Low Key

Keith, Aaron and special guest Sam from the Sam Said It podcast discuss Judas and the Black Messiah, starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield.

Believe the marketing — the protagonist is federal informant William O’Neal and not the groundbreaking leader he got assassinated, Fred Hampton. 

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Malcolm and Marie is a movie about a tense, revealing argument between a budding filmmaker and an aspiring actress after his critically acclaimed directorial debut.

The premise sounds tame on the surface but the film goes in unexpected directions and features an acting masterclass between people in front of the camera - John David Washington and Zendaya.

Check out this episode for a spoiler filled review and hilarious discussions on poor judgment during relationship spats.

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Three episodes into WandaVision, the guys discuss what seems to be happening so far, and share some theories. Is Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) controlling everything?

it seems like we get some explanations in the fourth episode, out this weekend, so we're eager to see if our guesses prove correct.

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Now that everyone has had time to see Pieces of a Woman — or at least find out what the astonishing Kornél Mundruczó film is about — we can discuss Vanessa Kirby's Oscar-calibre turn as a woman whose pregnancy ends tragically.

Please rate, review and subscribe, follow us on IG @thelowkeypod, and check out our interview with Mundruczó over at the MovieMaker podcast.

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Regina King's directorial debut One Night in Miami imagines a conversation between Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay... who will soon become Muhammad Ali. We talk on this episode about the expectations of Black stars who are often expected to be activists as well as celebrities. And, since we recorded this on the last night of the Trump presidency, we talk about how Black leaders have often been the ones to make America live up to its own stated principles.

We're joined by special guest Sam from the Sam Said It podcast — check out the podcast and follow him on @SamSaidItDFW.

And you can check out MovieMaker's Regina King interview here.

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Pixar's Soul is the story of a jazz musician named Joe (Jamie Foxx) who is on the brink of achieving his dreams... when he falls in a manhole and dies. From there, he meets 22 (Tina Fey) an entitled being who doesn't want to be alive.

We start off rooting for Joe as he desperately clings to life. But then we're supposed to root for 22. And then their interests come into conflict.

Where should our loyalties lie?

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On the last Low Key podcast of the year, Keith Dennie, Aaron Lanton and Tim Molloy talk about the deceptively straightforward Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, directed by George C. Wolfe and based on the play by August Wilson.

We talk about what we thought of Chadwick Boseman's final performance, what the film says about religion, and if there's a Marxist argument at work in the story of arguing musicians one hot day in 1927.

Like every episode of the Low Key podcast, this one is good.

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In The Sound of Metal, Riz Ahmed plays a heavy metal drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. You share his nightmarish sense of his entire life disappearing, along with his sense of sound.

Director Darius Marder teaches us how to watch and listen to the film, with completely immersive and innovative use of sound. But it's also a spectacularly well-crafted script, and beautifully-acted film.

We liked it! Keith and Aaron discuss the film, but missing co-host Tim agrees with everything they said.

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Lovers Rock, the magnificent second film in Steve McQueen's Small Axe series, takes viewers inside a 1980 house party filled with young British and Caribbean people, looking for love.

As the party unfolds, we realize this small get-together, DJ'd by the immaculate Mercury Sound System, is fraught with politics: Why don't these Black young people feel welcome at clubs? Why can't they wander too far from the house without being accosted by local hoodlums? And what are the sexual and class dynamics at play?

This makes it sound like Lovers Rock is a heavy-handed message movie — and it's the opposite. Steve McQueen has the lightest, deftest touch, and lets the story flow so freely you barely detect the film's arc until it's swept over you. Lover's Rock is a seductive mix of emotions as smoothly delivered as the songs the Mercury crew spins all night.

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If you've thought about making a movie, but really don't know where to start, start here.

Every week on Low Key, we talk about TV shows and movies other people made. Except this week! Keith Dennie, one of your co-hosts, wrote a script in quarantine, got a crew and actors together, and finished principle photography. His film, The Moment, is about a young woman named Logan (Randell Robertson) whose humdrum relationship is threatened by an intriguing new man (Tony Williams).

Keith talks about how COVID-19 motivated him to make the film, and how he handled every aspect of it, from the dialogue to finding actors to talking them through scenes and editing. He also talks about how doing people favors will come around, giving special thanks to producer Charles W. Bush of Appointed Productions, first AD Sheran Keaton, and DP Michael Bradley.

We're also sending out love to the Lanton family, and look forward to Aaron Lanton's return!

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