as relevant without him.

The actor and actress who played Aladdin and Jasmine perfected A Whole New World. Them singing the song brought back so many childhood memories. Besides that song, all the other songs were brought to life and were sang to perfection. Will Smith even threw his own twang and beat boxing to the songs.

Image result for aladdin 2019 whole new world — etcanada.com

Of course the creation of the movie wouldn’t be visually appeasing without CGI (computer-generated imagery), from the genie’s appearance, to Abu’s appearance, to EVERYTHING else in between. God bless CGI because it truly made the cartoon film come to life.

As a whole, the film was dope! I do wish that the characters were more brown skin but they weren’t too far off. The music was on point and so was the culture depiction. I tried not to give too many spoilers so others can still go see the movie and still read this beforehand.

I encourage everyone to go see the movie, especially if you were a 90’s baby. I give them movie 5 stars!

Danii Gold out!