Minority Mindset

Fantasy stories often explore similar ideas, like fighting against unfair rules, starting revolutions, and completely overturning broken systems. Like fantasy in general, dystopian fiction has become very popular recently, thanks to successful series like The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale. Whether the story features dragons or oppressive leaders, the most popular ones are often based on bestselling novels. Netflix’s Shadow and Bone follows this trend, but also stands out with its exceptionally well-developed magic system.

While promoting the live-action Moana at CinemaCon, Dwayne Johnson shared his thoughts on how men should be portrayed in stories today.

It does eventually happen, but it takes a very long time. This Mummy movie is a ridiculously over-the-top, gross-out film that oddly tries to be a slow, thoughtful experience. (I hesitate to even use its full title, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, which seems unnecessary considering the other Mummy films starring Tom Cruise and Brendan Fraser. It makes it sound like director Lee Cronin, known for Evil Dead Rise, is a major celebrity.) But the film doesn’t offer enough substance to justify its slow pace, as it moves from Egypt to the desert of the American Southwest, where the Cannon family – including teenager Sebastián and young Maud – are trying to rebuild their lives. It’s not nearly as unsettling or emotionally resonant as Hereditary, either in its portrayal of something deeply wrong within the family’s New Mexico home, or in its exploration of parental guilt and grief. By the time the movie finally embraces its wild side with peeling skin, reanimated corpses, and a scorpion attack, it’s already lost most of the audience’s patience.

The new film You, Me, & Tuscany highlights how much we need more romantic comedies with Black leads. Luckily, many of these films are genuinely enjoyable – some are well-loved classics, and others are delightful discoveries.

NBC has renewed Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for a 28th season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This means Olivia Benson and her team will be back for another year, and the show will continue its run as the longest-running live-action primetime drama series in American television history. The renewal was announced on April 16th.