Samuel L. Jackson = Snakes?

So we have to sign our blogs now? Our regular readers couldn't tell who was writing what. I think that Warren and I have established our individual voices through our writing pretty well. And if the guy who is writing is referring to Warren and not stating that he is Warren than the guy who is writing isn't Warren and is in fact the other guy, Matthew. Again, pretty easy to figure out, but whatever. We'll do this the remedial way for the short bus people.

I like Samuel L. Jackson. I think that he is a great actor. I could watch his performance in "Pulp Fiction," all day. And I have been taking notice of him ever since he first appeared in "Goodfellas." Don't remember him in "Goodfellas?" Watch it again. He's in there. But lately, he, like other actors I have mentioned in this blog, has been resting on his laurels. And the past two movies he has been in have to do with snakes. Now that is just typecasting. I'm not going to review "Snakes on a Plane." I saw it. I thought that it was kind of dumb. Not much dumber than any other movies in the genre, but dumber than the movies I feel like writing about.

I just watched "Black Snake Moan." Mostly because I heard that it had a naked Christina Ricci in it, as well as Sam Jackson. The previews of the movie made the movie seem like it would be an old south, funky voodoo vibe kind of movie. And it was. A lot of blues music in the soundtrack and all the main characters had devils and demons in their minds. It was sensual and dark. The movie was written and directed by the same guy who wrote and directed "Hustle and Flow." So it came with pedigree.

The plot revolves around Christina Ricci playing Rae, a small-southern-town slut. Sorry for that bad word there, but really there is no other way to describe her. When she is drunk or high, she writhes on the ground, 'gets the fever', and has sex with whatever man is around. Easy to see what her demon is. A pretty, trashy, southern, young girl who has sex indiscriminately = child abuse. The movie reveals that truth as the plot develops. She keeps her demon at bay as long as her man, Justin Timberlake, is in town. Wait. How did he get in here? Yeah, Mr. Timberlake is playing a young man who intends to join the army, who is currently shacking up permanent-like with Ricci.

Anyway, Timberlake goes off to Memphis or somewhere to undergo basic training. Leaving Rae alone by herself. Well, you know no good will come of that. Rae parties with friends, drinks, takes drugs, loses her clothes and has sex. Later a friend of Justin Timberlake is driving a still addled Ricci home and he starts to get stirrings in his loins. Naturally he forgets what a good friend he is to Timberlake and makes a move on Ricci. Ricci is aware enough to reject him (this guy should have started his moves sooner) and he beats her up and throws her out of his truck on the side of the road.

Samuel L. Jackson (remember him, this blog entry started with a discussion of him) plays Lazarus, an old black man. Quite a stretch for Jackson to play. Lazarus lives by himself way out of town and grows vegetables to sell in town. Now I didn't think that in the 21st century people could still grow produce to sell in town and still hardscrabble out a real living, but apparently in rural Tennessee, you can. Lazarus finds Rae, cleans her up and is about to let her go on her way, when she does what she does whenever she is in the presence of a man and she catches 'the fever.' She strips down, makes googly-eyes at the old man and offers to pay back his kindness with a roll in the sack. Lazarus is astonished and appalled. And that is when he realizes that he must cure her sickness. So he chains her to his radiator in his house.

Thus we get to the controversial element of this movie. I seem to be seeing movies lately that have caused a stir. People protested at some showing of this movie because it depicts an old black man chaining up a pretty young white woman. This image is offensive on so many levels. But as preposterous as all of this sounds, the movie made it all seem plausible. Anyway, eventually Rae stops acting so crazy. Lazarus takes the chain off, buys her some real clothes, they go out for a night on the town and in the process both soften a little and they connect on some level wherein they now have an understanding of each other's internal pain.

Timberlake flames out at boot camp, something about his personal demons won't allow him to shoot a gun. He comes home, and misunderstanding the relationship Rae and Lazarus have developed, he threatens violence. Rae and Lazarus' relationship is purely platonic, but you can see why Timberlake would jump to the wrong conclusions given her previous behavior. The movie ends with no solid conclusion. There is no sappy - everyone's demons are exorcised - ending. I guess the message is, we all have to find someone to love and who loves us regardless of our demons.

It was a good movie. Catch it now that it is on DVD. But it didn't exactly live up to my expectations. I think this director, Carl Brewer is his name incidentally, just scraped the surface of the emotions and drama necessary to correctly portray the story he was trying to tell. Christina Ricci does get naked quite a bit, so it does have that going for it.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Rae's mother is played by Kim Richards. Don't know the name? She was the little girl in the old Disney flick, "Escape from Witch Mountain." Carl Brewer had lusted after the actress since that movie was made and he was determined to have her in his movie. I just think that is cool. And creepy.

Matthew