Janell Hobson

5 days ago | msmagazine.com | Janell Hobson

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on women leaders and feminist leadership. Part 1—out last week—breaks down Angela Bassett’s role as U.S. president in the latest and final installment of Mission: Impossible, and how her representation on screen blurs the line between the impossible fictions and possible realities of women’s power in American politics. In the last 10 years, the United States came very close to electing our first woman president.

5 days ago | msmagazine.com | Janell Hobson

Black Feminist in Public is a series of conversations between creative Black women and Janell Hobson, a Ms. scholar whose work focuses on the intersections of history, popular culture and representations of women of African descent. June 2 marks the 162nd anniversary of the Combahee River Raid, which represents the first time a woman led a military raid in U.S. history.

1 week ago | msmagazine.com | Janell Hobson

This is Part 1 of a two-part series on women leaders and feminist leadership. Part 2—out Monday, June 2—continues with a public syllabus. Spoiler alert: This piece contains plot details from Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning. The Final Reckoning—the eighth and final installment of Mission: Impossible—went toe-to-toe with Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch in a global mega blockbuster blowout for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

1 month ago | msmagazine.com | Janell Hobson

This review contains spoilers. “Numbers are always in a conversation.”In Ryan Coogler’s Black Southern horror hit Sinners, the above quote is offered as sage advice to a young Black girl in the town of Clarksdale, Miss., by the gangster Smoke.

Mar 4, 2025 | msmagazine.com | Janell Hobson

One of my favorite performances from 2024 was not even nominated for the Academy Awards. Marianne Jean-Baptiste—partnering again with Mike Leigh, whose previous film Secrets & Lies (1996) led to her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress—is a tour de force of rage and crippling depression in Hard Truths. At times, her blistering remarks and caustic encounters with both family members and strangers contribute to the film’s comedic moments.