March 16, 2007 @ 12:31 pm

The Cheap Seats: Recapping DVDs, Late-Release Movies

by: Allison Harvey

Reviewing "Premium," Biz Markie biopic "Stomping Grounds," and last but not least "Black Snake Moan"

Premium (Double 7 Film), Dir. Pete Chatmon
Art imitates life in Pete Chatmon's third indie feature, Premium, a nebulous though earnest story that demonstrates the dogged everyday hustle of show business and the heartache of lost love. The romantic dramedy follows three days in the life of Reginald "Cool" Coolidge, a struggling black actor who refuses to become the product of blaxploitation on his way to the top. The writer/director/producer does an excellent job in casting Dorian Missick and Zoë Saldana, who shine in their honest portrayal of animus exes grappling a post-romantic relationship. There were times when it seems the movie should pick a subject and either focus solely on Cool's botched career or his plummeting love life - but when the film's continuous twists and turns land in an unpredictable ending, we see that Chatmon really was right on track. Stomping Grounds (Inform Ventures/Scion), Dir. Chris Richburg
It's great for Biz Markie fans, but any hip-hop enthusiast can appreciate this documentary that follows the class clown of rap around the old neighborhoods that turned him into the master rapper/beat boxer/DJ we know today. Traveling throughout New York's boroughs, as well as Long Island and New Jersey, you'll watch Biz catch up with old pal emcees like DJ Kid Nice and Elroy Mack, who speak with sentimental nostalgia about a time when rapping and stardom weren't necessarily mentioned in the same sentence. Black Snake Moan, Dir. Craig Brewer
There are times when you just want to sit back and watch an awesomely bad flick, and Black Snake Moan is a movie that sits high on the throne of guilty pleasures. If I didn't know that director Craig Brewer was so dead serious about this movie, I'd call the film purposely kitsch, proclaim him a genius, and give him a round of applause. But the writer/director who brought us the Academy Award-winning Hustle & Flow is genuinely trying to dazzle us here - and for whatever reason, he thinks that chaining a scantly clad, nymphomaniac white woman named Rae (Christina Ricci) to the radiator of Lazarus, a heartbroken farmer-bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) is the way to do it. Black Snake Moan is supposed to be about love, wickedness, redemption, or some other such nonsense, but it often falls flat from its blatant attempts to shock us. If not for the diversions of Lazarus's hairline, sexpot Rae's cutoff shorts, her surprisingly unsullied white panties, or the possibility that her right breast really is tattooed, you might find yourself in the middle of a movie you've seen one too many times already. Black Snake Moan might have had a fighting chance at being a preciously imperfect, quirky independent cult classic. But there's too much heat on Brewer, Jackson's too big a star and while Ricci may technically be categorized as an indie queen, she is still fondly thought of as that kid from those Addams Family movies. What's great about Black Snake Moan is its seeming originality and supposed daring lack of convention. What's not so great is the fact that it's hard to watch it without contemplating what Spike Lee or Quentin Tarantino might have done with a white girl chained to a black man's house in the heart of Mississippi. The truth is, if a premise as bold as this is going to become a major motion picture with this caliber of stars, you can't help wondering what more accomplished directors familiar with rationalizing the equation that is "wide distribution + controversial plot" might have created. There is a list of good things, however. Here's two right off the bat: 1) Ricci wears way more clothing than the trailer suggests and, 2) the chain is removed quicker than you'd expect. Even if Rae's exposed breasts or Lazarus's gaudy gold teeth do not move you, Brewer at least makes sure you're musically satisfied. The music transports one scene to the next more naturally than the storyline, with a satisfying, authentic blues score by music supervisor Scott Bomar. Jackson sings and plays the guitar with ease and visual conviction (if not musical), and there's a blues club scene with sweaty, dirty-dancing men and women who appear to be suffering from nymphomania their damn selves. Among the few good things this movie contains, one super-duper element should not go unrecognized: The Cast. The two lead actors are definitely at the top of their game. With the exception of one scene where a fever-stricken Rae scares the bejesus out of him, Samuel L. Jackson is as badass mothafucker as ever as Lazarus, a passionate though troubled Christian soldier who opens his house to Rae and uses unusual methods to keep her there until she is cured. But it is Ricci who stands out. She portrays the formally abused, psychologically traumatized bitch-in-heat with a heart of gold with a fiery passion I've never before seen from the actress. Justin Timberlake is another pleasant surprise with his earnest depiction of Ronnie, Rae's anxiety-ridden boyfriend who, in some unfathomable way and for some unexplainable reason, manages to accept Rae's promiscuous past and fall in love with her. It's unfortunate, however, that despite the acting, Brewer is still unable to bring these characters' relationships together in a concise or convincing manner. Even toward the end, we still don't understand why! What is it about purchasing cough serum or starving a nymphomaniac from sex that ails the blues and saves a man's soul? Although I might have been reluctant, I would have bought it if only Brewer had bothered to explain it to me. And therein lies the crappiness of Black Snake Moan. With all of the writer/director's provocative ambition, we are led down a path we never would have followed had it not been for our blinding hope in Craig Brewer, Samuel L. Jackson, maybe even the blues itself.

Article tags: Cheap, Seats, Recapping, DVDs, Late-Release, Movies 

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