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Tribeca 2025 Review: ‘I Was Born This Way’ Honors the Legacy of Singer-Activist and Archbishop Carl Bean | Black Girl Nerds

“Love is for everyone.” That was the uplifting motto of Archbishop Carl Bean, a celebrated singer and spiritual leader who changed the Black gay community in more ways than one. In their new documentary, I Was Born This Way, titled after the hit disco song from 1977, award-winning filmmakers Daniel Junge (Challenger: The Final Flight) and Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI) explore Bean’s childhood trauma, his transition from professional singer to activist, and his unconventional path to becoming a reverend....
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Tribeca 2025 Review: Zippy Kimundu's ‘Widow Champion’ Explores Resilience in the Face of Patriarchal Norms in Kenya | Black Girl Nerds

Beginning in 2019, Kenyan filmmaker Zippy Kimundu (Our Land, Our Freedom) documented one woman’s mission to help other women in a highly patriarchal community that resists breaking from tradition, no matter how dehumanizing. Produced by Heather Courtney (Where Soldiers Come From), Widow Champion tells a story of perseverance and strength and shines a light on a painful reality that many people all over the world likely don’t even know about.  


Set in rural Kenya, the documentary follows Rodah...
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Tribeca 2025 Review: ‘The Inquisitor’ Spotlights History-Making Trailblazer Barbara Jordan | Black Girl Nerds

At this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, New York native and Tribeca alum Angela Lynn Tucker (A New Orleans Noel) premiered The Inquisitor, a documentary about the rise and legacy of Barbara Jordan as a political pioneer, who famously once said, “What the people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise.” The title comes from Jordan’s iconic 1974 speech to the House Judiciary Committee, where she took center stage and declared herself an inquisitor during President Richard Ni...
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Tribeca 2025 Review: Logic’s Feature Debut ‘Paradise Records’ Is a Rollicking Good Time | Black Girl Nerds

Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, better known as the multi-platinum recording artist Logic, has already made a name for himself in the music industry and later became a New York Times bestseller. Now the Grammy nominee has moved into the film space with one helluva debut, which he wrote, directed, produced, funded, and starred in. Executive produced and edited by Kevin Smith, Paradise Records is a classic hangout comedy of a bygone era. And if the multiple sold-out screenings tell us anything, it’s th...
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Tribeca 2025 Review: Tina Romero Makes a Fierce Debut with Queer Zom-Com ‘Queens of the Dead’ | Black Girl Nerds

For decades, there’s been no shortage of zombie media, and it’s safe to say that the subgenre will never go out of style. And while many will moan about unoriginality and oversaturation, plenty of zombie-centric movies and TV shows have proven there’s more than one way to tell an apocalyptic tale of flesh-eating corpses. 


At this year’s Tribeca Festival, Tina Romero, daughter of horror legend George A. Romero, makes her feature directorial debut with Queens of the Dead, which she co-wrote wit...
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Review: Joe Goldberg Comes Full Circle in the Riveting Fifth and Final Season of ‘You’ | Black Girl Nerds

After seven years and four seasons of You, it’s time for the story of deceptively charming serial killer Joe Goldberg to conclude. For the psychological thriller’s fifth and final season, executive producer Sera Gamble (Supernatural), who co-created the series with Greg Berlanti (The Flash), passed showrunning duties to longtime You writers Michael Foley (How to Get Away with Murder) and Justin W. Lo (Grosse Pointe Garden Society). 


Season 5 explores You’s core themes — love, obsession, viole...
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Review: Season 7 of ‘Black Mirror’ Returns to Sci-Fi Roots | Black Girl Nerds

Two years after Black Mirror’s polarizing sixth season hit Netflix, the dark, satirical sci-fi anthology is finally back with six new tales of terrifying tech. Series creator and executive producer Charlie Brooker (Cunk on Life) wrote all six episodes, two of which are more like films. 


Each episode centers on a story that reflects on the past, whether looking through old Polaroids, revisiting an anniversary destination, or looking back at past actions that led to a current disaster. As alway...
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Six Female-Centric Body Horror Movies to Watch if You Loved ‘The Substance’ | Black Girl Nerds

Body horror is having a moment, and we can thank French auteur Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance for that. The Best Picture nominee (and winner for Best Makeup and Hairstyling) hit theaters in September 2024, and we’re still talking about its themes, acting performances, practical effects, music, cinematography, and more. 


From The Thing and The Fly to Hellraiser and Videodrome, plenty of classics exist in the body horror subgenre, along with new buzzy titles like Together. There’s new indie fa...
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Review: Uzo Aduba Leads Paul William Davies’ White House Whodunnit ‘The Residence’ | Black Girl Nerds

If you’re looking for your next murder mystery binge, creative powerhouse Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton) and Netflix have you covered with The Residence, hitting the platform on March 20. 


The eight-episode series comes from showrunner, writer, and executive producer Paul William Davies, known for other Shondaland projects including Scandal and For The People, who was inspired by Kate Andersen Browe’s nonfiction book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. Despite the setting,...
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‘Final Destination’ at 25: Looking Back on the Quintessential Aughts-Era Horror | Black Girl Nerds

When Final Destination premiered on March 17, 2000, no one really expected it to be the long-running franchise it became. Creator and multi-hyphenate Jeffrey Reddick (Day of the Dead) originally penned the idea as a spec script for The X-Files. However, after he shared it with colleagues at New Line Cinema, they encouraged him to write a feature-length film treatment instead. The studio bought it and hired two writers, James Wong and Glen Morgan (Black Christmas), who happened to be writers for...
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SXSW 2025 Review: Nastasya Popov Explores Fashion and Reality TV in Energetic Satire ‘Idiotka’ | Black Girl Nerds

Writer-director Nastasya Popov makes her feature directorial debut at SXSW with Idiotka, a fashion-fueled story about chasing your dreams, which she developed with producing partner Tess Cohen (They Call Me Magic). Inspired by aspects of her own experience growing up in a Russian immigrant household, Popov tells a unique tale that’s personal, comical, smart, and all-around fun. 


The film opens with frenetic energy and smash-cut editing that sets a chaotic tone. Aspiring designer Margarita Lev...
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SXSW 2025 Review: David Oyelowo Stars as Ex-Con Inventor in Absurdist Romp ‘Government Cheese’ | Black Girl Nerds

In the trailer for Apple Original Government Cheese, one character gets at the heart of the 10-episode series, saying: “Dreamers are dangerous.” Co-created and executive produced by Paul Hunter (Bulletproof Monk) and Aeysha Carr (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), the surreal dramedy is based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, inspired by his life growing up in California. 


The term “government cheese” refers to the processed American cheese given to schools, food banks, and welfare and food stamp re...
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Review: ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Delivers the Brutality MCU Fans Have Been Waiting For | Black Girl Nerds

Marvel first announced plans for Daredevil: Born Again in 2022, and now, after two Hollywood strikes and a creative overhaul, the highly anticipated series is finally here. The nine-episode revival continues the story from Netflix’s Daredevil, which ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2018. Since its cancellation, fans have been clamoring for more of what many, if not most, consider to be Marvel’s best series ever. 


Showrunner and executive producer Dario Scardapane (The Punisher), along with...
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Sundance 2025 Review: Meera Menon and Paul Gleason Pay Homage to Romero in Intimate Zombie Thriller ‘Didn’t Die’ | Black Girl Nerds

Directed by Meera Menon (The Walking Dead, Ms. Marvel), who co-wrote the film with cinematographer and husband Paul Gleason (Love Land), Didn’t Die explores the need for community and intimacy during a crisis. Taking a page from zombie pioneer George A. Romero, the film opts for a dark and eerie atmosphere over sprinting corpses and explosive gore. 


Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the film tells of siblings Vinita (Kiran Deol) and Rish (Vishal Vijayakumar), who drive around the country for t...
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Sundance 2025 Review: ‘How to Build a Library’ Explores Inspiring Restoration and Decolonization of Nairobi’s Oldest Library | Black Girl Nerds

For 8 years, the Nairobian husband and wife filmmaking team, Maia Lekow and Christopher King (The Letter) documented the restoration of Kenya’s second-oldest library. But this wasn’t just an architectural venture. The two women helming the project, writer Shiro Koinange and publisher Angela Wachuka, were motivated by their love of literature and learning and their mission to unite the Kenyan community through storytelling. This resulted in the beautifully-crafted How to Build a Library, one of t...
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Review: ‘Harley Quinn’ Season 5 Returns to Form with the OG Crew Taking over a New City | Black Girl Nerds

Dean Lorey just might be one of the hardest-working executive producers in the industry. In the past year, he served as showrunner for James Gunn’s Creature Commandos and “Harleyverse” spin-off Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, both while gearing up for his return to Harley Quinn, which he co-created with Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker (Abbott Elementary).


While all three were still executive producers on the show, they handed the showrunner reins over to series writer Sarah Peters (Ghosted) for S...
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Review: ‘Goosebumps’ Returns with Next Chapter of YA Horror in ‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’ | Black Girl Nerds

When Disney+’s R.L. Stine adaptation Goosebumps debuted in October 2023, it was only a 10-episode limited series. But with its Season 2 renewal, the series has become a serialized anthology that tells a new story every season. Co-creators Rob Letterman (2015’s Goosebumps) and Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) return this season with Letterman and Hilary Winston (Community) serving as co-showrunners again. 


While we won’t be following our characters from the previous, the second ins...
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Review: Netflix's ‘Squid Game’ Returns with a Bold and Bloody Season 2

In September 2021, Netflix premiered Squid Game, a South Korean drama series about desperate people playing schoolyard games for money. To everyone’s surprise, it became an overnight sensation, the platform’s most successful show. It’s hard to believe series creator, director, and executive producer Hwang Dong-hyuk, who originally envisioned the story as a film, spent over a decade shopping it around.
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Halloween Classics: Disney’s Forgotten 'Tower of Terror'

On July 22, 1994, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida debuted the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a dark drop-shaft ride standing 199 feet high, the first thing guests see when entering Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios). The experience begins with riders queuing up in the decrepit Hollywood Tower Hotel, giving them a chance to enjoy the eerie ambiance and creepy elegance of the abandoned lobby covered in dust and cobwebs.
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