KasiLemmons Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The squandered genius of writer-director Bernard Rose is a subject worthy of a documentary. After some steady work as a hired helmer in British cinema, Rose made his writing-directing debut with 1992's Candyman, a movie that, by all rights, should have been a forgettable B-grade chiller about a ghost who haunts a ghetto, but which I vividly remember seeing in theaters on a double-bill with Steven Seagal's Under Siege. Since I was only 14 at the time, I was very appreciative of Under Siege -- specifically Erika Eleniak's nude scene -- but I was absolutely terrified of Candyman, and remain so to this day. By the time Rose's second film, Immortal Beloved, rolled around, I was already a fan and fell for the lush, full-throated and historically absurd sophomore effort as much as I had for Candyman. Then came 1997's expansive, shot-on-location-in-Russia film adaption of Anna Karenina, starring Sophie Marceau, which took in less than a million dollars at the box-office, effectively ending Rose's Hollywood career just as it was beginning.

Should Rose ever be given entrance into the brass ring again, we can only hope his skills are still sharp enough to make movies like Candyman, which does so many things right I can hardly list them all. This is a horror movie that gets depressing right -- how many movies can hit that note? After you've seen it, you don't feel like you've had a "thrill ride" or a "good scare"-- you feel like the world is a grim, depressing and inescapably hopeless place. The plot: two sociology grad students at the University of Illinois, played by Virginia Madsen and Kasi Lemmons, decide to investigate a locally born urban legend figure known as Candyman (Tony Todd) -- say his name a few times in the mirror and he'll appear and gut you with his hook. Their research leads them to Chicago's Cabrini Green, a notoriously gang-infested housing complex that's sort of like a North Shore Compton, only scarier because it's comprised of dilapidated high-rise buildings with rotting walls and empty staircases that just scream out 'very bad things have happened here.'

I'll admit that the only Don Cheadle project I had been keeping track of was the Miles Davis biopic; so it was no surprise that Cheadle's Talk To Me had flown completely under my radar. That is until I noticed the new trailer up on Yahoo! Movies. Also starring is Martin Sheen, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Inside Man) and Cedric The Entertainer -- who might be looking to redeem himself with audiences after the reception Code Name: The Cleaner received.

Directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film is the biography of Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became an Emmy winning broadcaster and social activist. Greene passed away in 1984 at the age of 53. The movie looks to be dripping with nostalgia and even manages to work in a shot of a burning flag in case you think this period comedy doesn't have a serious point to make. Luckily, Cheadle has the uncanny ability of walking away with his dignity intact no matter what the rest of the movie is like; if you don't believe me, watch Swordfish and tell me he doesn't save himself from total embarrassment, if only John Travolta had managed to do the same. Talk To Me opens July of this year.

Acting buffs everywhere rejoiced on Tuesday, as it was announced that Don Cheadle and Chiwitel Ejiofor -- two of the best actors working today, regardless of their race -- are teaming up for a true-life tale of a Washington, D.C. talk radio jock from the '60s. Cheadle will rock the mic, playing ex-con 'Petey' Green, who became a controversial host in '60s D.C.; Ejiofor will play his producer Dewey Hughes. Even more interesting is the announcement that Kasi Lemmons will be directing-- Lemmons made a splash with Eve's Bayou, although her follow-up, The Caveman's Valentine, fell off the radar. Shooting is scheduled to start next month -- presumably after Cheadle's Ocean's 13 duties are accomplished -- and the pic will be distributed by Focus Features, the Universal-linked micro-studio that brought us Brokeback Mountain and Far From Heaven. Never having lived in D.C., I don't know the background of this story -- can any of our readers in Drama City fill us in on the historical roots of this film? As for me, I'm just psyched by the thought of Cheadle and Ejiofor working together on the big screen. ...