Once
Directed by John Carney
Suddenly, musicals are back … but there are musicals, and then there are terrific, stirring movies that happen to be musicals. Once is more along these lines. In fact, it reinvents the genre in a way that make it more real than Rent, more beautiful with less pomp than Hairspray, and more touching than just about any other movie out there. With honest performances by a no-name cast and a soulful soundtrack that will have your heartstrings pulled in every possible direction, this is the flick you want to see if you feel like falling in love. Click on the image to buy now!
 

The Devil Came on Horseback
By Annie Sundberg
This is one of the movies that you hate to see but have to see. It’s one of those experiences that captures words like “Darfur” and “Genocide” and throws them—along with our global conscience—into sharp and horrific relief. And we owe it to former marine captain Brian Steidle, who was sent to Sudan to monitor a ceasefire in 2004 and became instead an eyewitness to the kind of carnage and devastation that few people have seen. His first-person account, expertly brought to film by Sundberg, is a harrowing look at the conflict in Darfur and, almost as disturbing, the rest of the world’s blindness to it. Click on the image to buy now!
 

Talk To Me
By Kasi Lemmons
Talk To Me is the Good Morning Vietnam of the civil rights movement. Both movies rode on the strength of superb performances by their stars, and in Talk To Me, the mic gets handed to the incomparable Don Cheadle, who is fast becoming one of the best actors of this generation. Cheadle takes on the real-life story of Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene Jr., a flamboyant ex-con whose gift for the gab as an on-air radio personality electrifies a nation on the verge of a cultural revolution. Cheadle adds his own charisma and flair to the role and delivers a knockout performance that shouldn’t be missed.