Black on Black Cinema | Black Movie Reviews

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to discuss the 2026 Boots Riley film, "I Love Boosters." The film follows a group of shoplifters (aka boosters) who take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven by stealing her clothes and reselling them at a lower price, what they call "fashion-forward philanthropy." Narrative overtones of anti-capitalism, push back on the moderate political establishment, the fashion industries exploitation of both its customer base but also the worker creating the products in far off nations for pennies on the dollar. Does Boots Riley's film balance his unique style, in this case, extremely bright colors and an almost anime like aesthetic with a story worth its two hour runtime? The film stars Keke Palmer, Lakeith Stansfield, Naomi Ackie, Taylor Paige, Will Poulter, and Demi Moore.

Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Black on Black Cinema tackles Trump's ongoing assault on American landmarks. The East Wing of the White House was abruptly demolished last October, sparking legal battles over the approval process. Now the Kennedy Center is facing demolition threats over his childish desire to have his name on the building. The historic East Potomac cherry blossom grove; a 1912 gift from Japan is at real risk as Trump terminates a 50-year lease to build a "championship" golf course, with debris from the demolished East Wing literally dumped on the same site. The Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool sits in disarray after a botched, unbid renovation.

We ask the harder question: why does this president's legacy consistently manifest as destruction rather than creation? And as Black people, we sit with the real complexity here, many of these landmarks were built by enslaved people, monuments to a history that never fully included us. Is preservation even our fight? We land somewhere honest: this is still our country, our history, our capital, and watching it get torn down for spite and a golf handicap isn't something we're willing to be apathetic about, however complicated our relationship to these buildings really is.

The next film to be review will be "I Love Boosters," written and directed by Boots Riley. The film follows a group of shoplifters who take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven by stealing her clothes and reselling them at a lower price, what they call "fashion-forward philanthropy."

Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to break its one rule, NO MORE TYLER PERRY MOVIES. This decision came only because of "Why Did I Get Married Again?" is the final movie(?) in this Tyler Perry trilogy, and the other two in the series were previously reviewed (and we actually enjoyed the first one). So this film follows the children of the main characters in the series and as two of the kids are getting married. The film aims to show the character development of the cast that we've been following for almost 20 years. Does the movie succeed?

Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Black on Black Cinema breaks down Raven-Symone's resurfaced comments questioning whether her own iconic character, Raven Baxter from That's So Raven, was actually Black. On her podcast Tea Time, Raven told Kalen Allen, "Take away the color, make them green, and hear the words. What color are they?," challenging the idea that the show's Blackness was inherent rather than just visual.

The internet had immediate and strong reactions. Fans pointed to the show's entire episode about racial profiling, Tonya's locs, Victor's soul food references, Cory's Black history paper storyline, and Della Reese's jazz singer character as clear, undeniable markers of Black identity woven directly into the writing, not just the casting.

We break down both sides of this: is Raven making a nuanced point about Blackness not being monolithic, or is she minimizing a show that meant something real to a generation of Black kids who rarely saw themselves centered on Disney Channel?

The next film to be reviewed is Tyler Perry's upcoming third movie in the "Why Did I Get Married trilogy." We will be breaking our promise about no more Tyler Perry films to review "Why Did I Get Married Again?" which reunites most of the original cast for one last wild time.

Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Black on Black Cinema tackles Chameleon Street (1989), Wendell B. Harris Jr.'s astonishing writer-director-star debut based on the true story of Detroit con artist William Douglas Street Jr., who successfully impersonated reporters, lawyers, an Ivy League exchange student, and even a surgeon, performing over 30 real hysterectomies without any medical training. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990, beating out Reservoir Dogs, and then inexplicably went without distribution for over a year, effectively burying Harris's career before it started.

The concept is genuinely brilliant, a razor-sharp satire about race, class, and identity performance in America, anchored by a magnetic, one-of-a-kind lead performance from Harris himself. But the execution is a different story. The film is tonally unpredictable, structurally chaotic, and at times narratively difficult to follow, swinging wildly between avant-garde experimentation and straightforward biopic beats without clear rhythm. We break down what makes Chameleon Street a genuine one-of-a-kind vision worth seeking out, where the filmmaking gets in its own way, and why this would be ripe for a modern remake with better structure and focus.

Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).