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I guess someone saw Hollywood Shuffle and decided to modernize it with the cliche's from the 90's/00's. This is going to be either very good or very cringe.
American Society of Magical Negroes (2024)
I guess someone saw Hollywood Shuffle and decided to modernize it with the cliche's from the 90's/00's. This is going to be either very good or very cringe.
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Cute, but it proceeds from a dangerously false premise. The trailer casually asks "What is the most dangerous animal on the planet?" and answers "white people." Whites are animals, the most dangerous animal. That bit about when white people aren't happy, things go poorly for us suggests that every white person is inches away from lynching a person of color. And the "white tears" meter subtly discounts whites experience as inauthentic and weaponized. Add to this, the notion that African Americans are performing endless emotional labor for white Americans and this all strains credulity. This is, in a short, cutely racist. And that's not so cute.
Our premise is that one demographic is an inherent violent threat to another. A highly regarded Harvard economist got into the data on this, found the opposite (e.g., cops less likely to use deadly force, per capita), and nearly lost his job for it, despite being African American, a MacArthur grant recipient, and a celebrated researcher. If we're looking for demographic indictments, FBI crime statistics show massive over-representation in the opposite direction. Do we really want to get into the empirics here?
All of this is too bad, because the magical negro trope has plenty to mine. Westerners have a rich tradition of imagining "noble savages" as spirit guides. The trope itself is quite real and deserves parody. But I think Key and Peele already covered this base.
Our premise is that one demographic is an inherent violent threat to another. A highly regarded Harvard economist got into the data on this, found the opposite (e.g., cops less likely to use deadly force, per capita), and nearly lost his job for it, despite being African American, a MacArthur grant recipient, and a celebrated researcher. If we're looking for demographic indictments, FBI crime statistics show massive over-representation in the opposite direction. Do we really want to get into the empirics here?
All of this is too bad, because the magical negro trope has plenty to mine. Westerners have a rich tradition of imagining "noble savages" as spirit guides. The trope itself is quite real and deserves parody. But I think Key and Peele already covered this base.
Last edited by Corax; 12-20-23 at 05:08 PM.
I watched this today. This film doesn't know what it wants to be. Not whimsical or magical enough to work as a fun fantasy, but not as edgy or smart enough to pull off the attempts at satire or social commentary. It isn't very funny and only mildly romantic, so it is at best a mediocre romantic comedy. The film makes some major generalizations and assumptions, but doesn't back them up and loses the audience along the way. Justice Smith does a decent job with the role, but the writing really hinders me and the rest of the cast. With better writing and clearer, sharper direction, this could have been good. As is, it is a bit of a muddle, unfunny mess. 5/10 is my rating.
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