Episodes
Saturday Mar 26, 2022
What We Not Gon’ Do In 2022 [Master]
Saturday Mar 26, 2022
Saturday Mar 26, 2022
It’s been quite awhile, and thank goodness Ashlee and Carolyn were at the ready to almost completely unpack the meticulously crafted balance of subtly and clarion call for the cumbersome nature of swallowing intersectional micro (and honestly, macro) aggressions in Mariama Diallo’s anticipated feature film debut, Master (2022).
Our music folk razaq el toro has new music out!
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
What Mama Had Forgot To Mention Was... [Fast Color]
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Secrets are complicated, right? A multi-generational magical realist, sci-fi, drama furthers even the mess out of what is a superhero in the context of Black women and girls in Julia Hart's 2019 well received, Fast Color.
In Plain Sight: Fast Color by Carolyn Mauricette
Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story
FAST COLOR Q&A with Gugu Mbatha-Raw & director Julia Hart - April 28, 2019
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
I’m A Peaches Stan [A Low Down Dirty Shame]
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
With Carolyn on the verge of a bionic hip and Ashlee on the verge of a losing some good sanity, the two chose the unwind this holiday season with a 90s action comedy, Keenan Ivory Wayans' A Low Down Dirty Shame.
What's its historical context? How does it function as a potentially progressive vehicle and be questionably problematic at the same time? Let's talk...
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
Black Women vs. The Patriarchy [Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight]
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
It's all fire dicks and armageddon in Wormwood, New Mexico in the mid-1990's. Thank the seven star alignments that we're still here to talk of the tale...
Ashlee couldn't believe she found even more to unpack in the film she's dissected to death, 1995's Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight, a pretty under-discussed and underappreciated (to a degree) horror film that everyone should watch this Halloween season.
Director Ernest Dickerson throws in homages to Alien which, Carolyn loves even more because of the Cleo the cat/Jonesy connection.
Plus! There's a whole lot about this sometimes surpisingly Black feminist work that incorporates a range of characters that are not easy to label, which is the fun of it all, including some cheesy, on-brand humor from a self-aware work both from cast and crew who were just having fun.
We've noted the following for consideration:
The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators by bell hooks
Subjects of Desire (2021) Official Trailer
Modern Etiquette: The Despicable World of Spitting
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
We Gotta Fight Literal Monsters Now Too?! [Sweetheart]
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
I mean, of course Black women do. And are we believed when we say they're out there?
Carolyn leads an exploration into J.D. Dillard's minimalist masterpiece, Sweetheart from 2019.
And a 'lil bonus somethin' somethin' :)
The Invisible Black Women Epidemic
Sweetheart: A Creature Feature with Heart (Carolyn's Review)
Friday Aug 13, 2021
"Free Range Children" [Crooklyn]
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Carolyn and Ashlee have another sentimental chat about Black mothers and inter-generational relationships between Black women and girls in 1994's underrated Spike Lee jawn, Crooklyn.
Speaking of Black women, DON'T MISS Carolyn's virtual lecture, A Different Monster: Black Women and the Monstrous for Fantastia Film Festival 2021 on August 21 at 4:00PM EST.
Sorrowful black death is not a hot ticket: bell hooks on Spike Lee’s Crooklyn
Spike Lee Looks Back On Crooklyn
Video: bell hooks - Cultural Criticism (Spike Lee)
Crooklyn Dodgers (Special Ed, Masta Ace & Buckshot) - Crooklyn (Official Video)
Saturday Jun 19, 2021
Love & Bossa Nova [Black Orpheus]
Saturday Jun 19, 2021
Saturday Jun 19, 2021
VH1 Reality content was totally inspired by the like-films that came before...
And this is the one where Carolyn thinks she swindled Ashlee into watching a musical, which Ashlee argues the music in the drum-heavy 1959 visual affair, Black Orpheus actually wasn't cringey or shoe horned.
This vibrant, beautiful film based on the play, Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes follows the formula of enamored at first sight, jealously, surrealism, and spirituality, all surrounding the nougat that is Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This brought up a whole lesson on Black cross-cultural exchange, exposure, experience, and simply embracing all dimensions of ourselves because let's be honest; we all trace back to one continent.
https://www.drcherylthompson.com/
James Baldwin on Carmen Jones (1954)
Also!
It's our one year anniversary! We get into the year (very briefly) on our evolution as film writers/critics/lovers (that should be the name of a web series) but basically, a rant exchange between tired Black women... tiiii 'ed.
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
This Ain't About THEM!
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Our guide to 'finding other Black horror to support 'cha damn self', Carolyn and Ashlee talk why Amazon's newest latest, THEM just AIN'T, and how the reception sparked the need again, to emphasize that the kind of content folks want, is out there!
Especially the still underappreciated Black women content creators who've made horror films like R. Shanea Williams (Paralysis), Zandashe Brown (Blood Runs Down), and so many more that are on the horizon who are making fresh, orginal art.
Them is Pure Degradation Porn by Angelica Jade Bastien
'Girls Trip' Writer Tracy Oliver Was Told Black Women Don't Like Horror Films
The Nightmare (2015)
Southern Gothic For Real: Visual Artist & Storyteller Zandashé Brown
Canadian filmmaker Kelly Fyffe-Marshall
Feature horror films directed by Black women:
Hanelle M. Culpepper, Within (2009)
Meosha Bean, Camera Phone 2 (2016)
Nia DeCosta, Candyman (2021)
Upcoming-
Mariama Diallo, Master
Reagan Gomez, Charcuterie
Thembi Banks, Juju
Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Barbecue The Becky [She Never Died]
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Carolyn teases her budding talent for lecturing Canadian genre film history and Ashlee processes the bone marrow of Jason Krawczyk's pen and Audrey Cummings' eye on 2019's darkly comedic/fantasy, horror fare, She Never Died!
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
Hot Men & Terrible Bosses [Little]
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
There's so much more in 2019's for-the-family flip on Tom Hanks' 1988, Big...
Little, starring Regina Hall, Issa Rae, and Marsai Martin is all about digging up those ugly childhood memories that inform who we are as adults. And how much of it carries into our on the job personas.
And Carolyn and Ashlee just hate mean bosses.
Time's Up For Toxic Workplaces
Meet Marsai Martin, The Youngest Executive Producer In Hollywood
Many thanks:
Art by Samara Banks of Mixed Hues
Sound by by Razaq El Toro