Artist: Movie ReviewTitle: Black Snake Moan (Film)Rating: 4 StarsReviewed by: Edwardo Jackson
How do you follow an Oscar-nominated film about a pimp turned rapper?
Why you make a film, Black Snake Moan (Paramount Classics) about a white girl chained up by a black man in
the South, of course… Beyond this salacious setup-and the playfully
inflammatory marketing–director Craig Brewer proves there’s more than one hit to
his wonder.
“I don’t love you no mo’.” Ouch. Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) finds himself a
cuckolded husband by himself for the first time in years on his
remote, smalltown Tennessee farm. Rae (Christina Ricci) finds herself alone
after her soulmate Ronnie (Justin Timberlake) goes off for the military. But
Rae “got an itch” as a barely functioning nymphomaniac who, when she’s
not coughing up a lung due to some undiagnosed sickness, is
self-medicating through sensuality. When Lazarus finds her bruised,
literally half-naked body by the side of the road, he takes her into
his home, determined to exorcise the demons inside of her-even if it
means chaining her horny ass to a radiator. In ways unexpected and
unusual, they begin to learn, and heal, each other-to a nifty blues
soundtrack.
A paean to old school, Southern blues (Brewer has a thing for the
influence of black music, lucky for us), Moan is as original a work
as you may see all year, in that it features an outrageous premise,
grounds itself firmly in reality, and opens itself (and yourself) up to a
musical, spiritual, and emotional journey of two wounded souls.
Musical? Lazarus is a semi-retired blues man who may or may not seek
redemption through song. Spiritual? “God has seen fit to put you in my
path,” Lazarus intones to a charged up Rae, who’s used to using
carnality as currency. “It is up to me to break you of your
wickedness.” And the emotional piece is a literal and figurative bond
they share: Rae is physically CHAINED to his radiator! Brewer’s
direction is audaciously feral yet tender, his script spiritual yet
darkly humorous; it’s one of the more original, inventive,
well-written scripts in some time. Besides pleasantly showing faithful
representations of older black folk (glad to have you, S. Epatha
Merkerson (Law & Order) as the local pharmacist who’s sweet on Samuel L.), Brewer
explores the painfully symbiotic relationships of two damaged beings
trying to salve their hurt and pain with each other, while playfully
messing with our own expectations of such a taboo’s taboo relationship
(a May-December, white-black, rural SOUTHERN relationship?!? Somebody
call Mister Charlie!).
That’s what makes Moan so great-it’s unexpected. After waving guns
and spouting catchphrases in his last couple of movies, Samuel L.
Jackson is back to acting. Dipped in a deep-fried accent, gray beard,
gold grill, and looking older than we’ve ever seen him before, Sam anchors the film with his wifebeater-soaked, blues-influenced moral rectitude, with an edge. A
gloriously naked and surprisingly sensuous Christina Ricci gives a
fearless, fabulous performance as the sickly, self-destructive nympho
Rae; her life is “either cough drops or condoms.” No, it’s not
fearless that she’s running around in her panties and a peek-a-boo,
Jennifer Bealsish crop top the whole movie. With her dirty blonde
hair, misbehaving green eyes, and a turnstile for legs, Ricci
absolutely humanizes, three-dimensionalizes a woman who treats herself
worse than recycled white trash-she’s the compost of white trash,
decomposing and disintegrating in front of our very eyes. Her
dependence on Ronnie (an utterly believable and somewhat impressive
Justin Timberlake) for balance in her life isn’t just a therapist’s
nightmare, it’s a true, bilateral dependency that, like Voltron, is
stronger when they’re together than when they’re apart. Once you add Sam’s aching Lazarus to the mix, both actors bring out the best in each other. Just like their characters.
Black Snake Moan is a beautiful, painful movie, one that exalts
beauty through its pain. The first great movie of the year, make sure
you “see fit to put it in your path” as well. But leave your chains at
home.
Edwardo Jackson (ReelReviewz@aol.com) is an author and LA-based screenwriter, visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com
