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Movies & TV

7 films by people of colour to watch online right now

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT inserts its blood-drinking immortal into the very intriguing context of present-day Iran. Sheila Vand is the Girl, watchful, nameless. She cruises the streets of the fictional Bad City on a skateboard, just putting herself out there – inviting men to chat her up, make a move, bring her home. They do what they do she does what she does. But eventually she meets a guy (Arash Marandi) who doesn’t follow the pattern he isn’t hostile or domineering, doesn’t fall for her quiet, submissive front. And that’s when things get interesting, as writer/director Amirpour lets the characters simply spend time together and watches what happens. (See full review). 

Rating: NNNNN

Where to watch: iTunes


Beyond The Lights

BEYOND THE LIGHTS is a romantic drama from Love & Basketball writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood. As in her beloved debut, Beyond The Lights is a love story about characters with three dimensions and compatible personalities here, each has been raised by a single parent devoted to their success. For Noni (Belle’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw), it’s her controlling mother (Minnie Driver) for Kaz (Red Tails’ Nate Parker), it’s his cooler but no less determined dad (Danny Glover), who’s charted a path to the White House for his eminently respectable son. (See full review). 

Rating: NNN

Where to watch: iTunes


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BEEBA BOYS, from Deepa Mehta, is gorgeous to look at. The pic is heart-stoppingly kinetic – almost too much so – as upstart Jeet Johar (Randeep Hooda) and his gang battles Robbie Grewal (Gulshan Grover) and his crew. This being Mehta, the female characters are three-dimensional: Balinder Johal gives Jeet’s mom real heft, and Sarah Allen as Jeet’s girlfriend channels Michelle Pfeiffer in more ways than one. (See full review). 

Rating: NNNN

Where to watch: iTunes


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CREED reunites Fruitvale Station writer/director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan for a story about Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son Adonis, a kid with all the advantages who still wants to follow in the footsteps of the father he never knew. The driven Donnie moves from L.A. to Philadelphia to train with his dad’s best friend (you know, that Rocky guy) and make his way toward a championship bout that’ll make him or break him. (See full review).

Rating:NNNN

Where to watch: iTunes


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O’Shea Jackson Jr. channels his dad, Ice Cube, in Straight Outta Compton.

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON comes almost 30 years after N.W.A. made gangsta rap a hip-hop staple, we finally get a biopic. The timing is right. Tragically, the black-denim-clad group’s incendiary anthem, Fuck The Police, and the LAPD behaviour that inspired it resonate today. Straight Outta Compton emphasizes that song’s anger and underlines its relevance, from Rodney King to Ferguson, with repeated scenes of police overstepping their boundaries. (See full review).

Rating: NNN

Where to watch: iTunes


Dear White People

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE is a vital, immediate comedy about contemporary attitudes toward race, gender and sexuality, set at a fictional Ivy League school where racial tensions are creeping toward a flashpoint. Favouring Spike Lee’s School Daze over Do The Right Thing (which he quotes only in the service of a Tyler Perry joke), writer/director Simien builds a complex environment of clashing motivations and desires, each marked by sharp dialogue and believable conflicts. Everybody Hates Chris’s Tyler James Williams and Veronica Mars’s Tessa Thompson are particularly adept at investing Simien’s zingers with the exactly right amount of righteous condemnation, but the entire cast is game. See? Social awareness can be fun! 108 min.

Rating: NNNN

Where to watch: iTunes


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O.J. SIMPSON: MADE IN AMERICA puts O.J. Simpson front and center 22 years since the ex-NFL star and occasional actor allegedly murdered his estranged wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Mezzaluna waiter Ron Goldman, and it’s like he’s never gone away. Produced in five 90-minute segments for ESPN, it’s the most comprehensive inquiry yet attempted into Simpson and the world that made him possible. (See full review).

Rating: NNNN

 Where to watch: iTunes

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