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Critics Consensus: Uninhibited performances, skillful direction, and a killer blues soundtrack elevate Black Snake Moan beyond its outlandish premise.
Critic Consensus: Uninhibited performances, skillful direction, and a killer blues soundtrack elevate Black Snake Moan beyond its outlandish premise.
All Critics (160) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (106) | Rotten (54) | DVD (12)
Jackson's elegant performance gives the frequently tough to swallow story some credence.
Pitched uncomfortably but compellingly between homage and exploitation in its big-hearted exploration of the steamiest corners of black life.
Delightfully outrageous, Black Snake Moan is an explosive mixture of sex, race and down-South swamp water.
For Black Snake Moan to work any sort of magic, it must be viewed as a blues riff on damaged souls and their desperate need for salvation.
The movie strolls right past absurdity into offensiveness, by trying to pass this pulp nonsense off as noble art.
This is the kind of movie that's best enjoyed as a stylized fantasy, much like Brewer's most obvious model, Elia Kazan's Southern-fried Tennessee Williams adaptation Baby Doll.
Brewer uses these plot machinations to investigate ideas of race, religion and redemption in a way that for most of the film's running time is unusually riveting.
. . .I still can't decide if the film is serious or not. If it is, this causes some major problems, since the morality it espouses is nuts.
God, sex and the blues are mashed together and deep fried southern style in Craig Brewer's unique Black Snake Moan.
Snaps and crackles with comic verve
With excellent performances, plays on morality and sexual behavior, Brewer composes another surefire classic.
Craig Brewer, the promising director who hit it with Hustle and Flow, seems to harbor a need to exorcise his white burden through films centered on black music.
Super Reviewer
What a completely ridiculous premise this movie has... and although it starts off as kind of intriguing and interesting because you don't know where the plot is going with it, turns out not much really. All of these tortured souls so to speak go way over the top and there's times where I simply was bored because the movie spends way too long on some of the uninteresting characters & aspects of the story. Especially Justin Timberlake's character, which was way underdeveloped and seemed tacked on. He simply wasn't good. Samuel L. Jackson practically carries the movie by himself. He's solid and his singing is actually pretty good. Christina Ricci doesn't really have much to do other than look like she wants to bang everything in sight, which I guess she does well. The blues soundtrack to this is nice, but some of it they could have done without. I feel like 30 minutes could have been cut out of this film and nothing would have changed. If not for Jackson, it would have been a waste of time. With him, it's alright but could have been much better.
Black Snake Moan is one of those films that had the potential of being a great film, but I felt it fell quite short. For me, this was a film that was quite hard to get into, and it simply didn't deliver. The performances were quite good, but overall this was a decent affair with a plot that was interesting, but was quite eccentric. Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson have good chemistry here, and it's the film's highpoint. However the film's low point is the pacing of the film, I felt that though it had it an interesting plot, the picture moved too slowly. Films that tell a captivating plot and are well paced are good to watch. However Black Snake Moan just didn't have the fire to keep you involved from start to finish. The performances were good and the plot was well thought out, but at the same time, this was a tiresome affair. I felt that the film could have been much better and that director Craig Brewer could have rewritten the script at least a few times to really give the film its just due. This could have been a stellar picture, but it was plagued by too many lows and it just ended up being a decent flick at best. Black Snake Moan is not a film that warrants multiple viewings, and despite the cast and interesting concept, I was disappointed with the final result. Samuel L. Jackson saved the film from being a total bore fest and he really commanded the screen in his performance. If only the ideas could have been thought out slightly better, then I think this would have for a truly compelling feature that would have surely been a great and memorable piece of cinema. Alas the result is an underwhelming movie that leaves a lot to be desired in terms of substance to its plot.
Really weird. I'm still not sure if I liked or not, but it was interesting enough. Christina Ricci doesn't really do it for me. But Samuel is his usual cranky self but he sure can sing! He's pretty good if you ask me. Justin Timberlake should stick to singing instead of acting, he's not convincing enough when you hear that whiny little voice in the back of you're head every time his face shows (I won't admit that I secretly liked his debut-solo album).
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