Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) is looking for that hook, that angle that will get him noticed and launch his career to stardom. He tried singing, but even record store DJ Roj (Snoop Dogg) won’t play his tunes—and Rudy works in the same damned store—and he’s tried dancing and comedy. When a local homeless man […]
Read more "Clawing Your Way To The Top: Dolemite Is My Name"When the regulars come over to Miss Maybell’s (Esther Rolle) for a Saturday Night house party, they expect some singing, some dancing, some drinking, some feasting, and maybe cake. It’s a twentieth birthday celebration for young Earnestine (Rhetta Hughes), so there should be plenty of good cheer. They don’t expect to encounter a couple of […]
Read more "Ain’t No Party Like a Saturday Night Party ‘Cause a Saturday Night Party Don’t Stop: Don’t Play Us Cheap"In the paeon of pulp literature we find the precursors to the modern superhero craze in figures of mystery like The Shadow, The Spider, Doc Savage, and the occasional femme fatale like Domino Lady. Although those characters originally appeared in magazines and on radio dramas back in the 1920s and 1930s, then maintained a readership […]
Read more "The Bringer of Wisdom and Its Accompanying Woe: Charles R. Saunders’ Damballa"For his fourth and final film of the 1970s, Rudy Ray Moore once again shook up expectations with a picture that had a socially redeeming message, a great reduction in the memorable insults and shocks that he made a name out of, and a PG rating. In other words, it was a film that was […]
Read more "Put Your Weight On It: Disco Godfather"Melvin Van Peebles (Mario Van Peebles) has found some degree of success in Hollywood. After directing Watermelon Man (1970) for Columbia, his agent has finagled a three picture deal. All Melvin has to do is make some more comedies, and he’s on easy street. Unfortunately, Melvin doesn’t want to make comedies. It’s tumultuous times, and […]
Read more "How to Get The Man’s Foot Outta Your Butt: Baadasssss!"When he was a Depression era boy, Sweetback (Mario Van Peebles) was fed by a gang of prostitutes, given work at the brothel, and ultimately indoctrinated into manhood by one of the workers there. He never left that business and, as an adult, Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) remains a live sex show worker, a hustler, […]
Read more "Come On Feet, Do Your Thing: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song"Katy was a boxer whose manager Tito “Taco” Sandoval pushed too hard toward the bright lights of success. Unfortunately, she lost a few bouts and maybe threw in the towel, ending that phase of her career. What followed was a big step down into the world of exotic dance. She kept some sense of dignity, […]
Read more "Nobody Wins Every Fight: Wrath James White’s Hardcore Kelli"When he was born, Petey Wheatstraw (Rudy Ray Moore) was a full grown child (Clifford Roquemore II) who attacked his doctor (J.B. Baron) for spanking his hind end and then jumped his father (Sy Richardson) for “waking him up every night.” Presumably by seducing his momma(Rose Williams). When he was an older lad (Danny Poinson), […]
Read more "Kick the Devil’s Ass: Petey Wheatstraw"Detectives Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) are on the trail of some nutjobs who carry heavy ordinance into daring daylight robberies. When they get word of a standoff between two men with masks and Uzi submachine guns and a horde of police officers outside of a jewelry store, they suspect this […]
Read more "Good and Dead: Dead Heat"Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge) is a man who lives a privileged white, middle classed life. He’s married to Althea (Estelle Parsons), is the father of two children Burton (Scott Garrett) and Janice (Erin Moran), and a job selling insurance for Mr. Townsend (Howard Caine). He enjoys several diverse pursuits, such as racing the bus every […]
Read more "One Heck of a Sunlamp: Watermelon Man"
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