Talking ‘Spaceballs,’ ‘Rocky,’ and He-Man on the Amazon MGM CinemaCon Red Carpet

April 23, 2026April 23, 2026 Mike Manalo

Last week was a whirlwind of excitement, as CinemaCon lit up Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas! Though the annual trade show is a business-forward event for theater owners and exhibitors, the major film studios were present to talk about the exciting slate of films expected to light up screens for all larger and smaller theaters across the country. One of the larger presentations of the week was Amazon MGM Studios. With much gratitude to Amazon MGM, The Nerds of Color was invited to cover the red carpet for their presentation to talk to the stars and filmmakers behind some of their biggest films of the year!

Movies, Sci Fi

The Schwartz Awakens in New ‘Spaceballs 2’ Cast Photo

September 25, 2025September 25, 2025 Keith Chow

Amazon MGM Studios just confirmed production is underway on Spaceballs 2, the decades-in-the-making follow-up to Mel Brooks’ 1987 space opera classic. The film will reunite Brooks with original stars Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, and an unretired Rick Moranis. Though if history is any indication, they will never share any significant screen time together.

Interview, Movies, Sci Fi

Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, and Toni Collette Talk About ‘Mickey 17’

March 5, 2025 Mike Manalo

A brilliant director is only as good as the cast of players he works with. This has always been true with the works of Bong Joon Ho. From The Host to Parasite, Bong has the incredible ability to bring out the best performances imaginable from stellar ensembles. His latest film, the stunning sci-fi satire, Mickey 17, once more features a cadre of the best actors working today, and it is our honor to say we were able to chat with three of the film’s biggest stars: Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, and Toni Collette.

Movies, Reviews, Sci Fi1 Comment

NOC Review: Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Mickey 17’ is Weird, Wacky, and All Too Relevant

February 15, 2025March 6, 2025 Mike Manalo

Why does cinema need satire? Because sometimes we need to be reminded that society is broken. It allows us to question the way things are, how they got there, and gives us hope that somewhere along the way, reels of celluloid will allow us to see ourselves, and help us learn to fix our flaws down the line. This is something that director Bong Joon Ho does masterfully. We’ve seen this in Snowpiercer, Okja, Best Picture winner Parasite, and now, Mickey 17.

Literature, Streaming

Hulu Offers First Look at Charles Yu’s ‘Interior Chinatown’ Adaptation

July 11, 2024July 12, 2024 Keith Chow

Generic Asian Man is finally the lead of a real television show! Today, Hulu revealed a first look at the adaptation of Charles Yu’s National Book Award-winning novel, Interior Chinatown. While the book itself was formatted like a television script, the series will not be a one-for-one adaptation but will retain the original’s satirical spirit.

Comics, Interview

‘White Savior’ Comic Spoofs a Familiar Asian American Movie Problem

February 22, 2023February 22, 2023 Dominic Mah

The new comic book series White Savior is an adventure story which parodies a certain kind of adventure story. Written by Eric Nguyen and Scott Burman, with art by Nguyen, the first and second issues of the limited series from Dark Horse are available now.

Movies

‘The Menu’ Celebrates Blu-ray Release with Blockbuster Style

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023 Mike Manalo

When I first reviewed The Menu I initially liked, but didn’t love it. But after a bit more time, I’ve grown to like it more and more with each viewing. Which would probably bump it up from a B to a B+. So when we got the invite to celebrate the Blu-ray release for the movie, I couldn’t help but get excited to support an event that encourages multiple viewings of the terrific horror comedy!

Horror, Movies

‘The Menu’ Director and Stars Dish All About This Delectable Delight

November 17, 2022November 18, 2022 Mike Manalo

Searchlight Pictures’ The Menu is getting served up to theaters this week. And we can’t wait for audiences to witness this delightfully devious horror comedy satire. To commemorate its release, The Nerds of Color was invited to attend the press conference for the film, alongside its stars and director. Click here to see what they had to say about the film.

Movies, Reviews2 Comments

NOC Review: ‘The Menu’ is a Delightfully Devilish Delicacy

November 15, 2022November 16, 2022 Mike Manalo

Elitism is a disease for which there is no cure. Despite the need for people to work towards the collective good of supporting one another, society has a tendency to try and hold rankings and create conflict out of those rankings based on wealth, power, and opportunity, resulting in humanity immersing itself into the throes of these ridiculous constructs of social hierarchy that elevate one individual over another. It’s a disease that also impacts how we view art, lifestyle, business, and politics, contributing to increased levels of human arrogance and self-satisfying entitlement. Which is why I’m grateful for a movie like The Menu that attacks this problem head on.

Streaming, Television

Teaser for Jon Stewart’s New AppleTV+ Series Parodies Billionaire Space Race

July 20, 2021July 22, 2021 Laura Sirikul

Jon Stewart is coming back to television for his own AppleTV+ series, The Problem With Jon Stewart. The new one-hour, single-issue series is set to discuss today’s current events, including Stewart’s advocacy work. Basically, Stewart is back to talk about the issues in a humorous way, similar to how he did on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

Animation, Movies, Streaming

Meet the Cast of Netflix’s ‘America: The Motion Picture’

April 28, 2021May 15, 2021 Sophia Soto

America: The Motion Picture is hitting the streaming platform on June 30, and Netflix’s social media has officially released the cast list! Their official Twitter wrote that the film is “crossing rivers to deliver you to a prosperous new horizon.” With the tweet, a video of a sneak peek at what the characters look like revealed all of the actors involved in voicing them.

Comics, Interview, Streaming, Television

Cartoonist Keith Knight on ‘Woke,’ Politics, and the Power of Comics

September 18, 2020May 15, 2021 Jamal Michel

Keith Knight is the creator of three popular comic strips: the Knight Life, (th)ink, and the K Chronicles. He has appeared in various publications worldwide, including the Washington Post, Daily KOS, San Francisco Chronicle, Medium.com, Ebony, ESPN the Magazine, L.A. Weekly, MAD Magazine, and the Funny Times. I sat down with Keith to talk his new show, Woke, now on Hulu, as well as politics, the craziness of 2020 and also the impact of animation and cartoon drawing by artists of color.

Movies, Reviews1 Comment

‘Jojo Rabbit’ Sends a Timely Message via Satire, Fascism, and War

November 12, 2019November 25, 2019 Lauren Lola

The 39th Hawaii International Film Festival is currently underway in Honolulu, and the 11-day event began with a stellar opening night screening last Thursday of Taika Waititi’s latest film, Jojo Rabbit. Set in Nazi Europe, the dark comedy loosely based on the Christine Leunens novel, Caging Skies, follows a 10-year-old Hitler Youth (Roman Griffin Davis) who finds out his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home. Through getting to know her, he comes to question his own beliefs, even in the midst of his imaginary friend, an idiotic version of Adolf Hitler played by Waititi himself, trying to tell him otherwise.

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Marvel, Movies, Poetry

Every MCU Threat To Humanity In Haiku Form

August 12, 2019September 25, 2022 Dominic Mah

Because there are so many Marvel movies, and of each it’s worth the trouble to ask, what are we fighting about, REALLY? IRON MANLebowski’s armorproves men in suits aren’t readyfor clean energy. INCREDIBLE HULKHulk need bigger Hulkto fight: literal toxicmasculinity. … Continue reading Every MCU Threat To Humanity In Haiku Form

Podcasts1 Comment

Southern Fried Asian: Brad Jenkins

August 23, 2017March 28, 2018 Southern Fried Asian

On the debut episode of Southern Fried Asian, Keith talks to Brad Jenkins, the Executive Producer of Funny or Die DC and a co-founder of RUN, an organization designed to mobilize Asian Americans politically.

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Interview, Movies7 Comments

It is Complicated Being a Negro in the Digital Age, Son!

June 10, 2016June 17, 2016 Shawn Taylor

I watched Kevin Wilmott’s (co-writer of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq) Destination: Planet Negro (D:PN) twice. The first time I viewed it, I sat for fifteen or twenty minutes after it was over. I had no idea WTF I saw. Was it 21st century minstrelsy? Was it heavy-handed social commentary? Could it have possibly been that ever elusive (and also commonly misidentified) true satire? If it was satire, what was it satirizing? Was it riffing on 1950s science fiction and paranoia film tropes? Inter and intra-racial animus? The Black church and back to Africa movements? I needed to watch it again.

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DC Comics, Television21 Comments

Orange is the New Black: Racebending Redheads

April 1, 2015December 16, 2020 Keith Chow

The ever-expanding DC Universe on The CW just got a little bigger. Relative newcomer Ciara Renee has been cast as Kendra Saunders, aka Hawkgirl, in the still-unnamed Flarrow spinoff that will also star Brandon Routh and Caity Lotz from Arrow and Victor Garber and Wentworth Miller from The Flash.

What’s unmistakable about this casting, though, is the fact that Hollywood producers have once again gone “ethnic” when casting a traditionally redheaded character from the comics. So I have to ask, has the pendulum swung too far? Is this too much of a good thing?

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