Candice Frederick

REVIEW: 'As of Yet' is a breezy, slice-of-life film about today’s state of being that, even despite its dull approach, manages to strike a nerve
A film about a young Black woman struggling to navigate the throes of the pandemic can elicit a lot of anxious reactions. Does it follow how she’s coping with the disproportionate number of Black and brown people suffering from COVID-19? Is she sick? Or is it that she’s on the frontlines of the whole other pandemic, white supremacy, which compelled c...

Ghosts and other visceral phantoms have long been a staple of the horror genre (Ju-On, The Sixth Sense, and House on Haunted Hill immediately spring to mind). But it’s nice to know that there is still room to reimagine and revitalize the subgenre today, tackling themes from #MeToo to film censorship and more.
This year’s offerings so far have taken audiences from a 1970s London hospital to a decrepit theme park in Pennsylvania whose specters have an entirely natural presence. How do you ward ...

There’s a beating heart within every frame of “In the Heights,” the film adaptation of Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical directed by Jon M. Chu.
It comes from the joy of young romance in Washington Heights — between bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and aspiring stylist Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), as well as dispatch worker Benny (Corey Hawkins) and Stanford student Nina (Leslie Grace). It’s seen in the spirited song and dance sequences that leap from the doo...

A filmmaker unearths the sorrow of Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street,” site of the country’s single worst incident of racial violence.

It might not be true that writer-actress Lena Waitheborrowed from her real-life relationship struggles, or that co-creator-director-actor Aziz Ansari was inspired by his own stalled career following a sexual misconduct allegation, to breathe new life into Netflix's long-paused Master of None. But the series, which was already exceptional at highlighting both the minutiae and weightiness of a life lived, seems ever more humbled and consequently more human than ever with those personal influenc...

Amid a cultural reckoning, pandemic, and declining mental health, it's quite felicitous that HBO revived its previously stalemated series, In Treatment, in which a therapist encourages sit-downs with clients to ask, well, how are they really doing -- with everything. But now in its fourth season -- more than 10 years after its third -- and helmed by new co-showrunners Jennifer Schuur and Joshua Allen, its most compelling self-confrontations are the ones its therapist is forced to have.
So, it...

Illustration: Damon Dahlen/HuffPost; Photos: Nolwen Cifuentes/STARZ
There’s something to be said about a Black female icon who inspires such a level of familiarity that you assume it’s appropriate to call her by her first name when you first meet. But Yvette Lee Bowser doesn’t mind.
“As long as you don’t call me Yavette, which is not my name,” she said while laughing on a Zoom call from her home office in Los Angeles. “Y-vette is a bit of a pet name that I’ve had since the ’80s, but I’ll go w...

Back when writer-director Nikole Beckwith was a personal assistant, she cracked the root of her tooth and still went to the office for about three days straight, “muscling through” the pain. “I very honestly had tears coming down my face as I’m working,” she recalls on Zoom from her sunny Massachusetts living room. She finally went to the dentist, who was shocked that she had waited so long to see him. “I thought it would get better,” she laughs. “I think I approach every situation like that....

Sierra Teller Ornelas knows how to tell a story. She proved it over the last five years, working as a writer and producer for revered sitcoms like Superstore and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Now, the Navajo and Mexican American creative is turning to a story close to her heart as co-creator and executive producer of Rutherford Falls. The sharp new Peacock comedy centers Native characters and challenges what we’ve come to accept as the American narrative.
Ed Helms stars as museum owner Nathan Rutherfor...

Ziwe spoke to Insider about her new Showtime series, premiering Sunday, May 9 at 11 p.m. ET.
The series is a mix of at-times cringey interviews, sketches, music and "easter eggs," she said.
Ziwe sits down with celebrities such as Jane Krakowski, Fran Liebowitz, Bowen Yang and more.
The Internet is often blamed for a lot of things, but it did give us Ziwe, the deadpan, pink eyelash-wearing comedienne who, back in 2017, carved a space for herself on the world wide web with "Baited with Ziwe," w...

For Thuso Mbedu, the road that led to The Underground Railroad was marked by trauma. But like the series itself, her journey affirms the hardy human spirit (as seen in her tattoo that reads: Faith, Hope, Love).

There's a moment in The Underground Railroad that is so visceral it may linger in your mind long after you see it.

Cora (Thuso Mbedu), a formerly enslaved runaway, walks slowly toward her estranged mother (Sheila Atim) and slashes her throat with a surgical blade.

This vivid, stunning ...

To read about the rest of the Culture Shifters, including TV executive Jasmyn Lawson and spiritual adviser Emilia Ortiz, return to the full list here.
Amid a rise of “ambient TV” that doesn’t require much from its viewers, including their full attention, Cord Jefferson’s writing is not only thought-provoking but defiant. From the spiritually ambiguous quartet on “The Good Place” and the morally compromised heirs of “Succession,” to the sociopolitical torment of masked vigilantes on “Watchmen”...

The first three months of 2021 have proven that independent Hollywood, coming off a wildly successful year, shows no plans of slowing down. Entries from all over the globe—from Taiwan to the United States to Quebec—promise a brand-new slate of everything from pensive horrors and homegrown dramas to heartfelt romance and exclusive documentaries.
Here are the greatest films making waves right now as we settle into spring. While some of these picks enjoyed successful festival runs prior to 2021,...

It's another well-produced show you can skip
There are series that leave you with such well-earned satisfaction that you immediately want to recommend it to anyone who will listen, and there are others that leave such a sour taste in your mouth that you instantly want to chase it with anything good to watch. But then there is Mare of Easttown, which is merely fine. It's not particularly bad or good. Showrunner Brad Inglesby's suburban mystery series is an entry that seems just happy to be her...

Part of what makes a horror piece great is a mounting sense of dread that you can often feel but cannot see, a prickly score that guides you throughout an increasingly unsettling narrative, and just the right amount of delicacy that keeps the audience on its toes until the terror materializes. But Them, the new horror anthology series that debuts April 9 on Amazon Prime Video, is about as subtle as a 10-car pileup on I-95.
Created by Little Marvin, the first season (Them was given a two-seaso...