The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024)

15 Mar 2024

Rating: 2/5

Was Sorry to Bother You too confrontational? Did Dear White People still make you feel guilty? Was American Fiction’s dated critique too pointed? 

Here’s a toothless movie about white fragility that doesn’t functionally critique the respectability politics it lampoons. But don’t worry, we get a speech near the end that amounts to, “Did you know Black Lives Matter?”

Here’s what I liked: the movie had some funny jokes, Justice Smith and An-Li Bogan had moments of palpable on-screen chemistry, and I’m always happy to see Drew Tarver or Michaela Watkins.

Still, the thread was not enough to hold up the messy yarn sculpture that is this movie.


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