Rachel Hilson – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

DUSTER – Review by Lynn Venhaus

May 29, 2025June 2, 2025 Lynn Venhaus Asivak Koostachin, Duster, hbo max, J.J. Abrams, Josh Holloway, LaToya Morgan, Rachel Hilson, series, Warner Brothers Television

This snappy original eight episode ‘70s throwback crime drama series from Warner Brothers Television has a playful Smokey and the Bandit and Starsky and Hutch vibe, not to mention sitcom-y character quirks, which add to its madcap charm. Yet, it is serious about the crimes being investigated and there’s an abundance of grit and gruesome, although this is far from a standard procedural. It’s testosterone-heavy, but has a female beacon of light that shines bright. Rachel Hilson is sensational as FBI agent Nina Hayes, a smart young Black woman in a (mostly) white man’s criminal underworld, more specifically the 1972 labor force that featured many uncool fashions, porn mustaches and provincial sexist thinking. You’ve come a long way, baby, is right.

Reviews

RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE – Review by Susan Granger

September 26, 2023September 27, 2023 Susan Granger Malawer, Matthew Lopez, Prime, Rachel Hilson, Red White and Royal Blue, Taylor Zakhar Perez, uma thurman

Romantic comedies are always popular – yet, in recent years, they’ve been hard to find. Now, Red, White and Royal Blue gives a charming contemporary twist to the classic ‘flirty meet-cute, quarrel and happily-ever-after’ formula. This time, the traditional ‘special diplomatic relationship’ between England and America is challenged when Alex Clarmont-Diaz, son of U.S. President Ellen Clarmont and Texas Congressman Oscar Diaz, is dispatched to escort Nora, the U.S. Vice-President’s granddaughter, to the Prince of Wales’ wedding in London.