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Coming soon to theaters this holiday season is the Agatha Christie-esque mystery thriller Knives Out directed by Rian Johnson.
Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in Knives Out, a fun, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate.
From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death. With an all-star ensemble cast including Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, Knives Out is a witty and stylish whodunit guaranteed to keep audiences guessing until the very end.
BGN’s Jeandra Lebeauf interviews Rian Johnson, Don Johnson, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell (not featured in the videos below), Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans.
Knives Out releases in theaters November 27th.
The post The Team Behind ‘Knives Out’ Cuts Deep in our Interviews! appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
Source: Frazer Harrison / Getty
Just weeks after Gabrielle Union was reportedly fired from “America’s Got Talent,” the actress took to social media to thank her fans for their support.
“So many tears, so much gratitude,” she wrote. “THANK YOU! Just when you feel lost, adrift, alone… you got me up off the ground. Humbled and thankful, forever.”
So many tears, so much gratitude. THANK YOU! Just when you feel lost, adrift, alone… you got me up off the ground. Humbled and thankful, forever
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) November 28, 2019
Gabrielle’s departure comes amid rumors that the host was let go after reportedly trying to escalate a culturally insensitive Jay Leno joke to NBC’s HR, Variety reports. The 47-year-old was also allegedly critiqued by the network for wearing hairstyles deemed “too Black.”
A spokesperson for NBC and Fremantle told People on Tuesday of the incident, “America’s Got Talent has a long history of inclusivity and diversity in both our talent and the acts championed by the show. The judging and host line-up has been regularly refreshed over the years and that is one of the reasons for AGT’s enduring popularity. NBC and the producers take any issues on set seriously.”
Gabrielle’s former NBA star hubby showed support for his wife on Twitter.
“Men lie, Women lie, numbers don’t” Over this past year I’ve been approached by many people saying that my wife @itsgabrielleu is the main reason they’ve started watching #AGT or that they love her insight and sincerity on the show.”
Continuing, “So when i got the news that my wife was being fired—my first question was obviously why!? Iam still waiting on a good answer to that question. But if anyone knows @itsgabrielleu or have heard of her you know she’s an advocate for our community and culture. As proud as i were of her being selected as a judge on #AGT— Iam even more proud of her standing up for what she stands for and that’s US.”
Black Friday is in full swing and it’s time to take advantage of all those sweet deals on your favorite tech, gaming, and smart home products.
Today, many retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart, are slashing prices on many devices. If you’ve been eyeing a new Alexa-enabled device, console, or new laptop, today is the day to take advantage of Black Friday promotions. Of course, you can wait until Cyber Monday, but why not get an early start on all your holiday shopping?
Below are the best gaming, tech, and smart home deals for Black Friday 2019. We will be updating this page throughout the day, and if you need to find out when all the Black Friday 2019 sales start, visit this page and check out this page for tips and tricks on scoring the best deals for Black Friday.
Gaming Deals
Photo Credit: Amazon
Sony PS4 DualShock 4 Wireless Controller for $38.99 (Save $21)
iBUYPOWER Gaming PC Computer Desktop Element 9260 for $899.99 (Save $100)
Dell G3 Intel Core i5-9300H 15.6″ 1080p Gaming Laptop for $869.99 (Save $300)
Nintendo Switch w/ Neon Blue & Neon Red Joy-Con + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for $299
PlayStation 4 Only on PlayStation Bundle 1TB for $289.85 (Save $16.14)
Xbox One S 1TB All-Digital Edition Console for $149 (Save $100)
Sony DUALSHOCK 4 Red Camo Wireless Controller for $38.99
Tech Deals
Photo Credit: Amazon
LG G8 ThinQ 128GB 6.1″ QHD+ OLED Unlocked Smartphone for $399.99
Black Anker PowerCore 20100 20100mAh Power Bank for $49.99
24″ Dell SE2419H 1920×1080 LED Monitor for $99.99 (Save $100)
Roborock S4 Robot Vacuum for $299.99 (Save $100)
Apple MacBook Air 13.3″ Intel Core i5 Laptop with 128GB SSD (Prev gen) for $649.99 (Save $349)
Acer Aspire 5 Intel i5-8250U Quad 1080p 15.6″ Laptop for $399.99 (Save $130)
Garmin Vívoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch for $131.62 (Save $218.37)
Smart Home Deals
Photo Credit: Amazon
Roborock E35 Robot Vacuum and Mop Cleaner for $229.99 ($120)
Nest Smart Thermostat 3rd Gen for $139.99 ($109.01)
Google Nest Mini (2nd Gen) for $29 ($20)
Nest Cam Indoor 1080p Camera (3 Pack) for $337 (Save $60)
Roku Streaming Stick+ 4K Ultra HD Media Player for $29 (Save $30)
Lenovo Smart Display 8″ with Google Assistant for $99 (Save $100)
Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Smart Speaker With Alexa for $22 (Save $27.99)
Ring Video Doorbell 2 for $129 (Save $70)
For more deals, including all of the latest Black Friday announcements, check out our sister site, BlackFriday.com.
More on Geek.com:
- Here’s When All the Major Black Friday 2019 Sales Start
- The Best Black Friday Gifts for Comic Book Fans
- Black Friday 2019: How to Score the Best Gaming and Tech Deals
My body had a physical reaction shortly after leaving the theater after watching Queen & Slim.
My stomach was in knots, and my heart was racing. I had to take a moment to take deep cleansing breaths to lower my heart rate. Directed by Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim is a film that punches you in the gut. It is powerful and wrought with so much emotion that its ending will leave you speechless. Queen & Slim takes us on a wild roller-coaster ride of ups and downs that brings us from joyous moments of laughter to feelings of pain and anguish.
The story begins with two unnamed individuals — a man and woman meeting at a diner in Cleveland after a Tinder connection. It’s pretty clear that the two have absolutely nothing in common — even right down to what each have ordered off the dinner menu. The woman, later known as Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), orders a salad, and the man, known as Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), orders steak and scrambled eggs. Queen is bothered by everything about Slim, including the fact that his eggs were ordered wrong and he failed to correct the waitress, but that’s not Slim. As it turns out, the woman is a defense attorney. She throws shade at the man for choosing the restaurant because she thinks it’s cheap. And although it appears the man does have a blue collar job, he chose the restaurant not because it’s cheap but because it’s Black-owned. There is more than what meets the eye here, and we begin to scrape just a bit of the surface of both Queen and Slim in this diner scene.
Unfortunately, this date isn’t going very well, and the two realize it’s time to get the check and end this evening as quickly as possible. Things quickly go south when the couple is pulled over by a cop in the middle of the night on their way home. The charge? Failure to use a signal. That major infraction along with Slim accidentally swerving the car when he was being playful with Queen led him to be possibly charged for a DUI. The couple, of course, was not drinking nor intoxicated with any illegal substances at the time of their date.
The trigger-happy cop immediately has a knee-jerk reaction, resulting in his gun going off shooting Queen in her leg. Slim begins to tussle with him to subdue him out of fear, self-defense, and to protect an unarmed woman. He grabs for the cop’s gun and shoots him point-blank in the chest, killing him instantly. This first date is now a situation where these two become fugitives, on the run and forced to rely on each other for help and save each other no matter what the outcome may look like.
What is incredibly significant about the character development of each of these characters is how different they become from beginning to end. Queen is more militant, guarded, and take-charge, and her story arc evolves as she slowly lets her guard down. We begin to understand why she’s been building the walls around her for so many years. Slim, on the other hand, is more open, reserved, and trusting of others, even trusting to a fault. (There’s a scene where he hands a strange man a loaded gun, which in my opinion made absolutely no sense.)
However, I felt a great deal of empathy towards his character because he represented being a man of faith, which is close to my heart. In the opening scene of the film, during their first date, Slim is praying over his food. He wears a cross over his neck, and his faith in God is important to him. What I felt the most, though, was shortly after the aftermath of shooting a cop, he had to listen to gospel music on full blast to get his mind right. That was a real moment, and I truly felt it watching that scene.
Slim’s behavior, as well as his story arc, evolve, and it’s almost as if this horrific event was a life lesson that taught the two how to become the best of themselves. This is certainly not to make light of the tragedy of police brutality against Black people because it’s a very real thing, which leads me to my criticism of the film’s ending. I obviously don’t want to give anything away with spoilers here, but the ending was super disappointing for me.
There are other moments of Queen & Slim that stuck with me and replayed in my head like a broken record long after the scene ended and the film kept going. This bothered me. Again, I’m not trying to dive into spoiler territory here, but I’m not sure what kind of messaging is in play here when we see violent retaliation against police by youth as a response to Queen and Slim’s actions. It didn’t feel authentic to me that youth would feel compelled to act that way, but what did feel authentic was the way Queen and Slim were quickly accepted by the Black community when they escaped from Cleveland to New Orleans. The fatal shooting of the police officer was caught on his dashcam and instantly goes viral. The couple’s identity is recognized instantly by everyone around them, and during their time hiding in plain sight, they are embraced and protected by Black New Orleans residents — and that’s a real thing. Power to the people.
That aside, I will say overall the story structure and character development and the incredible chemistry between Turner-Smith and Kaluuya is enough to give this film a shot. Writer and Emmy-winner Lena Waithe digs into this script and gives the audience a big dose of social commentary that resonates. Viewers may debate whether or not they are at peace with the film’s ending. One thing is for certain, it is a film that will spark a conversation and will definitely have families talking this holiday season.
Queen & Slim releases in theaters November 27th.
The post Review: ‘Queen & Slim’ Will Leave You Speechless appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.