What happens when your in-laws become your bullies? We find out one outcome in Jessie Jalee’s The In-Law Gang. The film stars Jalee along with comedian Clifton Powell and follows Jalee’s Cassie – a celebrity chef – as she tries to navigate her new marriage with John Jr. (Nashawn Kearse) and the in-laws that come with it. Their love seems real and true until her mother-in-law, Madelyn (LaShonda LaLa’ Courtney) turns the family against Cassie whom she deems not good enough for her son. Of course there’s more to the story than meets the eye and as we move towards the straw that breaks Cassie’s back, we embark on a journey full of twists, turns, hidden secrets and surprises.
Who Invited Charlie? feels like the pandemic version of Uncle Buck and that’s not a bad thing. familiar with the trope, an unsuspecting family gets an unwanted visitor who they can’t stand but slowly teaches them to loosen up and laugh and love. It’s well honed territory, and can provide a good base but there’s some character building that’s sacrificed in the narrative.
Nicole Mendez (creator of Linked By Love), John Savage and Susan DeLaurentiis
It’s Oscars Weekend and the stars are out, but not just to see who takes the gold! The 15th Annual Susan DeLaurentiis Productions Gala celebrated the veterans who keep this country safe and paid homage to those we’ve lost. With a luncheon, fashion show and key presentations, several showed up to pay their respects.
We talked to John Savage, Donny Most, Morgan Fairchild about what makes the event so important. We also had a chance to chat with vendors who create products with our veterans in need. And finally, we chatted with the cast of Linked By Love, a series featuring a Black family where the matriarch needs a kidney transplant. Transplants are vital to the veteran community and having positive representation really does help more people decide to donate.
Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania feels like deja vu. Starring Paul Rudd, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton and Jonathan Majors, the latest Marvel installment is… fine. Listen, I love a Marvel film and I’m just nerdy enough to understand the implications the film is supposed to have as it ushers in Phase 5. What I’m at a loss to understand is just why this task was laid at the feet of Ant-Man.
“Outer Banks” follows a tight-knight group of local teens, dubbed the “Pogues,” in the beach vacation destination of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. On the small screen, Carlacia appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s well-received megachurch drama series “Greenleaf” as well as the critically acclaimed miniseries “Roots” alongside legendary actors Laurence Fishburne and Forest Whitaker.
Caption: (L-R) FLORENCE PUGH, HARRY STYLES and director/producer/actor OLIVIA WILDE (blue dress) on the set of New Line Cinema’s “DON’T WORRY DARLING,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
I wanted so badly to be able to say “despite on-set messiness and the PR tour disaster (that was entertaining for all of the wrong reasons)Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is a triumph! And it almost was!
The film revolves around an unlikely pair of brothers thrown together by the foster system. Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is fresh from the military and trying to find stability and financial security for his new son and ailing wife. Danny Sharp (Jake Gyllenhaal) stayed home and picked up the family business of robbing banks and vandalism.
Michael Bay’s Ambulance is a thrill per minute! Too bad there are 135 of them. Excepting about 15 minutes of setup, the action gets going and never stops until about 20 minutes before the end. That’s when there’s a ton of slow motion. While this hectic action can be maintained in a 90-minute property, 2 hours and 15 minutes is a lot of adrenaline to spend.
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Cartoonist Keef Knight is now a popular activist on the rise, but he’s facing a world where “woke” has become big business. Can Keef and his friends bring about real change, or is it just about the dollar$? And can Keef navigate this new world without destroying what he’s become? Inspired by the life and work of artist Keith Knight, Woke continues to upend Black nerd and activist culture, deftly satirizing with a wink and a smile. Keef (Lamorne Morris), Gunther (Blake Anderson), Ayana (Sasheer Zamata) and Clovis (T. Murph), shown. (Courtesy of Hulu)
Last Season on Hulu’s Woke, we met Keef Knight (Lamorne Morris) as he tries to navigate life after a brutal encounter with San Francisco PD. As a cartoonist of the locally famous comic strip, Toast and Butter, Keef is excited for his comic to be syndicated nationally. He’s planning on getting a luxury apartment with his girlfriend of two years and finally raising his stock. He’s played the game for years and is finally seeing his efforts pay off.
Starring Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez, Official Competition serves as a send-up of the vapid and profit-hungry nature of the entertainment industry mixed with a cautionary tale.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Colton Haynes about his new memoir Miss Memory Lane. The full piece is at Pride.com and a link will appear below the excerpt.
I’ve watched Colton for a long time and always knew he had something deep and troubling inside of him. The book itself isn’t polished and it sort of defies genre, but it sticks with you and lingers in your mind. Colton has made himself vulnerable and open to critique, judgement and hopefully support.
The book is available now wherever books are sold, the audiobook is forthcoming. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
