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Mar. 2nd, 2007
Black Snake Moan
Mar. 2nd, 2007 11:16 pmThe ballots have been counted, and the verdict is in. Although voting for Black Snake Moan after I'd seen it doesn't really help.
We caught the early show, the better to grab something to eat afterwards. Arriving at the box office, I asked for two tickets to Skanks on a Chain, the ticketer knew exactly which film to punch the little button for, and Mrs. Cwabs planted her face in her palm.
With the number of thin skins I've observed to over the past couple of weeks, it's hard to say whether other folks online will get as much enjoyment out of the film as I did. Various parts of the film will come across to the easily-offended as offensive racial stereotypes, or one-dimensional misogyny. Christina Ricci plays Rae, a child abuse victim who grows up to manifest her abuse in the form of nymphomania. Samuel L. Jackson plays Lazarus, a farmer (the word "sharecropper" has been used in reviews, but is inaccurate) and blues guitarist whose wife has run off with his brother.
When Rae's boyfriend (a pretty-good Justin Timberlake) goes off to basic training, she's left to the mercy of her impulses and her friends, which results in her lying unconscious, beaten, on the road leading past Lazarus' house. Lazarus takes her in, and, when informed of her temperament, chains her to his radiator in order to "break the evil spirit" from her. What follows is exploitative, funny, sometimes frighting, and occasionally touching: a solid follow-up picture to Hustle & Flow, and a solid piece of entertainment. Incidentally, Jackson does his own singing, and a fine job of it at that.
If you fall into the "easily-offended" category, by all means give it a miss. Everybody else check it out in the theater (good box office means more well-made films with moderately original storylines) or stick it in the Netflix queue when it becomes available.
We caught the early show, the better to grab something to eat afterwards. Arriving at the box office, I asked for two tickets to Skanks on a Chain, the ticketer knew exactly which film to punch the little button for, and Mrs. Cwabs planted her face in her palm.
With the number of thin skins I've observed to over the past couple of weeks, it's hard to say whether other folks online will get as much enjoyment out of the film as I did. Various parts of the film will come across to the easily-offended as offensive racial stereotypes, or one-dimensional misogyny. Christina Ricci plays Rae, a child abuse victim who grows up to manifest her abuse in the form of nymphomania. Samuel L. Jackson plays Lazarus, a farmer (the word "sharecropper" has been used in reviews, but is inaccurate) and blues guitarist whose wife has run off with his brother.
When Rae's boyfriend (a pretty-good Justin Timberlake) goes off to basic training, she's left to the mercy of her impulses and her friends, which results in her lying unconscious, beaten, on the road leading past Lazarus' house. Lazarus takes her in, and, when informed of her temperament, chains her to his radiator in order to "break the evil spirit" from her. What follows is exploitative, funny, sometimes frighting, and occasionally touching: a solid follow-up picture to Hustle & Flow, and a solid piece of entertainment. Incidentally, Jackson does his own singing, and a fine job of it at that.
If you fall into the "easily-offended" category, by all means give it a miss. Everybody else check it out in the theater (good box office means more well-made films with moderately original storylines) or stick it in the Netflix queue when it becomes available.