African-American Movies

Two socialites find their view of the world changed when a young man takes advantage of their preconceptions in this thoughtful comedy-drama. Flan and Ouisa Kittredge (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) are a married couple who have built highly successful careers as art dealers catering to Manhattan's upper crust. The Kittredges are entertaining friends one evening when a young black man named Paul (Will Smith) appears at their door. Paul says that he's a close friend of their children, with whom he attended boarding school, and he's just been mugged and needs to get off the street for a moment. Flan and Ouisa invite him in, and they are immediately taken by Paul's intelligence and charm; he offers to prepare dinner, regales them with stories about his father, Sidney Poitier, and ends up spending the night at their apartment. However, the next morning Flan and Ouisa discover that they've been had; Paul is actually a con artist from the streets who has been pulling the wool over the eyes of many of their friends -- and his actions are beginning to have serious consequences. John Guare adapted the script from his own successful stage play; the supporting cast includes Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, and Heather Graham. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Writer/director Paul Morrison, who directed the cross-cultural period drama Solomon and Gaenor, returns to similar ground, though in a lighter vein, with Wondrous Oblivion. Sam Smith stars as David Wiseman, a Jewish boy living in London in 1960 who dreams of being a world-class athlete. David is totally obsessed with cricket, and loves playing, even though he is one of the worst players at his school. His parents, Ruth (Emily Woof of The Full Monty) and Victor (Stanley Townsend), are struggling with the bigoted residents of their working-class neighborhood, but the neighbors get a bit more friendly to the Wisemans when Dennis (Delroy Lindo), a Jamaican laborer, and his family move in next door. David is shocked and delighted when he realizes that Dennis and his daughter, Judy (Leonie Elliott), are installing a cricket pitch in their backyard. Before long, and against the wishes of his worried parents, David is spending a lot of time next door, becoming very friendly with Judy, and becoming a much better cricket player. Ruth gradually warms to Dennis, but the rest of the neighborhood grows increasingly hostile. Wondrous Oblivion was presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of the 2005 New York Jewish Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Fernando Meirelles' City of God is a sweeping tale of how crime affects the poor population of Rio de Janeiro. Though the narrative skips around in time, the main focus is on Cabeleira who formed a gang called the Tender Trio. He and his best friend, Bené (Phelipe Haagensen), become crime lords over the course of a decade. When Bené is killed before he can retire, Lil' Zé attempts to take out his arch enemy, Sandro Cenoura (Matheus Nachtergaele). But Sandro and a young gangster named Mane form an alliance and begin a gang war with Lil' Zé. Amateur photographer Buscape (Alexandre Rodrigues) takes pictures of the brutal crime war, making their story famous. City of God was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A young man is torn by divided loyalty in this hard-edged urban drama. Reggie (Ja Rule) was raised by his father (Giancarlo Esposito) after a violent incident in the neighborhood where he lived with his mother (Pam Grier). While Reggie has been encouraged to take up a life of crime by his older friend and street mentor J-Bone (Ving Rhames), his father thinks Reggie has a good head for business and urges him to use his smarts rather than his gun. When Reggie's father is murdered, J-Bone takes the young man under his wing, but as a consequence of their friendship, Reggie is linked to the killing of a local preacher -- whose daughter (Tatyana Ali) is Reggie's girlfriend. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directed by Spike Lee, She Hate Me follows John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), who is fired from a posh job in biotechnology after informing the proper authorities of some sketchy business dealings from within the company. Unemployed and desperate for some quick cash, Jack accepts a strange offer -- his ex-girlfriend Fatima (Kerry Washington) says she will pay him generously if he successfully impregnates her. Once word gets out among the lesbian community, Jack is inundated with requests, and is initially quite happy with his new direction in life. However, things -- as they are wont to do -- get complicated. There's his former employer, who is actively trying to pin the blame for their wrongdoings on his shoulders, for one thing, and it isn't long before the moral implications of his life as a sperm donor come to the forefront. The film co-stars John Turturro, Ellen Barkin, Woody Harrelson, Monica Bellucci, and Q-Tip. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

By conceiving a child via artificial insemination, hip, modern and thoroughly independent magazine writer Julie Davidson (Vanessa Williams) managed to trim the messy nuptial relationship strings so often attached to starting a family. Imagine her shock, then, when her now-six-year-old son, Jason, demonstrates his growing need for a paternal role model by misbehaving in school. Thus begins Richard Schenkman's gentle romantic comedy And Then Came Love. Julie soon sets out on a quest to find the original sperm donor - youngish, self-effacing actor Paul (Kevin Daniels) - hoping he will take some responsibility for Jason's awry behavior. Father and son do indeed forge a strong relationship; but in Julie's wildest imagination, she never expected to fall in love with this new acquaintance. And Then Came Love reached theaters (in extremely limited release) circa mid-June 2007, and received video distribution almost immediately after. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Coming to America casts comedian Eddie Murphy as pampered African prince Akeem, who rebels against an arranged marriage and heads to America to find a new bride. Murphy's regal father (James Earl Jones) agrees to allow the prince 40 days to roam the U.S., sending the prince's faithful retainer Semmi (Arsenio Hall) along to make sure nothing untoward happens. To avoid fortune hunters, Prince Akeem conceals his true identity and gets a "Joe job" at a fast-food restaurant. Murphy and Hall play multiple roles, and there are innumerable celebrity cameos peppered throughout the proceedings -- including the Duke Brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) from Trading Places. Coming to America made further headlines when humorist Art Buchwald sued the film's producers for plagiarizing one of his works. Buchwald carried the case to trial, where he won a sizeable judgement against the film's producers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The first season of the musical drama series Fame could boast of several carryovers from the 1980 film favorite of the same name, beginning with Debbie Allen as Lydia Grant, tough-taskmaster dance teacher at New York's High School of the Performing Arts. Not only did Allen introduce each episode, but she also choreographed most of the big dance numbers--and won one of the series' four Season One Emmy awards in the process (other winners included director Harry Harris, cinematographer William W. Spencer, costume supervisor Marilyn Matthews, art directors Ira Diamond and Joseph J. Stone). Also repeating their film roles as Albert Hague as the school's music professor Benjamin Shorofsky, still so dedicated to his craft that he doesn't know who Johnny Carson is, nor any other "ethereal" contemporary entertainer; Lee Curreri as arrogant keyboard student Bruno Martelli (Curreiri also contributes most of the original songs heard this season); and Gene Anthony Ray as Leroy Johnson, who hopes that his dancing gifts will enable him to escape his ghetto neighborhood. Among the newcomers to the property are Erica Gimpel as singer-dancer Coco Hernandez, impatient to break free from school and make her professional debut. Carol Mayo Jenkins as martinet English teacher Elizabeth Sherwood, who regards talent as secondary academic achievement; P.R. Paul as drama student Montgomery MacNeil, struggling to emerge from under the shadow of his mother, a famous actress; Valerie Landsburg as Doris Schwartz, who intends to be an actress, a writer, a director or a combination of the above; Carlo Imperato as wannabe standup comic Danny Amatulo; Michael Thoma as drama teacher Mr. Crandall; and last but far from least, Lori Singer as the loner of the bunch, Julie Miller, a cellist from the Midwest. In fact, most of the series' first episode is seen through the eyes of Julie as she begins her first day at the school. While Julie struggles with a sense of displacement, Coco must come to grips with the realities of showbiz in the second episode, when she finds herself competing with her teacher Lydia Grant for a plum professional stage role. In later episodes, Leroy tries to steer his brother away from a street gang and also gets in trouble with the faculty when he attempts to ad-lib his way through a Shakespearian play; Bruno is seized with a sudden attack of stage fright; Doris poses as a hooker to research a writing project; Danny runs into resistance from his dad as he attempts to pursue his comedy career; the icy Miss Sherwood melts a bit as she comes to the rescue of a pair of talented derelicts (played by Ray Walston and Art Carney; and the human side of the imperious Shorofsky is revealed when he is hospitalized with a serious illness. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After earning rave notices for powerful supporting turns as a pimp in Street Smart (1987) and an alcohol abuse counselor in Clean and Sober (1988), actor Morgan Freeman began his ascent to stardom with this, his first lead role in a major motion picture. Freeman is real-life high school principal Joe Clark, a tough, harsh educator and administrator who in 1987 is given a nearly impossible task by his old friend, school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume). Clark is asked to reform inner city Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ, a hotbed of delinquent kids and drug dealers. Considered the worst school in New Jersey, the state is threatening to take control of Eastside away from the local school board. If Clark can straighten out Eastside in time to get the school's basic-skills test scores up, he can have the job permanently. Although Clark's tyrannical approach and hard-line policies alienate many members of the staff and the community, his uncompromising campaign gets results and even makes him famous, much to the chagrin of his powerful enemies. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A group of intrepid humans attempts to save the Earth from vicious extraterrestrials in this extremely popular science-fiction adventure. Borrowing liberally from War of the Worlds, Aliens, and every sci-fi invasion film inbetween, director Roland Emmerich and producer and co-writer Dean Devlin present a visually slick, fast-paced adventure filled with expensive special effects and large-scale action sequences. The story begins with the approach of a series of massive spaceships, which many on Earth greet with open arms, looking forward to the first contact with alien life. Unfortunately, these extraterrestrials have not come in peace, and they unleash powerful weapons that destroy most of the world's major cities. Thrown into chaos, the survivors struggle to band together and put up a last-ditch resistance in order to save the human race. As this is a Hollywood film, this effort is led by a group of scrappy Americans, including a computer genius who had foreseen the alien's evil intent (Jeff Goldblum), a hot-shot jet pilot (Will Smith), and the President of the United States (Bill Pullman). While some critics objected to the film's lack of originality and lapses in logic, the combination of grand visual spectacle and crowd-pleasing storytelling proved irresistible to audiences, resulting in an international smash hit. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Adversaries become wary allies in this free-wheeling action comedy. Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) is a Los Angeles Police Department officer who finds himself out of a job after he becomes involved in a violent altercation with police academy flunk-out Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence), escalating into a media event which brings the LAPD a wealth of bad publicity. Unable to find work, Hank finally takes a job as a "rent-a-cop" with a private security firm -- and discovers to his annoyance that his new partner is Earl. While neither of them are thrilled to be working together on the lowest strata of the law enforcement community, the two find themselves dealing with bigger crime than they expected when they stumble across evidence of a elite smuggling network operated by criminal mastermind Nash (Eric Roberts). Hank and Earl want to put Nash out of business, and they try without success to persuade the police of the importance of the case. But before long they discover it's not just Nash's men who are after them, but two high-ranking LAPD officials, Lt. Washington (Bill Duke) and Detective McDuff (Colm Feore). National Security was directed by Dennis Dugan, who'd previously helmed antic comedies starring Adam Sandler and Chris Farley; this film also marked Martin Lawrence's entry into the elite of Hollywood's comedy stars, with Lawrence taking home a 20-million-dollar paycheck for his work on the picture. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple spans the years 1909 to 1949, relating the life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a Southern black woman virtually sold into a life of servitude to her brutal husband, sharecropper Albert (Danny Glover). Celie pours out her innermost thoughts in letter form to her sister Nettie (Akousa Busia), but Albert has been hiding the letters Nettie writes back, allowing Celie to assume that Nettie is dead. Finally, Celie finds a champion in the don't-take-no-guff Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), the wife of Glover's son from a previous marriage. Alas, Sofia is "humbled" when she is beaten into submission by angry whites. Later, Celie is able to forge a strong friendship with Albert's mistress Shug (Margaret Avery). Emboldened by this, Celie begins rifling through her husband's belongings and finds Nettie's letters. Able at last to stand up to her husband, Celie leaves him to search for a new life on her own. A major box-office hit, The Color Purple was nominated for eleven Oscars. The film was co-produced by Quincy Jones, who also wrote the score. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Otherworldly villains are on the loose again, and it's up to Earth's interstellar police force to bring them to justice in this sequel to the sci-fi comedy blockbuster Men in Black. Agent Jay (Will Smith) has become a high-ranking member of the Men in Black, the secret government task force designed to deal with unruly visitors from other worlds, while his former cohort, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), had his memory wiped clean and now lives a simple but contented life as a mailman. However, an especially nasty alien threat has reared its not-so-ugly head; Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) is a shape-shifting Kylothian alien who is in pursuit of another escaped visitor who holds the key to powers that would allow her to destroy the world. Making Serleena all the more dangerous is the fact she's taken on the appearance of a lingerie model, making her irresistible to most men. When the rampaging Serleena takes control of the MIB offices, Jay is forced to turn to the only man who can help him save the world -- the former Agent Kay. After restoring Kay's memory, the two remaining Men in Black set out to conquer Serleena with a motley band of friendly aliens, including a handful of worm creatures and a talking dog named Frank (voice of Tim Blaney). Jay, meanwhile, has his head turned by Laura (Rosario Dawson), an attractive waitress who was an unwitting witness to an alien attack. Men in Black 2 also features Rip Torn, Tony Shalhoub, David Cross, Patrick Warburton, and Johnny Knoxville. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi