Friday March 2, 2007 SGN.org |
 |
Volume 35 Issue 09 |
 |
|
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008
|
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||
|
A funny film with some serious moments and a fall-out-of-your-seat-laughing film |
||
 |
||
| A funny film with some serious moments and a fall-out-of-your-seat-laughing film | ||
|
by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid -
SGN A&E Writer Black Snake Moan Directed by Craig Brewer Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake S. Epatha Merkerson, John Cothran, Jr., David Banner Opens March 2nd Reno, 911: Miami Directed by Ben Grant Starring: Ben Grant, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Mary Birdsong, Cedric Yarbrough, Wendi McClendon-Covey Now playing When the black and white clip of a blues singer runs before the film, 'Black Snake Moan' starts and the singer talks about the blues and how it has to do with love -- love gone wrong -- one knows immediately that this is going to be a gritty film. And after the energetic love/sex scene between stars Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake (who play lovers with issues), I believe anyone who wasn't on board with the fact that Black Snake Moan was going to be a visceral, yet tender journey, was by then. The film, which is written and directed by the same young talent (Craig Brewer) that brought us Hustle and Flow two years ago does indeed take us into the heart and soul of two loves that have gone, let's say awry. That of Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson in perhaps his most memorable role yet), who is trying to get past the fact that his wife, Rose has left him for his own brother. Ouch! And then there's the love story between Rae (Christina Ricci), the town slut, and Ronnie (a mesmerizing and surprisingly good Justin Timberlake), her National Guard boyfriend. They balance each other's deep-seeded personality flaws -- that a childhood of abuse has turned her into someone who 'has to have it', and him, a soldier who is afraid of loud sounds and suffers anxiety from this -- but not for long. When he has to report for duty overseas and leaves, Rae goes on an all out sex bender, screwing everything with a penis, and ending up getting beaten and left to bleed on the side of the road by Ronnie's redneck friend. This happens after Rae, too drunk for good sense, tells the friend before they 'hook up' that her Black lover has 'a lot more' than him in the phallic department. And he retaliates by beating her unconscious and leaving her for Samuel L. Jackson to find the next day. Which he does, when he wakes up the next morning, after his own 'bender' with booze over his cheating wife. Therein ensues a battle of wills, as Jackson, playing the 'errant knight in shining armor' to Ricci's downtrodden 'damsel in distress', chains Rae to a radiator, determined to save her from her own self-destructive tendencies. At times funny, and at others razor sharp and moving, Black Snake Moan gives us that rare Hollywood film, one that's devoid of pointless violence, needless special effects and with a good, very human story to get your teeth into. I definitely see this one being an Oscar contender next year, if the world is a fair place. And then there's Reno, 911: Miami, the film which capitalizes on the Comedy Central show about a group of the weirdest law enforcement officers you'll see outside of the Police Academy series from years ago. I laughed so hard, right from the beginning, that I nearly fell out of my chair, and kept on laughing all the way through. And yes, the plot is water thin, with the crew leaving Vegas for the warm shores of Miami to attend a law enforcement conference, only they get there and nothing is arranged the way they thought it would be. Oh and they end up patrolling Miami, taking over the jobs of the Miami police force, after the whole force is taken down by a bio-terrorist bug that leaves them all quarantined until an antidote for whatever disease is sickening them, is found. Silly, yes, but hella funny too, and worth seeing, even if you've never seen the show. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
International Readers read the SGN in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish |
|
 |
|
 For more info & to sign up: email aniab@llaa.org or call 206.328.8979 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 post your own information on Seattle Gay Blog |
|
 |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006