‘Black Is King’ Film Review: Beyoncé Gets Extravagant With Opulent Riff on ‘The Lion King’

plus in Disney+, “The One and Only Ivan” arrives on Aug.

unhinged pretty much says it all.

Far fairer than Artemis Fowl, the poorly-received, previous live-action/CGI hybrid to be rerouted from theaters to Disney+, The One and Only Ivan is a notably muted, soulful portrait of a silverback gorilla who re-evaluates his seemingly contented life as a mall circus performer.

Following his 2012 directorial debut, martial arts homage The Man With the Iron Fists, and 2017’s romantic musical drama Love Beats Rhymes, filmmaker, composer and producer RZA changes up genres once again for his third feature, a convoluted New Orleans-set heist pic.

Also Read: How Larry Kramer Pulled Off the First Film With Frontal Male Nudity - Back in 1969The film is certainly entertaining and even educational, with filmmakers and actors like Peter Bogdanovich, Malcolm McDowell, Amy Heckerling and Sean Young offering revealing (pardon the pun) looks at their adventures on the front lines.

Also Read: 'Spree' Star Joe Keery on His 'Highly Misguided' Character's Pursuit of Viral Fame (Video)The movie is kind of fun if low-budget horror appeals to you. And the way the film is shot — jumping from one small screen to another and piling different social-media windows in the frame so you can read comments as you watch the action — can be a sometimes dizzying kick.

Also Read: Is 'Greyhound' Based on a True Story?The film, which is being released in some theaters (and virtual theaters) on the Aug. 14 anniversary, will also air on the Discovery Channel on Labor Day weekend, which is closer to the Sep.

When Netflix began promoting its latest entry in the summer-that-never-was blockbuster stakes, Project Power, it was hard to suppress an eye-roll of weary puzzlement at the fanboys eager to slam it as lame and derivative. Sure, it has conceptual similarities to the Bradley Cooper vehicle Limitless, to DC Comics property Hourman, to Image Comics'War Heroes.

A Russia-set creature feature whose intensely serious tone belies some awfully silly stuff in its plot, Egor Abramenko's Sputnik locks an Alien-inspired parasite up in the steppes of Kazakhstan and waits to see if humans can figure out how to handle it. Suffering a bit in the charisma department, the film moves sluggishly for the hour or so that it takes to get on its feet, finally giving its humans something interesting to do.

Teen love proves stronger than death in Endless, Scott Speer's tale of a young man (Nicholas Hamilton) who dies in a car crash, but whose spirit clings to Earth to comfort his grieving girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp).

Serving as a much-belated sequel to the 2007 Australian sleeper hit “Black Water,” director Andrew Traucki’s B-movie influenced follow-up, the blandly titled but effectively executed “Black Water: Abyss” is lean killer crocodile film that upgrades the appropriately lo-fi aesthetic of the original, replacing the expansive swamp setting with a claustrophobic cave descent.

An iconic image of protest gets its backstory explored in The Stand, Tom Ratcliffe and Becky Paige's look at two Black Olympians who raised their fists and bowed their heads at the 1968 Mexico City games. Reminding viewers that Colin Kaepernick was far from the first athlete to be told he should keep his principles off the field, the straightforward but welcome doc doesn't need to spell out how many of its protagonists' concerns remain pressing today.

Also Read: 'An American Pickle': Seth Rogen Falls Into a Vat of Pickles and Meets His Own Great-Grandson in HBO Max Trailer (Video)It opens in 1919, in black and white and in the fictional Eastern European country of Schlupsk, where Herschel Greenbaum is a ditch digger whose shovel keeps breaking and whose wildest dream is to one day be able to afford seltzer water.

An entry into the "visual album" format stuffed with so much visual stimulation you want to stare at clouds after watching it, Beyoncé's Black Is King is a sometimes thrilling showcase for African artists whose work fuses brilliantly with that of Americans who have roots on the continent.

 dropped early Friday, and the internet is already obsessing over it!Shortly after the visual album (a companion to the music of Lion King: The Gift) premiered on Disney+, fans took to social media to marvel over Bey's latest labor of love. From the intricate costumes to the fire choreography and surprise cameos, the Beyhive seemed to be loving it all.As one fan so perfectly put it, "Beyoncé just turns up every few years and REINVENTS the visual album.

William Earl administratorIn one extended sequence of the 2017 documentary “Angry, White, and American,” Black British journalist Gary Younge faces off with alt-right leader Richard Spencer, who, at one point, says, “Look at the life of any African American living in the United States. It’s far better than any African living in Africa.”Translation: Slavery was good.

Beyoncé took her first step down from that Coachella plinth in 2018, flanked by the best and brightest students from her country’s institutionally black colleges, she laid down as the gauntlet that would fuel her transition into the fourth decade of her career.

Beyonce‘s new visual album, Black is King, has landed on Disney+, a month after the artist announced the news with a trailer on her website.The surprise project was inspired by Beyonce’s work on The Lion King and was written, directed and executive-produced by her.

Beyonce is gearing up for the release of her new movie Black is King!

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticWho would have thought a romantic comedy on the pain of being different could become such ironic and timely viewing in a global pandemic? In “I Weirdo,” a kooky and innovative debut by Taiwanese writer-director Liao Ming-yi, a couple with OCD trying to fit in to so-called “normal” society now looks like social-distancing heroes in our Covid-hit, locked-down lives. Shot and edited by Liao using the iPhone XS Max, the production looks no less vibrant for it.