In the 25 years since Waiting to Exhale’s debut, the ground has shifted for Black female representation. The film, which was written by Terry McMillan and brought to life by Forest Whitaker, was the catalyst for that change.
Savannah (Whitney Houston), Robin (Lela Rochon), Bernadine (Angela Bassett), and Gloria (Loretta…
Making Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum was always going to be a challenge. Films set in the plantation South press against open wounds that are still present in the 21st century. …
Aside from rare examples like Crooklyn, Eve’s Bayou, and Beasts of a Southern Wild, Hollywood has dismissed the young Black female experience. But with her feature film debut, Cuties, French Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré is putting the spotlight on Black girls while helping them reclaim their girlhood.
Doucouré won a…
Lena Horne’s honey-dripped vocals and dazzling stage presence is ingrained into the fabric of American popular culture. However, the truth is, the sensational entertainer was never truly a movie star — not really. Certainly, Horne’s velvet voice and sultry look were fixtures on stages like Harlem’s Cotton Club, across radio…
Action films have dominated box offices and streaming services in recent years. Unfortunately, save for a few outliers like Black Panther and Black and Blue, they’ve all been male-dominated and extremely white. …
Typically when Paris is depicted on-screen, it is picturesque and flawless, centering the Eiffel Tower and all of the stereotypical themes that we’ve grown to associate with the City of Lights. Luckily, Amandla Stenberg has never had any interest in idealism and fluff. From the moment she stepped into our…
Aramide Tinubu is a NYC-based film critic & writer. She wrote her master’s thesis on Black Girlhood and Parental Loss. Find her at awordwitharamide.com.
