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The concept of working hard to achieve your dreams is as American as apple pie. Every day, people get up at the crack of dawn only to return deep into the night with little to show for it. Ludi showcases that this American ideal has shaped people arriving into the country as well as those born here. However, is that a good thing? The drama, produced by Bantufy, follows Ludi as she battles with those around her and even herself to earn the rarely obtained American Dream. 

Directed by Edson Jean, the film begins with Ludi (Shein Mompremier) playing a cassette tape back home from her family in Haiti. The clear exhaustion hangs on her body like a weighted blanket as she tries to be a source of stability for them. She wants to go above and beyond in order to provide, sending more money than necessary and even gifts back to her home. However, she is sacrificing herself in order for those other than herself to thrive. The audio sent between Ludi and her family plays a major role in being utilized as a segue between scenes as well as background into who Ludi truly is. 

As imagery of citizens and homes of Miami’s Little Haiti community move across the screen in a blurry haze, Ludi tells stories about how she will be able to come home soon and see her family — knowing this will not happen. She describes her days as tiring but never going into too much detail about how she is doing in order not to panic them. It is obvious that despite her holding back, she feels like she is running as fast as she can towards her goals but not moving from her present position. Black women often have to work twice as hard to accomplish half of what their white counterparts have. For Ludi, a woman of color and an immigrant, the current standards of American society do not provide the privileges promised before arriving. 

While Ludi works hard at her nursing home position in order to provide for her family, her workaholic personality still shows. She takes overtime from all of her other employees, but is never seen as an enemy due to her inner joy and eagerness to do what she sees as the “American way.” Along with her extreme hard-working attitude, those from Little Haiti see her turning into a true American — this is not a compliment. In one of the standout scenes of the film, Ludi’s co-worker offers to pray for her to find another source of income. Ludi closes her eyes and begins to listen to the prayer that starts with referencing her overall being and then morphs into how she is turning into a typical American. She doesn’t remember the last time she went to church, she is chasing money instead of a husband, and she does not want kids. She is seen as the antithesis of Haiti’s standards for women. Nevertheless, Ludi likes who she is and feels that hard work surpasses all of those life goals for the other Haitian women around her.

No matter how much someone wants to work, at some point there must be rest. Without it, any work you do will be unfruitful or even worse be chock full of errors. Ludi never stopped to consider herself, even if it meant her body ached or her eyes were heavy from exhaustion. She continued to work because she felt that not only was it something that she had to do for her family, but it was something she was called to do by God. Despite her motivations, everyone hits a wall and realizes that there must be self-care incorporated. Ludi learns this lesson from an unlikely source, her patient George (Alan Myles Heyman). 

George to Ludi is everything she hates about Americans — rude, hard-headed and unwilling to accept help. However, the irony in their situation is that aspects of George are reflected in Ludi herself. They are both hard-headed, unwilling to accept help, and can attack when someone threatens their way of life. Ludi essentially puts up a fight with herself in the form of an older man and realizes how toxic living this way truly is. In a fit of rage, Ludi screams that she is suffocating from working so hard for little to nothing in return. After Ludi sends packages to her family, there is nothing left for her. She sacrifices herself in order to give a better life for her family. However, she does not work to create a better life for herself and herself alone. 

In one of the last audio messages in the film, Ludi, while telling her family she cannot come home, again states, “Once this country has its hands on you, it never lets you go.” She is correct. America has a way of taking the most ordinary person and making them the superstar they always wanted to be or someone who they never wanted to become. It holds out a promise on a contract stating that you can have it all if you work hard and do what Americans do. The fine print, however, makes it very clear that who it favors are those whiter in complexion with money already in their lives. Nevertheless, there are those who broke the rules and succeeded. For Ludi, the rule she needed to break first was simple — working herself to the bone was not going to cut it anymore. Through self-care and being kind to herself, the American Dream that Ludi always wanted now includes her, too.

The film Ludi premiered at the SXSW Festival Tuesday March 16th.

Writer: Vita Ayala / Artist: Bernard Chang / Marvel

We open up with a powerful full page of action featuring youngins that look eerily similar to a few mutants you may have heard of! Beatrice Bartholomew aka Buddy seems to be the commander, which tracks with the Cyclops inspired visor on her head. Marvel Guy has the makings of a Rogue and Juggernaut offspring. The little teleporting cowboy with the tail is giving off clear Nightcrawler vibes and… HOL UP! Is that a new young black girl magic character in the corner looking like Gambit and Storm had a love affair?! Vita Ayala and Bernard Chang really set the tone right there.

We find out the black girl’s name is Gimmick, Scott’s maybe offspring’s name is Cyclops-Lass….and I don’t know if I can’t even handle all that. Marvel Guy already got name dropped and the tag team flyers are Cherub and Daycrawler. Looking back, this opening page was perfectly done. Each character gets a 1 liner that encompasses who they are.  The writing following that page should have kept that hype going but the weak ass, old mutant jokes were a bore. Luckily, there was some good artwork in those opening pages to keep my attention.

Now I gotta say, after the “first team mission” portion of this book, Ayala does an amazing job of being a magician with the pen an giving us the answers that are obviously kicking around in everyone’s head, while never revealing all of her cards. We find out why these kids are fighting crime out in the streets, if Krakoa still home to all mutants. We also learn how long it’s been since Krakoa first welcomed mutants to its shores and more. We get a little insight into thoughts of our OG X-Men, which was a treat.

I wanted to love Bernard Chang’s artwork but too many close up shots fell flat in the first half of the book. There were some standout panels that proved the opening page wasn’t a fluke and nearly every scene of the kids in school was beautifully done. A bit disappointing that the mundane artwork is crispier than the action.

While I didn’t love the hero vs. villain smack talk in the beginning of this book, Ayala finished really strong. The cliffhanger you’re hit with forces you to happily backtrack and think about everything you just read in a completely new way and that is impressive writing, no matter which way you slice it. 

7 “Never Meet Your Heroes” out of 10

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The post Children of the Atom #1 Review: Young Mutants on the Scene! appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Writer: Kieron Gillen / Artist: Esad Ribic / Marvel

So it seems Gillen has set us up with a super powered, murder mystery: and I’m here for it! The pacing that Gillen establishes is so well done that you don’t realize things are escalating so much moment by moment. Of course, when an issue is devoid of action it’s easy to breeze through. These first 3 issues of Eternals, however, feel like they’re building to something bigger, while the immediate threat of Thanos, a murderer and perhaps the mad titan, assuming both of those roles looms overhead.

We get the intro, crash course and exposé on Thena from start to finish. Her story was enlightening. Seeing someone so driven and guided by love that they could be blinded by the actual deviants standing before their eyes was insightful. Her strengths, her weaknesses, her heart, and her flaws are all on full display as a distinctly unique character.

Sersi is a stark contrast to Thena’s openness. She seems to be as straight laced as the Eternals come and brimming with pride. Sersi and Thena have been at this war of words and loyalty for millennia and this issue continues this accusatory cycle.

Esan Ribic has created some gorgeous worlds, landscapes, laboratories and hells to look at. Some of the faces of his characters may be a bit off putting but everything else is downright righteous.

Heart. Love. Not terms you often hear in the manner they’re used by Gillen. Impressive how he weaponized those words while maintaining their delicacy and tenderness. Sprite continues to be a bright spot dam near every panel she’s in. I love the Ikaris side mission, because it stays true to his nature as an arrow. Another book, another cliffhanger to keep readers intrigued! I came to get some knowledge on the Eternals before the movie premieres, but I’m staying for this exciting game of Carnage Clue.

8 “Dining Among Animals” out of 10

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The post Eternal #3 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Source: Jerritt Clark/Getty; Tommaso Boddi/Getty / Getty

Following their tumultuous breakup, Khloe Kardashian recently announced that she and Tristan Thompson have rekindled their relationship. That being said, with the thousands of comments congratulating the couple, many are also citing the duo’s reunited love as all the more reason for Khloe to issue Jordyn Woods an apology.

Shared just two days ago in celebration of Tristan’s birthday, Khloe’s post noted that even though the two have experienced their fair share of ups and downs in the past — she now feels their relationship is stronger than ever and bound to have an abundance of good memories ahead of them.

“The ones that are meant to be are the ones who go through everything that is designed to tear them apart,” Khloe’s Instagram post began. Continuing to describe her outlook on their relationship now she added, “And they come out even stronger than they were before. Thank you for showing me everything you said you would. For the father you are. For the best friend I have in you. I’m thankful that I can do absolutely nothing without you and it feels like everything. I hope you know today and every day how loved you are by me and so many. Happy birthday TT! Welcome to 30! I can’t wait for all of the memories. This is when life just starts getting good!”

If you recall, the two started dating back in August of 2016. In December of the following year, that’s when they announced that they were expecting their first child, True Thompson, who was born on April 12th, 2018. Unfortunately, just two days prior to the day their daughter was born, Tristan was seen boo’d up in NYC with another woman and allegedly cheated on Khloe with her. Things got even messier when around a year later, rumors swirled that Tristan had cheated on Khloe again, but this time with Kylie’s then best friend, which was Jordyn.

Essentially, the Kardashian-Jenner clan enacted a smear campaign against Jordyn as a result of the rumors. Instead of blaming Tristan for their break-up — caused by all the cheating scandals he was involved in — Khloe framed the story as if Jordyn was the one who broke apart her young family. As you can imagine, Jordyn’s ties to the Kardashian-Jenners were then publicly and brutally severed — and her name was dragged through the mud unnecessarily. The latter was especially true considering the fact that Jordyn’s appearance on Red Table Talk and lie detector test results proved that she never slept with Tristan to begin with.

While Jordyn is definitely owed a public apology from Khloe, Tristan, and the Kardashian-Jenner clan, I think it’s a rare chance that she will get one from them. On the off chance that she does — as per classic Kardashian ways — I assume it’ll be more of a PR tactic to make themselves look good, and less about how they genuinely tried to ruin Jordyn’s reputation and feel sorry about it. To be honest, none of it makes any sense at all. If Khloe was going to work towards taking Tristan back and follow through with doing so, then what was all Jordyn bashing for in the long run? It literally was a frenzy of them and their fans bashing a young Black woman for no reason — and they never apologized for it which is embarrassingly sad. With the immense platform Khloe has, not only did she falsely accuse Jordyn, but the fact that she never publicly apologized for it is what made their actions so blatantly wrong.

When all is said and done, Khloe taking back Tristan is good for them and their daughter — but it doesn’t erase the hurtful way they discarded Jordyn from their circle, or how they tried to publicly take her down despite her innocence. Do you think Jordyn will be getting that apology anytime soon?