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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