Arts and Entertainment Archives

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2008, in Fremont, California, the comedy/drama “Dìdi” features an Asian and white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A 14-year-old boy feels alienated from his mother and older sister, as he tries to make new friends and has insecurities about being Asian in a mostly white community.

Culture Audience: “Dìdi” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching realistic movies about teenagers who come from immigrant families.

Pictured clocwise from left: Izaac Wang, Chang Li Hua, Joan Chen and Shirley Chen in “Dìdi” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features/Talking Fish Pictures)

The comedy/drama “Dìdi” authentically depicts teenage angst about self-identity and wanting to belong somewhere independently from a family. The story’s perspective is from a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy, but the themes transcend generations and cultures. Anyone who is or has been a teenager will probably find something in “Dìdi” that is relatable.

Written and directed by Sean Wang, “Dìdi” is his feature-film directorial debut and is inspired by Wang’s own real-life experiences as a teenager in Fremont, California, where the movie was filmed on location. “Dìdi” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two prizes: the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic and U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble.

“Dìdi” takes place in the summer of 2008, during the last month before 13-year-old Chris Wang (played by Izaac Wang) will enroll in high school. Chris lives with his protective homemaker mother Chungsing Wang (played by Joan Chen); his moody sister Vivian Wang (played by Shirley Chen), who is about 17 or 18 years old; and his paternal grandmother Nai Nai (played by Chang Li Hua), who is cheerful and optimistic. Chris’ parents and grandmother were born in Taiwan, while Chris and Vivian were born in the United States.

Chris’ parents are married, but his father lives and works in Taiwan and sends money to Chungsing to support the family. Chris’ father is never seen in the movie. Observant viewers will notice that Chris’ father doesn’t communicate with Chris and Vivian during the period of time shown in the movie. This absence and emotional neglect from their father probably cause feelings of bitterness and rejection and might explain why Chris and Vivian are quick to get angry and take their anger out on each other.

Throughout the movie, Chris goes through an identity crisis. He feels like an outsider in his own home. And he even though he has friends from middle school who will be going to the same high school, he feels restless and bored with these friends and wants to make new friends. Vivian excels in academics and seems to have goals in life. Chris does not.

Part of Chris’ identity crisis has to do with his insecurity and sometimes embarrassment of coming from an Asian immigrant family. There are many times throughout “Dìdi” where Chris tries to downplay, deny or degrade his Asian heritage. There’s a scene were Chris lies to some of his peers and claims to be biracial (half Asian, half white) instead of telling the truth that his racial identity is fully Asian.

As an example of the different identities that Chris is juggling, he has three different names in this story. His birth name is Chris. His friends call him the nickname Wang Wang. And his mother and grandmother call him Dìdi, which is a nickname he really dislikes. Chris angrily tells his family members not to call him Dìdi.

Chris and Vivian bicker over petty things, but these arguments are really about their sibling rivalry and unspoken feelings that their relationship will change when Vivian is moving away to go to college around the same time that Chris will start going to high school. Vivian and Chris have a relationship with its share of ups and downs. They love each other but don’t always show it.

An early scene in the movie takes place with the Wang family having dinner together. Vivian insults Chris and gripes at him because he’s wearing one of her sweatshirts. Their argument turns into cursing. Chris and Vivan don’t listen to Vivian and Mai Mai, who tell the kids to stop arguing.

Chris calls Vivian a “bitch.” He then goes in the bathroom and urinates in Vivian’s lotion bottle. When she later finds out, Vivian threatens Chris by saying that he ever does something like that again, she’ll put her menstruation blood in his food.

A great deal of “Dìdi” is about how technology that was fairly new in 2008 is used as catalysts or tools in teenagers’ social lives. Facebook and YouTube are prominently featured throughout the movie. In 2008, most people didn’t have the types of smartphones that exist today, so phones were mainly used for calling and texting.

Chris has a crush on a classmate named Madi Peters (played by Mahaela Park), a popular girl who will be going to the same high school a Chris. He looks at Madi’s Facebook page to find out what her interests are—she’s a big fan of Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams and the 2002 romantic drama “A Walk to Remember”—so Chris pretends to be a fan of the same things. Chris has a nervous conversation with Madi at a house party, and the movie shows how their relationship develops from there.

Youth skateboard culture is also a big part of the movie. Chris and his friends Soup (played by Aaron Chang), Fahad (Rahul Dial) and Hardeep (played by Tarnvir Kamboj) like to skateboard. However, Chris prefers filming videos of people skateboarding rather than skateboarding himself. He posts videos that he’s filmed on his YouTube channel, which is an indication that he has an interest in filmmaking.

Later, Chris meets three friends named Donovan, Corey and Nugget, who take skateboarding more seriously than Soup, Fahad and Hardeep. Chris thinks Donovan (played by Chiron Cillia Denk), Corey (played by Montay Boseman) and Nugget (played by Sunil Maurillo) are a lot cooler to hang out with than Soup, Fahad and Hardeep. It should come as no surprise that Chris wants to join a new clique and is desperate for this new clique’s approval.

One of the things that “Dìdi” shows with credibility is how teenagers are often embarrassed by their parents, no matter what their parents do. There’s a scene that’s uncomfortable to watch (but very realistic) when Chungsing goes in Chris’ room while Donovan, Corey and Nugget are visiting. Chungsing is friendly, but Chris’ hostile reaction to her is a reflection of his insecurities about himself.

“Dìdi” is told from Chris’ perspective, but the movie gives glimpses into Chungsing’s interior life. She’s married but she has to raising her kids like a single mother. One child is moving away from home. The other child acts like he doesn’t want to be around her. Chungsing is a loving mother who wants the best for her family, but it’s easy to feel empathy for her because she’s obviously going through her own identity crisis. As way to find solace from her pain, she does paintings that she feels no one appreciates.

Chris is socially awkward but he is not always a likable dork. He often doesn’t know the difference between saying something that he thinks is “cool” and something that is very offensive. He’s also very rude and verbally cruel to his mother. There’s scene where Chungsing and Chris are eating together in a fast food restaurant. She is using a fork and knife to eat her hamburger. Chris mutters in disgust but loud enough for her to hear this racist comment: “So Asian.” The wounded look on Chungsing’s face could say a thousand words, even though she says nothing in response.

“Dìdi” has a well-cast ensemble but the best acting performances are from Joan Chen and Izaac Wang, who both are utterly convincing as a mother and a son having a hard time with each other because they both feel misunderstood and frustrated by how their lives are going. The tension-filled relationship between Chungsing and Chris is a reflection how they want to feel accepted in a world that is not always welcoming to them. They are both experiencing emotional pain for reasons that are similar and different.

“Dìdi” is not a perfect film (some of the movie’s scenes could have used better pacing), but what this movie does perfectly is not overstate or over-explain things that are realistically left unsaid. Many people in life have a hard time admitting what’s really bothering them because they often don’t want to admit it to themselves. “Dìdi” is snapshot of one month in the life of a teenager experiencing emotional growing pains and finding out in his desperate search for peer acceptance if he can ultimately have self-acceptance.

Focus Features released “Dìdi” in select U.S. cinemas on July 26, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on August 16, 2024.

Review: ‘Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande,’ starring Cymande

July 26, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande”

Directed by Tim MacKenzie-Smith

Culture Representation: The documentary “Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” features a predominantly black group of people (with a few white people) discussing the career of the British R&B/funk band Cymande, which is best known for the band’s music that was released from 1972 to 1974.

Culture Clash: Cymande received critical acclaim for their music in the 1970s but was prevented from achieving major star status because the band was mostly ignored by radio stations and other media.

Culture Audience: “Cymande” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching documentaries about underrated musicians.

A 1970s archival photo of Cymande in “Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande.” Pictured from left to right: Patrick Patterson, Michael “Bammi” Rose, Steve Scipio, Sam Kelly, Derrick Gibbs and Pablo Gonsales. (Photo courtesy of Abramorama)

“Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” takes viewers on a ride of highs, lows and everything in between when telling the story of the R&B/funk band Cymande, which is pronounced “sih-mahn-day.” If you want to know why the 1970s British band Cymande didn’t become as well-known as American counterparts such as Parliament-Funkadelic, this illuminating documentary tells a fascinating, heart-wrenching and informative story. The movie gives viewers who are unfamiliar with Cymande an exploration of the band’s music from different perspectives, including how Cymande’s music influenced later generations. The documentary has previously unreleased archival material, exclusive interviews filmed for the movie, and performance footage of Cymande’s reunited lineup.

Directed by Tim MacKenzie-Smith, “Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film & TV Festival, followed by a U.K. premiere at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival. One of the reasons why many music fans have never heard of Cymande is because the band’s first incarnation lasted for only three years—from 1971 to 1974—which was the period of time when the Cymande made its most influential music. The band’s name comes from a calypso word for “dove.”

Cymande received critical acclaim for the band’s music but struggled to have a major breakthrough. Cymande disbanded in 1974, because the band members were broke and needed to get day jobs to financially survive and support their families. The band briefly reunited in 2006, before calling it quits again. Cymande reunited again in 2012 and was still together when this documentary was released.

In the 1970s, Cymande had a changing lineup, but there were six core members who remained consistent to the group: lead singer/guitarist Patrick Patterson, saxophonist/flautist Michael “Bammi” Rose, bassist Steve Scipio, drummer Sam Kelly, saxophonist Derrick Gibbs and percussionist Pablo Gonsales. All six of these members are interviewed in the documentary, which began filming in 2017. Gonsales died in 2020, at the age of 77. An epilogue title card mentions his death and says the documentary is dedicated to him. In the documentary, Gonsales is the band’s extroverted jokester, who also talks a lot of being in tune with nature.

Told in mostly chronological order, “Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” gives cultural context to the band’s origins in South London, by discussing how all of the band’s core members came from families who immigrated from the Caribbean. Patterson (the unofficial leader of Cymande) comments on why their parents immigrated to England: “England was not simply the mother country, it was the place to go to maximize our potential.”

But what happens when that potential is blocked by racism? Patterson describes how his father was a trained baker in Jamaica, but in England, he was rejected for bakery jobs by racist employers who didn’t want black employees in baker positions. Unfortunately for Cymande, racism and xenophobia played a damaging role in preventing the band from getting the same type of exposure on radio stations and television that other music artists selling out the same sizes of venues usually got.

According to several the members of Cymande, the British media’s prejudice against Cymande was based on the band’s race and (ironically) the band’s nationality. Cymande couldn’t get radio airplay or bookings on British TV shows that showed preferential treatment to white artists. The few R&B bands that played their own instruments that did get those slots were almost always American. To this day, it’s still very difficult for a British R&B/funk band to achieve worldwide success.

Cymande was discovered by British music producer John Schroeder, who died in 2017, at the age of 82. Cymande signed to Schroeder’s record company Alaska Records in the United Kingdom, and Janus Records in the United States. Cymande released three albums in the 1970s: 1972’s “Cymande,” 1973’s “Second Time Round” and 1974’s “Promised Heights,” all produced by Schroeder.

The song “The Message,” from the band’s first album, was a minor hit, but could not get further momentum because it wasn’t getting a lot of radio airplay. This was during an era when radio airplay was essential for artists to have mainstream hits, and the Internet did not exist for artists to market themselves. Years later, when Cymande’s music became popular for sampling on other artists’ music, “The Message” was rediscovered when it was featured in Masta Ace’s 1990 hit “Me and the Biz.”

Even though the media in the United Kingdom mostly ignored Cymande, the band seemed to be on the verge of a major breakthrough in the United States when Cymande was selected to be the opening act for Al Green’s 1972 U.S. tour, which played at arenas and stadiums. It was the first time that Cymande had ever toured in America. And performing in front of thousands of people a night was a heady experience.

In the documentary, several of the band members look back on this tour with great fondness and say they appreciate how fans in America were so welcoming to Cymande. But those are bittersweet memories, because after the tour with Green ended, Cymande went back to the United Kingdom, where they were still treated like “nobodies” by the media and the music industry.

After two more albums and still no breakthrough, Cymande called it quits in 1974. (Cymande’s 1981 studio album “Arrival” was a collection of throwaway tracks that were recorded in 1974.) By 1974, most of the band members had become husbands and fathers and needed more stable incomes than being musicians in debt.

Patterson, who became a lawyer, says that going from the cusp of music stardom to working in “normal” jobs was not necessarily an easy transition for the former Cymande members, but it had to be done. He explains, “We didn’t go off the road to go on the dole [British slang for government welfare]. We just found a different way of contributing to our community.”

Not all of the members of Cymande completely quit being professional musicians in the 1980s to 2000s. In the 1980s, saxophonist Rose was a backup musician for the reggae band Aswad and later for Paul Simon’s “Graceland” tour. He then formed a band called Jazz Warrior. And since 1999, Rose has been part of the studio band for the BBC music show “Later… with Jools Holland.”

The second half of the “Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” focuses mostly on how Cymande music influenced various music artists who had their big breakthrough hits in the 1990s or 2000s. They include music producer Mark Ronson, Masta Ace, DJ/producer Louie Vega, Jazzie B (of Soul II Soul fame), and former De La Soul member DJ Maseo.

Expect to hear a lot of gushing fan commentary from artists who admire Cymande’s music. Norman Jay, a nightclub/radio DJ, has this to say about Cymande: “They’re the first band that had come along that tapped all of my cultural buttons. Their music isn’t frivolous. It’s not throwaway. It’s thought-about, provokes reaction. It’s challenging. It confronts you and makes you dance.”

My Morning Jacket lead singer Jim James is seen in the beginning of the documentary giving his personal Cymande testimonial about how he discovered the band. James says that he loved the Fugees’ 1996 album “The Score,” especially the title track. Sometime in 2006, James says he found out that “The Score” song sampled Cymande’s song “Dove.”

After hearing “Dove,” James remembers: “I was forever changed. That song, to me, is so profoundly important, it almost eclipses everything. It’s like a magic spell.” Ronson adds his thoughts on “Dove” in a separate interview: “It really feels otherworldly, like it came down on a spaceship or something.”

Perhaps the most inspirational part of the documentary is seeing that even though Cymande didn’t get the mainstream success that the band had hoped for in the 1970s, it didn’t kill the band members’ desire to still make and perform music at ages when most people have retired. Cymande released the reunion album “A Simple Act of Faith” in 2015, and has been performing concerts on a regular basis since the reunion. The documentary includes footage of Cymande performing at music festivals in 2019, including WOMAD.

“Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” is partly a tribute to the band and partly an interesting music history lesson, especially for people who have never heard of Cymande, a band that is underrated but not forgotten. It’s a story of a band that reunited after decades of the band members being apart—but this time around, the band doesn’t feel the pressure to have big hits on the charts and is playing music for the pure joy of it. And that might be the biggest lesson of all that this documentary has to offer: Music is an art form that doesn’t have to be segregated by age, race or nationality and can change people lives in impactful ways.

Abramorama released “Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande” in New York City on July 26, 2024, will release the movie in the Los Angeles area on August 7, 2024.

Review: ‘Crumb Catcher,’ starring Rigo Garay, Ella Rae Peck, Lorraine Farris and John Speredakos

July 25, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Crumb Catcher”

Directed by Chris Skotchdopole

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York state, the horror film “Crumb Catcher” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two newlyweds experience blackmail and terror from another couple who who were server employees at the wedding.

Culture Audience: “Crumb Catcher” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching “slow burn” horror movies about situations that could happen in real life.

Rigo Garay and Ella Rae Peck in “Crumb Catcher” (Photo courtesy of Doppelgänger Releasing and Music Box Films)

“Crumb Catcher” takes a while to become the horror movie that it appears to be, but once the terror scenes start, they don’t let up. It’s an effective and convincing thriller about two newlyweds whose honeymoon descends into chaos caused by another couple. The ending of “Crumb Catcher” might not be defined enough for some viewers. However, if viewers can appreciate movies whose conclusions are open to intepretation, then the ending of “Crumb Catcher” is more likely to have people thinking about the movie, long after it’s over.

Written and directed by Chris Skotchdopole, “Crumb Catcher” is his feature-film debut and shows he has talent for making anxiety-filled scenes. The movie was filmed on location in upstate New York. The beginning of the film shows newlywed couple Shane Castillo (played by Rigo Garay) and Leah (played by (played by Ella Rae Peck) at their wedding reception, They are posing for couple photos for a talkative photographer named Garry (played by David Macke), who asks Shane and Leah a lot of questions about their relationship, such as how they met, as Garry directs the couple on which poses he wants for the photos.

Through this conversation and other conversations that happen in the movie, viewers eventually find out this information about Shane and Leah, who both live in New York City. Shane is a writer who has recently completed his first novel that is about to be published. The novel is about a father-son relationship that is based on the troubled relationship that Shane has with his own father.

Leah works at the unnamed book publishing company that is publishing Shane’s novel. Because he is first-time, unproven novelist, Shane got a very small advance for the novel (only $5,000), but Leah is expecting the novel to be a hit. She has already made arrangements for Shane to have a few interviews at high-profile media oulets.

Leah is a lot more concerned than Shane about his book becoming a bestseller. She feels personally invested because (as she reminds Shane in an argument they have later), she helped him get this book deal because of her connections in her job. Leah’s boss, who is an executive vice president at the company, has generously let Leah and Shane use her spacious and upscale home as the place where Leah and Shane will be staying for their honeymoon. And because “Crumb Catcher” is a horror movie, it should come as no surprise that this house is in a remote wooded area.

Leah’s mother Joanie (played by Rebecca Watson) paid for the wedding, which is a typical middle-class wedding that doesn’t look too extravangant. At the wedding reception, there is tension between Shane and Leah. , Leah has to tell Shane to thank Joanie for paying for the wedding. Shane seems irritated because he acts like Leah is being a neurotic nag. At one point, Shane walks away from Leah in a huff.

Shane’s unnamed father was not invited to the wedding. There’s a scene later in the movie where Shane listens to a voice mail message from his father (voiced by Eddie Castillo), who sounds drunk when he congratulates Shane on the wedding. It’s implied that Shane’s father has alcoholism. Leah says to Shane about not inviting Shane’s father to the wedding: “It’s not that we’re embarrassed. It would’ve been too stressful.”

Taking all of this information into account, it’s very easy to see what’s going on in the Shane/Leah relationship. This marriage is going to have some major problems that have to do with Shane feeling inadequate or emasculated by domineering and opinionated Leah. She obviously makes more money than he does and is more ambitious than Shane. At one point, when Shane tells Lisa he’s having doubts about wanting his book to be published, she gets angry because she thinks if Ray backs out of his book deal, it will make her look bad at her job.

There’s no mention of Shane’s mother (it would be easy to assume that she’s deceased), and the only parent whom Shane has is debilitated by alcholism. Even at the wedding reception, which is only in the first 10 minutes of the movie, all the relatives who are there seem to be from Lisa’s family. In other words, Shane has all the makings of someone who is close to having an identity crisis.

Something strange happens to Shane at the wedding reception, which apparently took place in a hotel. Shane wakes up in a bedroom feeling groggy and not knowing how he got there. Because he had been drinking alcohol at the reception, he assumes that the alcohol was stronger than he thought. This blackout is later explained in the movie.

The company that catered this wedding is called Crystal View. After the wedding reception, when Shane and Leah are about to leave together, a Crystal View waiter named John Spinellie (played by John Speredakos), a flustered-looking middle-aged man, rushes up to them and makes a profuse apology. John tells Shane and Lea something went wrong with the wedding cake topping, which won’t be available as a souvenir. Instead, John gives Shane and Leah a free bottle of champagne to make amends.

Shane and Leah plan to drive to the honeymoon getaway house in a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass that has the words “Just Married” written on the back window. This back window later is used to great effect in a suspenseful car chase scene that happens at night. The drive to the house is fairly relaxed and uneventful.

When Shane and Leah get to the house, there are more signs that Leah and Shane are on different wavelengths. He’s eager for some honeymoon sex, but she makes him wait in the bedroom while she awkwardly puts on some lingerie with a garter belt in a nearby bathroom. When she emerges from the bathroom, she goes underneath the bed covers and seems very self-conscious of showing Shane what she looks like in this sexy outfit.

“Crumb Catcher” has a deliberate buildup to the real horror of the story. It’s the movie’s way of showing how people can be caught off guard and led into very dangerous situations. Leah notices almost immediately that there’s a car in the driveway that she’s never seen before.

Wthout going into too many details, it’s enough to say that John somehow found out where Shane and Leah are staying for the honeymoon because he shows up at their house’s front door unexpectedly at night. John initially says he found the wedding cake topping and wants to give it to them, along with a bottle of liquor as a gift.

Leah is automatically suspicious and asks John how he found out the address of the house where Leah and Shane are staying. John quickly mumbles something about how Leah’s uncle Leo mentioned it in a Facebook group. John is very chatty and doesn’t want to leave. He wants to show Leah and Shane his “revolutionary” invention called the Crumb Catcher. Eventually, the real motive for John’s surprise visit is revealed. And it’s motive that is as offbeat as it is sinister.

John has an accomplice: His fidgety wife Rose Spinellie (played by Lorraine Farris), who worked as a bartender at the wedding reception. Part of their plan involves blackmailing someone in this newlywed couple. Considering the chain of events that happen in the movie, it’s easy to assume that John and Rose have done the same thing to other victims by using their jobs at Crystal View to look for potential targets.

“Crumb Catcher” is at its absolute best in the last third of the movie when all hell breaks loose. Shane, Leah, John and Rose are the four people who get the vast majority of the movie screen time. These two couples end up battling each other in more ways than one.

There’s a nerve-wracking sequence where one of these four people has consumed a lot of alcohol in a short period of time and is driving very fast on a dark, deserted road. The cinematography (by Adam Carboni) is excellent in immersing viewers in thes scenes, which are filmed from the drunk person’s perspective. It leads to some truly “edge of your seat” moments to see that will happen next.

All four of the principal “Crumb Catcher” cast members stand out for different reasons. Peck gives a very authentic-looking performance because Leah’s reactions (especially to unpredictable villain John) are very realistic. Garay gives a very watchable performance, considering Shane is a character who doesn’t open up easily, and there are a lot of unanswered questions about Shane’s life before he met Leah. Unlike Leah, Shane is someone who keeps a lot of his emotions inside and is reluctant to talk about things that are bothering him.

Speredakos makes John the type of creep who is unsettling but also who shows enough vulnerable insecurity that can make people wonder if they would be too harsh if they told John to go away. At one point, Shane and Leah wonder if John is really a menace or if John is harmless. Leah and Shane speculate that John could be on the autism spectrum or might have a personality disorder.

Farris’ tense performance as Rose is the yin to John’s yang in their co-dependent relationship. Rose appears to be shrewder than unhinged John, but John is more skilled at getting the upper hand in situations where he wants control. “Crumb Catcher” does not reinvent the horror stereotype of terror in a remote wooded area. However, because of a very memorable main villain and a weird invention, along with great suspense, “Crumb Catcher” is a uniquely frightful movie that will catch many viewers off guard by how quickly danger escalates.

Doppelgänger Releasing and Music Box Films released “Crumb Catcher” in select U.S. cinemas on July 19, 2024.

Review: “Deadpool & Wolverine,’ starring Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen

July 23, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Deadpool & Wolverine”

Directed by Shawn Levy

Culture Representation: Taking place in various universes, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Deadpool & Wolverine” (based on Marvel Comics is the first “Deadpool” and “X-Men”-related movie that is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) features a predominantly cast of characters (with some African Americans and Asians) portraying superheroes, supervillains, powers and regular human beings.

Culture Clash: Bickering superheroes Deadpool and Wolverine team up to stop certain villains who want to make Deadpool’s universe disappear.

Culture Audience: “Deadpool & Wolverine” will appeal primarily to people are fans of the movies headliners, superhero movies and action films that have some bawdy comedy with self-referencing jokes.

Emma Corrin in “Deadpool & Wolverine” (Photo by Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)

“Deadpool & Wolverine” takes a joke-filled grenade and throws it at previous perceptions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This hyperactive superhero sequel goes all-in with meta references, surprise appearances, and male homoerotic flirting. There are so many references to previous MCU movies, Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, executive decisions for superhero movies, and some of the cast members’ personal lives in the real world, it would be easy for anyone not familiar with any of these references be confused or not understand at last half of the jokes in the movie. “Deadpool & Wolverine”(based on Marvel Comics characters) is still an adrenaline-packed, crowd-pleaser for anyone inclined to like superhero movies, even if the movie is overstuffed with “surprises” to bulk up what is essentially a very thin plot.

Directed by Shawn Levy, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the first MCU movie starring Marvel Comics characters from 20th Century Fox Studios (now known as 20th Century Studios), which was acquired by Disney (also owner of Marvel Studios) in 2019, about two years before the acquisition was announced. As a result, Marvel characters that have had movies from 20th Century Fox, such as Deadpool, the X-Men (which includes Wolverine), the Fantastic Four, Blade, Daredevil and Elektra, are among the characters who can now be part of the MCU. “Deadpool & Wolverine” was written by Levy, Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Zeb Wells.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is also the first MCU movie to have a movie rating that is recommended viewing for people at or close to adult ages. The movie gets this rating because of the bloody violence and cursing. “Deadpool & Wolverine” also has some sexual comments/innuendos that are intended for mature/adult audiences. Do people need to see any of 20th Century Fox’s previous superhero movies to better understand “Deadpool & Wolverine”? Yes. The best ones to see before “Deadpool & Wolverine” are 2016’s “Deadpool,” 2018’s “Deadpool 2” and 2017’s “Logan.”

In the very beginning of “Deadpool & Wolverine” wisecracking superhero Deadpool (played by Reynolds) is seen digging up a grave in a snowy wooded area. He’s trying to find and resurrect surly superhero Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman), a human-wolf mutant also known as Logan, who died in the “Logan” movie. Wolverine is one of the main characters in the “X-Men” series of movies and comic books. Deadpool, whose real name is Wade Wilson, is a Canadian mercenary nicknamed Merc with a Mouth. Wade was disfigured by tumor-like scars that he received from being in a hypobaric chamber, and he has superhuman regenerative healing abilities. Wade’s main weapons are his guns and swords, while Wolverine’s main weapons his retractable hand claws that are very large blades.

The meta references in “Deadpool & Wolverine” start from the very first scene. Deadpool can be heard saying in a voiceover about resurrecting Wolverine/Logan: “Marvel is so stupid. How are we going to do this without dishonoring Logan’s memory? We’re not.” There’s an amusing fight scene that Deadpool has with some soldiers the wooded area, where Deadpool dances to *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.” And then, there’s a flashback to Deadpool’s life in 2018 and in 2024, before he ended up in this fight.

The flashbacks show that Wade has retired his Deadpool superhero persona and is working as a salesperson for a company called Drive Max, which is a lot like the real-life automobile sales company CarMax. Wade is close to a middle-aged co-worker named Peter (played by Rob Delaney), who is also a salesperson at Drive Max. A flashback to 2018 shows that Wade is unhappy in this dead-end job, so he interviews with Happy Hogan (played by Jon Favreau), Iron Man’s former chauffeur, to see if he can get back in the superhero business. Deadpool says he needs to join the Avengers (Marvel’s most famous group of superheroes), but Happy tells Wade that people aren’t Avengers because they need to be but because people need the Avengers.

In 2024, Wade is living with elderly roommate Blind Al (played by Leslie Uggams), who mentions several times that she’s a cocaine dealer. (The cocaine comments in the movie are played for laughs.) On his birthday, Wade goes home and gets a surprise birthday party, whose guests are Blind Al; Wade’s ex-girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle (played by Morena Baccarin); and various superhero friends who were introduced in 2018’s “Deadpool 2”: Dopinder (played by Karan Soni); Negasonic Teenage Warhead (played by Brianna Hildebrand); Yukio (played by Shioli Kutsuna); Colussus (played by Stefan Kapicic); and Buck (played by Randal Reeder). At this party, Vanessa tells Wade that she has a new boyfriend. Wade (who’s still in love with Vanessa) is visibly disappointed that she has moved on to someone else.

After this birthday party, Wade suddenly finds himself transported to the headquarters of the Time Variance Authority (TVA), which is responsible for various timelines in the multiverse. Wade meets a pompous TVA official named Mr. Paradox (played by Matthew Macfadyen), who informs Wade that when an anchor being dies in a universe, the universe and its timeline will eventually fade from existence. Mr. Paradox tells Wade/Deadpool that the universe of Wade/Deadpool and all of Wade’s loved ones will eventually cease to exist. Mr. Paradox has been tasked with overseeing this extinction.

Wade/Deadpool finds out that the “anchor being” for this universe is Wolverine/Logan. And so begins a race against time to find Wolverine/Logan (there are several in the multiverse) who is alive and team up with Wolverine to save Deadpool’s universe. “Deadpool & Wolverine” has a flurry of alternate Wolverines/Logans who make quick appearance in this search, including one played by an actor who is famous for starring as a DC Comics superhero.

The Wolverine/Logan who ends up teaming up with Deadpool/Wade is dealing with massve guilt over the death of millions of beings in his universe. The movie’s chief villain is Cassandra Nova (played by Emma Corrin), the twin sister of “X-Men” character Charles Xavier. She lives in a place called The Void, which “Deadpool & Wolverine” is quick to self-referentially point out is the movie’s ripoff version of what’s in the “Mad Max” movies. Cassandra has extremely powerful telekinesis abilities. She can also take her hands to go inside bodies and grab onto people’s organs. When she takes a hold of someone’s brain, she can read their mind and enter their thoughts.

The movie’s visual effects are above-average but they’re not groundbreaking. “Deadpool & Wolverine’s” soundtrack songs lean heavily into nostalgia. In addition to *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye,” other songs featured prominently in the movie are Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”; John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s “Grease” duet “You’re the One that I Want”; and Huey Lewis & the News’ “The Power of Love” and “If This Is It.” This isn’t a soundtrack that will have an award-winning hit original song written for the soundtrack.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” also mines nostalgia in other ways, such as plenty of surprise superhero appearances—some that are more predictable than others. Some of these superhero appearances are played by the same cast members who were these superheroes in other movies, while other superhero appearances are from cast members playing these superheroes for the first time in a movie. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the appearance of someone who seems to be one superhero but then is revealed to be another superhero.

Reynolds and Jackman play up the “opposites attract and clash” personalities of Deadpool and Wolverine to the hilt. They get into some epic battles with villains and with each other. Reynolds has said in interviews that he thinks Deadpool is probably bisexual or sexually fluid, and so he portrays the character in this way. “Deadpool & Wolverine” doesn’t come right out and declare Deadpool’s sexuality, but the movie doesn’t really play coy about Deadpool’s sexuality either. There are numerous scenes that show Deadpool/Wade is still in love with Vanessa but he is sexually attracted to Wolverine/Logan.

Corrin is quite good in the role of ice-cold Cassandra, but this villain won’t go be remembered as the most fearsome or entertaining MCU villain. Macfadyen (the Emmy-winning former co-star of “Succession”) also has a role as an icy Brit villain, although prissy Mr. Paradox doesn’t have any superpowers and is a lot less menacing than Cassandra. There’s also a Deadpool dog named Dogpool who is in the movie for offbeat cuteness and comic relief. Cassandra’s minions are generic and forgettable, except for an underdeveloped character named Pyro (played by Aaron Stanford), who can make flames come out of his hands.

The movie has some snarky references to a few of the cast members’ personal lives. For example, Deadpool says that Wolverine has let his toned physique go flabby because of the divorce, which is in reference to Jackman’s own real-life divorce that Jackman going through while filming “Deadpool & Wolverine.” There’s also a joke about two real-life ex-spouses who co-starred as superheroes in a superhero movie that was released in the early 2000s, a few years before the now-divorced couple got married.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” has an overload of references to past superhero movies, pop culture and celebrity gossip. Viewers who are unfamiliar with any of the above will just feel lost but can still enjoy the action and the characters. The movie’s end-credit scene is not a preview for a sequel but is an amusing reference to a previous scene in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” As far as MCU movies go, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a wacky and entertaining ride that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “Deadpool & Wolverine” revels in poking fun itself as much as it pokes fun at the movie industry.

Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios will release “Deadpool & Wolverine” in U.S. cinemas on July 26, 2024.

Review: ‘Sorry/Not Sorry’ (2024) starring Jen Kirkman, Abby Schachner, Megan Koester, Noam Dworman, Cara Buckley, Jodi Kantor and Melena Ryzik

July 22, 2024

by Carla Hay

Megan Koester in “Sorry/Not Sorry” (Photo courtesy of The New York Times/Greenwich Entertainment)

“Sorry/Not Sorry” (2024)

Directed by Cara Mones and Caroline Suh

Culture Representation: The documentary “Sorry/Not Sorry” features a predominantly white group of people (with one African American and one Latina) discussing the #MeToo scandal of comedian/actor Louis C.K. and how it speaks to larger issues of what “cancel culture” really means.

Culture Clash: Louis C.K. had his career temporarily derailed, after he admitted in 2017 that a New York Times report was true about him sexually harassing women for decades; his comeback attempts after his #MeToo scandal have gotten mixed responses.

Culture Audience: “Sorry/Not Sorry” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching a documentary about what “cancel culture” really means when a famous entertainer had a #MeToo scandal was able to make a semi-comeback.

Noam Dworman in “Sorry/Not Sorry” (Photo courtesy of The New York Times/Greenwich Entertainment)

“Sorry/Not Sorry” needed more information about people who helped Louis C.K. make a comeback after his #MeToo scandal. The documentary still capably explores difficult questions about the difference between forgiving and enabling admitted sexual harassers. The situation with comedian/actor Louis C.K. is complicated by people’s varying definitions of what type of scandal they think should ruin someone’s career and for how long.

Directed by Cara Mones and Caroline Suh, “Sorry/Not Sorry” had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary is produced in part by The New York Times and is based on the 2017 reporting on Louis C.K. by New York Times investigative journalists Melena Ryzik, Cara Buckley and Jodi Kantor, who are all interviewed in the documentary. In November 2017, the trio broke the story about Louis C.K. being a serial sexual harasser, with his known harassment going back to the 1990s. An epilogue caption in “Sorry/Not Sorry” says that Louis C.K. did not respond to requests for comment or to participate in this documentary.

Lous C.K.’s targets were women (usually other comedians with less power and less fame), whom he would masturbate in front of and/or tell graphic details about his sex life or sexual thoughts, often without their consent. In cases where he did get consent to masturbate in front of a victim, she later reported that she was either in shock or thought he was joking when she said yes. These stories about Louis C.K. had been circulating for years and had been an “open secret” in the entertainment industry, but he had publicly denied or refused to address these allegations in interviews. It wasn’t until the day after The New York Times published its November 2017 exposé on Louis C.K. (with several of his victims going on the record) that Louis C.K. publicly admitted that the reported sexual harassment stories about him were true.

Louis C.K. (whose birth name is Louis Alfred Székely) was born in 1967, in Washington, D.C., although for the first seven years of his life, he was raised in Mexico. He father Luis Szekely
was of Mexican Jewish heritage, while his mother Mary Louise Davis was Irish American. Louis C.K. rarely talks about his Latin/Hispanic ethnicity and the fact that he spoke only Spanish until he was 7 years old, when his family moved back to the United States (in the Boston area), and he learned English. Louis C.K. identifies as a white American and lets people assume that he is fully white.

The racial issue is important because several people in “Sorry/Not Sorry” say directly or indirectly that Louis C.K.’s white male privilege has allowed him to get away with more and make a career comeback faster than someone in the same circumstance who isn’t a white male. The business of stand-up comedy—where Louis C.K. first rose to fame and which was the first part of the entertainment industry where he made his comeback—is also dominated by white men, the demographic that makes the most money from stand-up comedy.

Sex and masturbation have been frequent topics in Louis C.K.’s stand-up comedy routines, where he usually has smirking commentary about how terrible men are to women. Louis C.K. would become even more famous as an actor—most notably, starring in and executive producing his own FX comedy series “Louie,” which was on the air from 2010 to 2015. He has also won several major industry awards, including Primetime Emmys for his screenwriting and Grammys for his comedy albums. In his personal life (which he often talks about his in stand-up comedy act), Louis C.K. was married to artist Alix Bailey from 1995 to 2008, the year that they were officially divorced. He and Bailey have two daughters together.

The fallout of Louis C.K.’s #MeToo scandal was swift and severe. He was fired from the FX comedy/drama series “Better Things,” which he co-created with “Better Things” star Pamela Adlon. The show was later cancelled in 2022. He had a lucrative deal with Netflix that was also cancelled in 2017.

Also resulting from the scandal, Louis C.K.’s comedy/drama movie “I Love You, Daddy,” which he wrote and directed, had its 2017 release cancelled. In “I Love You, Daddy,” C.K. starred as the father of a teenager (played by Chloe Grace Moretz), who is the target of a sexual predator in his 60s (played by John Malkovich), but it’s all played for laughs. There are also scenes in the movie where men pretend to masturbate in front of women.

“Sorry/Not Sorry” features interviews with two women who say that they were the targets of Louis C.K.’s sexual harassment: TV writer/producer Jen Kirkman and artist/comedian Abby Schachner. Both women talk about how they were initially reluctant to go public with their stories because Louis C.K.’s sexual harassment was known and accepted by numerous people in the entertainment industry.

Kirkman describes sexual harassment encounters with Louis C.K., who worked with her in 2002 as a voice actor on the animated comedy series “Home Movies.” She remembers sharing a car ride with him during a “Home Movie” business trip to Massachusetts in 2002, and he began telling her about his sex life without her consent.

Kirkman says she later she turned down his offer to be his opening act in Florida (even though she says she really needed the money) because she instinctively felt it would lead to more sexual harassment from him. On a separate occasion, when she saw Louis C.K. again, he grabbed her by the neck in a private moment and whispered, “We’re going to fuck one day.”

After a Gawker article in 2015 began dropping hints that Louis C.K. was a serial harasser, Kirkman decided to semi-out him on her podcast by describing her own sexual harassment experience with Louis C.K. but without naming him. People figured out anyway that she was talking about Louis C.K., and Kirkman says she wasn’t prepared for the backlash. She was also disheartened by how many people knew about Louis C.K. being problematic but did not publicly support her.

“It was like being thrown into war with no battle training,” Kirkman comments. In the documentary, Kirkland says that Louis C.K. personally contacted her during this time to make amends, but he refused her request to make a joint statement where he would publicly admit to his wrongdoing. Kirkland remembers that Louis C.K. would not say that what happened to her was an isolated incident or that he would stop sexually harassing other women.

Kirkland admits her ambivalence about publicly naming Louis C.K. as her sexual harasser caused her to publicly deny at one point that he was her harasser because she was tired of the bullying and hate that she was getting from his supporters. She also says that she wanted the negative media attention on her to stop. Kirkland mentions that she chose not to be interviewed for the New York Times’ 2017 coverage of Louis C.K.’s sexual harassment because he did not masturbate in front of her, and she feels her experiences with Louis C.K. weren’t as heinous in comparison to the victims who were subjected to watching him masturbate.

In the documentary, Kirkland reflects on her negative experiences with Louis C.K.: “I don’t know if I was traumatized by what he did. I was disturbed. As the years went on, and I had more of a sense of self, I was like, ‘Oh my God. That is so fucked up.’ And this culture of people who think it’s normal—they’re fucked up.”

Schachner (who got masturbation sexual harassment from Louis C.K. in 2003, during a phone conversation) hasn’t given up on wanting to be a full-time entertainer, but she says she was traumatized enough by her Louis C.K. experiences, she took a few breaks from the entertainment industry and did some “hiding.” Schachner says at the time, she was afraid of retaliation if she went public about Louis C.K. being a sexual harasser.

Schachner says that in the private phone conversation that she had with Louis C.K., she thought that they were going to discuss business, but he ended up sexually harassing her. “I felt duped,” Schachner says. She also mentions in her documentary interview that she never consented to Louis C.K. masturbating in front of her. Schachner also says that Louis C.K. tried to reconcile with her in 2009, when he reached out to her for an in-person meeting at Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles. She agreed to the meeting but didn’t get complete closure because he wouldn’t say that he had stopped his sexual harassment.

Comedian/writer Megan Koester said she heard stories about Louis C.K. masturbating in front of women as sexual harassment, but she was still surprised by how far people were willing to go to cover it up. In 2015, after Bill Cosby’s career was torpedoed when numerous women came forward accusing him of drugging and raping them, Koester says she was at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival as a reporter for Gawker. Koester asked people at a Just for Laughs event what they thought of the allegations against Cosby and the sexual harassment stories about Louis C.K.

According to Koester, Just for Laughs executive Bruce Hills (who was the chief operating officer of Just for Laughs in 2015 and has since been promoted to president of Just for Laughs) yelled at her to stop asking those questions about Louis C.K. because Hills said that Koester was on the turf of Just for Laughs, and Louis C.K. is a friend of the festival. Koester says that this intimidation rattled her. In the documentary, Koester says that she was so disgusted by seeing how Louis C.K. was coddled and celebrated in the entertainment industry by people who knew he was sexual harasser, she ended up quitting her pursuit to be a full-time entertainer. Koester says she now sells items on eBay for her income.

One of the main criticisms that Louis C.K. accusers get is that they are jealous of him and his career. It’s victim blaming that unfairly ignores that Louis C.K. has admitted to the harassment that has been reported about him. Victims who didn’t report the harassment right away are also blamed, as if what happened to them couldn’t possibly be true because they kept it private for a long time—even though the perpetrator admitted it happened.

The documentary mentions Dave Chappelle (who has also gotten much criticism for being misogynistic and transphobic in his work) as one of the celebrities who’ve publicly supported and excused Louis C.K. for the sexual harassment. Louis C.K.’s supporters usually argue some version of this comment: “What Louis C.K. did is not that bad compared to someone like convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.” However, it’s a flawed argument because sexual harassment is sexual harassment, whether someone gets into legal trouble for it or not.

Also interviewed in “Sorry/Not Sorry” are two people who employed Louis C.K. at different times and have very different perspectives. Michael Schur, co-creator of the comedy series “Parks and Recreation,” hired Louis C.K. as a guest star for six “Parks and Recreation” episodes in 2009. Schur said he heard the sexual harassment stories about Louis C.K. at the time but he ignored them because he thought, “It’s not my problem.” Schur says he now regrets this dismissive attitude and should’ve been thinking more of the people being hurt by this sexual harassment.

Noam Dworman, owner of the Comedy Cellar nightclub in New York City, was the first person to hire Louis C.K. for a stand-up comedy show after Louis C.K.’s #MeToo scandal derailed the comedian’s career in November 2017. Louis C.K. returned to the spotlight by doing an unannounced appearance at the Comedy Cellar in August 2018, which led to Louis C.K. doing subsequent Comedy Cellar appearances that were announced. Dworman and the Comedy Cellar got a lot of public criticism and backlash for the decision to give Louis C.K. these comeback opportunities. However, Dworman and the Comedy Cellar received a lot of praise from people who say they dislike “cancel culture” and think Louis C.K. deserves a chance to resume his career.

Dworman is defensive of this decision and thinks, as the owner of a private business, he has a right to decide to book performers whom audiences want to see. Dworman comments in the documentary: “You can feel however you want to feel about these things, but to feel you have the right to impose on a private business who’s employing a free person, who’s performing in front of people who want to see him in a free country, [and] that you feel that this is your business, I think that’s very, very dangerous. And that is where I’m drawing my line.”

Also interviewed in the documentary are comedians Michael Ian Black, Aida Rodriguez and Andy Kindler. Several journalists/critics are also interviewed, including Alison Herman of Variety, Wesley Morris of The New York Times, and Jesse David Fox of Vulture, and freelancer Sean L. McCarthy, whose specialty is comedy journalism. Most of the journalists say that Louis C.K. cleverly hid his predatory ways in plain sight by making his crude sex talk and “men are pigs” jokes as part of his comedy persona.

In 2018, Black got backlash for posting a message on Twitter saying he was excited to see what Louis C.K. was going to do next and questioned how much longer the disgraced comedian deserved to be shunned because of the scandal. Black later made a public apology and says he learned that he should have been more sensitive to the people hurt by Louis C.K.’s sexual harassment.

In the documentary, Black comments: “Louis had a whole bit [in his stand-up comedy act] about how the greatest threat to women is men. Louis can still do that bit and say, ‘I was one of those guys. And let me talk about it’ And it feels like such a missed opportunity that he didn’t do it.” Instead, Louis C.K. has addressed the issue in his stand-up act by joking that if anyone asks permission to masturbate in front of an acquaintance, they shouldn’t do it, even if that person says yes.

The documentary also has some brief interview clips with a few unidentified Louis C.K. fans (all of them are men under the age of 40) who were interviewed at one of his post-scandal concerts. One of the men says of his support of Louis C.K., who has been called a hypocrite by many critics: “Everyone lives with a certain amount of hypocrisy. This is the amount I’ve allocated for myself.”

Has Louis C.K. learned from his misdeeds and stopped being a sexual harasser? Did he ever get professional counseling for this sexual harassment addiction that he has publicly admitted to having? Did he spend time meeting with any victim rights groups to learn and make amends? Louis C.K. isn’t saying if he’s done any of those things, but at the time this documentary was released, there hadn’t been any complaints about him sexually harassing anyone since his #MeToo scandal in 2017.

Kirkman says, “I have never asked anyone to denounce him so he wouldn’t work.” However, she comments that a major problem is how predators who are famous are often excused and rewarded while their less-famous victims are often blamed and blackballed. “Everyone letting all of these predators back, while some people never had a chance, it really hurts,” Kirman says, “especially in this culture where it seems like nobody cares.”

Although “Sorry/Not Sorry” does a very good job of giving background information (much of it already covered in The New York Times and other media outlets) and assembling archival footage, what’s missing from the documentary is a better examination of the culture and the people who allowed Louis C.K. to make a comeback. Louis C.K. hasn’t been able to star in a network series or major-studio movie since the scandal. But since 2018, he’s been doing sold-out live performances (including at New York City’s Madison Square Garden) and selling his content directly to fans. He also won one of his Grammy Awards (Best Comedy Album, for 2020’s “Sincerely Louis C.K.”) in 2022, five years after his #MeToo scandal.

In other words, Louis C.K. is still making millions and getting accolades—just not at the level that he was experiencing before the scandal. Critics of Louis C.K. say that he hasn’t shown enough remorse or willingness to make things right with his victims. Supporters of Louis C.K. say that he has suffered enough and deserves to make a comeback in his career. It speaks to a larger issue about what redemption or punishment should be in Louis C.K.’s situation. There are no easy answers when people can’t agree on what type of punishment should be given and for how long.

Greenwich Entertainment released “Sorry/Not Sorry” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on July 12, 2024.

True Crime Entertainment: What’s New This Week

The following content is generally available worldwide, except where otherwise noted. All TV shows listed are for networks and streaming services based in the United States. All movies listed are those released in U.S. cinemas. This schedule is for content and events premiering this week and does not include content that has already been made available.

July 22 – July 28, 2024

TV/Streaming Services

All times listed are Eastern Time/Pacific Time, unless otherwise noted.

Netflix’s three-episode docuseries “Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam” premieres Wednesday, July 24 at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.

Monday, July 22

“Fatal Affairs”
“Lessons in Lust” (Episode 101) **Series Premiere**
Monday, July 22, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Fatal Attraction”
“Fatal Façade” (Episode 1736)
Monday, July 22, 9 p.m., TV One

“Contraband: Seized at Sea”
“Operation Total Silence” (Episode 103)
Monday, July 22, 9 p.m., Discovery

“Signs of a Psychopath”
“Killer Egos” (Episode 901) **Season Premiere**
Monday, July 22, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Deadly Case Files”
“Detective JB Williams” (Episode 101) **Series Premiere**
Monday, July 22, 10 p.m., TV One

Tuesday, July 23

“High Speed Chase”
“Terror on the Interstate” (Episode 205)
Tuesday, July 23, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Sasha Reid & the Midnight Order”
“The Butcher of Coquitlam” (Episode 103)
Tuesday, July 23, 10 p.m., Freeform

“Late Night Lockup”
“Husbands Gone Wild” (Episode 207)
Tuesday, July 23, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Wednesday, July 24

“Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam” (Three-episode docuseries)
Wednesday, July 24, 3 a.m. ET/12 a..m. PT, Netflix

“Dateline”
“Before Daylight”
Wednesday, July 24, 8 p.m., Oxygen

“American Detective With Lt. Joe Kenda”
“The Hghway Hunter” (Episode 409)
Wednesday, July 24, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Fatal Attraction”
“No Remorse” (Episode 1509)
Wednesday, July 24, 9 p.m., TV One

“Court Cam”
(Episode 732)
Wednesday, July 24, 9 p.m., A&E

“Court Cam”
(Episode 733)
Wednesday, July 24, 9:30 p.m., A&E

“Fear Thy Neighbor”
“Poking the Bear” (Episode 1005)
Wednesday, July 24, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“For My Man”
“Reckless Love Rampage” (Episode 809)
Wednesday, July 24, 10 p.m., TV One

“My Strange Arrest”
“I Did It” (Episode 205)
Wednesday, July 24, 10 p.m., A&E

“My Strange Arrest”
“Naked at the Gym” (Episode 206)
Wednesday, July 24, 10:30 p.m., A&E

Thursday, July 25

“Dateline”
“The Secret Life of the Homecoming Queen”
Thursday, July 25, 8 p.m., Oxygen

“After the First 48”
“The Invitation” (Episode 110)
Thursday, July 25, 8 p.m., A&E

“60 Days In”
“Celly Suspicions” (Episode 908)
Thursday, July 25, 9 p.m., A&E

“Caught!”
“Nude, Crude and Unscrewed”
Thursday, July 25, 9 p.m., Discovery

“Caught!”
“Retail Fails”
Thursday, July 25, 9:30 p.m., Discovery

“Muscles and Murder” (One-hour special)
Thursday, July 25, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Friday, July 26

“20/20”
TBA
Friday, July 26, 9 p.m., ABC

“On Patrol: Live”
TBA
Friday, July 26, 9 p.m., Reelz

“Tell Me How I Died”
“Locked Away” (Episode 105)
Friday, July 26, 10 p.m., A&E

Saturday, July 27

“On Patrol: First Shift”
TBA
Saturday, July 27, 8 p.m., Reelz

“On Patrol: Live”
TBA
Saturday, July 27, 9 p.m., Reelz

Sunday, July 28

“Snapped”
“Sydney Powell” (Episode 3404)
Sunday, July 28, 6 p.m., Oxygen

“American Monster”
“‘Til Death Do Us Part” (Episode 1207)
Sunday, July 28, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Movies in Theaters or on Home Video

No new true crime movies released in theaters or home video this week.

Radio/Podcasts

No new true crime podcast series premiering this week.

Events

Events listed here are not considered endorsements by this website. All ticket buyers with questions or concerns about the event should contact the event promoter or ticket seller directly.

All start times listed are local time, unless otherwise noted.

No new true crime events this week.

Review: ‘Latency’ (2024), starring Sasha Luss and Alexis Ren

July 21, 2024

by Carla Hay

Sasha Luss in “Latency” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Latency” (2024)

Directed by James Croke

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “Latency” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A virtual reality gamer, who has agoraphobia, questions her sanity when she sees people and things that might not exist.

Culture Audience: “Latency” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in psychological dramas and don’t mind if the plots are mindless.

Alexis Ren and Sasha Luss in “Latency” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Latency” takes a potentially solid idea for a thriller (a virtual reality gamer begins to lose her sanity) and makes it an incoherent, boring mess. It’s hard to take this psychological movie seriously when it’s so stupid. The acting is also horrendous.

Written and directed by James Croke, “Latency” is his feature-film directorial debut. The movie has nothing interesting to say and just has repetitive scenarios that take place in one location: an apartment in an unnamed U.S. city. (“Latency” was actually filmed in Bangkok, Thailand.) A virtual reality gamer named Hana (played by Sasha Luss) is seen in the beginning of the movie testing out a game where players do gun battles against human-sized alien monsters.

Hana, who’s in her early 30s, makes some money from doing this type of testing job, but it’s apparently not enough money for her to pay her rent. More than once during the movie, Hana’s unseen landlord (voiced by Robert Coleby) goes to her closed door and asks her to pay her overdue rent. Hana promises him that she will have the rent for him, but in reality, she broke and doesn’t know where she’ll get the money. “Latency” is so poorly written, the movie reveals almost nothing about Hana except some trauma she’s experienced in the past and present.

It’s soon revealed that Hana is a shut-in with agoraphobia, which is a fear of leaving an environment that is considered safe. Hana is so afraid of opening her apartment door, it’s an ordeal for her to sign for deliveries. It’s later revealed that when Hana was a child, her mother was very fearful of Hana going outside and forced Hana to stay in their home.

Hana developed her love of video games during this time and still has a special fondness for playing Tetris. Almost nothing is told about Hana’s father except that he is dead. The movie doesn’t say when he died, but Hana looks at photos of him in a scene in the move.

Hana’s only apparent friend is a woman named Jen (played by Alexis Ren), who’s about the same age as Hana and visits her at random times in the movie. Hana and Jen are the only two people in the movie who have significant speaking roles in the movie. Jen is talkative and obnoxious. For example, during one of the times that Hana’s landlord is at the door to ask for the overdue rent money, Jen yells at him through the door to go away and calls him a “geriatric asshole.”

One day, Hana gets a package delivered to her for a device called Omnia, which can be worn on someone’s head. Omnia is a brain-computer interface that’s capable of picking up brain waves and then controlling every device, game and program that the Omnia wearer is using. It just leads to some time-wasting scenes of Hana using her computer through mind control.

“Latency” looks like it might turn into a horror movie because of scenes showing Hana seeing a mysterious, unnamed girl (played by Margarita Bakhtina), who’s about 5 or 6 years old, in the hallway outside of her apartment. The first time this girl is seen in the movie, she asks Hana, “Why are you scared?” Hana answers, “I’m not.” This the type of dreadfully dull dialogue that’s in the movie.

There’s some sloppily written nonsense about Hana entering a video game tournament where she hopes to win money to pay her rent and other bills. She uses the screen name Banshee. Hana keeps seeng this mystery girl in the hallway, but no one seems to know who the girl is. Is this girl real or just in Hana’s imagination? Hana also starts to have nightmares of a woman who looks like a witch, although it’s pretty obvious which woman is really haunting Hana.

Luss’ uneven performance is either too stiff in some scenes or has bad over-acting in other scenes. Ren gives a performance that isn’t much better. The cinematography has dark brown murkiness, which looks very fake and unappealing. The ending of the movie is absolutely horrendous. Viewers will be wondering throughout this entire terribly conceived film: “Why was this pointless movie even made?” The only real usefulness that “Latency” might have is to help insomniacs fall asleep.

Lionsgate released “Latency” in select U.S. cinemas on June 14, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on July 9, 2024.

Review: ‘Jim Henson Idea Man,’ starring Frank Oz, Lisa Henson, Heather Henson, Cheryl Henson and Brian Henson

July 21, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Jim Henson Idea Man”

Directed by Ron Howard

Culture Representation: The documentary “Jim Henson Idea Man” features a predominantly white group of people (with one Latina) discussing the life and career of puppeteer/filmmaker Jim Henson, who is best known for creating several Muppets characters.

Culture Clash: Henson, who was known as a generous, creative and fun-loving person, was also a workaholic who often preferred being at work instead of being with his family.

Culture Audience: “Jim Henson Idea Man” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Henson, the Muppets and biographical documentaries about pioneering entertainers.

A 1970s archival photo of Jim Henson (front row, center) and members of “The Muppet Show” team, including Jane Henson (front row, far right) and Frank Oz (second row, far right) in “Jim Henson Idea Man” (Photo courtesy of Disney+)

“Jim Henson Idea Man” could’ve easily been just a nostalgia trip of Jim Henson’s successes. However, this candid documentary gives an illuminating look at the ups and downs of his life without glossing over how his flaws affected his personal relationships. “Jim Henson Idea Man” also has an impressive collection of previously unreleased archival footage that gives further insight into his creativity. In 1990, Henson died of toxic shock syndrome caused by Group A streptococcal infection. He was 53.

Directed by Ron Howard, “Jim Henson Idea Man” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The documentary has since been nominated for eight Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Although other documentaries (such as the 2021 “Sesame Street” documentary “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”) have shown how the Emmy-winning Henson has been the most influential and commercially successful puppeteer in history, those other documentaries only told part of his story. “Jim Henson Idea Man” is the first truly comprehensive documentary on Henson and has the added benefit of including many of his personal home videos and other memorabilia, provided by his family member.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” wisely does not overstuff the movie with too many people commenting on Henson. All of the people interviewed for the documentary are family members or those who worked with closely with Henson. The cultural impact of Henson’s work on “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show” is already common knowledge, so this documentary didn’t need to have plethora of celebrities and entertainment industry experts to talk about how Henson’s work was groundbreaking and profoundly influential to many people.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” gives a brief summary of Henson’s childhood and teenage years, which were relatively happy and stable, by all accounts. He was born as James Maury Henson in 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi. He was raised in Mississippi and Maryland. Jim didn’t play with puppets in his pre-teen childhood. Television was Jim’s biggest childhood influence on wanting to become an entertainer.

His parents Paul (an agronomist) and Betty were Christian Scientists, although Jim is described in the documentary as not belonging to any particular religion in his adulthood. It’s mentioned that Jim was more spiritual than religious. He believed in some Buddhist teachings, such as transcendental meditation and the concept that life and death are on the same continuum.

Jim’s only sibling was his older brother Paul Henson Jr. (born in 1932), who is described as Jim’s best friend until Paul’s tragic death in a car accident in 1956, at the age of 24. Paul Jr.’s death had a profound effect on Jim, says Jim’s son Brian: “It was a huge shock to my family. It absolutely shattered my dad’s world.”

One of the recurring themes in Jim Henson’s life was that he never felt like he had enough tme to do all the things he wanted to do in life. The documentary includes rare footage of Jim’s 1965 short film “Time Piece,” which features Jim in multiple roles (such as a hospital patient and as a doctor) that has several references to running out of time before dying. Brian says in the documentary about his father Jim’s preoccupation with work had a lot to do with Jim feeling that he needed to make a lot of his dreams come true to fulfill a larger purpose. “The idea that time could run out, I’m sure came with the death of his brother,” Bran comments.

From an early age, Jim wanted to become a filmmaker. He particularly loved making weird experimental films. But he first became famous as a puppeteer. Jim started doing puppet shows while he was in high school. By the time he was in college, Henson was doing puppet shows for local TV stations in the Washington, D.C., area, such as “Sam and Friends” on WRC-TV.

It was during this time in 1955 that Jim created his most famous Muppet character: Kermit the Frog, a green creature with a gentle, fun-loving personality. Kermit was considered an alter ego of Jim’s, although he described Kermit as much more extroverted and adventurous than Jim was in real life.

While he was a student at the University of Maryland in College Park, Henson began a puppeteer collaboration with classmate Jane Nebel. They got married in 1959 and had five children: Lisa, Cheryl, Heather, John and Brian. All of the children ended up working with their father as puppeteers and/or as producers. All of the children except John are interviewed in this documentary.

Jane Nebel Henson (who died in 2013) co-founded Muppets Inc. (later renamed the Jim Henson Company) with Jim. At first, she had 40% ownership of the company, while Jim had 60% ownership. Jane (who is described by her children as being very independent and free thinker) eventually scaled back her ownership and involvement in the company as she spent more time raising the couple’s children.

After Jane reduced her involvement in the company work, Henson’s main creative partners then became Frank Oz, who worked with Jim since Oz was 17; writer Jerry Juhl, who died at age 67 in 2005; and puppet designer Don Sahlin, who died of a heart atatck at age 49 in 1978. Also instrumental to Henson’s TV success was “Sesame Street” director Jon Stone, who died at age 65 in 1997. Jim did not create all of the Muppet characters, but created or co-created several of the most iconic, including Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog, Ernie, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

Oz, who is interviewed in “Jim Henson Idea Man,” says he and Jim had opposite personalities (Jim was playful, Oz describes himself as “uptight”), which actually was a benefit to how they worked together when creatng personalities for their puppets. This “opposites attract” dynamic could be seen in the relationships between two of the most famous duos in Muppet history: roommates Ernie (voiced by Jim Henson) and Bert (voiced by Oz)—Ernie is optimist; Bert is pessimistic—and bickering couple Kermit the Frog (voiced by Jim Henson) and Miss Piggy (voiced by Oz), who is prissy and vain.

In “Jim Henson Idea Man,” Oz says: “I met Jim when I was about 17. It took about 10 years to where we could sense each other’s rhythms. He was a very rare creature. He was so internal and quiet, his inner life must have been sparkling. He had so many ideas and so many things he wanted to do. And so, the idea of time, I think, was very much on Jim’s mind, always.”

Oz says his relationship with Jim evolved from seeing Jim as a father figure/mentor to being more fraternal. “We really were like brothers,” Oz comments. And although Jim was technically Oz’s boss when they worked together, Oz says he felt he had an equal creative partnership with Jim. Oz made his feature-film directorial debut as a co-director with Jim on 1982’s “The Dark Crystal,” a fantasy film with life-sized puppets. Oz says he was surprised and flattered that Jim asked Oz to co-direct the movie with him.

According the Henson kids who are interviewed in the documentary, the marriage of Jim and Jane ran into major problems because the spouses often disagreed on Jim’s career priorities and goals. When Jim was offered a job on “Sesame Street” in 1969 (the year the TV series launched), he was reluctant to take it to because he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a children’s entertainer. By contrast, Jane encouraged Jim to join “Sesame Street” and thought he should stay focused on children’s entertainment.

As Jim began to become rich and famous, he got more wrapped up in his work and wouldn’t be at home with his family for weeks or months at a time. His children say that even when Jim would go on family vacations, he would still be working.

Jim’s workaholic ways eventually caused Jim and Jane to lead separate lives. They officially separated in 1986 but never divorced because Jane didn’t believe in divorce. “Jim Henson Idea Man” includes clips of some archival interviews that Jane did where she talks about the her life with Jim. Brian says that during the separation, Jim dated women but never wanted these other relationships to get too serious.

Even though Jane stepped away from much of the couple’s day-to-day work at the family business, the business was very much on her mind. Brian says in the documentary that during family meals when the kids were underage, Jim would ask the kids about how they were doing in school, while Jane would mainly want to talk about business. The couple’s children say that Jane was a loving parent but didn’t want to be a traditional mother, whereas Jim expected her to conform to traditional gender roles when it came to parenting.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” also shows that even with the success of “Sesame Street,” Jim was rejected by all the U.S. TV networks at the time to launch “The Muppet Show,” which eventually found a home on the British TV network ATV. Jim created “The Muppet Show” so he could have more creative control than he had on “Sesame Street,” a show he didn’t create. It was the first major nationally televised variety series where the characters were all puppets, with human celebrities as guest stars.

Only after “The Muppet Show” was a smash hit in the United Kingdom that U.S. networks became interested, but the show was sold into U.S. syndication instead of being on one specific U.S. TV network. “The Muppet Show” inevitably spawned feature films that were hits. In 1980, Jim ended “The Muppet Show” after five years because he wanted to move on to other projects.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” also includes discussions of Jim’s post-“Muppet Show” work, most notably his directing of the fantasy feature films “The Dark Crystal” and 1986’s “Labyrinth,” which als featured life-sized puppets. “The Dark Crystal” ran into all sorts of problems with script rewrites demanded by the movie studio. “Labyrinth” was a flop with audiences and critics when it was released in theaters, although the movie has since become a cult classic. Jim took the so-called failure of “Labyrinth” very hard because he considered it one of his most creatively fulfilling projects. Labyrinth” co-star Jennifer Connelly, says of making the film: “It was like being in a dream world.”

One dream that Jim had that never came to fruition when he was alive was to do a Broadway puppet show. “Jim Henson Idea Man” has rare footage of a workshop for one of his Broadway show ideas. The documentary breezes through mentions of two of his last puppet TV series—”Fraggle Rock” (1983 to 1987) and “The StoryTeller” (1987 to 1989)—but doesn’t mention 1989’s “The Jim Henson Hour,” which was canceled before airing all of its first-season episodes. The documenaty goes into some details over his decision to buy the rights to “The Muppet Show” and related intellectual property, only to sell the Jim Henson Company to Disney in 1989.

Other people interviewed in the documentary include puppeteers Dave Goelz, Fran Brill and Bonnie Erickson; Alex Rockwell, who was Jim’s creative assistant from 1988 to 1990; Michael Frith, former executive vice-president and creative director of the Jim Henson Company; and former “Muppet Show” guest Rita Moreno, who tells a behind-the-scenes story about they had to do several takes when she was filming her performance of Peggy Lee’s “Fever” (wth the Muppet “wild drummer” character Animal) because she had a hard time trying not to laugh.

Muppets are of different races and species and came along at a time when racial integration was still very controversial in the United States. Moreno says of this Muppet diversity: “Jim never really thought of color. Jim never thought of nationality. Jim simply thought of characters.” Kermit’s signature song “It’s Not Easy Being Green” is mentioned as a song that resonated with many people who felt “invisible” because of looking different from everyone else, but the song’s real impact is because it has a message of self-acceptance, even when experiencing prejudice.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” has excellent editing when telling the story of this highly creative pioneer. Whether or not someone grew up watching “Sesame Street” or “The Muppet Show,” these shows broke cultural barriers while still being highly entertaining. “Jim Henson Idea Man” is undoubtedly a tribute to Jim Henson but it’s also an inspirational film for anyone who has ideas that people say won’t work when those ideas might actually change the world in some way.

Disney+ released “Jim Henson Idea Man” in select U.S. cinemas on May 24, 2024. The movie premiered on Disney+ on May 31, 2024.

Review: ‘The Grab’ (2024), starring Nate Halverson, Emma Schwartz and Mallory Newman

July 20, 2024

by Carla Hay

Nate Halverson, Emma Schwartz and Mallory Newman in “The Grab” (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

“The Grab” (2024)

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Some language in Nyanja and Bemba with subtitles

Culture Representation: The documentary “The Grab” features a predominantly white group of people (with some Africans and Asians) discussing the international competition to control the world’s food and water.

Culture Clash: Certain countries have been aggressively buying up farm land and food companies in other countries as a way to get world domination.

Culture Audience: “The Grab” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching documentaries that are indications of where geopolitics will be headed.

Mallory Newman and Nate Halverson in “The Grab” (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

“The Grab” is a riveting documentary that chronicles a searing investigation of geopolitics. It’s a vital look at how international competition to control food and water should be taken as seriously as the competition to control weapons of mass destruction. In many ways, “The Grab” could make a case that this control of food and water is much more dangerous than control of weapons of mass destruction because of the implications of which nations would have the most power if the world experiences a shortage of food and water.

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, “The Grab” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. “The Grab” is the last documentary released from Participant Media, the production company that was founded in 2004 and shuttered in 2024. Participant Media had several fiction and non-fiction movies that were Oscar nominees and Oscar winners. Participant Media’s Oscar-winning documentaries included 2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” 2009’s “The Cove” and 2016’s “Citizenfour.”

“The Grab” follows an investigation by three journalists from the Center for Investigative
Reporting (a non-profit media outlet based in the San Francisco Bay Area), as they expose the often-covert international competition to control food and water. This journalist trio is led by Nate Halverson, who began the investigation and later recruited Emma Schwartz and Mallory Newman to help.

Halverson is shown doing the majority of the interviews (in person or by videoconferencing), while Schwartz and Newman do a great deal of the research. His journalist style is persistent without being too pushy. Newman is also assertive and has more experience than the quieter Schwartz. All three journalists show compassion and empathy for the average people who often are used as pawns in the various countries’ powerful political moves.

In the documentary, Halverson says the original question that he and other people wanted the answer to was: “Is another country making moves to control America’s food supply?” Halverson and his Center for Investigative Reporting colleagues went down a rabbit of information and soon found out that this issue was much more widespread and deeper than just controlling America’s food supply. In an early scene in “The Grab,” Halverson comments, “This project has kept me up at night more than any of my other investigation reporting projects combined.”

During the investigation, Halverson and his colleagues came into possession of several classified/confidential documents that were leaked to them by unnamed whistleblowers. Over 10,000 of these documents (which Halverson calls “The Trove”) are internal communications from Frontier Resources Group, founded by former mercenary Erik Prince. also founded Blackwater U.S.A., a mercenary group that he sold to go into the resource acquisition business.

The investigation named Frontier Resources Group as one of the biggest companies that profits from selling American farm land and U.S.-based food companies to foreign countries. Russia, China, and Saudia Arabia are named as the three of the countries that have been the most aggressive in taking ownership of land and companies that are rich in food and water over the past several years—not just in the United States but in many other parts of the world.

“The Grab” interviews several experts who have been studying or have firsthand knowledge of these geopolitical moves. “Food is a very obvious and central way to wield power,” says Molly Jahn, professor of agronomy and Laboratory of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jahn is also program manager in the Defense Sciences Office at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Rod Schoonover, a former U.S. senior intelligence officer of the National Intelligence Council, comments on the possibility of World War III happening: “That doesn’t sound improbable to me.” Even if World War III doesn’t happen, the increasing number of natural disasters happening all over the world, in addition to the world’s population getting larger, have made it inevitable that there will be more competition for food and water. Access to affordable food and water can be used as ways to control populations of people.

“The Grab” shows several examples of these gradual takeovers and how an alarming number of people who work for these companies have no idea that these acquisitions are intended to for the foreign countries to amass power and control of the world. That’s because these takeovers are often purchased by mysterious companies (which are often shell companies listed as limited liability corporations, or LLCs) that have offshore accounts that are difficult to trace.

In 2013, the Chinese government (under the name WH Group Ltd.) acquired the American company Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer. This acquisition is named in “The Grab” as an example of the hide-and-seek deals where certain information is deliberately withheld from the public. In 2013, C. Larry Pope (Smithfield’s then-CEO) testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry that even though the Chinese government purchased Smithfield, the company would continue to do the same business as usual. Pope retired from Smithfield at the end of 2015.

However, Halverson came into possession of an internal WH Group Ltd. a document book manual detailing the financials of the Smithfield deal and how WH Group plans to make sweeping changes at Smithfield. The manual explicitly says that the information in the manual cannot be distributed in the United States. In “The Grab,” Halverson has a meeting with former Smithfield CEO Pope to show him these documents. Pope is astonished. Pope’s reaction is either sincere, or he’s a very good actor.

In “The Grab,” Halverson mentions that Saudi Arabia is running out of water to fuel its wheat export business. As a result of this water shortage, Saudi Arabia has been buying U.S. farm properties that have enough water to export to Saudi Arabia and can make enough hay to export to Saudi Arabia to feed the cows in Saudi Arabia. The costs of all this exporting to Saudi Arabia are outweighed by the profits in the areas that benefit from this exporting.

“The Grab” travels to La Paz County, Arizona, where an unnamed Saudia Arabian company has taken over one of the largest farm properties in La Paz County. “The Grab” has interviews with La Paz County residents John Weisser and Wayne Wade, who both report that their wells have run dry after this takeover. Weisser says, “There’s not enough rain to replenish it.” Wade comments on the water shortage in his well: “Pretty soon, there won’t be anything to take.”

Also interviewed is Holly Irwin, Arizona County Supervisor for La Paz County, who is shocked when she sees proof that her county’s residents are experiencing a water shortage in their wells that are apparently being depleted by the Saudi Arabian company. But there’s nothing she can do about it because it’s legal. That’s because Arizona is largely unregulated when it comes to foreign countries taking over Arizona-based businesses.

Africa is another place where the foreign takovers of farm land is thriving. It’s explained in “The Grab” that African farmers are especially vulnerable because they often don’t have deeds to the property that has been in their families for generations. Ethan Cousin, a former executive director of the World Food Programme, says about foreign countries’ takeover of land in Africa: “You can go around the continent and find different groups that prey on deprivation.”

One of the most compelling parts of the documentary is how it shows the civil rights work of attorney Brigadier Siachitema of the non-profit Southern Africa Litigation Centre. Siachitema represents several African farmers in land ownership cases where the farmers otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford attorneys. Felix Tomato and Febby Kalunga are among the farmers in Zambia who are interviewed by Halverson, who also interviews Siachitema.

They talk about white farmers who are funded by mysterious LLCs (many of which are traced back to China) that are displacing African farmers from their land. It’s another form of colonization. But compared to African farmers in previous centuries, today’s African farmers have more legal resources to fight back against these takeovers. It’s an uphill battle for many, but media coverage has made it possible for more people to find out about this problem.

That media coverage was apparently enough of a threat to get journalists Halverson, Schwartz, Newman and “The Grab” filmmaking crew detained at the airport in Serenje, Zambia, during a 2021 trip filmed for this documentary. In the detention room, the journalists see their names on a listed posted on the wall. Ultimately, this group was told to leave the airport because they were told that they were a “national security threat.”

Halverson says in the documentary that Russia is a country that is benefiting from climate change because of the way that Russia is hoarding resources in case of massive natural disasters. Victor Linnik, president of Miratorg (Russia’s leading meat-producer and supplier) says in the documentary that Miratorg recruits American cowboys to teach Russians how to be better farmers and ranchers. Todd Lewis, an American who used to be a manager for Miratorg, says in the documentary that he was hired in about 30 minutes during a phone interview.

Linnick says that food will become more powerful than weapons for world domination: “In the future, for Russia, the driver will be agriculture. We want to feed the world.” It’s mentioned in “The Grab” that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine (which is rich in farm land) is part of this strategic plan. Halverson comments on Miratorg’s recruitment of American cowboys: “This was a decision that came from [Russian president Vladimir] Putin.”

Other people interviewed in “The Grab” are former CIA officer Robert Mitchell; Maria Otero, former undersecretary of the U.S.; Lee Gunn, former naval inspector general of the U.S. Navy; Aaron Salzberg, director of the Water Institute; former mercenaries John Gartner (founder of OAM International) and Simon Mann (founder of Executive Outcomes); former private military contractor Sean McFate; Robert Young Pelton, author of “The World’s Most Dangerous Places”; Hongzhou Zhang, author of “Securing the Rice Bowl: China and Global Food Security”; Andriy Senchenko, former Ukraine deputy chef of staff; and Edward Hargroves, co-founder of Goldcrest Farm Trust Advisors, which sells water to United Arab Emirates.

“The Grab” tackles these complex issues and makes them easy to understand for the average person who might not be knowledgeable about international politics. The sheer scope of the information uncovered could easily be put into documentary series. But as a documentary feature film, “The Grab” doesn’t get too cluttered and skillfully focuses on certain compelling examples. By also showing the behind-the-scenes work of the investigative journalists who took many risks to bring this information to the world, “The Grab” doesn’t lose sight of the intensity of the work and the sacrifices that are made when journalists expose unsettling truths that people need to know and will affect us all.

Magnolia Pictures released “The Grab” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on June 14, 2024.