Year: 2015
Director: Robert Schewentke

Writer: Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, Mark Bomback

Cinematographer: Florian Ballhaus

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet, Theo James, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Jai Courtney, Mekhi Phifer, Naomi Watts

Country of Origin: U.S.

Rating: PG-13

Time: 119 min.

Arshad and I are continuing our love of YA franchises with another full review of the  second installment of Divergent which is Insurgent. I had not read any of the books and Arshad is a huge fan of the novels and so it was incredibly surprising that our opinion of Insurgent were exactly the same: not good! Not only do we rip Insurgent another asshole but we dive in even deeper to discuss the core of the film's problems. The whole crew is back along with a few special and notable faces that really elevates the film's status to almost The Hunger Games level but obviously not quite. And what THG excel at, the Divergent series sadly falter under the plain filmmaking 101: develop your characters. As much as I would like to think that I won't continue supporting this franchise, Shailene Woodley's impeccable and ability to cry a single fat tear endlessly impresses me. And for that, I will most likely watch the series till the end. 

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I had named Rick Famuyiwa's Dope as one of my most anticipated films to see at Sundance Film Festival. Needless to say, it was DOPE (obvi)! I had a hell of a great time watching Famuyiwa's personal take on his experience growing up in Inglewood come alive with such vibrance, swag, and hilarity! It follows the story of a modern-day nerd named Malcolm (played by super hot newcomer, Shameik Moore) who's obsessed with 90's hip-hop culture and all the crazy shit he gets himself into. As a LA native, it hit me with all the right kind of feels of 90's throwback,  socal sun-kissed terrain, and poignant reflection of not being "racially-something" enough. 

Unlike most trailers that have been released, Famuyiwa takes a different and refreshing approach to the first trailer of Dope, which embodies what he calls "a throwback to traditional teasers." He wanted the trailer to look like something Malcolm had cut and pasted the trailer himself and the results are so so so fresh! Mixing animation, social media interfaces, and 8-bit video game tib-bits from the film, the trailer shows you just enough of how freaking dope this film is going to be! You've never seen a story like this before that honed in on the African American experience with such nuance,  provocative energy, and explosive style with a millennial sensibility. So get hypy! Dope comes out June 19th!

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Year: 2015
Director: Ari Sandel

Writer: Josh A. Cagan (screenplay), Kody Keplinger (novel)

Cinematographer: David Hennings

Cast: Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Bianca A. Santos, Skyler Samuels, Ken Jeong, Romany Malco, Allison Janney

Country of Origin: U.S.

Rating: PG-13

Time: 101 min.

Arshad and I are back to discuss the latest and hottest teen comedy, The Duff starring Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell. Adapted by the wildly popular YA novel of the same name by Kody Keplinger about an intelligent teenager named Bianca (Whitman) who realizes she is the DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) of her group when the jock and her neighbor, Wesley, informs her of this fact. At first, I was like why the hell would I want to watch a teen comedy (which is so rare these days) about being labeled as something conventionally "undesirable." But my film critic friend, the fantastic Inkoo Kang shouted on top of the social media mountains that this film is one of the best teen comedies to come out as of late and even going so far as stating that The Duff is this generation's Mean Girls! That is a huge statement Inkoo! But I was not disappointed! Watch what Arshad and I have to say about the film! 

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