Taraji P. Henson stopped by the Strip steakhouse in Atlanta’s Atlantic Station for an exclusive media question-and-answer session a week before her first starring role…
Fresh sh Apr 5, 2013 By Jerry L. Barrow Year: August 31, 1994 Rating: 4 Stars Quote: “This is not an action film, not a clever, superficial thriller, but a story of depth and power, in which the dangerous streets are seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old who reacts with the objectivity he has learned from chess, and the anger taught to him by his life.” Boyz In The Hood Year: July 12, 1991 Rating: 4 Stars Quote: “The movie is a thoughtful, realistic look at a young man’s coming of age, and also a human drama of rare power – Academy Award material.” Menace II Society Year: May 26, 1993 Rating: 4 stars Quote: “Anyone who views this film thoughtfully must ask why our society makes guns easier to obtain and use than does any other country in the civilized world.” Clockers Year: September 13, 1995 Rating: 3 1/2 stars “Although “Clockers” is, as I suggested, a murder mystery, in solving its murder, it doesn’t even begin to find a solution to the system that led to the murder. That is the point.” Poetic Justice Year: July 23, 1993 Rating: 3 stars Quote: “Janet Jackson provides a lovable center for it, and by the time it’s over we can see more clearly how “Boyz” presented only part of the South Central reality.” Pariah Year: January 4, 2012 Rating: 3 1/2 Quote: “Alike lives in a world where homosexuality is far from unknown, and her problems will grow smaller in a few years as she moves away from home. This story, so tellingly written and acted, is about the painful awkwardness of that process.” City Of God Year: January 24, 2003 Rating: 4 Stars Quote: “City of God” does not exploit or condescend, does not pump up its stories for contrived effect, does not contain silly and reassuring romantic sidebars, but simply looks, with a passionately knowing eye, at what it knows.” Do The Right Thing Year: June 30, 1989 Raring: 4 Stars Quote: “I believe that any good-hearted person, white or black, will come out of this movie with sympathy for all of the characters. Lee does not ask us to forgive them, or even to understand everything they do, but he wants us to identify with their fears and frustrations. Baby Boy Year: June 27, 2001 Rating: 3 1/2 stars Quote: “Baby Boy” doesn’t fall back on easy liberal finger-pointing. There are no white people in this movie, no simplistic blaming of others; the adults in Jody?s life blame him for his own troubles, and they should. Beasts Of The Southern Wild Year: July 4, 2012 Rating: 4 Stars Quote: This film is a remarkable creation, imagining a self-reliant community without the safety nets of the industrialized world. New Jack City Year: May 1, 1991 Rating: 3 1/2 Stars Quote: The movie isn’t a comic book that’s been assembled out of the spare parts from other crime movies; it’s an original, in-depth look at this world, written and directed with concern—apparently after a lot of research and inside information. New Jersey Drive Year: April 19, 1995 Rating: 3 stars Quote: (Gomez) wants to look at how an empty lifestyle leads to trouble. If the only choices you can imagine in life are stealing cars or standing around looking at other people driving stolen cars, how long are you gonna stand around? Love Jones Year: March 14, 1997 Rating: 3 Stars Quote: As the characters move from coffee bars to record stores to restaurants to the Sanctuary, we realize how painfully limited the media vision of urban black life is. Why do the movies give us so many homeboys and gangstas and druggies and so few photographers, poets and teachers? Love And Basketball Year: April 21, 2000 Rating: 3 Stars Quote: it is a sports film seen mostly from the woman’s point of view. It’s honest and perceptive about love and sex, with no phony drama and a certain quiet maturity.
