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AHFW’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #8 ‘One Night in Miami’

Jeff Mitchell

8. “One Night in Miami” – On Feb. 25, 1964, Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) knocks out Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight champion at age 22.  Afterward, Cassius, Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) get together at the Hampton House Hotel for an evening of conversation.  Believe it or not, these four icons truly did meet that night, and screenwriter Kemp Powers (based on his play) imagines their discourse in a mesmerizing, intricate feature that leaves you hanging on every word.  Director…

AHFW’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #9 ‘Bad Education’

Jeff Mitchell

9. “Bad Education” – The United States’ education system has rightfully taken its share of lumps over the years (and decades, right?), and director Cory Finley (“Thoroughbreds” (2017)) delivers pummeling blows on Roslyn High School.  Based on an infamous true story, more than a smidge of corruption has plagued this Long Island institution, although no one would know it from an initial look at the brick, mortar, and friendly teachers and staff.  Geraldine Viswanathan plays an upstart teenage reporter who digs into hidden spaces far from the busy hallways, as…

AHFW’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #10 ‘Shiva Baby’

Jeff Mitchell

10. “Shiva Baby” – Danielle (Rachel Sennott), a struggling college student, isn’t keeping up with the Joneses these days, but she’ll need to stay one step ahead of her parents, her best pal Maya (Molly Gordon), distant aunts and uncles, five dozen other acquaintances, and her sugar daddy in a hilarious, nerve-racking comedy debut from director/writer Emma Seligman.  Sennott is flat-out marvelous, as Danielle attempts to find solace – and quite frankly trap doors – from sticky conversations, double-takes, and wide-spread embarrassment during a period of mourning, a shiva.  (Her…