‘Fast Color’ Movie Review
At this point, there are so many movies about receiving the gift of superpowers or the exploration of supernatural gifts in the form of superhero films. Fast Color doesn’t really…
Author Mae Abdulbaki
Mae Abdulbaki
Mae is a Washington, DC-based film critic, entertainment journalist and Weekend Editor at Heroic Hollywood. A member of the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), she's a geek who loves discussing movies and TV. She is also a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. If she's not at the movies, she's catching up on her superhero TV-watching, usually with a glass of wine in hand.
‘Transit’ Movie Review: Past and Present Merge in Haunting Film
Adapted from Anna Segher’s novel by Christian Petzold, who pulls double duty as writer and director, Transit is a masterfully told story that threads the past and present together with…
Barry Jenkins on Balancing a Love Story and Social Commentary, James Baldwin, and the Various Forms of Love in ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’
Barry Jenkins has another fantastic film on his hands with his latest, If Beale Street Could Talk. This follow-up to the Oscar-winning Moonlight is moving, the cinematography is vivid and…
‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ Review: A Charmless and Messy Film
Let’s get this out of the way. David Yates was never the the best director the Harry Potter series had. His direction always managed to miss the character beats, the…
‘Outlaw King’ Movie Review: A Mediocre War Epic
When Outlaw King premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, it was much longer than its current two-hour runtime. Director David Mackenzie had to edit the film after much…
‘Wildlife’ Movie Review: Carey Mulligan Shines in Paul Dano’s Directorial Debut
Serving as Paul Dano’s directorial debut, which he co-writes alongside Zoe Kazan with a script based on the book by Richard Ford, Wildlife is an intimate portrait of what is…
‘What They Had’ Movie Review: An Intimate and Beautifully Crafted Story
Elizabeth Chomko, in her feature film debut as both a writer and director, delivers a layered, complex, and touching story of family in the midst of dealing with the effects…
Middleburg Film Festival Review: Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Everybody Knows’
There is no one who can do family drama the way Asghar Farhadi does. No one. Watching storylines unfold, characters discover untold secrets and figure things out before dealing with…
Middleburg Film Festival Review: Joel Edgerton’s ‘Boy Erased’
Written and directed by Joel Edgerton, based on the memoir of Garrard Conley, Boy Erased is one of a plethora of films based on real stories this year. The film…
Middleburg Film Festival Review: Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Favourite’
You can always expect the unexpected from director Yorgos Lanthimos. He has a tendency toward the strange and peculiar, as is the case in his latest film, The Favourite. Set…