Beyoncé, Country Music, and the Weight of the American Flag

My first vivid memory of discovering country music was with my grandmother and discovering that she liked Randy Travis. This was a woman who was devoutly devoted to listening to gospel music, so it was a shock to me. It was also at the beginning of finding music outside of hip-hop and R&B. In those moments, there’s something pure about having something different permeate your senses. It’s because there’s a protective encasement around that sense of wonder that does not apply to gatekeeping — bec

Writer/Director Shannon Triplett Talks 'Desert Road' and Grounding Her Sci-Fi Odyssey With Emotional Stakes

What first things come to mind when you think about the desert? I bet it’s the extreme heat and endless amounts of sand (and you wouldn’t be wrong). What would be next is that it’s the wrong place to get stranded because the infinite horizon doesn’t seem like it will reward you with reprieve — instead, uncertainty is often the most unsettling thing to experience. Shannon Triplett’s directorial debut, Desert Road, is born out of a personal story where her boyfriend went for a run, got lost, and h

'Birdeater' Asks For You Give Every First Impression A Second Look

Bachelor parties (or stag parties, as they are known in the United Kingdom or in this case, Australia) are the supposed debaucherous sendoff as one male ventures off on the momentous journey of marriage and says goodbye to the single life for good (hopefully). It’s a self-contained amount of time where the groom’s closest friends will recall the early days and maybe lament about how things will never be the same again. There have been enough depictions of media that show you what is believed to

Alex Garland's 'Civil War' Is Harrowing For What It Shows and Chooses Not To Say

In writer-director Alex Garland’s Civil War, the United States is eating itself into war through political division. Although this conflict has many factions, Garland’s story is locked into one specific view of the contentious, bloody contest of ideologies. In the world Civil War exists, these entities might as well have interchangeable faces. That might be a hard sell because each carries noticeable differences and ideals in our current two-party platform. Rather than speak to that and further

'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire's Fun Nostalgia Gets Held Back By The Many Elements It Has To Present

2021’s Ghostbusters Afterlife was a formal handoff to the next generation of paranormal adventurers while addressing the heaviness of not having the late Harold Ramis return with the classic cast and a tribute to his Egon Spengler character. So, it makes sense that the 2024 follow-up Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire moves into a more business-as-usual; let’s get down to busting out the proton pack track. Director Gil Kenan and co-writer Jason Reitman demonstrate they know what audiences love about th

'You'll Never Find Me' Is An Electric Dance Between Two Characters and Shady Stories

We use alone time to recalibrate and reset. It’s when we can parse our thoughts and memories into their proper places and make actual sense of things. But there are times when solitude feels like a straight jacket—especially when it’s used to escape from something awful. Even if you outrun the hammer of consequences, guilt will always be nipping at your heels. Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen’s You’ll Never Find Me has a relatively simple setting with a particular expertise in the story to keep th

'The Greatest Hits' Power of Music Can't Push Through Conventional Plotting

The healing power of music is undeniable, but there’s another element to that. While a particular song can trigger vivid memories of bliss that feel like they just happened yesterday, the medium can also remind us of things we’ve lost. Writer-director Ned Benson’s The Greatest Hits prominently centers on that premise within a fantastical, romantic exploration of cutting through grief and the place of art in that process. Moving on is easier said than done, but it can be even more complex when yo

More WNBA-NBA integration will be an asset to both leagues

Sabrina Ionescu’s 3-point battle vs. Steph Curry makes us wonder what the future could hold.

Almost a week has passed, and we still haven’t quite nailed down how to cure the lethargy around the NBA All-Star weekend. But that’s not to say that there hasn’t been a wide variety of assessments about why we got here.

If you ask Stephen A. Smith, he lays the blame for the fall of the slam dunk contest squarely at the feet of Lebron James. It would have been great for one of the greatest players to c

The Endings: 'The Zone of Interest' and How the Karmic Heaviness of Darkened Hallways Lead Into Warnings of the Future

The Endings is a new column chronicling some of the biggest films in the 2024 Oscar race and how their powerful endings are essential and long-lasting to the success of their narratives. These accounts are based on the notes of the first viewings of the film and the bigger context of how they feel over time.

I wanted karma. I desired it. After seeing Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest in October of 2023, it’s a natural emotion to desire. Even as if the New York theater walked out steeped in

'Stopmotion' Combines Fable With Animation Into An Entertaining Nightmare

There’s something symbiotically macabre when the animation style of stop-motion and the horror genre come together. It’s a match made in heaven, really. Scenes in horror films are predicated on setup and the eventual payoff (sometimes on numerous occasions). With stop-motion, there’s a meticulous nature that comes with it. In a highly detailed process, you are making figurines feel like they have a life of their own — much like the characters who have starred in our nightmares, like Freddy Krueg

'Dune: Part Two' review: Grander In Scale, But Its Savior Complex Commentary Is The Bread and Butter

Is being near the proximity to power too hard to resist? Can the themes of prophecy and revenge overpower even the purest of minds? If Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune is viewed more as an appetizer to Frank Herbert’s massive world of spiritual, physical, and theological warfare, then Dune: Part Two sinks its teeth deeper into what all that means. When we last left this story, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), had joined the Fremen on the desert plane

'Orion and the Dark' review: Darkness Isn't So Scary When You Dance Within The Balance

Life is full of the good and the bad — there’s no way around it in the terms and conditions we all agree to. When you’re a kid, that concept tends to be simplified in some cases and amplified in others. You have an aura of invincibility because it feels like you’re cloaked from the existential pressures life hits you in your older years. Housing and food are provided. Death isn’t a fully realized concept as you are at life’s beginnings. The biggest crisis you might face is getting homework done

'Bob Marley: One Love' review: Proves To Be Too Unfocused For It's Legendary Subject

You might be tempted to look at a specific part of Bob Marley’s for a legacy as extensive, far-reaching, and how powerful as it still is. Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic Bob Marley: One Love begins with the famous press conference before the 1976 Smile Jamaica Concert. It’s right within the height of political violence within the vacuum of two political groups at odds. But Marley is at peace. He’s not doing this to sway to any political agenda or monetary gain; it’s for peace. It’s because he bel

'Out of Darkness' review: Oh, The Horrors The Endless Abyss Hides

Andrew Cumming’s Out of Darkness comes equipped with its own prehistoric language but speaks to a universal fear of things that like beyond the reaches of the light. Setting the suspense, adventure, and sometimes horror-dripped film 45,000 years ago sets some sparse, but engaging parameters. Back then, everything was tailored around survival — hunting, finding shelter, and not being vulnerable to all sorts of predators were the main drivers of the day. Thus, rather than having things rely on a d

Jay-Z's Speech and the Conundrum of Needing The Grammy Award Accolade

Jay-Z’s acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award included a part in which he highlighted two previous Grammy boycotts he and Will Smith did — while still acknowledging they watched the show anyway. That is a perfect summary of the relationship we have with the Grammys at large now. It’s billed as “The Super Bowl of music,” where the industry’s best comes together with the spirit that the best works from the prior year will be awarded. Again, that’s at least the spirit of what the Gr

‘Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero’ review: Tour Documentary That Paints With Broad Strokes

There’s a part in the documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero where he’s on a tour bus and starts playing Denice Williams’s 1976 classic, “Free.” The chorus’s parts resonate most with his soul when she sings, ” I’ve got to be free, free, free, oh/I just got to be me, me, me. The singer, rapper, and songwriter born Montero Lamar Hill, states this song has a hold on him, and he’s later seen in a skating ring moving carefree to the track again. If a theme is apparent throughout Lil Nas X’s career,

'Love Lies Bleeding' review: Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian Are A Winning Pair Inside a Tale of Love, Dark Secrets, and Pumping Iron

Out of all the small gyms in New Mexico, she had to come into mine. The first shots of Rose Glass’s second full-length feature, Love Lies Bleeding, start with an animalistic tone as slow-motion shots track groups of people going through various workouts. The sweat, muscles flexing, and raw energy almost take you by the hand and never let go. There’s a particular sheen cinematographer Ben Fordesman goes for that acts as another character within itself. If there is one circular theme that encompas

'Cry Me A River' Is A Song Justin Timberlake Can't Seem To Shake

On November 25, 2002, Justin Timberlake premiered the video for a song (you may have heard it) named ‘Cry Me A River’ from his debut solo album, Justified. There was a time when he was silent about where the inspiration for that song came from. No doubt it was about a prior relationship that crumbled to the ground, but Timberlake stated it wasn’t specifically about anyone in October of 2002. Cut to the premiere of that video directed by Francis Lawrence, and the resemblance of the faceless blond

'The Moogai' review: Important Message Gets Lost In the Conventionality of It's Horror Style

The one thing you will immediately notice in writer-director Jon Bell’s The Moogai is the strong character design of the monster itself. It’s a sometimes horrifying practical physical embodiment tied to terrible atrocities committed against the “Stolen Generations” between the years of 1910 and 1970. That was when mixed-race children (who were deemed “half-caste) of Australian Aboriginal descent were forcibly taken from their families due to Australian policies on the books. To this day, the exa

'Look Into My Eyes' review: Lana Wilson's documentary make the world of psychics accessible

You can be honest with me. There’s a healthy amount of skepticism when people hear the word psychic or believe there’s a way to peer into the afterlife. Some people may not even believe in places we go after hitting our inevitable fates of death entirely — let alone think that people can see visions through a crystal ball or tarot cards. One is because spirits contacting us sounds too scary and ridiculous, and also, it’s just easier to accept once someone is gone; that’s it. It would be more pai

'Argylle' review: Has As Many Twists and Turns as It Does Spies and Not To It's Benefit

You can’t lie and say that Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle doesn’t at least look intriguing and bombastic from its trailer. The spy-action-comedy hybrid has always been fertile ground for twists. Allegiances get twisted, broken, and re-aligned in unexpected ways. Perhaps the bad guy is only a figurehead to the overarching evil figure behind them, or a death that occurs at the beginning of the narrative reveals itself. It’s all fair game, and Argylle certainly takes advantage of those inhibitions — perh

'Scrambled' review: A Leah McKendrick Showcase Which Laughs and Cries At Fertility's Ups and Downs

If you haven’t heard by now, growing older isn’t easy — especially with the societal expectations of marriage and children. It can feel like a pressure cooker if you are the odd person out while everybody around you is experiencing these milestones. Thankfully, we’re starting to get where people feel more comfortable opting out of the quintessential “dream” of husband/wife, a house with a white picket fence, 2.5 children, and a pet, and doing whatever feels natural. But it doesn’t mean that’s ea

'I Saw The TV Glow' review: Jane Schoenbrun's Expansive, Artistic, Nightmarish Take On Identity Purgatory

Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow is not what I would call a happy film. The feeling of anxiety and dread only gets worse as you reach its conclusion. What you can be pleased about is that a piece of art depicting a certain kind of experience that is provocative, intelligent, inclusive, and fine-tuned to the fears of the trans community was created for the mass populous to see. There are almost an infinite amount of ways that you can portray how loneliness feels. That concept i

'In A Violent Nature' Review: A Restrained POV As A Slasher Concept Tweak

Classic slasher films come with an agreement that you will invest in a healthy amount of suspension of disbelief. For example, why can an undead killer walking two miles per hour catch somebody running full speed away from them? Or that there happens to be a well-timed branch or bear trap in the way to hinder their escape. Many of these scenarios have circled the bend but still bring much joy to the horror faithful. Almost all of these stories come from the perspective of survivors or a group of
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About Me

Journalist, Self-published author of five books, podcast host, and photographer since 2014, Murjani Rawls has been stretching the capabilities of his creativity and passions. Rawls has as a portfolio spanning through many mediums including music, television, movies, and more. Operating out of the New York area, Rawls has photographed over 200+ artists spanning many genres, written over 800 articles, and a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic. His career aspirations continue to develop as his years in media continue.