Other Takes

Black Snake Moan B-

Black Snake Moan gets small town south right. Christina Ricci as Rae spends over half this film in a half-tee and underwear chained to a radiator in the home of recently single Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson). Molested repeatedly by her mother’s boyfriend when she was younger, Rae is now planning to marry Ronnie (a solid Justin Timberlake) but sleeping with everyone else in the county. Lazarus finds her unconscious on the road, takes her home to nurse her back to health, and decides to cure her of her wickedness. Lazarus is a blues singer (Jackson, doing his own vocal work, is surprisingly good), and this film is a blues song put on film, replete with over-the-top themes and imagery. While the film wants to condemn the men who use Ricci for sex, the voyeurism of its camerawork uses Ricci in much the same way. Maybe that’s part of the point, but it comes across as contradictory. Still when Rae confronts her mother in the convenience store the scene is combustible and feels true. An interesting story of redemption and the power of caring, I liked it and disagreed with the Doctor’s review (D+) here. Note: This is a really rough movie which I watched after having it highly recommended to me as being theologically interesting. Consider yourself warned.

American Gangster B

With Denzel, Crowe, and director Ridley Scott, I expected a bang and got a whimper. The true story of ‘70’s heroin kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and the detective that would take him down Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) can never decide if it wants to be about Lucas or Roberts and ends up being about neither. Scott sets-up a moral tension between the family-man and faithful, yet drug-dealing, Lucas and the adulterating bad father, yet honest-too-a-fault cop, Roberts. But I’m not buying it. Is it bad to sleep around? Yeah. But as bad as covering a man in gasoline and lighting him on fire? Or bringing cheap, pure heroin to town, leading to literally thousands of deaths and exponentially more ruined lives? No, it’s not nearly as bad. Attempting to maintain that tension leads Scott to leave in pointless divorce proceedings and needless family time. American Gangster could have used another hour or should have focused on Lucas or Roberts. As it was, Scott had a dream double-billing of Denzel and Crowe but never maximized either one. I liked We Own The Night better. See Lawyer’s review (B+) here.