Mo' Better Blues & If Beale Street Could Talk
In honor of Black History month, we decided to examine two disparate, albeit excellent, depictions of the African American experience with Mo' Better Blues and If Beale Street Could Talk. Ahead of our subjects, we sort through a premium selection of Blue Plate Special items, including our thoughts on the recently announced Sam Mendes' series of films on The Beatles, a pair of new releases in Bob Marley: One Love and Lisa Frankenstein, and the complicated legacy of departed country music superstar Toby Keith. We eventually turn the radio on over to the highest quality jazz station imaginable with our double feature: listen as we dive into the careers of auteurs Spike Lee and Barry Jenkins, discuss how their visions of blackness are translated into their respective films, situate the extent to which the former's 1990 work fit into his larger narrative and aesthetic interests, and question what the latter's future looks like in an age where personally expressive commercial cinema is harder and harder to come by.
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