Broad Street’s Walk of Stars has long recognised the contribution made by the city’s, and wider region’s. brilliant black community.
They include Lenny Henry, David Harewood and Brian Lara as well as singers Jaki Graham, Beverley Knight, Jamelia and Joan Armatrading.
Odeon Luxe Broadway Plaza is screening the emotional new black drama Rob Peace, whilst Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is at both Odeon Luxe and Cineworld Broad Street.
ROB PEACE (15, 120 mins)
Being relatively poor doesn’t mean you can’t be clever. And here Jay Will is outstanding as a science-loving young man called Rob DeShaun Peace who goes from underprivileged background to a student at Yale University.
So far, so predictable, perhaps, except that when Robert is just a young boy, his father is jailed for an alleged murder.
Can Rob the boy rise above his background to become a man who can help to free his father?
The verdict: +++
Do you love black dramas worthy of finding wider audiences? In recent years you could include Oscar winners 12 Years A Slave (2014) and Moonlight (2017), as well as the likes of Fruitvale Station (2013), Fences (2016), Get Out (2017), BlacKkKlansman (2018), Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) and Britain’s own Rye Lane (2023).
Rob Peace has been written and directed by British star Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose performance in Dirty Pretty Things helped Birmingham’s own Peaky Blinders’ creator Steve Knight to earn a best original screenplay Oscar nomination 21 years ago.
Chiwetel also plays the jailed father, Skeet Douglas, but it’s Jay Will as his son who really shines here thanks to his ambition to “try to find the way to help my community when the time comes”.
Child star Jelani Dacres (The Equaliser, 2021) is also outstanding as the youngster whose suddenly-compromised innocence prompts his older self’s memorable voiceover line “It was the last day I remember being a child”.
Mum Jackie (Mary J Blige) advises her son that “you are going to college. The best thing you can do for your daddy is to keep being brilliant”.
So far so good. But what if Rob becomes drawn into a world that his education should have removed him from? Will he still face the same consequences or can he escape?
The movie explores ‘cause and effect, choices we make, dangers we face, people we love’.
It’s based on Jeff Hobbs’ New York Times bestseller about a true story, but therein lies the biggest problem. Fleshing out the first 25 minutes could have made a tighter film in its own right instead of rolling down the years for too long.
In perhaps trying to do both the book and Rob real justice, Chiwetel doesn’t match the focus and drive of Training Day (2001), which was directed by his co-producer here, Antoine Fuqua.
But it’s still good enough to leave a lasting impression. And one that will surely make audiences thirst for more ‘proper’ non-superhero movies regardless of origin.
BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE (12A, 105 mins)
After 36 long years and multiple attempts to get one off the ground, here’s a sequel that you perhaps didn’t see coming from original director Tim Burton.
Back in 1988, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davies and Michael Keaton starred in the story of a family moving into their new home and using a malicious poltergeist to drive away the spirits of the deceased couple who used to live there. The film won an Oscar for best make-up.
The verdict: +++
As the likes of Birdman (2014) proved, former Batman star Michael Keaton has been criminally underused by Hollywood for decades.
So, it’s both good to see him back in the title role alongside the returning Winona Ryder (now a mother) and Catherine O’Hara (now widowed), whilst at the same time wishing they were all in something more original than watching three generations of the Deetz family returning to Winter River after the death of Charles Deetz.
If there are two directors who have disappointed this century, one would be M Night Shyamalan after his debut with The Sixth Sense (1999), but also the visually-gifted Tim Burton, whose Sleepy Hollow was the first movie release of the new millennium in January, 2000.
Burton knows how to make films look good, but for every Edward Scissorhands burst of originality, there have been safer choices including Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes and Alice in Wonderland.
And so once again we leave admiring Burton’s indulgently-revived taste for the fantastical, but questioning his basic storytelling choices.
With Keaton going for ghostly gold, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice offers some politically-incorrect fun while it lasts, but is unlikely to usurp the original in your mind, on your video shelf and via your future streaming choices.
