‘The American Society Of Magical Negroes’ Review: Kobi Libii’s Racial Satire Is Sensitive & Sharp [Review]

Magdalene Laundries, a real church-run institution where so-called “immoral women,” such as pregnant teens out-of-wedlock, endured harrowing living conditions, frequent abuse and harsh work.And, Lorna’s baby was taken away from her. Father Percy was involved in this group home and police become suspicious of Lorna and other women who spent their youth there.Making matters more complicated, this is a bad time for Lorna to attract attention from authorities, since she also finds a dead woman in her home in a crime that’s seemingly unrelated to Father Percy’s murder.Since Lorna has had sleepwalking incidents after her teen trauma, she doesn’t know if she’s responsible for the corpse.

Diego Ramos Bechara editor Apple announced plans to provide grants to the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, as a part of the company’s Empowering Creatives program. The grants aim to “continue Apple’s work to support and partner with Indigenous communities” by “supporting organizations that help people in underinvested communities unlock their creative potential.” Per Apple, both grant recipients are “dedicated” to amplifying the voices and experiences of Native and Indigenous peoples.

After seeing its Martin Scorsese pic Killers of the Flower Moon, depicting the “Reign of Terror” in Osage territory, score 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Apple has announced new grants to the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, in support of Indigenous storytelling and the preservation of Native American history.

The Armed have announced a 2024 UK and European tour which is set to begin this summer.The band will kick off their tour with a performance at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival on May 30. From there, Tony Wolski and co.

EXCLUSIVE: The Ford Foundation is coming through for documentary filmmakers in a big way.  

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There’s no IP more innately suited for adaptation as a pure two-hander than the tale of Adam and Eve, a story in which, initially at least, there are no other characters, excepting the creator of the universe, who quickly gets relegated to a supporting role in the wake of more fleshed-out human leads. Legendary television scenarist Ed.

“We Are the World” was a once-in-a-generation meeting of musical giants when it was recorded Jan. 28, 1985 — and released two months later on March 7 — to benefit African famine relief.Anyone who was anyone in music at that moment — a who’s who of legends, including everyone from Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Bob Dylan to Billy Joel, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen — showed up to support the cause.Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and ’80s hitmaker Michael Omartian, the single sold a whopping 20 million copies.

Siddhant Adlakha Modeled on a late-’80s/early-’90s American family sitcom — which soon transitions to a midnight splatterfest — the tongue-in-cheek Dutch production “Krazy House” has all the transgressive stylings of a 15 year-old’s Reddit post on an atheism forum in 2010. Directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil offer ideas of subversion that feel both long-outdated in concept and completely dull in execution, to the point that merely describing the film feels irresponsible, lest its premise accidentally lure curious viewers to the cinema.

Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Summerfest, Pitchfork Music, etc. They all owe an enormous debt to Lollapalooza, the groundbreaking music festival that helped change the touring and music industry just as alternative music peaked in the early 90s.

William Earl administrator “Now this motherfucker can play guitar!” a wobbly, dancing Millennial shouted deep into the Black Keys‘ Friday night show in Park City, drunk off their grimy rock and plenty of beer. It turns out the man was a perfect summation of a crowd full of too-cool Sundance attendees letting their hair down, moving and drinking like it was a basement party, and the Keys had the right sound to let loose.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic For some of us, “American Fiction” has a satirical audacity that’s funny right out of the gate, gathers speed and force on the runway — and then, somehow, just when the comedy should be taking off, it turns muted and moralistic instead. I think the hitch is that after Jeffrey Wright’s Monk sells his fake memoir of Black street life, there’s a strong urge to see him — and the film — take a certain vengeful joy in how the book’s popularity skewers the racism of clueless white people. Instead, Monk is made so miserable by what happens that the movie never allows itself to discover that joy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the boldest movies premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival is “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” directed by Kobi Libii. The film takes aim at the Magical Negro stereotype and centers on a young man (Justice Smith) who is recruited into a society in which African American members are tasked with ensuring that white people’s lives remain easy. Libii, Smith and co-star David Alan Grier visited the Variety Studio presented by Audible and spoke about the reactions to their button-pushing satire.

Sundance has a long history of screening films that tackle issues of race in the U.S. from every possible angle. Some are angry (Birth of a Nation, 2016), some satirical (Dear White People, 2014), and some quite gonzo (Sorry to Bother You, 2018).

Early in Yance Ford’s visual essay “Power,” he tells the audience that the film to come either requires “curiosity” or  “at least suspicion” from the viewer. It’s the type of bold claim that might pack a punch as a rhetorical hook, especially for a documentary that dives into the cultural, social, economic, and political history of policing in the United States.

“The Greatest Night In Pop” is so entertaining and eminently watchable, and it’s as simple as that. Directed by Bao Nguyen, the acclaimed filmmaker of the Bruce Lee doc “Be Water,” the already-engaging subject matter doesn’t hurt: nearly 50 of the top American music artists in the world all in one room, recording a soon-to-be global hit single.

Whether she's surrounded by glitter in the ballroom or the roundtable in a Scottish castle, Claudia Winkleman is always winning praise from viewers over the latest TV escapades. And when she's not on our TV screens, she can be heard entertaining listeners on BBC Radio 2.

Emily Longeretta SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the first four episodes of “The Traitors,” now streaming on Peacock. Ever since both the BBC and Peacock adapted the Dutch series “De Verraders” into “The Traitors,” it’s been a hit. Both produced by Studio Lambert, the U.K. version premiered on the BBC in November 2022, with the U.S.

Within minutes following the opening fade-in of “Gaucho Gaucho,” a trio of individuals can be seen dashing across a barren landscape, each sitting astride their own majestic-looking horse bathed in a sea of black and white with a South American backdrop beautifully framing the moment. It’s an appropriate setup to this documentary about gauchos, the colloquialism used to describe Argentinian cowboys and cowgirls, as the 84-minute runtime serves as little more than an exercise in striking photography mixed with a series of vignettes that’s as slice of life as one’s likely to find.

Angelique Jackson Kobi Libii knew “The American Society of Magical Negroes” would be controversial. After all, the film is a critique of the “magical negro,” the cinematic trope where Black characters are constructed to support white protagonists without internal lives of their own. Libii grew up in Gary, Ind.

Steeped in what its audience might deem mature mythology, “The Pink Opaque,” a fantasy show aimed at teen audiences, comes on at 10:30 PM on the Young Adult Network every Saturday. Unfortunately for Owen (first played by Ian Foreman), a meek mixed-race middle school boy growing up in the 1990s, that’s past his strict bedtime.