Tag Archives: Lionsgate

Miller’s Girl Review


What is appropriate when it comes to teachers and students? What behaviors cross a line? How awkward or uncomfortable can situations get? In Miller’s Girl boundaries are crossed when there is an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and student. When things take a turn for the worst in the story, things become misconstrued as the characterizations and dynamics are an utter mess. Overall, the film’s presentation falls flat. While Miller’s Girl is rich in context and dialogue, the continuity is lacking. There is limited background to explain why the scenarios end up being so dreadful and miscalculated. As someone who respects boundaries, Miller’s Girl was a-disappointment.

The film takes place in a rural Tennessee. Jonathan Miller (played by Martin Freeman) is an English teacher. He is lucky to have his job because the school he works at has difficulties with funding. His friend Boris (played by Bashir Salahuddin) is a science teacher and they both end up in a strange dynamic with two female students. Cairo Sweet (played by Jenny Ortega) and Winnie Black (played by Gideon Aldeon) both have uniquepersonalities with Cairo being stranger. Jonathan assigns Cairo to write a paper about an author that speaks to her. The author she chooses is Henry Miller which is a red flag. This choice is questioned by Jonathan because of the context of the novels written by Miller. There is a level of closeness that Cairo learns about from Winnie. Both girls figure out ways to be seductive for their own benefit. Cairo’s goal is to have her piece grasp a lot of attention to help her have a bright future. This is where the real trouble in the film sets in. The seductive relationship between Jonathan and Cairo crosses boundaries. From this point on, Miller’s Crossing turns into an unbearable mess with poor writing and limited continuity.

The film is poorly displayed, and the connections happen too quickly. The seductive scenes are just thrown in. Even the teachers have poor judgment. The story includes one poor choice after another. Miller’s Girl just keeps repeating the same bad mistakes. To add to the mess, weird personalities overtake the film’s writing. The sole purpose seems to be to expose the stupidity among its characters, including the sexualized brains of the students.

There is a scene where Cairo adapts her essay about Henry Miller and correlates it to the seductive (and inappropriate) experience she had with Jonathan. This is an example of how this movie displays mediocrity at its finest. Comparing a famous author and linking it to a teacher with poor morals seems wrong. Although the basic idea behind this movie had promise, it is the approach it took to become enticing or haunting that failed. Miller’s Girl is not only poorly written but also poorly executed.

The film finds no resolution to any of the foolish conflicts. Although there is some seductive chemistry, it seems rushed. When boundaries are crossed, there are irreparable consequences. The story goes around in circles. In the end, this film was a poor experience because it was disgusting and confused. One out of four stars for Miller’s Girl.

The Blackening Review


An adventure of misfit friends and laughs in a twisted yet creative context, The Blackening is what I would call killer funny. The film keeps its audience on edge and its laughs are well timed. It’s quirky but in a good way. Almost each word or scenario in the film is full of wit and giggles. And the setup of The Blackening is horror meets comedy at its finest.

The Blackening gears on seven Black friends who are on a weekend getaway at a cabin in the woods. They are Lisa (played by Antoinette Robertson), Dewayne (played by Dewayne Perkins), Nhamdi (played by Sinqua Walls), Allison (played by Grace Byers) Shanka (played by X Mayo), King (played by Melvin Gregg), and Clifton (played by Jermaine Fowler). A group of diverse people with all kinds of strange humor and often poor judgment, the friends’ vacation is going just fine until they come across a board game called The Blackening. The skill to keep themselves alive and survive this deadly board game is their knowledge of horror movies. That’s the key to making it out of the game alive.

The friends in The Blackening come together to fight for survival, but they aren’t that serious and neither is the film. The friends’ knowledge of horror films leads to all kinds of stereotypes and arguments, and many of the arguments distracts them from the main goal of staying alive. This is where The Blackening finds its genius track. Many of the friends are smart and some not so much, so the dialogue between them becomes offensive at times, but still consistently hysterical. The terror is even hilarious. The Blackening is slapstick at its finest.

The film’s dialogue is where I was sold. Though fighting for their life to survive in the cabin of horrors, the characters also question each other’s beliefs and political backgrounds. This dialogue had me dying laughing—especially when they would get off the subject of figuring out how best to survive. One of the character even admits to voting for Donald Trump. The Blackening will enthrall its audience with its humanistic and realistic humor in a quirky game adventure of a comedy.

To me, The Blackening was almost like the film Jumanji crossed with the television series In Living Color. The board game theme is of course where the Jumanjireference comes in, and the tone of the humor and the personalities and backgrounds of many of the characters was similar to In Living Color. But the terror obviously sets it apart. And the approach work quite well. The Blackening is simply the most creative and superb ensemble cast I have seen in a long time.

I will say that some may find the film offensive at times, but I didn’t find it that way at all. The Blackening starts with a creative concept, it all works very well, and the outcomes are genius. I could not get enough of the joy of The Blackening. Three and a half stars out of four stars for this superb slapstick horror comedy.