BLACK SNAKE MOAN

http://www.moanmovie.com/
plot : Get behind me, hussy girl.
thought : Charmed by the snake, eh ?

I didn't really get this movie. Still don't really get it. The premise is a weird one. Really don't know where Craig BREWER, the writer and director, got it. But the music is blues hotter than you've ever heard, and it's got Justin Timberlake. So yeah, I saw it.

The premise of the movie, without giving too much away, is this : a man with some inner demons named Lazaurs (Samuel L. Jackson, looking old, rough and tough) finds Rae (Christian RICCI), a beat-up, almost naked skinny girl, passed out on the road by his house...and hijinks ensue. The high points of the film include every scene with music (it's not a musical, but there is some song, and Jackson does all his own singing) and most all the scenes that Jackson and Ricci share.

Justin, who plays Rae's boyfriend Ronnie, shows some great emotions, but alas, he is no where near his top level performance in ALPHA DOG. Christina RICCI on the other hand...is something else. When I think of her, I think, "She's All That...Adam's Family...big forehead." And hey, I'll still think those things, but now I'm starting to think she wants us to think something else. Her role was a weird one, but she owned it.

BLACK SNAKE MOAN, produced by John SINGLETON (same guy behind HUSTLE & FLOW as well as POETIC JUSTIC and a lot of other racially charged films), is a startling film dealing with a social subject (childhood sexual abuse) in a completely artistic way. And by "artistic," I'm not talking Baz Luhrmann or Michel Gondry artistic--though they are ab-fab. I'm talking music of Deep South--Al Kapone, Muddy Waters, Bobby Rush artistic. This movie writhes with heat.

And for all you hiphop heads, David BANNER makes a cameo...in a slightly inelegant way.

Overall rating : 3.5/5