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Regina Hall

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul: Reality and Receipts

November 7, 2022 by Chris Utley Leave a Comment

“Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul” is a 1 hour 43 minute movie.

It took my wife and I 2 hours plus to watch it.

Because we kept pausing. And screaming. And yelling at the TV. And laughing uncontrollably. And cringing. And struggling to keep from crying. And feeling angry. And feeling hurt. And seeing flashbacks. 

Flashbacks. 

Flashbacks to all the faces. All the conversations. All the “deep theological insights.” All the counseling sessions. (Almost) all the senior pastors. (Almost) all the young pastors and their soft spoken wives. 

And the bling. And the competion. 

And ourselves. 

To my kinsmen of color, You Will Know. 

When you see Sterling K Brown’s pulpit declarations, you will know. 

When you see Regina Hall’s unspoken monologues written all over her face, you will know. 

When you discover the big plot twist (which was hiding in plain sight), you will know. 

When the credits roll, you will have known all 1 hour 43 minutes of that story. 

Because WE have lived that life. 

They will say it’s a mockery of the church. They will dismiss it as worldly and carnal and call out “demonic” Hollywood cashing in the expense of the people of GAWD!

And you will know that they are lying their asses off. Because you know. And I know.

We all know. 

Let the receipts go cashing in. 

Let the toxicity be revealed. 

Let the truth be told. 

Because we all know.

Special features on the Blu-ray:

An alternate Opening for a different setting the stage; deleted scenes – “Showtime,” “Skate Rink,”
“Childs in the Attic,” “Trinitie in the Bath,” “Highway Pedestrian Guy,” “Trinitie Bringing Food,” “Trinitie Praying Over Lee-Curtis in Bed,” “Trinitie Sees Sidewalk Woman Again,” “Anita Speaks”, and a gag reel of outtakes.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Honk for Jesus, Regina Hall, satire, Save your Soul, Sterling K Brown

The Hate U Give – Discovering a Self and a Voice

January 22, 2019 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

In Hamlet, Polonius tells his son Laertes, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as day the night, thou canst not be false to any man.” In The Hate U Give, a young African-American girl must struggle not just with being true to herself, but with which of her personae is her true self.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) lives in two worlds. Her parents, Maverick (Russell Hornsby) and Lisa (Regina Hall), have opted to live in Garden Heights, a working-class black neighborhood, even though they could afford to live in a more upscale area. Mav and Lisa are from Garden Heights and want to be part of the community there. In Garden Heights, Starr Version One fits in perfectly. She speaks the slang and wears the right shoes. She knows the people there. They are her people.

Amandla Stenberg stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

But Mav and Lisa want more for Starr and her brothers, Seven (Lamar Johnson) and Sekani (TJ Wright), so they send them to a predominantly white prep school across town. At school, Starr Version Two also fits in. She leaves the slang behind. (Her friends use it to sound cool; she would just sound “hood.”) Her best friends at school, including her boyfriend, are all white. Every day she goes back and forth between these worlds, but she is two very different people in each.

L-R: Megan Lawless, Amandla Stenberg, and Sabrina Carpenter in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

When she goes to a party in the Heights one night, a fight breaks out and her childhood friend Khalil helps her escape the violence as they drive off in his car. When Khalil is pulled over by a police officer, the traffic stop escalates into a confrontation that ends up with Khalil being shot and killed. Starr is the only witness. How that role plays out in her two separate worlds forces her to come to grips with who she is and how she must act.

Starr struggles under the weight of her responsibility. Many want her to testify against the officer to bring justice for Khalil’s death. But there are others who want her to stay silent, including King (Anthony Mackie), head of the neighborhood gang (to which Mav once belonged). King does not want anything to come out about Khalil dealing drugs for him. At school, Starr doesn’t want it known that she is the witness because of what her friends might think. She also encounters those there who side with the police officer, assuming nothing was wrong with the killing.

Amandla Stenberg and Algee Smith in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

How can Starr be true to herself (and her family, her friendship with Khalil, her community, and the concept of justice) when she has not yet learned who she really is?

Identity is a key concept in this film. Starr and her brothers have names that their parents gave to them for specific reasons that reflect who they are to become. The film also shows how shoes can be a part of one’s identity. What shoes someone wears may speak loudly to those around them. It may seem like a minor bit of life, but within the context of the film, one is what one wears. For Starr, her growing sense of justice and seeking her voice means she must come to terms with all the ways her identity has been fragmented. It is of note that in the voice over we hear of Starr’s testimony to the grand jury, we do not hear about what happened but about who Khalil was to her. To share Khalil’s identity is key for her.

The film opens with Mav and Lisa giving “The Talk” to nine year old Starr and her brothers. They try to explain the injustice they will inevitably encounter. They teach them how to behave when stopped by police in hopes of staying alive. Then Mav gives them the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Plan and demands that they memorize it. “Know your rights. Know your worth”, he tells them. There is something bordering on the sacred in these moments. To be sure, it lays out a very scary reality, but it is also clearly an act of love and nurture.

Amandla Stenberg stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

That tone of near sacredness recurs often throughout the film, often in small ways, such as when Starr looks through her box of childhood memories, and at time in more profound ways, as when Starr addresses the crowd at a protest. It is a reminder of the many times in lives that we encounter the sacred, not because we are looking for the presence of God, but because the divine in always close at hand.

It would be an oversimplification to call this a Black Lives Matter film, although it most certainly fits that description. But it is also a far deeper examination of not only African-American identity, but of the importance of finding oneself in order to know one’s place in the world and how that fulfills what one is meant to do with their life. Starr has been shaped by many competing forces including the systemic racism of society. In this film she begins to come into her own—to find her voice and her future.

Available now on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD, the film comes with several special features: “Maverick and Seven Protecting Their Home,” “Uprising,” “Seven’s Graduation” extended scenes; “Starr: Shine Your Light,” “Starting a Conversation,” “The Talk,” “Code Switching,” “The Heart of Georgia,” and “Thank U Georgia” featurettes; “and audio commentary with director Tillman with select cast and crew.

Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Amandla Stenberg, Anthony Mackie, Black Lives Matter, coming-of-age, driving while black, Gang, police, race, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, The Hate U Give, The Talk

Girls Trip – Strong Women, Crazy Fun, and Deeper Meanings

August 19, 2017 by Julie Levac Leave a Comment

Image result for girls trip movie

It would be an understatement to say that Ryan, Sasha, Lisa, and Dina were as close as friends could get. Calling themselves the Flossy Posse, these women were more of a sisterhood. They formed one of those epic groups of friends that everyone remembers.

And then life happens. Friends, although with the best of intentions to stay close, can drift apart when careers, spouses, and even children get in the way.

An all-star cast of Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, and Jada Pinkett Smith give us this group of phenomenal women characters. Hall gives us the hard working Ryan Pierce, a famous self-help figure who encourages people that they can “have it all”. Queen Latifah gives us the confident Sasha Franklin, a popular gossip blogger. The hilarious Haddish brings us Dina, the unemployed, wild and out-spoken friend who is fiercely loyal to those closest to her. Pinkett Smith presents the more conservative role of Lisa Cooper, a nurse and mother of two who is no longer the party girl she used to be.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Girls Trip is a downright fun, unabashedly debaucherous film. Pinkett Smith called it a “hard R”, which is unsurprising given its extensive alcohol and drug use, sexual content, and profanity; it’s definitely a cross between Bridesmaids and Sex and the City. Is this just a fun, girls-night-out movie that should be taken with a grain of salt? Or are there some messages we can take from?

Image result for girls trip movie

It’s no secret that people grow up and change, sometimes drastically. And this can put serious strains on a relationship. We see the “growing pains” that these women go through after coming together for an extended period of time after barely seeing each other in the last number of years. It’s intriguing to see how their currently personalities mesh with one another and how they navigate the different structure of their group.

Ryan is married to her sweetheart, Stewart Pierce (Mike Colter). They are in the public eye and portray a perfect marriage, amongst their perfect lives. Secretly, though, Stewart has been regularly cheating on Ryan. When the Flossy Posse confront Ryan with this information, we come to learn that Ryan is well aware of Stewart’s cheating, and that they have been trying to work through it with counseling. Things get worse with Ryan and Stewart’s relationship and, when it seems like the obvious choice, Ryan does not leave Stewart. It moves past a loyal wife doing everything in her power to save her relationship, to something more like staying together to save face and maintain their image in the public eye. It brings up the difficult question of when is enough, enough? How much can one take before making the impossible decision to leave their spouse? We also see Ryan’s closest friends attempt to assist her in this decision. They see from the outside what’s going on and how it’s affecting Ryan. They obviously want the best for her and can’t stand to see Stewart putting her through this. I’m sure it’s an extremely difficult position to be in – trying to tell your friend that she is being stepped on, while simultaneously trying to be respectful of her and let her make the decision that she is comfortable with.

When Ryan eventually decides to leave Stewart, we see her very vulnerable side. Her whole image seems to include Stewart. She needs to reclaim her individuality not only on a personal level, but also on a business level. Business dealings that she had arranged together with Stewart now needed to be changed to include only her.

One scene that still has me thinking is the scene where, before the partying began, they all knelt down in front of the bed in the hotel room to pray. Dina began to pray.  You’ll recall that Dina is the joker of the group and I was fully expecting this prayer scene to immediately turn into comedy.  But she genuinely prays to God about her thankfulness for her friends and the time they are spending together.

Image result for girls trip movie

It’s weird to say, but I’m proud of this movie. It portrays four very different but strong women who are navigating different paths in life. We see some of them at their finest, and some of them at their darkest. We see that it’s okay to be down and vulnerable. It doesn’t make us any less of a human being. It’s okay to be alone. It’s okay to lean on others for help. This film, to me, seems like another step in the right direction for female empowerment on screen.

One thing that I’m taking from this movie is how important the people around us are. Having a support system in life is just so incredibly important. And we shouldn’t take these people for granted.

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: comedy, Girls Trip, Jada Pinkett Smith, Malcolm D. Lee, Queen Latifah, Rated R, Regina Hall, Strong Women, Tiffany Haddish

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