Arts & Entertainment
Kam’s Kapsules: Movies Opening This Friday, July 24
BIG BUDGET FILMS
Paper Towns (PG-13 for
profanity, sexuality, under-
age drinking and partial
nudity) Adaptation of John
Green’s young adult novel,
set in Orlando, about a teen-
ager (Nat Wolff) who enlists
the help of his friends to
solve the mysterious disap-
pearance of the next-door
neighbor (Cara Delevingne)
he has a crush on. Cast in-
cludes Halston Sage, Austin
Abrams, Jaz Sinclair and
Justice Smith.
Pixels (PG-13 for profan-
ity and suggestive content)
Sci-fi comedy revolving
around a trio of retro-gamers
(Adam Sandler, Peter Din-
klage and Josh Gad) recruit-
ed by the President of the
United States (Kevin James)
to save the day when the
planet is attacked by aliens
who fight like the monsters
in classic arcade games like
Space Invaders, Pac-Man
and Donkey Kong. With
Michelle Monaghan, Jane
Krakowski, Dan Aykroyd
and Affion Crockett.
Southpaw (R for violence
and pervasive profanity)
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the
title character in this bit-
tersweet tale of redemption
Kam’s
Capsules
Movie
Reviews
by Kam
Williams
about a disgraced boxer
who attempts to win back
his championship belt with
the help of a crafty veteran
trainer (Forest Whitaker).
Support cast includes Ra-
chel McAdams, 50 Cent,
Naomie Harris and Oona
Laurence.
INDEPENDENT &
FOREIGN FILMS
Capital C (Unrated)
Crowdfunding documen-
tary exploring the benefits
and pitfalls of financing an
entrepreneurial enterprise
by pitching a plethora of
potential investors via social
networking.
Five Star (Unrated) Gang-
sta saga, set in Brooklyn, in-
spired by the real life story
of a member of the Bloods
(James Grant) who decided
to adopt the son (John Diaz)
of his murdered mentor.
With Wanda Nobles Colon,
Jasmine Burgos, Larry Bo-
‘Five Star’ stars James Grant (left) as a member of the Bloods who decides to adopt the son (played by
John Diaz, right) of his murdered mentor.
gad and Richard Bird.
A Gay Girl in Damascus
(Unrated)
LBGT-themed
documentary exposing an
Arab blogger who falsely
claimed to be kidnapped
and persecuted by Syrian
authorities for being a lesbi-
an. (In English, French and
Arabic with subtitles)
Lucky Stiff (Unrated) Ad-
Book Review: ‘Talking Back:
Voices of Color’
Talking Back: Voices of Color
Edited by Nellie Wong
Red Letter Press
Paperback, $15.00
240 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-932323-32-3
by Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
“As a feminist of Chinese-American
roots, my disrespected skin color and
low-paid status as a secretarial work-
er shocked me into a realization that
I’ve embraced now for many years: the
knowledge that racist, sexist, anti-queer,
anti-trans, anti-worker discrimination
leveled against one is leveled against all.
“We must seek integration into revolu-
tionary change, not into business-as-usu-
al capitalist America that puts people of
color and women in chains. That’s what’s
necessary. Through this collection, read-
ers are given a rare jewel: a gem ablaze
with the colors of working-class voices,
rather than abstractions from lofty aca-
demic towers.
“The offerings... speak out [about] the
fight for quality public education, repro-
ductive justice and freedom of expres-
sion, and an end to police violence and
war... and much more. To whom do we
talk back? To those who will silence us...
These voices of color matter. They need
to be heard.”
-- Excerpted from the Introduction
(page 10)
N
ellie Wong was born in Oakland,
Calif., at a time when Chinese
women and girls were uniformly
raised to obey rather than question au-
thority. Consequently, she would dutiful-
ly marry, have kids and take employment
as a secretary, all in accordance with nar-
rowly-defined cultural expectations.
However, Nellie finally started to shed
society’s shackles in the 1970s when
she started taking courses in writing and
feminist and Asian-American studies at
San Francisco State University. Curious-
ly, that path in pursuit of personal libera-
tion simultaneously made her very aware
that members of other minority groups
were also marginalized, whether Black,
Brown, indigenous, lesbian, gay or trans-
gender.
Nellie subsequently not only found
her voice as a politically-motivated poet,
but she got involved in the liberation
movement as an organizer and activist.
And over the ensuing decades she has
remained an unrepentant advocate for
social justice.
So, it only makes sense that at 80 years
of age, she’d serve as editor for Talking
Back: Voices of Color. The book is a col-
lection of enlightening essays authored
by a rainbow coalition of next generation
firebrands exploring a litany of hot-but-
ton issues ranging from racism and fem-
inism to terrorism and immigration to
education and sexual preference.
Global in scope, the opus not only ad-
dresses the concerns of the oppressed in
the U.S. but of folks as far afield as the
Middle East, Australia, Central America,
Europe, Asia, Canada, South America
and even Australia. Leave it to Nellie
to sum up the tome’s simple aim ever
so eloquently by quoting the late James
Baldwin who, as she’s quick to point out,
was both Black and gay: “You write to
change the world.” Hear, hear!
aptation of the Off-Broad-
way musical comedy re-
volving around a bachelor
(Dominic Marsh) who
ventures to Monte Carlo to
claim an $8 million inheri-
tance from the recently-de-
ceased, rich uncle (Don
Amendolia) he never knew
he had. With Jason Alexan-
der, Dennis Farina and Pa-
mela Shaw.
The Outrageous Sophie
Tucker (unrated) Rever-
ential biopic chronicling
the life and times of the
legendary vaudeville icon
(1887-1966) who wowed
audiences from the turn of
the 20th Century through
the mid-Sixties. Featuring
See MOVIES on
page 7
Film Review: ‘Tango Negro’
Examines the African Roots of
the Tango
by Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
T
he word “tango”
means “sun” in Con-
golese. Given that
derivation, it comes as
no surprise that the dance
thought of as South Ameri-
can might be traced back to
Africa.
That explains the mission
of Tango Negro, a labor of
love marking the writing
and directorial debut of
Dom Pedro. What makes the
project of educational value
country, immigration was
encouraged by settlers from
Italy, France, Lebanon and
Syria.
Thus, it is argued in Tango
Negro that “the history of
the Americas is an absolute
lie, from the extermination
of the indigenous peoples
to the destruction of African
cultures.” And it is further
stipulated that this shameful
legacy “will have to be ac-
knowledged for reconcilia-
tion to occur.”
Besides the revisionist
lessons, this informative
documentary includes nu-
tedly hard to find any dark-
skinned citizens.
Ole! Ole! Ole!
Very Good HHH
Unrated
In Spanish, French and En-
glish with subtitles
Running time: 93 minutes
‘The history of the Americas
is an absolute lie’
is the fact that Argentina,
the country most closely
associated with Tango, has
generally been averse to ad-
mitting its African heritage.
Truth be told, a post-slav-
ery purge of Blacks there
resulted in a whitening
of the region by the early
20th Century. For, while
the descendants of Con-
golese slaves were being
slaughtered or run out of the
merous songs and per-
formances of the Tango.
Unfortunately, the music
proves to be the low point of
the picture, due to its woe-
fully low production values.
Nevertheless, three “Ole’s”
to director Dom Pedro for
daring to raise the taboo
subject right in Buenos Ai-
res, an ethnically-cleansed
environ where it’s admit-
View movie trailers at
TheSkanner.com
July 22, 2015 The Portland Skanner Page 5