armando vanegas

Review – Get on the Bus (1996)

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by Armando Vanegas

Get on the Bus is a Spike Lee drama that was released on the one-year anniversary of the Million Man March event, which was an event on October 21, 1995 in which a large portion of the black community came together in Washington, D.C. to come together to hear Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan speak of all the injustice going on in the black community and put a focus on the social and economic issues in that community into the forefront. The movie focuses on a group of black men sharing the same bus from South Central, Los Angeles to go to the Million Man March and the way they interact with each other along the way.

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Cinephellas Podcast – Episode 92 (Halloween Episode) **31 Days of Horror**

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We’re continuing ’31 Days of Horror’ with our first ever Halloween episode of the Cinephellas Podcast . The wild ghouls discuss Hubie Halloween, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Dexter’s Return, our favorite and the most underrated final girls in horror movies!

Happy Halloween you wild rascals! 🎃💀🐈‍⬛☠️👻🪦

#CinephellasPodcast #31DaysofHorror #Halloween #MovieReview #Horror

Cinephellas Podcast – Episode 90 (Lockdown with the Phellas) **31 Days of Horror**

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The wild boys are back on this spooky edition of the Cinephellas Podcast .  Since it’s our favorite month of the year, we’re talking about our favorite horror movies to watch during the month of October, classic horror movies we would like to go back in time and be a fly on the wall during filming, entertainment news, and MORE!

#CinephellasPodcast #31DaysofHorror #Halloween #October

 

Review – I Know This Much Is True (2020)

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by Armando Vanegas

HBO is back with another show to make people sad. If the coronavirus and the recent issues concerning racial inequality from law enforcement weren’t enough to make you feel sad about what’s going on in the world, then this should do the trick. I Know This Much is True is the latest HBO mini-series that stars Mark Ruffalo as a man named Dominick and his twin brother Thomas as they struggle to make a life together as a family in Three Rivers, Connecticut in 1990. It becomes such a struggle that it takes a toll on Dominick in devastating ways. Not only does he have that but there’s also an ex-wife who comes back into his life forcing him to face some demons, a tumultuous relationship with his new girlfriend and father, and a mission to translate his maternal great-grandfather’s diary entries with some roadblocks set up by the eccentric woman he’s hired to translate it. So like most HBO shows, a barrel of laughs.

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Review – Da 5 Bloods (2020)

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by Armando Vanegas

Contemplative and uncompromising, Spike Lee’s latest movie, Da 5 Bloods, offers a look at four black Vietnam vets and long time friends who return to Vietnam to retrieve both the U.S. gold they hid during a mission and the body of a fellow fallen soldier, Stormin’ Norman. Things get complicated when one of the vets, played by Delroy Lindo, goes his own way and manages to complicate things for the crew. It also doesn’t help that his son, played by Jonathan Majors, has shown up to get a share of the gold.

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Review- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

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by Armando Vanegas

To begin, I’m a casual Star Wars fan. I enjoy them enough to say that I have fun just going along for the ride with the characters. I can’t say that I know all the minor characters and can name all the different ships and the droids. I don’t watch the cartoons or read the Extended Universe books. I will say though that The Mandalorian is doing a nice job at being a fun Western story that just happens to take place in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars is just a thing to me that exists that I have no ownership to and that doesn’t owe it to me to give me what I want. But in this day and age, the internet has allowed people to complain about many things, including movies. We can’t even go through watching sci-fi action movies made for the family without causing controversy these days. The Last Jedi wasn’t amazing to me, but it was a movie that made some interesting choices. I liked what it was doing with the universe and director Rian Johnson gave the franchise a chance to go in a new direction. But, no one can be happy with what they have and Disney decided to bring back J.J. Abrams to direct the last movie of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Let’s see if this movie was willing to continue on the path that TLJ laid out or they were going to backtrack and attempt to correct what never needed correcting. Spoiler alert: they end up doing the latter. Continue reading →

Review – Marriage Story (2019)

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by Armando Vanegas

After watching this movie, I’ve decided to retire from being a fan of movies because Noah Baumbach’s latest movie Marriage Story  finally did what I’ve wanted from movies and nothing else will compare. The Squid and the Whale was one of the movies that made me a fan of movies because it made me realize you can talk about real things like marital issues onscreen and it can impact the audience talking about those things. It doesn’t have to make you laugh, be scared, or excite you. It can also stick with you on a more personal level. Writer/director Noah Baumbach had that special touch, even back then. I think since Squid, I’ve wanted Baumbach to keep going into that well. Perhaps, I have personal things that made me want this. It also was helpful to learn that he was a child of divorce and that it was a semi-autobiographical look at his parents’ marriage. How he touched on divorce in Squid made me feel like I was seen. Marriage Story didn’t exactly fulfill those satisfactions if only because I didn’t need that itch scratched anymore. I’m young and I just want to enjoy whatever’s out there. When I saw Squid, I wanted more time in that world with these characters because it was so engrossing to me. Logically, there’s no way for this to continue because it felt complete enough even though the ending could be stronger. The movie gods have answered as this is essentially a spiritual sequel to The Squid and the Whale and it has that incredibly written Baumbach dialogue to listen to for 2 hours. It seems that he’s gotten his takes on how divorce sucks out of his system and I did as well.  As far as I can tell, movies are now dead and I will leave this movie life and become a cobbler. But before I do, I’ll talk about Marriage Story. Semi-based on Baumbach’s previous relationship, the movie deals with a theater couple who decide to go through with a divorce. As they realize, this process is extremely difficult and rough as they deal with ruthless lawyers and surprise reveals about each other. If The Squid and the Whale was the breakthrough EP, then Marriage Story is the mic drop and the surefire hit that defines  Baumbach as one of the great American directors of his time.

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