The vitals:
Friday, 1/17
7:00 ~ Doors
7:30 ~ BLACK DYNAMITE
Black genre cinema suffers no shortage of great spoofs, from I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA and UNDERCOVER BROTHER to DON’T BE A MENACE […] and CB4. What sets BLACK DYNAMITE apart is its fastidious attention to detail—from its period-precise costuming and set design to its masterfull command of music and dialogue. But, as the immortal Roger Ebert attests to in his sublimely silly three-star review (in which he dedicates a whole paragraph to the bygone art of gratuitous toplessness), BLACK DYNAMITE’s real ace in the hole is its “pitch-perfect leading man,” Michael Jai White. The seven-style black belt and consummate ’90s action man (UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN, EXIT WOUNDS) has the unique distinction of being both the first Black actor to portray a major comic book superhero (beating BLADE to the punch by a year in 1997’s SPAWN) and one of the few Hollywood martial artists genuinely feared by professional fighters. (Youtube it.) But, the real trick up his sleeve is that he also happens to be f*****g hilarious.
White, who co-wrote BLACK DYNAMITE with director Scott Sanders and co-star Byron Minns, embodies the titular ex-CIA agent on a quest to avenge his brother with such steely, straight-faced commitment it’s as if he’s an actual Blaxploitation star time-warped into an SNL bit. The genius of his performance—channeling equal parts Fred Williamson, Rudy Ray Moore, and Jim Kelley—is that even as he’s delivering the film’s most quotable lines, Black Dynamite the character is never in on the joke. It’s only the cast around him, unquestionably one of the funniest ever assembled, who know they’re in a spoof. Tommy Davidson, Arsenio Hall, and the criminally underrated Kym Whitley are just a few names of note on a roster loaded with ‘Black famous’ cameos. Like all good spoofs, the film’s willingness to roast its heroes even as it reveres them is its secret sauce. When a rogue boom mic creeps into the shot and Black Dynamite pretends not to notice, it’s both a fourth-wall wink at early Blaxploitation’s roughshod production and a loving homage to the DIY pioneers of Black independent cinema whose legacy lives on in the film itself.
-Graham Cumberbatch
SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES
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