An hour before my first Sundance Premiere, I am unexpectedly mesmerized not by a Sundance related element, but by Jess King’s rhinestone-studded spin shoes.
“A Shot Through The Wall ”, an upcoming film, showcases the aftermath of an accidental shooting of an African American man by a Chinese-American police officer
On Wednesday November 10th, I attended a special screening for HBO Max’s new original series The Sex Lives of College Girls. The show, created by Mindy Kaling, follows the lives of four roommates as they navigate their newfound freedom on Essex College campus. Executive producers of the show include Mindy Kaling, Justin Noble, and Howard Klein. The show gives a great opportunity for young women in comedy to show their wit in a predominantly male genre.
Our four leading ladies include Alyah Chanelle Scott, Amrit Kaur, Pauline Chalamet, Renee Rapp. All four ladies were glowing on the carpet. Each were dressed in their own unique style, setting them apart from the rest. Their enthusiasm for the screening and party with the cast was over the moon. It felt like a giant college reunion. The girls gave their advice to college aged girls, and shared some of their favorite moments on set without giving away any spoilers.
Other notable cast in attendance included: Midori Francis, Ilia Isorelys Paulino, Renika Williams, Lolo Spencer, Conor Donnaly, Sherri Shepherd, Maya Rose Berko, Vico Ortiz, Charles (Betti) Platt, Scott Lipman, and Mueen Jahan. Terrence Terrell, Denzel Whitaker, Richa Moorjani, BJ Novak, Cinthya Carmona, and Sydney Morgan were also in attendance. Sarah Aubrey, head of Original Content at HBO Max was in attendance for both the screening and after party.
With a packed theater, Mindy and Justin spoke before the screening and thanked everyone involved in the project. They highlighted the efforts of the cast and crew being able to make the vision come to life. On the red carpet, Mindy stated her enthusiasm for the show. She went to college on the east coast and felt that experience wasn’t yet represented in the media. She believed the show to be funny and heartfelt. The Sex Lives of College Girls captures the nuances of female friendship. More often than not, beginning your college journey there are more losses than wins seemingly. The Sex Lives of College Girls captures that in a lighthearted way.
For Mindy, one of the most important aspects of the show was assembling a writers room full of young women. Being able to bring stories about the college experience in today’s time was vital for the overall relatability of the show. The first episode launched us into the lives of four complex girls who will each have to navigate their social lives in a new school. Overall, the night was filled with immense love and positivity from the cast and all those in attendance. They are extremely proud of the show, and their hard work shines through on screen.
The Sex Lives of College Girls premieres Wednesday November 18th, exclusively on HBO Max.
Dear Evan Hansen,
Blindspotting, co-written and co-starred by Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs, is part dark comedy and part poetic musical, choreographed by Jon Boogz and Lil Buck. Casal and Diggs are executive producers on the series and features Casal as not only the showrunner but also reprises his role as Miles, Ashley’s longtime boyfriend. The limited series (8 episodes) follows the critically acclaimed 2018 feature film, six months after Miles goes to jail. However, this time the narrative is heavily focused on the people who are affected by Miles’s longer-than-expected jail sentence for possession of drugs.
Ashley, his loyal and devoted longtime girlfriend, is forced to move in with his hippie, Birkenstock-wearing mother, Rainey (Helen Hunt), and Instagram baddie sister Trish (Jaylon Barron) to raise their young son Sean (Atticus Woodward). While Ashley is making ends meet by working in a boujee Chateau Marmont-esque hotel full of white privilege, Trish has a progressive sex workgroup of girls running their half-naked business in the living room.
The series is nothing short of hilarious with Candace Nicholas-Lippman as Ashley’s protective best friend and Benjamin Earl Turner as the neighbor next door negotiating with little Sean for a food truck burrito since he’s on house arrest. Blindspotting is more than a comedy as it tackles deeper issues of wealth disparity and shows the reality of the failed justice system in America. You can expect to laugh out loud and want to become more of an activist for prison reform after watching the series.
The LA premiere took place at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Sunday, June 13th, and stars Jasmine Cephas Jones (Ashley), Helen Hunt (Miles’s mom, Rainey), Jaylen Barron (Miles’ sister, Trish) were all in attendance. Jasmine Cephas Jones and Andrew Chapelle got to reunite from their last time working together on Hamilton as they play opposite of each other as friend co-workers in the series.
The 2018 film was written as a love letter to Oakland and features some of the best bay area music out there and the series is no different. Because Casal and Diggs are real friends they share real experiences growing up in the Bay and wanted to put an accurate representation of where they come from on-screen.
“The music and the culture of the bay is so beautiful and so multidimensional and complex… I think it’s been put on the map many different times by many different artists but never quite in this way so we wanted to add a little sauce to it and really just show love to so many artists and so many culture creators and innovators the bay has to offer,” said Rafael Casal.
Producer Keith Calder spoke about the underlying message of the series when talking about how important it is for stories to be told that deal with the aftermath of a loved one being locked up and what that experience is like. He also touched on how the US plays a significant factor in that corrupt prison system as it has the highest incarceration rates in the world.
“The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world and it’s something that’s taken for granted as an unchangeable fact and we don’t believe that to be true,” said Calder. “We think that if people see the impact on not just the people inside the jail but the tens of millions of people that are indirectly affected either being a family member there or someone in the community or really the long extent of prison once you leave incarceration, too.”
The series puts a face and name to the need for change in America. Audiences who may not have empathy for drug users will hopefully walk away with a more open mindset after they fall in love with the characters in the show.
Guests from the premiere also included Oakland native, Kehlani, where she talked about her new song with T-Pain ‘I Like Dat’ which they performed on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE June 10th! Of course, Ron Cephas Jones was also there in support of his daughter’s performance on screen as well as Brandee Evans and Dascha Polanco.
If you like shows like On My Block and films like Do The Right Thing then you’ll binge Blindspotting in no time. Blindspotting is now available to stream on STARZ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCtdIC666Ec
Steve McQueen does it again, but this time through SMALL AXE, a collection of five films. Amazon Prime presented a drive-thru experience this past weekend in Los Angeles, which fully immersed the guests into these powerful stories.
HBOMax’s Superintelligence virtually premiered last night on Thursday, November 20th, preceding an exciting Q&A with the cast and crew.
HBO Max’s first episode of “The Flight Attendant” left its audience in utter suspense last night after its virtual premiere on November 17th.
Few artists embody the current era so purely as North Carolina-based hip hop artist Reuben Vincent. At 19, Vincent has already signed with legendary producer 9th Wonder’s Jamla Records and released his eight-track sophomore EP Boy Meets World earlier this summer.
Ron Suno Discusses “Pinocchio” remix ft. Blueface, upcoming EP and life in quarantine.