The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024)

This film often feels like a mix of some very thoughtfully executed scenes and some hastily assembled connective tissue which feels disjointed and rushed. I oscillated between moments of clumsy execution and moments of profound insight giving my quite conflicted feelings about a film that feels like it misses its potential. 

First up, what is good. The premise, the idea is fascinating. Anyone who is part of a group that is made to feel they have to be small to accommodate the majority based on who they are will relate yet the film is set in a very specific racial and geographical community. The idea behind this is wonderful and there are moments the film delivers on this. There are conversations that feel so authentically honest, revealing much of what goes unsaid, that are liberating. You feel like you can exhale a bit watching them. This is especially true in moments featuring its star Smith.

Smith is a big part of what I liked about this film. He is incredibly charismatic and a very talented actor. His casting in this role specifically is perfect and he has both the comic skills and the dramatic to pull it all off. And there are moments in his performance, even the "big" scene at the end that he just nails. I think someone else may not have been able to make this work as well as it does. 

But so much of the film lets him down. The world building is introduced and rushed so awkwardly that it never feels authentic. It's like they can't quite commit to the idea hoping just saying it will be enough. And the film often feels like getting from one of its good scenes to the next one is just too hard so it skips over things that would make it seem lived in. For example Drew Tarver's character is just so one note it's hard to believe him. His character's believability is kind of essential to the plot and yet the film doesn't trust us enough to make him complex so he stays two-dimensional and this gives the film less weight. 

So overall I don't think The American Society of Magical Negros really works. But there are times when it does. And the ideas it is working with are important and fascinating if it can get you to contemplate them. There is even a clever "post-credit" (sort of) scene which, unlike most of these sorts of scenes, actually enriches the film by adding layers of intersectionality to the story. 

But keep watching the work of Justice Smith. He is quite magical. 

The American Society of Magical Negros

Starring: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Rupert Friend

Writer/Director: Kobi Libii