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The Ultimate 2013 Black Fall Movie Preview

October 11

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

Distributor: Codeblack Films (Lionsgate)

Director: George Tillman, Jr.
Screenwriter: Michael Starrbury
Music: Alicia Keys, Mark Isham
Cast: Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbale, Julito McCullum, Ken Maharaj

Synopsis: During a sweltering summer in New York City, 13-year-old Mister’s (Brooks) hard-living mother (Hudson) is apprehended by the police, leaving the boy and nine-year-old Pete (Dizon) alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the Brooklyn projects. Faced with more than any child can be expected to bear, the resourceful Mister nevertheless feels he is an unstoppable force against seemingly unmovable obstacles. But what really keeps the pair in the survival game is much more Mister’s vulnerability than his larger-than-life attitude.

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete is a beautifully observed and tremendously moving film about salvation through friendship and the way transformation sometimes can happen just by holding on long enough.

October 18

12 Years A Slave

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Director: Steve McQueen
Screenwriter: John Ridley
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong’o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, Alfre Woodard, Chris Chalk, Taran Killam, Bill Camp

Synopsis: “12 Years a Slave” is based on an incredible true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender), as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) will forever alter his life.

I’m In Love With A Church Girl

Distributor: High Top Releasing

Director: Steve Race
Writer: Galley Molina
Producers: Israel Houghton, Galley Molina, Michael K. Race, Sean Dinoodie
Cast: Ja Rule, Adrienne Bailon, Stephen Baldwin, Toby Mac, T-Bone, Michael Madsen, Vincent Pastore, Martin Kove, Michael Rivera
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Production Co.: Reverence Gospel Media

Synopsis: Cars. Good looks. Mansions. Money. Women. Miles Montego has it all. Including a past. He was king of the streets as a high-level drug trafficker, and although he has tried to move on, the DEA isn’t convinced. Miles is still rolling with his old friends and colleagues, and the feds are certain he has not fully-retired from his criminal past.

When Miles meets Vanessa Leon, a woman who is different than every other woman he’s met, he is drawn to her beauty and her faith. She is a “church girl” in every-sense of the word. Increasingly, he is torn between a life that he knows and a love that he feels. As Vanessa experiences his lavish lifestyle, mobster-type friends, gun play, and encounters with past women, Vanessa must reconcile her faith in God and her growing love for Miles.

Both are tested to their last ounce of faith and strength in God and each other. God continues to chip away at Miles through struggles from his past, having to live up to his reputation, feelings of unworthiness, the death of his mother, federal charges, his friends being indicted, the strain on his relationship with Vanessa, almost losing her in a near fatal car accident, and finally the spiritual breakdown that brings him on his knees to face God one-on-one.

November 8

Go For Sisters

Distributor: Variance Films

Director: John Sayles
Screenwriter: John Sayles
Starring: Edward James Olmos, Michael Laskin, Hector Elizondo, Isaiah Washington, Mahershala Ali, LisaGay Hamilton, Elizabeth Sung, Yolanda Ross
Genre: Drama

Bernice Stokes and Fontayne Gamble grew up the closest of friends. After high school Bernice got into social services and corrections work, Fontayne just got into trouble. Twenty years later Bernice is assigned as parole officer for Fontayne– just released from prison and fighting a drug habit. But Bernice’s son Rodney, has gone missing on the Mexican border, his shady partners in hiding or brutally murdered. Fontayne, through a prison girlfriend, enlists Freddy Suárez (Olmos), a disgraced, near-blind ex-LAPD detective once known as ‘the Terminator’, to help them find Rodney. Outlaws on a noble quest, they are lured into a potentially deadly cat-and-mouse game with mysterious Chinese smugglers.

November 15

The Best Man Holiday

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Screenwriter: Malcolm D. Lee
Starring: Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau, Monica Calhoun, Melissa De Sousa

Synopsis: After nearly 15 years apart, Taye Diggs (television’s “Private Practice”), Nia Long (“Soul Food”), Morris Chestnut (“Kick-Ass 2”), Harold Perrineau (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Terrence Howard (“Hustle & Flow”), Sanaa Lathan (“Contagion”), Monica Calhoun (“Love & Basketball”), Melissa De Sousa (“Miss Congeniality”) and Regina Hall (“Scary Movie” franchise) reprise their career-launching roles in “The Best Man Holiday,” the long-awaited next chapter to the film that ushered in a new era of comedy. When the college friends finally reunite over the Christmas holidays, they will discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be ignited.

Lee told Blackfilm.com a while back, “People have often asked “Whatever happened to those characters? Did Jordan ever find a man? Does Murch stay with Candy? Do Lance and Mia live happily ever after?” I have never really taken the time to answer those questions. But they keep getting asked and in light of how it is in heavy rotation on cable TV it very well may be a sign that those questions need to be answered.”

November 27

Black Nativity

Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Director: Kasi Lemmons
Screenwriter: Kasi Lemmons
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese Gibson, Jacob Latimore, Nas, Luke James
Genre: Drama, Family, Musical

Synopsis: ‘Black Nativity’ tells the story of a teenage boy from Baltimore who is sent by his single mother to Harlem to spend Christmas with the grandparents he’s never met. Through his grandfather’s Christmas Eve sermon, he learns about the importance of faith and family. Hudson will play the mother who hasn’t spoken to her father since they had a falling out after she got pregnant. Bassett and Whitaker will play the boy’s estranged grandparents, Rev. Clarence and Aretha Cobbs. Whitaker is expected to play multiple characters during the Nativity sequence.

Oldboy

Distributor: FilmDistrict

Director: Spike Lee
Screenwriter: Mark Protosevich
Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, James Ransone, Samuel L. Jackson
Genre: Thriller

Synopsis: “Oldboy” is a provocative, visceral thriller that follows the story of an advertising executive (Josh Brolin) who is abruptly kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his bizarre and torturous punishment only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.

November 29

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Distributor: The Weinstein Company

Director: Justin Chadwick
Screenwriter: William Nicholson
Starring: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva, Jamie Bartlett, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Deon Lotz, Terry Pheto

Synopsis: “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is based on South African President Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of the same name, which chronicles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country’s once segregated society. Idris Elba (“Prometheus”) stars as Nelson Mandela with Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) directing.

December 13

Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas

Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Tyler Perry
Screenwriter: Tyler Perry

Cast: Tyler Perry, Chad Michael Murray, Anna Maria Horsford, Alicia Witt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tika Sumpter, Eric Lively, Lisa Whelchel, and Kathy Najimy

Synopsis: Madea gets coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas, but the biggest surprise is what they’ll find when they arrive. As the small, rural town prepares for its annual Christmas Carnival, new secrets are revealed and old relationships are tested while Madea dishes her own brand of Christmas Spirit to all.