DANK DRAMAS
Dark Harvest
Made a few years ago, James Hutson’s Dark Harvest finally got released and it was worth the wait. Hutson also stars as Carter, a cultivator who’s targeted by a rival and teams up with a rogue cop (A.C. Peterson) to solve this nifty whodunit. Everyone’s suspect, even grow shop owner Ricardo, played by Cheech Marin, who advises Carter to shut down his operation because legalization is right around the corner.
Superfly
Director X’s Atlanta-based remake of the 1972 blaxploitation classic Superfly may not feature a Curtis Mayfield soundtrack (the theme song plays several times), but it is chock full of action and compelling characters. Priest (Trevor Jackson) negotiates and shoots his way through a maze of thugs and dirty cops so he and his wife Georgia (Lex Scott Davis) can have a life without violence. The body count rises as Priest takes on a rival gang (the Snow Patrol), a Mexican drug cartel and police looking for big payoffs. The cast includes Michael Kenneth Williams, Esai Morales, Big Boi and Rick Ross.
Blindspotting
Colin (Daveed Diggs) is counting down the days to when he’s off probation and released from a halfway house in Carlos López Estrada’s Oakland-based Blindspotting. But his workmate and best friend Miles (Rafael Casal) keeps steering him into dangerous situations. They smoke a joint as they drive around, but Miles' coke binge is where Colin draws the line. A deeper story emerges when Colin witnesses a cop chasing and killing a black man and how he ultimately deals with it.
