Category: Movies
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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Hits All the Right Notes
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom tells the story of one afternoon in a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Two white men were determined to record 4 songs by Ma Rainey and her band. They intended to make big money from the records. It’s streaming on Netflix.
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2020 Favorites – Movies and TV Series
Here at Old Ain’t Dead I made a list of my 2020 favorites among movies and TV for the year. I can’t make a “Best Of” list. I don’t watch everything. I only watch things made by or starring women. Nor do I subscribe to every service. There are many things I miss.
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Review: Let Them All Talk
Let Them All Talk is an odd but interesting film with A-list actors including Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen, and Dianne Wiest. Director Steven Soderbergh put the three of them on the Queen Mary 2 and let them improvise most of the dialog. It’s streaming on HBO Max.
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Review: Funny Boy
Funny Boy is the particular story of one Tamil boy in Sri Lanka during the 1970s and 80s. Around him, the larger political events between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese erupted into a 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War. This film is available on Netflix.
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Review: Bhaag Beanie Bhaag
Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is a contemporary Indian comedy streaming on Netflix. Beanie is a woman who dreams of being a stand-up comic. Her parents dream of grandchildren. The series was written and directed by women.
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Review: Unpregnant
Unpregnant puts two teenage old friends on a comedic road trip because one of them needs to be unpregnant. It’s an adventure about making your own decisions, being true to your friends, and facing up to who you are. It’s an HBO Max original. Beware the spoilers.
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Review: Rust Creek
Rust Creek sets the heroine Sawyer (Hermione Corfield) down in the middle of the Kentucky woods with two men chasing her. She fights her way out of danger through brains and guts and determination. The film is streaming on Netflix.
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Review: Ammonite
Ammonite creates a fictional love story for real-life paleontologist Mary Anning. Anning devoted her life to digging fossils of sea creatures out of the muck and mud around Lime Regis on the southern coast of England. Because she lived in the early 1800s, the credit for her work was taken by men. She’s only recently…
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Review: Diane
Diane stars Mary Kay Place in a drama about facing mortality. Mary Kay Place turns in a brilliant performance. The film is currently streaming on Hulu.
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Review: Superintelligence
Superintelligence brings Melissa McCarthy to the center of an action comedy about the most average, ordinary person on earth. It’s streaming on HBO Max.