‘God put you in my path and I aim to cure you of your wicked ways…’
It’s rare for a film released within the confines of mainstream cinema to be truly unique. Sure, there are auteurs such as David Lynch and Charlie Kaufman pushing boundaries all over the place but there is also an argument that Lynch and Kaufman and their ilk were always artists that crossed over into the mainstream rather than being mainstream themselves. Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan is that rarest of beasts however – a mainstream Hollywood movie that is genuinely unlike no other…
Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) is a God fearing blues musician who is stuck in a rut. Rae (Christina Ricci) is a nymphomaniac abuse survivor struggling to stay afloat along with her similarly troubled boyfriend Ronnie (Justin Timberlake). It is only when these three disparate characters combine that they may have a shot at redemption.
So we have a movie that can’t decide whether Ricci is a lust filled sex kitten or a severely damaged young woman in desperate need of help. Both, I suppose? We have a movie that is a celebration of the blues (Jackson practiced for six hours a day to authentically play the guitar and I can confirm he fucking shreds throughout) but also a revenge thriller and a black comedy and a comment on sexual politics and race relations and all sorts of crazy shit quite unlike any film I have seen in this genre. Although I’m not totally sure what this genre even is. Oliver Stone’s divisive thriller U-Turn is perhaps the closest Hollywood touchstone here, but Black Snake Moan is more broadly entertaining than that effort, and it features a better pair of performances at its heart.
Jackson shines in a rare leading role but Ricci matches him every step of the way in a performance so nuanced and so electrifying that it’s baffling that she never really fulfilled her clear potential as an actress. Sure, she has had a fine career but no Oscar nominations doesn’t tell the story of her talent. But at least she will always have this incendiary performance.
Black Snake Moan is by no means perfect, and it’s innate weirdness does occasionally become distracting, but as a one off oddity it’s damn near essential.