Film: Playwright August Wilson began his chronicle of the African-American experience throughout the 20th century, one decade at a time, with 1984’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a fictional look at the so-called “Mother of the Blues” in a tension-filled recording session at a Chicago race label in 1927. Now director George C. Wolfe has brought the tale to the screen, with a pair … [Read more...]
‘Diane’: Wise and lyrical, with a star turn from Place
Kent Jones is far from the first writer to make the transition from critic to filmmaker, from outsider to insider, from lobber of bromides to defender of craft. James Agee directed a short, and penned The African Queen and Night of the Hunter; Roger Ebert wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; the French New Wave was a cottage industry of trailblazing … [Read more...]