Reviews

Black Snake Moan

Bluesmen and nymphomaniacs

By TOM MEEK | February 28, 2007

1.5 Stars

Craig Brewer, the promising director who hit it with Hustle and Flow, seems to harbor a need to exorcise his white burden through films centered on black music. In H&F it was a pimp with rapper ambitions; here it’s a spurned husband who plays the blues while trying to right a wayward nymphomaniac. By the time we see a black man with a white woman at the end of a chain in just her panties, the bar for shock has already gone through the roof, what with Rae (Christina Ricci), a trailer-trash wildcat who’s just sent her man (Justin Timberlake) off to the service, getting an itch and screwing half the town. Samuel L. Jackson provides the touch of humanity as Lazarus, the broken soul trying to redeem Rae. In the end, the two actors do rise above the hoo-hah. Still, Ricci, possessed and ripping off her clothes like a rabid succubus, is the film’s only lingering accomplishment.

Related: Ladies' night, On the racks: August 15, 2006, Will.i.am, More

Topics: Reviews , Justin Timberlake, Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, More

| More

view all

[ 05/26 ] "Bike Month: Alley Cat Bike Race & After Party" @ SPACE Gallery

[ 05/26 ] No Exit @ College of the Atlantic

[ 05/26 ] "Printmaking Now," works by Pickwick Independent Press artists @ Rose Contemporary

ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | May 17, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS | April 24, 2012
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | April 18, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: UNDEFEATED | March 15, 2012
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.

REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX | March 01, 2012
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.