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Nicole Beharie (
The Express), Will Patton (
Entrapment,
The Postman), Charles Dutton (TV's
Roc,
Mimic) and Alfre Woodard (TV's
Desperate Housewives,
Primal Fear) star in this gripping true-life story. Falsely accused of distributing narcotics in a school zone, Dee Roberts (
Beharie) is offered a deal she can't refuse: plead guilty and accept a 10-year suspended sentence. The alternative: risk serving 16-to-25 in jail. Realizing a conviction would ruin her life, Dee decides to fight back. Suing the DA for racial discrimination, Dee battles impossible odds in a case that will not only change her life but the laws of Texas as well.
American Violet may be based on the story of outrageous injustices committed against Regina Kelly of Hearne,! Texas, but that does not make it a good film. It is, at best, a bad film with an important message.
American Violet is about a single mother of four, Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie), who is wrongly convicted of drug charges due to police racism and corruption. As she struggles to stay out of prison with the help of her mother, Alma (Alfre Woodard), Dee exemplifies a stalwart woman who refuses to plead guilty when offered a plea bargain. While names of characters and the town itself are changed, the story in
American Violet is allegedly altered only slightly in hopes of maintaining its tragic truth, that a plea-bargain system in Texas forced, in this case, impoverished and sometimes innocent African Americans to accept guilty charges and their negative aftereffects.
American Violet's melodramatic sensibility attempts to spark the same indignation that fuels ACLU lawyer David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) to embark on a lawsuit against the head racist, district ! attorney Calvin Beckett (Michael O'Keefe). Cohen, with the hel! p of a f ormer narcotics officer, Sam Conroy (Will Patton), discovers enough evidence to disturb any viewer. While it is crucial to have artful dialogue about this politically offensive topic,
American Violet is not finely scripted or cinematically engaging enough to elevate it above second-hand documentary. Still, since the film does cover meaningful territory, there may be a place for it in classrooms, or it may inspire others to work on further exposing gross injustice for the benefit of our society. --
Trinie DaltonNicole Beharie (
The Express), Will Patton (
Entrapment,
The Postman), Charles Dutton (TV's
Roc,
Mimic) and Alfre Woodard (TV's
Desperate Housewives,
Primal Fear) star in this gripping true-life story. Falsely accused of distributing narcotics in a school zone, Dee Roberts (
Beharie) is offered a deal she can't refuse: plead guilty and accept a 10-year suspended sentence. The alternative:! risk serving 16-to-25 in jail. Realizing a conviction would ruin her life, Dee decides to fight back. Suing the DA for racial discrimination, Dee battles impossible odds in a case that will not only change her life but the laws of Texas as well.
American Violet may be based on the story of outrageous injustices committed against Regina Kelly of Hearne, Texas, but that does not make it a good film. It is, at best, a bad film with an important message.
American Violet is about a single mother of four, Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie), who is wrongly convicted of drug charges due to police racism and corruption. As she struggles to stay out of prison with the help of her mother, Alma (Alfre Woodard), Dee exemplifies a stalwart woman who refuses to plead guilty when offered a plea bargain. While names of characters and the town itself are changed, the story in
American Violet is allegedly altered only slightly in hopes of maintaining its tragic truth, that a pl! ea-bargain system in Texas forced, in this case, impoverished ! and some times innocent African Americans to accept guilty charges and their negative aftereffects.
American Violet's melodramatic sensibility attempts to spark the same indignation that fuels ACLU lawyer David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) to embark on a lawsuit against the head racist, district attorney Calvin Beckett (Michael O'Keefe). Cohen, with the help of a former narcotics officer, Sam Conroy (Will Patton), discovers enough evidence to disturb any viewer. While it is crucial to have artful dialogue about this politically offensive topic,
American Violet is not finely scripted or cinematically engaging enough to elevate it above second-hand documentary. Still, since the film does cover meaningful territory, there may be a place for it in classrooms, or it may inspire others to work on further exposing gross injustice for the benefit of our society. --
Trinie DaltonCaptain America leads the fight for freedom in the action-packed blockbuster starring Chris Evans ! as the ultimate weapon against evil! When a terrifying force threatens everyone across the globe, the world’s greatest soldier wages war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving,
The Matrix). Critics and audiences alike salute
Captain America: The First Avenger as “pure excitement, pure action, and pure fun!†â€" Bryan Erdy CBS-TVThe Marvel Comics superhero Captain America was born of World War II, so if you're going to do the origin story in a movie you'd better set it in the 1940s. But how, then, to reconcile that hero with the 21st-century mega-blockbuster
The Avengers, a 2012 summit meeting of the Marvel giants, where Captain America joins Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk and other super pals? Stick around, and we'll get to that. In 1943, a sawed-off (but gung-ho) military reject named Steve Rogers is enlisted in a super-secret experiment masterminded by adorable scientist Stanley Tucci and skeptica! l military bigwig Tommy Lee Jones. Rogers emerges, taller and ! sporting greatly expanded pectoral muscles, along with a keen ability to bounce back from injury. In both sections Rogers is played by Chris Evans, whose sly humor makes him a good choice for the otherwise stalwart Cap. (
Benjamin Button-esque effects create the shrinky Rogers, with Evans's head attached.) The film comes up with a viable explanation for the red-white-and-blue suit 'n' shield--Rogers is initially trotted out as a war bonds fundraiser, in costume--and a rousing first combat mission for our hero, who finally gets fed up with being a poster boy. Director Joe Johnston (
The Wolfman) makes a lot of pretty pictures along the way, although the war action goes generic for a while and the climax feels a little rushed. Kudos to Hugo Weaving, who makes his Nazi villain a grand adversary (with, if the ear doesn't lie, an imitation of Werner Herzog's accent). If most of the movie is enjoyable, the final 15 minutes or so reveals a curious weakness in the overall design! : because Captain America needs to pop up in
The Avengers, the resolution of the 1943 story line must include a bridge to the 21st century, which makes for some tortured (and unsatisfying) plot developments. Nevertheless: that shield is really cool.
--Robert Horton
9:24 PM
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