Black Panther
Marvel’s box office smash Black Panther represents a landmark moment for black culture. With a majority of black talent both in front of and behind the camera, it celebrates traditional African culture and aesthetic beauty alongside African-American politics in a lush imaginary landscape typical of the Marvel franchise.
The Greatest Showman
Focusing on the tale of P.T Barnum’s social mobility from a member of the lower class to the social elite, The Greatest Showman celebrates the viability of the American Dream with panache along with a celebration of society’s outcasts. At a time where the vulnerable in our society are being sidelined, the essential message of the film has offered hope and escapism to millions of its fans.
BlacKkKlansman
With his political opus, visionary filmmaker Spike Lee has created a film that not only confronts the ugliness of the KKK in Colorado in the Seventies head-on, it also skillfully condemns and connected it with the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and the cruel racism of the Trump regime.
BlacKkKlansman (Blumhouse Productions)
Love, Simon
The first film by a major Hollywood studio to focus on a gay teenage romance, Love, Simon’s tale of a closeted gay high school boy from the suburbs, had critics praising its “big heart, diverse and talented cast, and revolutionary normalcy”.
The Hate U Give
This adaptation of Angie Thomas’s YA bestseller directed by George Tillman Jr. about the murder of an unarmed black schoolboy by a white police officer treads the terrain of racist America with clear-headed reasoning, while creating an engaging tale that captures the highs and lows of high school.
Crazy Rich Asians
The first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority Asian American cast in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993, Crazy Rich Asians grossed over £185 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade.
Lead image: Crazy Rich Asians (SK Global Entertainment)
