Where’s the ‘Beef’?: Season Two of Netflix Dark Comedy Isn’t Petty Enough to Be Memorable
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about season two of Beef. When the first season of Beef premiered in 2023, the golden age of the DEI movement in Hollywood was running its final laps, but Lee Sung Jin’s dark comedy was a manifestation of how many people...
Best Frenemies Forever: ‘Hacks’ Delivers Joy and Jokes Over Jadedness In Final Season
The first season of Hacks premiered on May 13, 2021, on HBO Max, and it was a juggernaut of a show, immediately receiving critical praise and accolades. The show’s premise seems standard: a legendary comedy icon, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), meets struggling millennial...
‘Big Mistakes’: The Unexpected Delight of Dysfunctional Siblinghood in Dan Levy’s Crime Comedy
If there is one thing that Dan Levy does exceptionally, it’s playing one-half (or in the case of Big Mistakes, one-third) of a siblinghood. His lovingly intense and frantic chemistry with Annie Murphy’s Alexis Rose in Schitt’s Creek was on point, showing a...
‘Michael’: The Glossy Michael Jackson Biopic Wades in Shallow Sterility
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Michael. Michael plays out as if it were a film adaptation of Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia page. Although the film has good intentions (or...
‘Half Man’: A Tale About Insecure Lonely Boys and Masculine Self-Righteousness
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Half Man. Richard Gadd went from an unhinged stalker and the effects of sexual abuse trauma in Baby Reindeer to examining the...
EVENTS
DIASPORA Calendar: April 20 – April 26, 2026
FILM The Warriors with Lawrence Gordon in person – 7:30 PM, April 22: Director Walter Hill’s action classic focuses on street toughs framed for the murder of a charismatic gang leader and forced to flee to their Coney Island neighborhood. Working from a shrewdly...
DIASPORA Calendar: April 13 – April 19, 2026
FILM Real Women Have Curves with director Patricia Cardoso 7:30 PM, April 14: Vidiots is thrilled to welcome director Patricia Cardoso for a special screening of her essential East LA coming-of-age triumph Real Women Have Curves. A humorous and warmhearted look at a...
DIASPORA Calendar: April 6 – April 12, 2026
FILM Daughters of the Dust at Vidiots– 7:30 PM, April 7: Join Vidiots for Julie Dash’s rapturous masterpiece, Daughters of the Dust. As the 20th century dawns, a multi-generational Gullah family from the Sea Islands off of the South Carolina coast struggle to...
DIASPORA Calendar: March 30 – April 5, 2026
FILM Wattstax – 7:30 PM, April 2: One of the most electrifying music documentaries ever, the eternally funky Wattstax is part concert-film and part powerful document of the historic Watts neighborhood of 50 years ago. Known as “The Black Woodstock” Wattstax was held...
COMMENTARY
‘Michael’: The Glossy Michael Jackson Biopic Wades in Shallow Sterility
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Michael. Michael plays out as if it were a film adaptation of Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia page. Although the film has good intentions (or does...
‘Half Man’: A Tale About Insecure Lonely Boys and Masculine Self-Righteousness
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Half Man. Richard Gadd went from an unhinged stalker and the effects of sexual abuse trauma in Baby Reindeer to examining the intersection of toxic...
DOSSIER
LEGEND: Jackie Ormes
The character of Black Panther was a watershed moment in comics, but there were many comic books for and by Black artists and cartoonists. One of them was Jackie Ormes. Born in 1911, she worked as...
LEGEND: Kiki Shepard
I remember watching Showtime at the Apollo late at night when I was growing up, and every time I watched, the host, which would be a revolving roster (including Sinbad, Mark Curry, Ricky Aviles,...
THE DIASPORA LIBRARY
‘Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines’ by Joy Buolamwini
AI is all that anyone can talk about, but no one is really saying anything. Enter Joy Buolamwini, author of Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines. As a graduate...
‘A Tiny Upward Shove’ by Melissa Chadburn
I am more of a non-fiction reader, but once in a while I will read a novel that just sticks to my soul. Melissa Chadburn's A Tiny Upward Shove not only sticks to my ribs but haunts me with its...