Her REEL Review - 'Cause Girls Watch Movies, Too

I promised myself I would not do it again. And then, because I love Black people and I want to see Black people win, I did it again. I watched a Tyler Perry film. So here we are. If you are unfamiliar with Tyler Perry, the short version is this: he got his start on the church play circuit in the late 1990s and early 2000s, building an audience out of working-class Black churchgoers who finally felt seen on a stage. I watched nearly every one of those plays in college. My church community gathered around them the way other communities gather around sporting events. There was solidarity in it. When Perry eventually made his transition to cinema, a lot of us were genuinely rooting for him, because he was the rare example of someone who had built something entirely from nothing, sleeping in his car, educating himself, pulling himself up without a roadmap. That goodwill has been wearing thin for a while now, but it has not entirely evaporated, which is probably why I keep coming back. Jo...

  Madea’s Destination Wedding ★½ Review by Shaquanna Stevens I really didn’t want to be here again, talking about another Tyler Perry movie in a negative light. But here we are. Let’s talk about Madea’s Destination Wedding , the latest Netflix collaboration written, directed by, produced by, and starring Tyler Perry. I believe this is the 29th installment in the Madea Cinematic Universe—give or take a few wigs and stage plays. The plot (loosely) follows Brian, Madea’s nephew, as he’s guilted into paying for his daughter Tiffany’s destination wedding in the Bahamas. Tiffany’s mother—his ex-wife, who’s suddenly rich and slightly evil—pressures him into footing the bill, and next thing you know, the whole crew (Madea, Bam, Joe, Brown, and Cora) is on a plane, spending Brian’s money, and dragging chaos with them like carry-ons. Sounds like a good setup for a comedy, right? It could’ve been. But the film makes a critical error: it’s not about Madea. Despite the title, the protagoni...

Netflix So listen, if you’ve been feeling in a slump lately, I’ve got a movie for you that I just watched, and I had such an amazing time with it. It’s new on Netflix, and it’s called Meet Me Next Christmas . It stars Christina Milian, Devale Ellis, and Kofi Siriboe. Listen, this movie is directed by Rusty Cundieff. If you don’t remember Rusty Cundieff, he’s the fantastic director of classics like Tales from the Hood —OK, classic—and Sprung . Again, classic. But listen, this movie was so good. It’s all about a woman named Layla who has a super cute meet-cute with James at an airport one Christmas. They promise each other that if they’re both single a year later, they’ll meet up at a Pentatonix concert. If you don’t know who Pentatonix is, they’re a group of five a cappella singers who’ve been around for a while. So, if you don’t know them, you’ve been living under a rock, but they’re amazing. I always forget how much I enjoy them because, to me, I totally associate them with Christmas....