A critic's job is never done. I am always trying to learn more and deliver ever more nuanced reviews of the work I see. As a white critic, I am always trying to see beyond the lens of my whiteness. In reviewing IN THE HEIGHTS I didn't understand the lack of representation of Afro-Latino characters [...]
Seven years before the Pulitzer Prize-winning global phenomenon that is HAMILTON opened on Broadway in 2015 and blew the roof off staged musicals forever, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Broadway musical the Tony Award-winning IN THE HEIGHTS opened in the same theater in 2008. Now, like "Hamilton," it's also a movie, a glorious movie more powerful [...]
HURRY! FREE ADVANCE VIRTUAL SCREENING of Focus Features release "THE SPARKS BROTHERS" Thursday June 17 PM! For the chance to download two complimentary passes to this advance virtual screening please click on RSVP LINK: http://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/JoycesChoicesSparks RSVP instructions *Please note this virtual screening will be conducted through TicktBox and you will need to register for an account on [...]
I've always had a weakness for villainesses. Sleeping Beauty was a snooze compared to the magnificent Maleficent. I adored Snow White; still her ravishing wicked queen of a stepmother was disturbingly alluring. Even that green-complected shrew on a broom who threatened Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West (the sheer power of that woman with [...]
BREWMANCE is a tale of a love affair with beer-- but not my father's beer, and Chet and his brothers, my uncles, LOVED beer. They would sit around the backyard at all the family gatherings--barbecues to baptisms--drinking cases of the stuff. A cousin once drove in from out of state for a family funeral arriving [...]
After a two month pandemic-induced delay, the OSCARS will happen this SUNDAY NIGHT April 25 at 8 p.m. (ET/5 p.m. PT) on ABC. The 93rd annual Academy Awards honors all things movies! I have reported live from THE red carpet over the course of 20 years as the A & E Anchor for WBZ-TV (CBS- [...]
I have loved Tina Turner from the first moment I saw her perform. It may have been her very first TV appearance in 1960 on "American Bandstand." I surely saw her one and only appearance with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1970. I had no context for what [...]
Some movies are torture. "Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar" is like jumping off a comedy cliff and finding yourself forever cringing in the world where jokes never land. Even Kristen Wiig can't save you. Some movies are about torture. THE MAURITANIAN is a film that doesn't tell us anything we didn't already [...]
You are invited to a FREE ADVANCE VIRTUAL SCREENING of FOCUS FEATURES release "LAND" on Thursday, March 4th @ 7PM ET! To RSVP to the advance screening, please visit: http://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/JoycesChoicesLand *Please note this virtual screening will be conducted through TicktBox and you will need to register for an account on the platform, if you [...]
The best reason to see this HULU feature film about iconic Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday is a galvanic performance by Grammy & now 2x Golden Globe-nominated singer/actress Andra Day in her first-ever big screen outing! Day has never acted before and has taken on an exceptionally demanding role as the legendary black artist whose story [...]
