My Courses

I hadn’t heard of the movie before, but couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was immersed in the counterculture heyday of San Francisco. A Black Nigerian student played by Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam explores the strange landscape, the far-out characters, and his feelings of homesickness and culture shock in this brief but vital Cassavetes-style docu-fiction.…

Netflix’s new comedic thriller “Bodkin” opens with the show’s protagonist, Gilbert Power (Will Forte), stating, “When I started this podcast, I didn’t expect to solve anything. I didn’t expect it to change my life.” It sets up the characters’ preoccupations well, and also exposes the main problem with the genre their fictional series is embedded…

Over the last few years, there has been a trend of opulent destination wedding romantic comedies. Two years ago, there was “Ticket to Paradise” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts and “Shotgun Wedding” starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel. Most recently, “Anyone But You,” starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, got rave reviews and made…

Black people are the architects of American culture. The hip verbiage many young people speak, the music they consume, and even the most influential art among what could be called hipsters are derived from Black people. Our distinctive perception of the world has become a pavement for creativity, and social media is no exception. During…

For the 54 years since “Let It Be” premiered in theaters in May 1970, the documentary that chronicled what turned out to be the last studio album the Beatles released has been most notable for its absence. The Fab Four despised it. (“I was stoned all the time, and I just didn’t give a shit,”…