Our take
Chances are good you missed this movie the first time around due to the studio’s big mishandling of it’s promotion. The posters and trailers were squarely aimed at the lowbrow audience, ironically turning off the kind of viewers that would have appreciated the film. They promised an exploitation flick about an old black man keeping a sexy half-naked young white girl chained up in his shack. Which is, to be fair, exactly what you get – minus the exploitation. Samuel L. Jackson absolutely nails the role of Lazarus, a retired bluesman. He finds and rescues Rae (Christina Ricci) after she’s left for dead in the road, and yeah, there’s a chain, but.. well, you’ll just have to see. Black Snake Moan is funny, sexy, tense, and (surprisingly) heartwarming. And oh hey by they way, its a helluva music-lovers’ film in the bargain. Sporting a tremendous soundtrack full of that lowdown dirty blues (some performed by Jackson himself), you owe it to your ears to watch this someplace you have a decent sound system.
What it won
Sundance
1 nom
The story
A God-fearing bluesman takes to a wild young woman who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, is looking everywhere for love, but never quite finding it.
Elsewhere
"A hardcore exploitation flick that also happens to be the most impassioned spiritual parable in recent memory."
— Nathan Lee
"I loved the picture's tabloid energy and heart."
— David Edelstein
The details
Streaming arrival
Great movie, justin Timberlake can act also which shocked me. Its surprising heartwarming and relatable to many I’m sure.