#nate parker

[shirtlesscelebsofdaworld]

[rainagainstthewindowatnight]

films by female directors

beyond the lights ( 2014 ) dir. gina prince-bythewood

[blackmensuited]

[domhnallgleesonhaven]

Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, Dree Hemingway, Nate Parker, Alicia Vikander and Domhnall at Hamptons Film Festival 2012

[wenellyb]

Beyond the Lights, 2014, Gina Prince-Bythewood

[gardenofedenuniverse]

OSCARS 2023

[andy121019]

My @letterboxd review of Non-Stop (2014)

[adamwatchesmovies]

Arbitrage (2012)

Arbitrage offers a unique kind of thrill. Usually, a movie makes you sweat because you want to see the protagonist get out of a seemingly impossible jam. You suspect things will be alright (unless it’s a thriller-horror, then all bets are off) but you’re not sure. With this film, it’s the opposite. You want the protagonist to fail, to pay for what he’s done. You suspect things will be alright for him but you’re not sure. Maybe this “bad guy” will lose. While waiting, your stomach will be in knots.

Robert Miller (Richard Gere) is about to sell his hedge fund for millions to James Mayfield (Graydon Carter) but the buyer keeps stalling. Despite his playful exterior, the delayed sale is causing Robert anguish. Financial documents have been falsified. The company he’s selling isn’t worth what he claims it is. If anyone finds out, he will go to jail and his daughter’s professional reputation will be ruined. Things get even more precarious when we find out he’s having an affair.

Richard Gere is excellent in this role. Your instinct is to like him. He’s handsome, charismatic and cool. Why’s everyone causing him so much grief? Then, you start to find out what he’s really like. It’s not that he got one of his assistants to help pick out gifts for his grandchildren, it’s that he fakes caring about them while planning to leave his wife for Julie (Laetitia Casta), a much younger woman he presents as a great artist… while remaining fully aware that her success is entirely because of him. Once he sells the company, he’ll be free to divorce his wife, take the money and run away with Julie. She’ll be a good match for him because her lack of talent will make her completely depend on his money. Like everything else, she'll be something he can manipulate or use. Everyone else's desires and needs are secondary to his. Come to think of it, you’re not even convinced he’s in love with Julie. She could just be a plaything he picked up as a hobby.

Robert's involvement with Julie is threatening to blow up in his face. Meanwhile, there’s this sale he desperately needs to go through. So many things could take him out you’re holding your breath the whole time. His daughter begins investigating the company’s books, a police detective with disdain for the rich (Tim Roth) suspects Miller is shadier than he looks. The walls seem to be closing in, but Miller is always one step of everyone due to an unfair advantage: money. Even if he doesn’t have it in his bank account, his potential to have cash, his reputation and his years in a priviledged position have given him a golden ticket out of just about any jam. Sure, it might mean stepping on a couple of people along the way - Nate Parker plays Jimmy Grant, a black man who stands to lose it all because of his trust in Miller - but even if someone gets mad, Robert has money. He can just throw dollars at the problem and it’ll all be resolved.

Arbitrage fills you with a peculiar kind of despair. This story stops being about some fictional character. It becomes about our world. No matter the outcome, it feels like you lose. If Miller trips up and gets caught, it’ll feel like this whole thing was a fantasy; bread thrown to the masses so they won’t revolt. If he doesn’t get caught, then what hope is there for justice anywhere?

Arbitrage makes a slight misstep during the conclusion by cutting a little bit too quickly - I had to re-watch it to make sure I didn’t miss anything and really “get” what it meant. There's also Miller’s son, who’s so not in this movie he might as well have been omitted. Otherwise, it’s a character study blended with a thriller that’s hard to shake. This is an exceptionally well-written and well-acted film. (On DVD, September 20, 2021)

[aardvaark]

[erodingsinner]

Leverage x Onion headline

[howardhawkshollywoodannex]

Alicia Keys as June Boatwright in The Secret Life of Bees (2008) with Nate Parker. Alicia was born in Manhattan and has 72 acting credits, mostly for music videos, from a 1985 episode of The Cosby Show, then her first music video, for Fallin (2001) to a 2023 music video. Her non music credits are few.

Alicia has four number one pop hits - Fallin, My Boo (with Usher), No One, and Empire State of Mind (with Jay Z)

[shirtlesscelebsofdaworld]

[rainagainstthewindowatnight]

films that didn’t get enough attention

beyond the lights ( 2014 ) dir. gina prince-bythewood

[blackmensuited]

[sseanettles]

rewatching leverage and god i forgot how much i missed watching these people gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss evil capitalists for five very not straight seasons

[leveragecentral]

But worst of all, he completely forgot that I gave him that same button camera for Christmas three years ago.

Leverage - 1x13 The Second David Job