Black Snake Moan
November 7th 2008 02:01
BLACK SNAKE MOAN - wiritten and directed by Craig Brewer
Black Snake Moan is about a black man who has a white hot nymphomaniac chained to his radiator played by Christina Ricci……where has this movie been my whole life. As you can imagine, there could have been a documentary alone on the pitching of this film, which would have been fun to see. Our lady in question goes by the name of Rae, played by my favourite gal in the whole wide world, Cristina Ricci (Buffalo 66, Sleepy Hollow, Prozac Nation) and her gentlemanly captor is played by Samuel L. Jackson (um….everything) in a story that may not be the most Shakespearian but still can be taken a more seriously than films like Grind House, which require a beer or two to be thrown back before viewing. The sensational pitch aside, Black Snake Moan is a melodrama which, even with it’s flaws, holds up jauntily upon repeat viewings.
“I’m talkin’ about the Blues man! I ain’t talkin’ about monkey junk” – Sun House
A sizzling film
Helmed by Craig Brewer, the writer and director of Hustle And Flow, which I was a fan of and I felt was definitely the better of the two films. Black Snake Moan begins with an excerpt from old time blues man ‘Son House’ talking about the Blues with the kind of passion that makes you feel like getting up and dancing on the table. Two stories then follow, one about Ronnie, a young man about to go off to the army (played by Justin Timberlake) and his girlfriend in perpetual heat, Rae, feeling abandoned. On the other end of things is an aging Blues guitarist named Lazarus (Sam Jackson), who’s wife has left him for his brother. After a night of sex, drugs and nude grid iron, Rae finds herself unconscious on the dirt road, where Lazarus discovers, hears of her reputation and then decides to cure her of her wicked ways.
“Laz, I know that gal! She got a whole mess o’ Crabs and S.T.D.’s!”
"God saw fit to put you in my path and I aim to cure you of your wickedness"
Like ‘Hustle And Flow’ before it, ‘Black Snake Moan’ uses the music of the South to bring people together. The vivid cinematography of Amelia Vincent keeps the film visually engaging and always fun watch. What Brewer does so well is take a sensational premise and gives it enough depth that the characters all have a heart and seem like they could each have their own movie. While the story has an over the top concept of raunch and race, the film never feels exploitative. Finally, the Blues music flowing through, gives the film it real sexiness (okay, okay – Christina Ricci contributes to that as well). It’s a fun time.
Lazarus makes a new friend
While I enjoyed ‘Black Snake Moan’, one could argue that some of it’s flaws are the moral stances which bombard their way around the film, with the cliché of redemption thrown in too for good measure, it doesn’t bother me personally, but the film perhaps draws a little too much attention to it’s own sense of righteousness. While Ricci is fantastic as usual giving a genuinely interesting performance which makes her feel like someone you definitely have known, the same cannot be said for the films two male leads. Sam Jackson seems to be absolutely bored out of his mind in his role, doing nothing which resembles the great performances that originally made him so unique (The Red Violin, Pulp Fiction). Then there is Justin Timberlake (Alpha Dog, South Land Tales) who certainly doesn’t ruin the film, he definitely tries admirably, although sometimes it feels like he’s trying too hard, although it’s more a casting/role issue I had with him, I definitely had trouble buying him in the role he was meant to portray.
In a nutshell, Black Snake is a sizzling, fun film with a heart.
Christina Ricci as Rae
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Ricci was wild in this... I've never thought of her as a sexy actress, but she was raw!