Black or White (2015)

I love this movie so much

Instant Favorite.

Excellent but underrated film

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Continuing my plan to watch every movie in Kevin Costner's filmography in order, I come to his final movie of 2014 black or white. Kevin Coaster certainly wasn't resting in his laurels in 2013/14. For the first time in his career, 2014 saw him release 4 movies in a year. Plot In A Paragraph: A grieving widower (Costner) with a drink problem, is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise all her life.This is a great movie that is filled with great performances. It's a tricky subject and it could easily go very wrong stepping on a lot of land mines, but it doesn't. It's an uncomfortable watch at times, but it's compelling and totally absorbing. You can tell both Costner's and Octavia Spencer's characters both love the child, but both get caught up in their own feelings a little too much. I'm surprised this didn't garner much notice upon release, and even more surprising it was released straight to DVD in the UK, in January of this year. I think that's a real shame as KC gives one of the strongest performances of his career. Because no studio would finance it. Not for the first time, KC personally financed this film himself because he was moved by Mike Binder's screenplay, and wanted to tell the story of the family.The movie credits show that this movie was dedicated to the memory of J.J. Harris, who was Kevin Costner's first talent manager and also a close friend. Harris passed away a year ago.

Some might call this the TV movie of the week. And I guess it qualifies if taken for what it stand for. But if you take the star quality at hand or in front of the camera. Kevin Costner likes his drama and likes to engage people into thinking. He's not entirely clear cut and the perfect man in this one either. But he has ideals, and even when he does something wrong, he's good deep inside.So this movie is a light attempt on trying to bridge one of the biggest problems in American History. The color divide, the divide and the racial component between people in America. And while America voted for a Black President, the racial divide did not close. Actually in some places it even got bigger. But this is not about presidency, it's about an individual story. It's about how all people should be able to live together-if they try had enough ...

For some reason & it's been that way for awhile I always get excited for Kevin Costner films, three days to kill, no way out (old movie I know) but this one I knew I should'be pass on from start to finish it became less about a black or white thing versus how everyone around the girl were idiots, her grandmother, grandfather etc even the extras annoyed me it was as they used a title to draw in people for the movie but in telling the story for the film so that way everyone can feel & understand what's going on & they super failed on it the only thing that made the movie exciting was the scene where Costner's character had that speech in the courtroom I said now only if he was more like that in the film he would'be been more enjoyable kind of like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino but wishful thinking horrible film even the little girl was annoying my god I'm gonna go watch something good to get this bad movie taste out of my mouth

'BLACK OR WHITE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Race relations drama flick, written and directed by Mike Binder and starring Kevin Costner. Costner also costarred in the 2005 comedy drama film 'THE UPSIDE OF ANGER', which Binder also wrote and directed; he was so passionate about Binder's screenplay, for 'BLACK OR WHITE', that he financed it's $9 million budget, himself. It tells the story of a recently widowed alcoholic, who becomes involved in a bitter custody battle for his granddaughter, who's half black, with her grandmother (who's black). The movie costars Octavia Spencer, Jillian Estell, Anthony Mackie, Andre Holland and Bill Burr. The film raises some interesting questions about race relations, but it fails to answer them fully.The movie opens with Elliot Anderson (Costner) finding out that his wife, Carol (Jennifer Ehle), died in a car accident. He goes home and drinks himself to sleep, and then struggles to tell his granddaughter, Eloise (Estell), about her grandmother's death, the next day. It turns out that Elliot and Carol raised Eloise, since her birth; when her mother died during the delivery. Eloise's father, Reggie (Holland), was an abusive crack addict, who was never there for her. Now that Carol's gone, Reggie's mother, Rowena (Spencer), thinks that Elliot is unfit to raise Eloise alone, and she wants joint custody. Elliot refuses, and a viscous court battle ensues.The movie is well made, and Costner gives a great leading man performance in it. It's dramatic, emotional and it also has a lot to say about race relations; as well as substance abuse. The movie never really answers the thought provoking questions it asks though (about racial prejudice or drug and alcohol addiction). It addresses the issues in a seemingly realistic way, for the most part (although some of the characters seem a bit too much like stereotypes), but it doesn't really draw any satisfying conclusions to them. Things get wrapped up, but not in a way that really teaches the viewer anything about the important issues, it brings up. The film is ambitious though, and it has a lot of heart.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/rxD9sln4Qkg