Charm City Kings

a/k/a Twelve
a/k/a 12 O’Clock Boys

Release Date:   1/27/20 – Sundance Film Festival; 4/10/20 – In Theaters
Genre:  Drama
Rating:   R
Director:  Angel Manuel Soto
Studio(s):  Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)
Running Time:  125 mins.
Cast:   Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Will Catlett, Teyonah Parris, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, Kezii Curtis

Story:  Fourteen-year-old Mouse (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) desperately wants to join the Midnight Clique, an infamous group of Baltimore dirt-bike riders who rule the summertime streets. His older brother, Stro, was their top rider before his tragic death—a loss that consumes Mouse as much as his passion for bikes. Mouse’s mom (Teyonah Parris) and his police mentor, Detective Rivers (William Catlett), work overtime to help the charismatic teen reach his full potential, but when the Midnight Clique’s leader, Blax (Meek Mill), takes the boy under his wing, the lure of revving his own dirt bike skids Mouse toward a road way past the straight and narrow.  Source:  Sundance.org.

The Photograph

Release Date:  2/14/20; In Theaters
Genre:  Drama/Romance
Rating:  PG-13
Director:  Stella Meghie
Studio(s):  Universal; Will Packer Productions
Running Time: Unknown
Cast: Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield, Chelsea Peretti, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chante Adams, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Y’lan Noel, Courtney B. Vance, Lil Rel Howery, Teyonah Parris.

Details:  The Photograph stars Issa Rae as Mae Morton, the estranged daughter of famed photographer Christina Eames. When her mother suddenly passes away, Mae ends up on a journey to learn more about Christina’s life, and finds herself in a romance with Michael Block (LaKeith Stanfield), a journalist who’s writing an article about Christina, along the way.

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Candyman

Release Date:   August 27, 2021; In Theaters
Genre:  Horror
Rating:  R
Director:  Nia DaCosta
Writing Credits: Clive Barker (characters), Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld
Studio(s):  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Monkeypaw Productions
Running Time:  TBD
Cast:  Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tony Todd (Daniel Robitaille / Candyman), Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Teyonah Parris, Nadia Simms.

Details:  There’s a new “Candyman” in town.  Jordan Peele’s retelling of the horror classic has cast Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, the actor best known for playing Black Manta in Warner Bros.’ Aquaman, as its star.  The studio is touting the upcoming film as a “spiritual sequel” to the original. It will return to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood. The original Candyman was released in 1992 and follows a graduate student who explores the legend of Candyman while writing a thesis on urban legends.

Story:  For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror.  In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.

With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman.  Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.  Source:  Black Film.

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If Beale Street Could Talk

Release Date:  11/30/18; In Theaters
Genre:  Crime/Drama
Rating:  R
Director:  Barry Jenkins
Studio(s):   Annapurna Pictures, PASTEL, Plan B Entertainment.
Running Time:  117 mins.

Cast:  KiKi Layne (Tish Rivers), Stephan James (Alonzo ‘Fonny’ Hunt), Regina King (Sharon Rivers), Colman Domingo (Joseph Rivers), Teyonah Parris (Ernestine Rivers), Michael Beach (Frank Hunt), Aunjanue Ellis (Mrs. Hunt), Ebony Obsidian (Adrienne Hunt).

Story:   If Beale Street Could Talk follows a pregnant woman from Harlem named Tish (Kiki Layne), whose lover (Stephan James) is falsely accused of rape. When Tish finds out she is pregnant while James’ character Fonny is in prison, she races against the clock with help from her family and her lawyer to find evidence to exonerate Fonny.  Based on the novel by James Baldwin  Source:  Variety.

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Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story

The Miki Howard Story stillRelease Date:  6/1/16 (TV One)
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  Unknown
Director:  Christine Swanson
Cast:  Teyonah Parris (Miki Howard), Gary Dourdan (Augie Johnson), Darius McCrary (Gerald Levert), Amari Cheatom (Eddie Phelps), LisaRaye McCoy (Sylvia Rhone), Vanessa Bell Calloway (Josephine Howard).

Story:  Teyonah Parris stars in the TV One Original Movie The Miki Howard Story. Parris plays the R&B/Jazz singer and actress who enjoyed mainstream success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a string of top 10 hits including “Come Share My Love,” “Baby, Be Mine,” “Love Under New Management,” and others.

The film will cover 30+ years of Howard’s life, including both professional and personal trials and triumphs.  Also starring Darius McCrary as Gerald Levert, Gary Dourdan as Augie Johnson, LisaRaye is Sylvia Rhone, Amari Cheatom as Eddie Phelps and Vanessa Bell Calloway as Josephine Howard.  Christine Swanson is directing from a script written by Rhonda Baraka, which is based on a yet to be released biography by Miki Howard.  Source:  Shadow and Act.

Trailer:

Five Nights in Maine

Five Nights In MaineRelease Date:  2015
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  82 mins.
Studio:  Loveless, Yoruba Saxon Productions
Director:  Maris Curran

Cast:  David Oyelowo (Sherwin), Teyonah Parris (Penelope), Dianne Wiest (Lucinda), Rosie Perez (Ann).

Story:  A young African American man, reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law, who is herself confronting guilt and grief over her daughter’s death. Source: IMDB.  Photo Source:  Thompson on Hollywood.

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