A Love Song for Ricki Wilde takes us through the haunting tale of a man destined to fall in love with a woman who is  doomed to die. It argues that sometimes we are meant to find connections in people who  uplift us in life even as we try to protect ourselves from harm.

Music can really save your soul when you let it. When you let it sit within you and nurture the most sincere parts of you, it can be the most wonderful spiritual experience and can connect you with so many different people. Music is such a powerful tool and an elite weapon, and when used wisely it can be one of the greatest ways of separating who deserves their cookout invitation and whether they get a return invite.

The Warden and her minions are looking for more than just a character-building exercise; if there's something to be found in the dried-up lake, Stanley is determined to find it first.

Death Becomes Her is such a great film—especially for its time—so part of me is reluctant to admit how much of an improvement as well as a perfect homage the musical is. I think both versions have incredible worth, particularly in conversations about women and aging. It also makes some strong points about the dangers of unresolved anger and the power of reflection. But I must admit I’m already praying for a professionally filmed streaming release because I want to watch this again and again. The musical retains all the dark and slapstick humor of the film and dials it all up to an eleven.

The Pairing allows us to follow Theo Flowerday and Aurelíen “Kit” Fairfield through the mess, romance, and confusion of their friendship, romance, break up, and reunion. What follows is a three-week romp around the Mediterranean as Theo and Kit sample delicious foods and incredible wines from France, Spain, and Italy. But, as more and more memories resurface, it becomes impossible to ignore the multiple elephants in the room.

Bessie shines the most when it focuses on the heavy emotion that is the foundation of blues. It’s called blues music for a reason, and it’s not just because of the notes. Blues at its core is deep-rooted, soul-wrenching sadness and longing. Bessie longed for more than just fame and fortune; she craved acceptance, adoration, and fulfillment all her life and when she finally got it the adoration she gained came with a price.

Home isn’t where you perfectly fit in; home is where you make room for yourself and find your people. It isn’t tied to a place, but it lives in the ones you love and welcome into your life.

Mississippi Masala engages in the subgenre of 90s-early 00s films that explored friendship and love formed in defiance of racism. Movies like The Color of Friendship and Save the Last Dance come to mind (although some were better than others). Most importantly, it has a very honest and important discussion about solidarity and what it means to be truly supportive of one another.

In Didi, a young boy named Chris Wang (affectionately nicknamed Wang-Wang by his old friends and D) tries to navigate the tricky time in between middle school and high school as he attempts to remake his image. Growing tired of the rapid distance his old friend group is putting between themselves and as well as their newfound interest in girls, Chris seeks the approval of older boys and online connections. Chris, now old enough to understand the price of sticking out versus assimilation, decides he needs to change everything he is to avoid being cast out.

In Kumail Nanjiani’s semi-biotic dramedy The Big Sick, the overwhelming pressure to fit into American society while respecting his own roots is a battle Kumail regularly feels like he’s losing. So when he falls in love with a white woman named Emily who comes to one of his comedy shows, letting Kumail’s parents know about this new relationship is the last thing he wants to do. Even messier still, Emily becomes terribly ill soon after and this moment marks the exact point Kumail falls in love with Emily.

One thing about me, I support women's rights. But it's so much more fun to support women's wrongs. We don't have as many stories as I would like where the female protagonist is also either a villain or a problematic antihero. Though we are seeing a slow rise in the writing of complex female characters, we don't often get the privilege of finding women in literature who deserve both respect for their results and apprehension for their methods. Zetian’s vision of how the world could look is honestly a commendable one, but the way she chooses violence every time brings a small smile to my face.

I don't think any of us realized when This Christmas came out that we were waiting on a version of Soul Food which justified our annoyances with it while doing some proper course correction. But This Christmas did that without even asking for a thank you. I know we have a severe shortage of Thanksgiving films, and that's why Soul Food is as beloved as it is despite its problems. But since we have a superior version now, I think it's time we let this one go.

Set It Off, a certified hood movie classic, tells the story of disenfranchised Black women struggling to make it out of a dead-end environment. Four friends—Frankie, Cleo, Tisean., and Stony—decide the way to make it out of L.A. and create a life of opportunities is to rob banks around the greater Los Angeles area. As you can imagine, this story doesn’t have a happy ending.

In a world where being unapologetically Black means constantly worrying about when the next attack from The Man™️ will strike, only one group of people are there to have your back. For years, the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. has been The Man™️’s only foil in his plans to Make America White Again, but they’re about to get some serious help from an unlikely ally.