Deal Breakers

No question. I cannot be friends with someone who pays money to see Black Snake Moan.



From Feministing:

The creepiest thing about the movie, or at least its marketing, is that it's not only about selling Ricci's body. It's about selling the idea of sex with a girl who's been abused and who's clearly got a lot of problems. There's even an interactive feature (if you click on "experience" in the upper left corner -- click here for a screenshot) that allows you to drag two pills across the screen and then watch a video of Ricci collapsing. Now she's yours for the violating! Plus, the "page loading" graphics that appear every time you click feature her silhouette struggling against the chain. A recurring image in the film as well, I'd imagine.

I've seen the trailer a few times - the one where Ricci, wearing a tank and white undies, runs chained outdoors until Jackson forcefully tugs her back inside. I was really hoping that the movie was pulp or satire or something but no. And even if it's some sort of "social commentary on the South" as one IMDB discussion board poster wrote, is it acceptable to be clearly advertising the near naked enslaved Ricci? Is there ever an acceptable situation to mass market sexual abuse as entertainment? And how about that racism in the poster? The gruff African-American man holding a feeble white woman in chains...African-American as monster, one who should be feared by all whites. The whole concept of this film makes me sick.

No wonder its from the Hustle and Flow guys - that movie was shit on fire on a front porch.