4 out of 4 stars By Bayard Lewis Published 4/10/17 The lives of three generations of women are explored in 1979, amid a changing social landscape in Southern California. Dorothea (Annette Bening) is raising her son without a father in the picture and also becomes a mother figure to Abbie (Greta Gerwig) a young adult…
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Patriot’s Day 3,5 out of 4 stars By Bayard Lewis Published 4/10/17 The bombing during the 2013 Boston Marathon was an event that shook the city to its core, but also created a collective sense of community around the survivors and first responders who experienced the aftermath. “Patriot’s Day” builds up vignettes of lives that…
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Fences 3 out of 4 stars By Bayard Lewis Published 3/26/17 Pittsburgh in the 1950s becomes a potent secondary character in Denzel Washington’s latest acting and directing venture in “Fences”. Playwright August Wilson places his characters within a world where racial tension is palpable and there’s anger about injustice in employment and national sports. Viola…
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Jackie 3 out of 4 stars By Bayard Lewis Published 3/12/17 In the days following JFK’s assassination in 1963, America looked to their surrogate mother for guidance on how to process the shock and grief of losing their leader. “Jackie” tells a different kind of narrative that jumps back and forth in time between Jackie’s…
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Moonlight 4 out of 4 stars By Bayard Lewis Far removed from cozy neighborhoods and suburbs are the the lives of young blacks and minorities whose daily life is one of survival. Young Chiron is bullied at a young age and actor Alex R. Hibbert expresses more than words in the gaze of a boy…
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Manchester By the Sea 4 out of 4 stars By Bayard Lewis With Oscar season culminating this month, one of the films up for 6 Academy Awards was sadly missed in the theaters by the average American moviegoer. “Manchester By the Sea” is a dramatic masterpiece that provides a canvas to examine some of the…
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The Edge of Seventeen 4 out of 4 stars by Bayard Lewis Angsty dramas about the experience of the American teenager have a way of winning hearts when they are done in an authentic and earnest way. Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”) plays Nadine, a seventeen year old girl whose life story of feeling like an…
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Loving 4 out of 4 stars by Bayard Lewis In 1950’s America, marrying outside of your race was illegal in Virginia and a number of other states. Richard and Mildred Loving’s relationship could have landed them in prison if they had chosen to stay in the state. They covertly traveled to Washington DC to get married.…
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The Light Between Oceans 3 out of 4 stars by Bayard Lewis In a tale of love and loss, Michael Fassbender plays Tom Sherbourne, a veteran of World War I who has returned home to settle down to a life of self-seclusion on Janus island as a lighthouse keeper. At first he resists the romantic…
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Inferno 1.5 out of 4 stars by Bayard Lewis The fate of most of the world’s population is at stake when an eccentric billionaire leaves behind a hidden virus intended to wipe out most of humanity and permanently remedy overpopulation. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon, an expert in art history, symbolism, and…
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