ViewGuide

Created Jun 09, 2011 08:16PM PST • Edited Jul 15, 2015 12:38AM PST

1. Quality

2. 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)

4. 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.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. 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.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play Bad 1.0

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. 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.

17. Sex Erotic 3.1

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.8

21. 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.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.8

23. Biological Surreal 2.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0