Week Of March 5, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri

March 5, 2007

The Southern Cootch Shall Rise Again

Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan is a surprising little Sundance buzz hit, combining a strong performance from the indomitable Sam Jackson, an endlessly T&Aing Christina Ricci channeling the young Susan Sarandon down to the eye bulge and bosom flailing, some good blues music, and an absurdly grindhouse view of the world that is just kinky enough to amuse, if not coming close to a thrill. Brewer has gotten funding for his next film, Hustle & Flow, starring an emerging Terence Howard, based on this film, with producers John Singleton and Stephanie Allain expecting a rough hewn but more polished effort the next time out.

Oh…

I got that backwards.

And so did Craig Brewer.

Black Snake Moan effectively competes with the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese from Aisle 7 of the Piggly Wiggly for just how cheesy a movie can be. And there is nothing wrong with that. If Southern Exploitation is Brewer's milieu, as 70's grindhouse is for Tarantino, I can certainly live with that. Hell, it can be a lot of fun.

And I can't tell you with a straight face that BSM (a somehow very natural acronym) was an unpleasant experience. Christina Ricci is relentless and fearless in bringing this girl who can't help it to life. One of the clever bits in the film turns her nymphomania (emphasis on "mania"… with excuse, of course) into a horror movie moment out of every "don't go in the house" film ever made. Brewer and cinematographer Amelia Vincent find angles on her little body that make almost every image of her a curiosity. Is she really that long? Is she beautiful or odd or both? How are those panties fitted exactly? How many ways can she turn a cutoff t-shirt into a peek-a-boo?

Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson is lights out, as usual. Some feel he is a shoo-in for at least an Oscar nomination for his turn as a damaged boxer turned homeless man in Rod Lurie's Resurrecting the Champ, which also appeared at Sundance this last January. And he should be. He should be considered for this film. He should be a serious contender almost every single year. He is, by definition, not Gene Hackman. They work very different parts of the street. But in many ways, Jackson is this generation's Hackman, the biggest difference being that Jackson hasn't had the home run roles that Hackman had in his day. (Jackson would have been better than either of the male leads in Poseidon, which would be a good start, but sadly, he was uncastable in any of last year's Oscar BP movies, is not strong enough at the box office to build a movie for, and suffers for the lack of quality dramas in studio Hollywood.)

Jackson can do so many things and make you laugh and cry and fear and think. He is all about Snakes on a Plane and Star Wars… and that is his prerogative. But it would be unfair to place Black Snake Moan in that category. This is a complete character. If only with Brewer's script and direction were up to his star's skill level, as it was with T-Ho in Hustle & Flow. People may complain about that film, but as classically Hollywood in some ways and as politically incorrect as it was in other ways, the movie simply worked. It wasn't Shakespeare and didn't want (or claim) to be. You can argue whether female empowerment is well defined by a prostitute taking control of a rap career and buying higher end hootchie gear a short while after fellating her way to a new microphone. But you can't really argue that the conceit didn't work inside its own realm.

You can argue that Black Snake Moan falls apart when hit by the wake of its own good intentions. You can argue that a performance as raw and real as Jackson's is lost on a central conceit - an unquenchable fever for "dick," to use the film's terminology, tamed only by a moron boyfriend - that is simply too goofy to hold up. You can definitely argue that Brewer's ability to convey ideas of time - as in, this whole movie seems to take place in a week, when it clearly has to be at least a month - is so messed up that the whole thing seems like a giant wink at the audience.

It's a mess. And it truly feels like the movie before Hustle & Flow, not the follow-up. It is a less accomplished effort. But it's still more fun that something like the Sundance absurdity, Teeth.

Speaking of Sundance (again), it struck me about halfway through viewing BSM that the natural story from Sundance was that Black Snake Moan is the sequel to Hounddog. I guess that people were too worked up worrying about Dakota Fanning's panties. But aside from a dramatic change in hair color and shape - Dakota promises to be a little taller than Ms. Ricci - BSM is every bit the natural sequel to the story of a young girl who has been raped, has a broken father and no mother, and seeks healing in the black south. Black Snake follows her as she acts out through her teen years, hooks up with a similarly broken but beautiful boy, and regresses in an ugly way when he leaves for the military. In a bizarre turn, Black Snake has a more mature view of black people, leaving The Magic Negro alone and allowing the hard-edge of Sam Jackson and the thoughtful nurturing of S. Epatha Merkerson and John Cothran to do a more realistic job, even in the more absurd context of this film.

These two really are a natural double feature.

Even on a low-ish budget, Black Snake Moan probably cost 5 times what it needed to in order to be the kind of movie it is. It's not arch enough to be meta and neither raunchy or star-studded enough to be inevitable. Paramount Vantage has spent more on outdoor advertising alone than any sane distributor would for a film of this order. But this is the hand that Lesher & Co was dealt and they are playing it as well as they can. This thing is strictly drive-ins, deep south and urban screens, and move along to being a cult classic on DVD. With this release, it may never be hip enough to be a cult classic, though PV gets A for Effort for the one-sheet look, the pervy knick-knacks and the exuberance of the push.

One last note - Justin Timberlake couldn't act his way out of an overlong family dinner. It's time to stop trying. I don't really understand why women love him so. He is pretty, but looks like he would blow away in a strong wind, physically and emotionally. I guess there is a female market for that among women with emotional rakes. But aside from the most gratuitous "I'm a rock star, let me act" stuff, it's not funny to watch him try so hard and fail so badly anymore. The traditional casting choice here, Giovanni Ribisi, may not have been as pretty, but you would have gotten a character that was hooked into Ricci's performance in a real way. And she did give a performance here, not just a look of exposed skin.

E Me.

---

Week Of April 3, 2006 - Life In the Bubble - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 10, 2006 - List Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 17, 2006 - Review Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 24, 2006 - Overlooked Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 1, 2006 - Mystery Week - Tue / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 8, 2006 - How We Watch Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 15, 2006 - Premature Week - Oscar Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 22, 2006 - B-13 Mon / Inconvenient Wed / Fri
Week Of May 29, 2006 - Wed / Fri
Week Of June 5, 2006 - 666 Tue / Iraq Doc Wed / Seattle Fri
Week Of June 12, 2006 - SIFF Mon / SIFF Wed / Fri
Week Of June 19, 2006 - Cinevegas Mon/Deliver Us Wed/Prada Fri
Week Of June 26, 2006 - Pirates Mon / Super Again Wed / Fri
Week Of July 5, 2006 - Wed
Week Of July 12, 2006 - M. Night Mon | You, Me & Wed | Monster House Fri
Week Of July 17, 2006 - 8 A Year Mon / Water Wed / Revamp Fri
Week Of July 24, 2006 - Comic-Con Mon / Gossip Wed / Fri
Week Of July 31, 2006 - Mel G Mon / Talladega Wed / Fri
Week Of August 7, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of August 14, 2006 - No Column Mon / Wed / Snakes Fri
Week Of August 21, 2006 - Snakey Mon / Anniversary Wed / Scoundrels Fri
Week Of August 28, 2006 - Mon Love / Berloff Wed / Fri
Week Of September 4, 2006 - Thur
Week Of September 11, 2006 - TIFF Mon / Bobby Wed / Fr
Week Of September 18, 2006 - Mon / TIFF 1 Wed / TIFF 2 Fri
Week Of September 25, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of October 2, 2006 - Atonement Mon / Wed / Indie Fri
Week Of October 9, 2006 - Flags Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of October 16, 2006 - Mon / Epagogix Wed
Week Of October 23, 2006 - TCIFF Mon / Wed / Catch A Fri
Week Of October 30, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of November 6, 2006 - Mon / Dead Girl Wed / Fri
Week Of November 13, 2006 - Bond Mon / Wed / TomKat Fri
Week Of November 20, 2006 - Mon / Thankful Wed
Week Of November 27, 2006 - Mon / Auteur Wed / Blood D Fri
Week Of December 4, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of December 11, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of December 18, 2006 - Mon / Wed / COM Fri
Week Of December 27, 2006 - Wed / Worst of 2006 Fri
Week Of Janiuary 3, 2007 - Best Of 2006 Wed
Week Of Janiuary 8, 2007 - Mon / COM Book Wed
Week Of January 17, 2007 - Little Red Writing Hood Wed
Week Of January 29, 2007 - Mon
Week Of February 5, 2007 -This Thing We Do Wk - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of February 12, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of February 26, 2007 - Rough Oscars Mon / Zodiac Wed / Doc & Foreign Fri