With BLACK SNAKE MOAN hitting DVD this week, I thought I'd build the week's This Weekend Film Festival around cult cinema starring African-Americans. I went through a big list of possible films and picked ones that I felt complemented each other in thematic and/or tonal ways. If you like this lineup some alternative titles for future viewing could include BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, BAADASSSSS!, SHAFT or CABIN IN THE SKY. All five films have a hot, steamy feel to them, which is quite fitting for this pre-July 4th weekend. Looking for eccentric characters and eclectic stories? Than I have a lineup for you.
Kicking off the fest on Friday night is the best film from 2000 — GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI. Jim Jarmusch's genre-bending comedy/thriller mixes gangsters, hip-hop and the samurai's code of honor. Ghost Dog is a cool and calculated killer for the mob, who has a peaceful soul inside. He lives by a strict code, which gives him purpose. Jarmusch sets Ghost Dog's ways against the dying Italian mob culture. The film satirically pokes fun at gangster conventions, bringing a droll sense of humor to the film. Unique characters populate this entire film. This one is like nothing you've ever seen before. Check out my 2001 review of the film to find out more.
Saturday is dedicated to pimps and drug dealers. The morning flick is the 1972 cult classic, SUPERFLY. Ron O'Neal plays Youngblood Priest, a pimp and drug dealer, who wants to do one last big score and get out of the business. The last big job is a common plot in many blaxploitation films as well as many crime thrillers. However, SUPERFLY brings real emotional weight to Priest's actions. He's trapped in a life he doesn't like, but it's the only one available to him. The establishment wants to keep him right where he is, because then they can use him. But he's smarter than that. At the time of release, some older people in the black community hated this film for putting a glamorous spin on pimps and drug dealers. But that seems like a complaint coming from someone who didn't really watch the movie. Priest has money and women, but it's empty and dangerous and he wants out. Director Gordon Parks Jr. makes us care about Priest, and because we care, we want what he wants — to give up on this life that uses up young black men like they were disposable. My original review will tell you more.
The Saturday night feature is BLACK SNAKE MOAN director Craig Brewer's debut feature HUSTLE & FLOW, which follows a small time Memphis drug dealer and pimp, who wants to leave the life behind by becoming a rap artist. One could say this film is a modern take on SUPERFLY. Djay has drive and wants more from life just like Priest. Where SUPERFLY has a "stick it to the Man" excitement, HUSTLE & FLOW has a very traditional underdog thread running at its heart. Djay isn't the only one with a dream in the film, which is filled with rich characters. Terence Howard in the lead deserved his Oscar nomination for his searing performance. Taraji P. Henson defines the term "a hooker with a heart of gold." DJ Qualls isn't a gimmick or a joke as the white guy who loves rap. Anthony Anderson shows his chops as a serious actor playing the amateur music producer. My father-in-law, who abhors all things rap, couldn't stop watching this film. It transcends race and background by making this rapping pimp's tale so universal. Learn more in my original review.
On Sunday, This Weekend's Film festival goes down south. David Gordon Green's debut feature is subtle and quiet, capturing one unforgettable summer in the lives of a group of underprivileged children in North Carolina. The dialogue and performances are so natural you'll think you're watching a documentary. The characters are three dimensional, even the "villains" have their reasons. Green has an ear for how middle school aged kids talk and interact. The film has a Southern gothic style where the lighting seems to be perpetually stuck at dusk. It's strange how a film can feel so real and otherworldly at the same time, like you're watching a memory. Pay attention for this is a film so effortless that you can easily miss its greatest. Read more about how my opinion of this film changed in my original review.
GEORGE WASHINGTON captures the feel of a poor Southern town realistically, while the closing film captures a Southern vibe that exists in our steamy fantasies. BLACK SNAKE MOAN is an unabashed pulp melodrama. It presents larger-than-life characters on the edge of disaster. Within their grand struggles, director Craig Brewer presents an epic tale of redemption that has real feelings at its core. Yeah, it's B-movie material all the way, wallowing in sex and violence, but its characters are well defined and deal with exaggerated versions of the same internal struggle that everyone deals with — they want to be loved. It has fun with its premise of a white, young nymphomaniac girl who is chained to the radiator by an older, black blues man, whose wife just left him for his brother. Filled with aching blues music, the story is a tragic, sultry blues tale come to life. It's a hell of a lot of fun and you can read more about it in my original review. This one's a perfect closer for this week's lineup.
So get yourself to the rental store, Netflix queue or Zap2It.com, to find out how you're going to get these films, so that you can watch a badass lineup of flicks.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
