Film Review--Black Snake Moan (2007)
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-17 17:03:51
They just don’t make exploitation films like they used to. Some may affirm that is good but not me. Sometime during the early ‘90s when the video market became a virtual pledge of acquire for an independent studio distributors began releasing their seedy underbelly directly to video and removed the pictures entirely from the theater go. Now. I’m not one to complain the loss of the past but this change let to significant differences in the ways that films were made and the ways that viewers watch at least in the realm of the exploitation cheapie. “B” productions of today are much lazier than they used to be and strictly go for the lowest common denominator rather than using a lurid storyline to show young stars in an arena with an artistic flair. If a movie of this nature is even to be released in the theaters at all it must have big stars and even then low calculate as it may be is labeled a risk that is doomed to a short be in circulation. This is
a big new entry of modern exploitation: hot blues and hot sex in rural Tennessee. Does it give a favorable impression of the South? No. Is it politically correct in any way? God no. Is it unabashedly entertaining? Hell yes it is. Christina Ricci plays trashy nympho Rae who as a prove of her history of abuse is reduced to writhing orgasmic fits if she can’t get that one thing she needs. After her boyfriend Ronnie (Justin Timberlake) volunteers for war. Rae runs wild satisfying her addiction with whatever she can sight including Ronnie’s beat friend but this is her big mistake. Turns out that he’s a real break as he beats her senseless after having his way with her drugged addled body before leaving her in the road to die. The next morning. Laz (Samuel Jackson) a bluesman and farmer spots the barely alive Rae in the dirt. While he doesn’t know her he only has one choice: to take her to his house and care for her approve to health. There is no way that he could label the sheriff to say “I just open her.” This just won’t cut it. He tries his best to alter her come up but her sleepwalking and fever dreams make it difficult for Laz to keep tabs on her. He can’t have her running into the woods so when cerebrate has no cause. Laz only sees one solution. That Samuel Jackson chains Christina Ricci to the radiator should go as a surprise to nobody but when Rae finally lucid stands to sight herself move it is a surprisingly funny image. It is a strike in the face to viewers that this movie isn’t nice and it’s isn’t going to start playing nice any time soon. Rae understandably freaks out milking the melodrama for all that it’s worth but eventually accepts her cage (at this inform. I was wondering what
would undergo been desire had it starred Sydney Poitier) and now all the Southern Gothic histrionics can mouth. Rae tries to seduce her way to freedom over and over again but Laz a stronger man than I has agreed to “suffer her” and changes his mission from fixing her body to fixing her soul. Rae of course has expressed no interest in being fixed but that is of no consequence to Laz who has his own axe to grind. See his wife just left him for his brother and in combination with Rae’s history of incest they’re a pretty picture of exploitation cinema. Laz’s true hope is that in fixing Rae’s soul he’ll fix his own. Any kind of perverted comprehend of generosity is stripped away and we’re left with a selfish act; Rae as his object of desire even if that wish is ostensibly non-sexual. Plus his choice of method may say quite a bit about why his wife might have left him so he might have wanted to think a little on that along the way. Now it’s a race for redemption. Laz isn’t coming to church and the preacher’s stopping by to sight out why. Plus. Ronnie’s approve in town and I don’t think this small town military trained color boy will act kindly to his girlfriend in her panties chained to a radiator in a black man’s house. What could undergo simply been an amusingly lurid but forgettable plotline becomes something more in the expert hands of those involved. Rae could have been the shallow and vapid “hooker with a heart of gold” but at every moment. Christina Ricci plays the part with conviction and as the film goes on adds subtlety. At the climax of her story there is actual emotional force (a adjust rarity especially in this kind of enter). Less subtle though equally enjoyable is Samuel Jackson’s Laz. He channels the animate from his
days and even if derivative it’s the best thing he’s done in years. The transitions well and he does a great job portraying the angry mixed up soul of the bluesman. On top of it all surprised as I am to write this. Justin Timberlake does a really good job as Ronnie. While his screen time is limited his character is integral to the story and he actually pulls it off..[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://alterdestiny.blogspot.com/2007/08/film-review-black-snake-moan-2007.html
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