Two radically different race car drivers clash on and off the track during the 1976 Formula One World Championship season in the new Ron Howard film Rush. Race car drivers are a unique breed. That was never more evident than the 1970s when the top speed of race cars advanced more quickly than the drivers, teams […]
Race car drivers are often overlooked as athletes because many people think that they merely drive around in circles for hours. They don’t realize that racers endure incredible discomfort from the heat and track conditions, experience injuries as a result from strongly holding a jerky steering wheel for hours and deal with the occasional crash. […]
The enigmatic college dropout rises to become one of the most respected (and feared) business leaders in history in Jobs. Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) was a force from his earliest days. Never one to play to social norms, Jobs moved to the beat of his own internal drummer. He had the gift for visionary thinking […]
A poor black child from the deep South overcomes incredible odds to become a White House butler and bears witness to some of the greatest strides (and setbacks) of the civil rights movement in Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) was raised on a cotton plantation in Georgia during the early 1900s. He […]
A young, troubled father, struggling to finally put his life back together, is tragically killed by transit police in the true story of Fruitvale Station. Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) was returning from a night out with friends, enjoying San Francisco’s New Year’s Eve festivities for 2009. A fight broke out on the train that […]
Backup singers are often overlooked in rock music. You’ve heard their work on records or live, but unless they get to vocalize a little more than normal in a song, they blend into the background. Because of the early influence of Motown and the blues in rock music, many of these background singers were black […]
A heartless mob hit man plies his daily trade of death and dismemberment while also managing to keep his job a secret from his wife and two daughters in the true story of The Iceman. Richard Kuklinski was a monster the likes of which the world has rarely produced. Here was an individual who, due […]
Unfortunately, history almost always loses out to creativity when money’s on the line. That appears to be the case here.
“Kill Mumia now!” That’s what I yelled at the Free Mumia Now crowds outside City Hall in Philadelphia some years ago. I just happened to be driving by one day when I didn’t expect the rally and would have otherwise avoided the area. If you’re from the Philadelphia area, you heard about Mumia Abu-Jamal at […]
Relative newcomer Neil Barsky looks at the man most New York City residents knew simply as “The Mayor” in his new film entitled Koch. Ed Koch dominated New York City politics in a way no other politician of recent memory ever has. He first shot onto the scene as a congressman for New York’s 17th District […]
Most movies that have some basis in fact twist the history a little for more dramatic effect or simply to make a more enjoyable experience. For historical dramas, this technique tends to misinform moviegoers who don’t already know the real history. Imagine how many people will now think of Abraham Lincoln as represented in Lincoln […]
A 26 year-old Negro League baseball player finds an unlikely benefactor and is given the chance to break Major League Baseball‘s color barrier while wearing number 42. Jack (Jackie) Robinson‘s journey from the simple buses of Negro League baseball to becoming the first black player in the all-white Major Leagues since a color ban was instituted is a […]