Wick's Review

Summary - OK 2.5

Black Snake Moan? More like Bad Play Miss — solid acting and really great music don’t fully rescue a race-baiting story in an overly-stylized production.

One glance at the poster makes BSM’s prurient appeal undeniable: pretty little Christina Ricci in Daisy Dukes and cut-off Rebel T-Shirt, chained on her knees before an earthy Samuel L. Jackson.

Sadly, the cheesy story and Ricci’s over-the-top nympho act make the sexiness hardly worth it after a while. Plus, she’s a sex-abuse victim acting out. Sex freighted with pathos makes a movie fatally manipulative. Whoomp! (There It Is)

Acting - Good 3.0

Great actors not acting so great.

• Christina Ricci muddles many lines, even allowing that she’s playing a drunk Southerner. Worse, her sex-abused nymphomaniac simply isn’t convincing. Pity, ‘cause she’s distinctive and charismatic, proven in Monster amongst other solid performances. And she sure is a cutie, with eyes big as saucers.
• Samuel L. Jackson – never less than very good – won’t be including this role in his pantheon of greats. However, the man can play the blues, damn straight, assuming it was him that was really picking and singing.
• Justin Timberlake stands up well to the full time actors in one of his earlier roles, made the same year as his more impressive performance in Alpha Dog.
• S. Epatha Merkerson plays sweet, a nice switch from her tough Lt. Van Buren on Law & Order.

Blues legend Son House appears in a couple of videos, grounding the whole picture.

Film - OK 2.5

White guy writer-director Craig Brewer apparently grew up in suburban California, and yet he made this African-American film right after he also wrote and directed Hustle & Flow, another self-consciously Black film. What’s up with that? BTW, of the two, Hustle & Flow is far superior.

Edge - Sordid 3.1

Yep, Christina Ricci runs around half-nude for half the movie, going briefly topless here and there. Yes, her character engages in wildly self-destructive behavior. Yes, the movie plays off bad old stereotypes of black men and white girls. Yes, it is profoundly disrespectful to soldiers. Sordid.

Reality - Glib 1.7

No girl survives long aggressively hooking up with every crack dealer, partier and random guy in her small town. The movie makes a passing reference to her having “STDs and crabs,” if memory serves. Ya think?

More troubling is that Samuel L. Jackson’s character – an earthy bluesman with an obviously active libido – wasn’t more than a bit tempted when Ricci’s smokin’ hot nympho kept throwing herself at him. Simply not believable. Hell, he even gave her a bath without so much as peeking. Sure.

1 Comment

• BrianSez Jun 10, 2011 8:20PM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  “Bad Play Miss” LOL! I must have been in a very generous mood when I watched….

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