‘National Champions’ Calls for Change in College Sports, to Little Avail
By Nick Ratliff
“National Champions” is a sports drama about two college football athletes fighting for something bigger than themselves. LeMarcus James (Stephan James) is a star quarterback projected to be the number one pick in the upcoming NFL draft, while Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig) is a starter who is not projected to make it past the college level.
Three days before the national championship game, these two athletes protest the game on the basis that student-athletes should be ...
‘Encounter’ is More (and Less) than It Appears
By Benjamin Konuch
"Keeping a level head when all hell's breaking loose, that's a special kind of tough."
Released by Amazon Studios earlier last month, "Encounter" is a slow-burn thriller/drama starring Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer and Lucian River-Chauhan. Ahmed plays Malik, an ex-marine who discovers a conspiracy about alien parasites taking control of humans. Once he finds out, he embarks with his two young sons on a journey across a country where anyone could be an enemy.
While many ...
‘Nightmare Alley’ Masterfully Warns about the Dangers of Deception
By Ben Konuch
"When a man believes his own lies, he believes he has too much power. He’s got shut-eye. Because now, he believes it’s all true."
When does ambition become obsession? What is the line between deceit and reality?
These are the central questions of "Nightmare Alley", a drama / thriller directed by Guillermo del Toro. A remake of a 1947 film of the same name, this "Nightmare Alley" is a dark journey into the mind of a carnival man with a skill for deception. Set in the 1940's, ...
