Bealz, Prince Of The SouthSide

  BATTERED: a movie review After its most violent and gut-wrenching opening scene, Battered, Halle Berry's Netflix -starring, directorial debut, settles into the mundanity of its title characters subsistence. Living a haunted, ghost's shell of a life, Jackie Justice, a former UFC prospect, reacts violently to the creepy intrusion of a voyeuristic, Succession -level rich kid, who apparently has a thing about covertly filming her as she changes from her maid's uniform into her own clothing. This repeated intrusion triggers a violent exchange, leading on to a series of catastrophic events which culminates in the unexpected arrival of her long estranged child, a traumatized 6-year old, mute with shock after watching his father, an undercover police officer, get violently murdered. That's a lot to process, right? Well, this is just the start of a long and often painful ride that lasts through two hours of bruises, blood, cruelty and, somewhere along the way, a little bit

  THE HARDER THEY FALL Westerns tend to draw their lines early on, establishing the character arcs of its White Hats and Black Hats in the first act. We know who the good guy is. He's gonna carry top billing. He's gonna be the star, gunning down some damn dirty injun or State's Rights hating scum. My Daddy watched Westerns. Loved them. He came home from work in the evening and immediately appropriated the television; turning it to M.A.S.H., the evening news and then, finally, Gunsmoke, before the prime time shows started up. This was done ritualistically. It made all of the kids scatter, find a corner to explore our own imaginations rather than subjecting ourselves to the boredom associated with that block of television programming. The Harder They Fall established its White Hats and Black Hats in its opening scene, as well. As the film progressed, however, it seemed more of a generational delineation. Old Heads vs the New. Delroy, Idris, Regina, the leaders of t