The new movie “The Hate U Give” is about a subject that was inevitably going to made into a movie one day; Police violence and shootings of young black men in dangerous neighborhoods. The reason why this movie was brilliantly made is because it perfectly demonstrated both sides of this issue showing how difficult this problem always has been because of the complex gray areas involved.

Police are stopping black men either for cause or no reason and what follows is the understandable resentment and hatred the person stopped has toward the officer. There is no easy or obvious solution to this problem that has existed for many years. Within a dangerous neighborhood, a high percentage of young black men who are stopped by a Police officer own a gun, the officer is terrified of being shot and because of this the tension levels are extremely high. Under circumstances like this, as is explained so well by the actor Common, who plays a police officer in this movie, the officer in some cases reacts out of fear of being shot and so he has no choice but to react. The solution is to train police officers to be better at their jobs and never overreact in any situation. Then the person stopped should follow the officers instructions exactly, never argue or give the officer any reason to fear for his life. An opening scene in this movie shows a black father telling his children if they are ever stopped by the police to put their hands on the dashboard of the car and follow the orders of the officer.

This excellent film is not about the cut and dry shootings of young black men that are entirely about racism, but rather about the difficult problem of police officers trying to do their jobs and black people trying to just live their lives and are unjustly targeted by the police only because they are black.

The Hate U Give stars an upcoming young actress Amandla Stenberg, who is so outstanding in her lead role that she might just win an Academy Award nomination this year for best actress. Other actors in this movie are Common, Anthony Mackie and Regina Hall and all are outstanding in their roles. The screenwriter for this movie is Audrey Wells who tragically died this year of Cancer at only age 58. I predict she will get a nomination for best original screenplay and this film could just win the best picture of the year.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is an almost perfect 96% and I agree with this rating. The Hate U Give gets my highest recommendation and it will definitely nominated for best picture this year.

The new movie “Bad Times at the El Royale” tries very hard to be different and it does succeed in being different. I have never seen a movie like this that starts with Hotel with a red line that runs through it dividing its location in half between a Nevada section and a California section. Unfortunately the movie is way too long – over two hours, when the entire story could have been told in 90 minutes. The conclusion and the addition of a character outside of the hotel contains too many loose ends and in the end does not make enough sense.

This film stars Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth with a cameo by Nick Offerman. I thought the acting was good throughout the strange story. The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a solid 72% with 7.5 on IMDB, but I give this movie a marginal recommendation because it was too long and too boring in several areas.

The new documentary “Free Solo” is about mountain climber Alex Honnold, who is the greatest free mountain climber in the world. The term “free climber” means that the climber climbs a mountain or large rock without any ropes or even a parachute. Why something like this would not even include using a parachute is a mystery to anyone who would never understand people who risk their lives like this. Of all mountain climbers, less than 1% free climb, because it is so dangerous. Many free climbers have fallen to their death in this sport, especially during the last few years.

In the entire history of climbing the famous rock formation El Capitan, nobody has ever climbed it without ropes. This one task is the central point of this documentary and the main goal in life for Honnold. This movie is also about the very unusual life of Alex Honnold, who dropped out of college at the age of 19, to pursue the life of a professional mountain climber. I thought that the one thing lacking in this film is how exactly Alex makes money from this profession, but I assumed its mostly from endorsements for mountain climbing products. Honnold travels the country risking his life climbing mountains and living in a Van and from his attitude about life and his complete lack of all fear, due to a brain abnormality we learn about during an MRI he receives in the film. Honnold’s entire existence is only about feeling alive by taking huge risks with this life. The problem with successful climbers like Honnold is that they inspire other young people to take the same risks, without anywhere near the same level of talent and many of them will be killed. The other problem with risk taking like this is that just because your successful 100 times or 1000 times, all it takes is one gust of wind and one mistake and your life is over in an instant. This is the same issue with Tom Cruise and the huge risks he takes with all of the Mission Impossible movies – all it takes is one small miscalculation and your life is over. Is it worth it?

The majority of this movie are about the practice runs Honnold takes on El Capitan with ropes to master the many different areas of the rock that are the most difficult to traverse. Most fascinating are the artistic and complex body and hand movements that Alex perfects to get past areas of the mountain that seem impossible to climb – until the end of the documentary when he takes the ultimate risk of his life and tries to climb the rock with no ropes.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Free Solo are a perfect 100% and as documentaries go, I agree with this rating. I highly recommend this movie.