Tragic mulatta Jezebel in ‘Slow Burn’
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
I’m a fan of thrillers, but this movie looks kinda awful, judging by the trailer (thanks to Kimberly for the tip!). Here’s a summary from Slant Magazine:
The wackest film of 2007 stars James Todd Smith—LL Cool J if you’re nasty—as Luther, a record store employee who walks into a police station to defend the honor of his dead homie, Isaac (Mekhi Phifer). Luther claims to have some “short in his brain” that messes with the way he processes smell. This is meant to explain why he is prone to saying such lovelies as, “First night she walked in, I still remember it. City smelled like grapefruit.” But what explains his propensity for stretching out his metaphors? Later, when he relates how mixed-blood assistant DA Nora Timmer (Jolene Blalock) walked into a room stinking of tangerine—”ripe and ready to be peeled.” It gets worse: At some bourgie party where Isaac is confused for someone else, Nora (whose daddy was the cocoa and whose mama brought the milk) fills the room with her scent of mashed-potato, which doesn’t stop any of the men from wanting to be her—wait for it—gravy!
I could be wrong, but this looks to me like another blackface performance, right? It’s possible the actress Jolene Blalock is mixed, but they are definitely slathering on the bronzer here and it looks fake as hell.
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Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
deb wrote:
I saw this movie when it was called Devil in a Blue Dress.
Actually, “Devil” was a pretty good movie.
Anyways, I’ve always thought Jolene Blalock was black/biracial. But, maybe she isn’t. In “Devil” the mystery woman is played by Jennifer Beals.
Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 9:23 am ¶
thejoyprincess wrote:
If I am remembering correctly, in an article about this movie sometime last year, she was identified as white and rejected any criticism of her playing a “black woman.” But maybe I just gave away a possible spoiler, LOL
Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 10:59 am ¶
Ani wrote:
She is vulcan! she is above the human concerns of black and white!
But seriously this is wierd. I saw a commercial for this the other day and couldn’t figure out who it was they had playing this woman.
Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 11:00 am ¶
hoo_boy wrote:
Jolene’s quite white and proud of it y’all, even when she wuz playin’ that hot “Enterprise” chick T’pol.
This movie was actually sittin’ on the shelf since 2003 and they released it in 2005. No racial conspiracy. it sucked and spoiled on its own– no sense of smell required…
Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 12:07 pm ¶
daddyinastrangeland wrote:
That’s hilarious. I dunno if it’s just me, but just from the trailer, I think it’s the opposite of “Devil in a Blue Dress,” meaning that the character is white “pretending” to be black (maybe explains the bad makeup, hopefully?).
First T’Pol, and then Ishta the Jaffa on SG-1, and now this… Heh. Thinking about how sci-fi plays with race and allegory and hybridity, it’s not that big a leap.
Just did some googling, found some interesting stuff. Check this out:
http://natturnersrevenge.blogspot.com/2007/04/oh-and-can-i-get-big-butt-and-tude-with.html
and this gives a whole ‘nother twist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Burn
http://www.amazon.com/Slow-Burn-Sabina-Murray/dp/0345367731/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4/103-8252850-6566207?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176487983&sr=8-4
Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 1:27 pm ¶
deb wrote:
Thanks for that link daddyinastrangeland!
I knew Jolene had some black in her. I mean, not only could I tell by looking at her, but the name “Jolene?” Come on…. :p Oh, and the blog also refers to Elizabeth Berkeley. Funny, but she’s another one who I’ve always thought was biracial.
Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 3:43 pm ¶
FrancesM wrote:
Umm I found this. http://www.nndb.com/people/282/000092006/
So not really sure what to think about her background. As for the preview all I can say is ewwwww! I’m saddened to see Taye Diggs in this piece of claptrap. Ridiculous!
Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 12:41 am ¶
lb wrote:
Did anyone else notice that 2/3 of the lines in this trailer are questions? Boooooorrriiiinnngg.
Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 10:39 am ¶
hoo_boy wrote:
Deb: Recall Dolly Parton’s 1974 hit at the least? Naw,”Jolene” is “country” more than “black”. Plus this woman was born “Joelene”, blending the names like “Joseph” and “Marlene” or something…
Irony: saw online her last name is a derivation of the Scottish Gaelic term for “black lake”. Beauty in language indeed…
Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 5:10 pm ¶
Kaywil wrote:
Deb – you haven’t been following stories on the Genome Project, have you? It turns out that “whiteness” is not as white as it seems. There are way too many white people in America that have “a little black in them” for you to be able to count. I hope you’re not trying to use the one-drop rule to count her as black…
Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 10:20 pm ¶
Zorah wrote:
I just saw this movie and aside from being kinda racist it’s a really bad movie. SPOILER in it though you find out she’s not really mixed she just pretends to be ( I think, it leaves it sort of ambiguous) … yeah basically she gets her hair braided and hangs out with black people.
Posted 15 Apr 2007 at 4:01 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Spoilers ahead:
Jolene Blaylock does not engage in blackface. She plays a “light-skinned” African-American woman of mixed ancestry we are led to believe.
However, we learn that she is in fact a white woman who has schemed her way to get rich.
Posted 15 Apr 2007 at 4:41 pm ¶
Ani wrote:
Brad, Zorah, thank you !
Now i don’t have to sit through the movie to figure it out.
Posted 16 Apr 2007 at 11:23 am ¶
Erin J wrote:
I don’t wanna see this movie it seems terrible.
Posted 16 Apr 2007 at 11:16 pm ¶