I will be the first to admit that I generally don’t love movie musicals and films like Cyrano (affiliate link) ​are the reason why.

Cyrano (affiliate link) is a musical drama based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Peter Dinklage stars at the title character who is in love with the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett). When the pair meet early in the film, Roxanne professes that she has fallen in love at first sight and asks Cyrano to arrange a meeting with the man in question, the new soldier Christian played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Cyrano is heartbroken at Roxanne’s confession, but agrees to set the meeting.
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Christian is similarly smitten with Roxanne, but fears he cannot adequately profess his love. Cyrano works with Christian to write love letters (professing his own love) that Christian can pass off as his own writing.

For a movie musical, the music itself was not very memorable. The one exception was the heart wrenching “Wherever I Fall,” sung by the soldiers on the eve of battle as they write home to their loved ones.

In the end, despite the visual appeal of the movie, I can’t come to love it. As with most movie musicals, I think I would have loved this had I seen it as a live performance on stage where the limitations of space require more ingenuity and creativity to tell the story than on film where you can shoot in numerous locations and sound stages.

7 out of 10

It's rare that I watch an animated film, especially a short film with a unique animation style, that doesn't land with me. Navozande is the rare exception.

Don't get me wrong, I love the animation style of this film, but just didn't connect with the story being told. I get that there is some long lost love trying to be recaptured, but it feels like the actual plot, or what little there is, takes too long to develop.

If not for the animation in this short film, I would rate it much lower. But the animation is beautiful in its simplicity. The images feel like they are a classic tapestry or parchment drawing come to life. That's what makes it even more frustrating for me. Because I loved the animation so much, I wanted more out of the film and was disappointed by the story connected with the images.

I was not surprised to see director Reza Riahi's name attached to a previous animated film about this part of the world, the Oscar nominated feature from 2017, The Breadwinner. I remember this film connecting with me a bit more, perhaps because of a more modern subject, but I hope that Riahi will continue to craft animated stories like this. He has promise and his art style is there, I just think he needs to refine his directorial approach a bit.

6 out of 10

It's hard to come to a movie with a title like Judas and the Black Messiah without any preconceptions, but the more openly you can approach this movie the better.

The film follows the events of the late 1960s when a young petty criminal named Bill O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) seeks to avoid prison time for stealing a car by working with the FBI to infiltrate the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, led by Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). O'Neal must gain Hampton's trust, while simultaneously navigating the world of a very white criminal justice organization that he doesn't fully trust.

You might think coming into this film that it's going to glorify the Black Panther Party, but it does not. Neither does it paint them in a fully negative light. There are moments where the people involved in the party are violent and vengeful, but there are also tender moments, showing their humanity. Throughout the film, I found my own allegiances changing from scene to scene, keeping my on my toes as I tried to figure out exactly who was on who's side on screen.

Kaluuya was long rumored to be an Oscar contender for his role in this film, and won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor back in February 2021. I was not surprised to see Stanfield receive a nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar alongside Kaluuya and honestly think his portrayal of the O'Neal's Judas character was better than Kaluuya's.

Overall, this is a powerful film with strong performances throughout the cast. I highly recommend this film as we wait to see how many Oscars it can bring home at the end of April.

8 out of 10​​​​