Newsweek reviews ‘Black Snake Moan’

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

The latest issue of Newsweek features a review of the film Magic Negro Saves White Nympho, I mean, Black Snake Moan , director Craig Brewer’s follow-up to 2005′s Hustle & Flow. There’s also a little quote from yours truly:

There’s no polite way to describe Craig Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan,” so let’s get it over with. Samuel L. Jackson stars as Lazarus, an old black bluesman who tries to cure Rae (Christina Ricci) of nymphomania by tethering her to his radiator with a steel chain. Revolted? Intrigued? Amused? If you checked all of the above, Brewer would be delighted. His film “Hustle & Flow” got two Oscar nominations (and won for best song) in 2005, but it also kicked up a lot of criticism that the story of a black pimp didn’t need to be told, especially by a white director.

“Moan” raises the stakes with both its reverse slave imagery and its disturbing depiction of sex addiction. “Having a white girl chained up at a black man’s house, that definitely seems manipulative,” says Carmen Van Kerckhove, president of the diversity-training firm New Demographic.

Here’s the trailer, in case you haven’t seen it:

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