PREMISE
A young man is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.
THE GOOD STUFF
DAVID ALAN GRIER- Trust me, I could go on quite a while about my admiration for this man, but I’ll keep it as brief as possible. I won’t go to as far as to say that he’s underappreciated. That might be overstating things a bit because if you’ve ever seen him on a platform that showcased his comedic talents (the Jerrod Carmichael show, In living color) then you know the deal when it comes to how funny he has always been. He’s also a two-time Tony award-winning actor and you do see some of that here in a wonderful monologue describing his backstory.
He has the best performance in this movie and he’s playing the best character. This really is who the movie should have been centered around and everything that he has with Justice Smith is money.
THE MAGICAL NEGROES- The thing that the trailer tries to sell to the viewer is a Harry Potter-esque group of individuals whose purpose for existing is a wonderful thing to try and satirize. When the satire shows up, the comedy does work.
It’s a creative idea to base this movie upon and had this movie really wanted to be a comedy by specifically specifying the inner workings of this group, then maybe this film could have worked in a much better way. However….well, I’ll get to that in a second.
THE BAD STUFF
AREN- This is not a trashing of the performance of Justice Smith. He is a very talented man and does his very best here. However, this character is a much blander version of every Ben Stiller romantic comedy character you’ve ever seen. And the film is hyper-focused on making this character seem way more charismatic than he actually is.
As previously mentioned, this really isn’t the character to focus on if you want this film to be as good as it can be. However, after the middle of the second act, his character wears out his welcome in a way that is very noticeable.
THE UGLY STUFF
THE LOVE STORY- This film was going somewhere positive in the first 30 or so minutes of the film. The ideas were good, and they were clicking. It was hard to see where the story was going and it was very intriguing…. And then this movie wanted to become a love story…
*STEPS ON SOAPBOX*
Look, I understand that love stories are kind of the anchor to many a Hollywood film. However, I can’t help but wonder if forcing a love story is a useful thing in 2024. I’m not saying that there’s zero use for a love story these days, but more often than not when I see a love story being forced upon the audience I can’t help but to ask what it’s for. Recent Best Picture nominees like oppenheimer, THE holdovers, poor things, anatomy of a fall, and even Barbie all were able to maintain a decent stride without having to force the main characters to fall in love with somebody. I’m starting to get to the point where I’m asking what the purpose is of having a love story in any genre that is not a romance film. Like, at all.
*STEPS OFF SOAPBOX*
To say the very least, the love story that is forced upon the audience in this movie absolutely cripples the momentum that the movie had going into the second act. Once the love interest of the main character pops up things get extremely predictable, and really fast.
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Also, what the f*** is going on with this title? In every interview that I’ve heard in the press run of this film, the person giving an interview (If they are not black) has a clear sense of discomfort saying the title out loud. And I understand that you want to be a little bit provocative and have something that can stand out in some sort of way, but it’s absolutely unnecessary. Films that want to tackle this kind of subject matter even in a satirical way deserve attention, and the title can tilt a lot of audience members in the wrong direction if I’m going to be honest with you.
Even if this movie was good I kind of wonder what kind of box office you think you’re going to make with a title such as this.
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES is in theaters now
