SummaryA young man, Aren (Justice Smith), is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.
SummaryA young man, Aren (Justice Smith), is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.
Beneath the layers of magical realism and dot-com satire, American Society feels personal and raw, capturing the real depth and range of emotions that a person of color is made to feel, living in a country where racism remains ever-present, especially now.
Even with its faults, though, “Magical Negroes” is sure to spark meaningful and needed conversations around race among the audiences reflected in the film. At the very least, Libii shows that he is witty and adept enough as a director to continue working in his craft.
Justice Smith plays an artist who's introduced to the titular organization, which is secret group of Black people who are assigned a troubled white person to help them deal with their issues, thus making life safer for Blacks. The film's theme starts promisingly, but pretty rapidly ends up a hybrid of office politics and frustrated romance. The "magical" part almost fades away as the tedious dialogue takes over. Any promise for comedy never appears. Smith and the rest of the cast is fine but even the effortlessly-funny Nicole Byer is constrained. While the concept held plenty of satirical promise, the outcome was disappointing. FYI, Spike Lee actually coined the phrase "magical negro."
The challenge of a film like The American Society of Magical Negroes is that the joke rarely goes beyond the single line premise for the movie, missing the opportunity to offer a biting analysis.
There are versions of this premise relevant to a modern world, but the film’s point of view on the state of race relations feels stuck somewhere around 1954.
The American Society of Magical Negroes" is a thoroughly racist film that relies on blatantly offensive caricatures and stereotypes to demean and marginalize white people. Under the thin guise of satire, the movie trades in demeaning tropes that portray white people as one-dimensional racist stereotypes.
The acting is amateurish at best, but that's one of the lesser problems in a movie that brims with racist portrayals. White characters are portrayed as ignorant, bigoted buffoons who lack nuance and humanity. Instead of thoughtful social commentary, an "us versus them" mentality is promoted that only reinforces the racial divide.
While the film purports to satirize racism, it instead revels in casual racism directed at a specific group. Replacing one set of stereotypes with another is not subversive - it only perpetuates the cycle of prejudice that the movie purports to condemn.
There is no excuse for such lazy, unoriginal displays of racism in this day and age, no matter what the subject matter. "The American Society of Magical Negroes" is extremely tone-deaf and will likely leave all viewers who aren't fervent racists(Woke, Twitter, Justice Warriors) feeling uncomfortable with its mean-spirited prejudice.
Movies have the power to bring people together or drive them further apart - this movie, unfortunately, prefers to mock and insult rather than uplift.
It's so disrespectful when the director who also wrote this is mixed black and white and was raised by his a single mother who is white and this is how you show respect also he's married to a white women (wha) same thing with the lead actor Justice smith who is mixed black/white who his white mother brought him into this world and this is the chose to be in both of them are disrespectful sons.
I am black and disgusted in what people call entertainment. This is a fantasy world for the people who have nothing but hatred for other people. Tired of people separating us for politics, gain or sympathy.