Movie Roundup Part 2: Hamilton, Da 5 Bloods, Desperados

In the second installment of this week’s movie reviews, I offer up a seriously eclectic selection - if you can’t find anything to love here, the problem might just be you. Challenge accepted!

Hamilton: So I imagine that all of America watched this on July 4 weekend, right? But maybe you’re one of the few who hasn’t bothered yet. Well, I’m here to tell you that all the hype is true. I entered the digital ticket lottery almost every day for four years to see this show on Broadway and never won. But now, I finally got to see this mythical performance starring the musical’s original cast. It was filmed in June 2016, when Obama was still President and the world was full of hope. In an interview about the show, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke about how this musical has evolved over the years. The tone and emotion that people associate with it is so different now than when it first debuted, but one thing remains constant: it’s a staggering feat of musical genius. I have purposefully never listened to the cast album, always dreaming of the day I would get to see these songs performed on stage, and it was a revelation to watch these actors spit out intricate lyrics whilst weaving through a revolving stage and conveying emotion and pathos and levity and somehow managing to keep the audience engaged in a story about American history and the Constitution. I have never cared about the Federalist Papers more than at this moment. This cast is phenomenal, these songs and their lyrics are sublime, and this is a beguiling and magical production from beginning to end. Just watch it already, you no longer have any excuse.

Da 5 Bloods: This is Spike Lee’s latest movie and it follows a group of Black Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam to find some gold they buried there long ago. Given the cultural moment we’re in, this movie has been hailed as a masterpiece by a lot of folk and Delroy Lindo is already a frontrunner in the Oscar race for his searing and complicated performance as a Black veteran suffering from PTSD who voted for Trump and is often sporting a MAGA hat. I mean, there's a character you don’t see everyday. It’s a classic Spike Lee joint, which unfortunately means it was not something I loved. It was too long, too erratic, too bizarre for my liking. The sociopolitical commentary is vital, but as a movie, I simply could not get engaged. I recently watched Do the Right Thing for the first time, and despite being filmed in 1989, that movie had an urgency and freshness to it that made it feel contemporary and ageless. Da 5 Bloods, in contrast, didn't leave me feeling like this was a life-altering film. When I watch a movie, the story matters to me more than the director’s flair, and in this case, the story didn’t captivate me. But if you are looking to engage in more Black content and Spike Lee is your man, this film is a guaranteed slam dunk. It does feature an all-star cast that you rarely get to see assembled in any other Hollywood project, and that alone is worth your time.

Desperados: Those of you who are mad at me for not loving a Spike Lee movie are definitely going to get mad that I am about to recommend anything quite so zany as Desperados. Go ahead and judge me, I have no shame. I know what I like, and a Girls Trip-esque buddy movie where a woman who makes exceedingly bad choices drags her friends off to Cabo so she can find her boyfriend’s computer and delete a drunk email she sent to him is right up my alley. Starring Nasim Pedrad, this is a splendidly escapist piece of cinema that you can indulge in to forget all your current troubles. You can judge these characters but also root for them to succeed and find themselves. It’s ostensibly a romcom and has a terribly cliched ending (sorry, spoiler alert?) but there’s also a real focus on female friendship and the ways in which women can be so blinded by their pursuit of love that they forget the girlfriends who have been by their side through all their trials and tribulations. I once had a supremely irritating conversation with my grandmother who told me the reason I should get married is because all my friends would get married and forget about me. Movies like Desperados give me hope that that won’t be true. After all, my motto has always been hos before bros, and as this film evidences, there is so much more fun you can have with your hos when the bros aren’t around.