Month: February 2022

When they first meet, Michael Boatman, the first Black officer at the Sheriff’s department, and Lori Petty, the first female, don’t really get along, but that changes as they each encounter outright contempt and hostility from the rest of the white male force. When Boatman becomes suspicious of police activities after the arrest of Ice Cube, the two team up to find the truth about the investigation. While being a little too good versus bad in its portrayal, t’s a fairly well acted exploration of police corruption and the artifice of the thin blue line. I was surprised how little Ice Cube actually was in the film as he is prominent in the cover images for the film. 

After going against the orders of his mob boss, gangster James Fox goes into hiding in a hippy haven. There he meets Mick Jagger, a former rock star, and the two’s experiences gradually meld their personalities. I admittedly didn’t get much out of this at all, but there are definite explorations of identity of all sorts going on. The first half is hyper violent while the latter scenes in the hippy household are explicitly sexual.

Every year I watch the journey of smarmy weatherman Bill Murray’s path to enlightenment while providing coverage for the annual Groundhog Festival in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. It’s a role that Murray perfectly encapsulates at perhaps the height of his career. I’m not generally a fan of Andie MacDowell, but even as a love interest, she mostly gets out of the way of Bill’s journey. The rest of the wonderful cast just supports the process. The settings are perfectly captured from the downtown area to the bed and breakfast to the recreation of Gobbler’s Knob. Each year I find new questions to ask myself about the timeline and the changes Murray experiences and the choices he makes.