RojoBlack Snake Moan
If you haven’t read my review of Hustle and flow I will forgive you, I suppose. But if you have seen Hustle and Flow I would think that like me, be interested as all get out in seeing ‘Black Snake Moan’. But don’t be.
I expected progress in Brewer’s work but to me this seem to just pick up from Hustle and Flow, I say that meaning it seemed as if he had found this winning formula and was going to stick to it. The similarities are striking, intro music, hot young, blond wearing next to nothing sashaying her long legs down the hot streets, those legs that you would like to suck on like a warm popsicle (Christina Ricci’s transformation to skinny sexy blond is amazing in the sense of Bale and the Machinist, but I fell for her when she was a little bigger). This lack of growth in Brewer’s work was just the start of my problems with this film and continued with casting.
While I admit Ricci gives a stellar performance, and did I mention how sexy she is like god damn Christina, an actress I thought I would have a good shot at if we were alone at a bar and I could pay my bill, but I thought Taryn Manning could have been used in this role. She was great as Nola in H&F and as Ricci’s character seems to be her but in early life it would have been nice to see, but then again star power is a driving force in Hollywood.
Timberlake who was great in Alfa-dog is a waste. At times he seems like an acting student who has barely got off book and is trying to find he emotion while shooting scenes, he was a disappointment, and another disappointment was that he took this part away from some one that could have played it better. As I write this I think hey why not use DJ Qualls, I mean he isn’t much for the eyes but the boys got talent and that talent can make him good looking, I mean Brewer seemed to have taken from Hustle and Flow so much why stop at cast. Why not a Fierce Creatures, Fish called Wanda thing, throw in Howard instead of Sam the screamer Jackson.
On to Sam (it was interesting to note the Samuel L Jackson’s stand-in was Bill Cosby for Black Snake Moan) he is solid, but when isn’t he. He is good in this part but still he’s lacking, like so much in this film, the only thing that isn’t lacking is the soundtrack. I am a fan of dirty blues, sung by people who have the blues, in places where you should have the blues.
All in all disappointing, but that is not to say that this isn’t a good film, it was just after Hustle and Flow I wanted more. Lazarus’s redemption through the healing of a nymphomaniac just wasn’t enough. I’m sorry but Brewer is guilty of writing the same story again. He is pulling a John Irving in that he is just baking the same cake with a different flavoured icing.
6.5/10
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I was the opposite. Not a huge fan of Hustle and Flow. It had it's moments and showed potential but didn't have that special something for me.
Black Snake Moan was solid trash drama which took an exploitive premise and injected it with solid performances, careful scripting and thick coated blues atmosphere....I loved it!
I see how you could look at it as a recycle of the Hustle and Flow premise but for me it was a far more confident work with a much more risky subject matter.
Totally agre Justin Timberlake was an overplaying sap in this and dragged his scenes down ....I would be lying if I didn't admit i was praying for a painful death to his part in the story.
Guess my worship of the blues and Christina Ricci helps too.
i plan to review this one in the next couple of weeks myself.
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Brilliant.
It got no where in Australia, and I saw it over a year ago.
Jackson hasnt been good since Pulp Fiction, bravo. Ricci was prefect, and Timberlake was the complete and utter piece of shit that he always is.
Heart, soul and drama.
Great cinematography also, damn. Especially the Black Snake Moan scene during the thunderstorm.
- Jarrah
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