Not as magical as the title suggests.
If you put “Dear White People,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “Harry Potter,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” and “The Adjustment Bureau” in a blender, you’d have “The American Society of Magical Negroes.” You’d also have one of the least inspired and cynical pieces of crapola in the independent circuit. It’s one that plays like a satire on the Magical Negro trope, which was popularized by Spike Lee when he expressed his dislike about Hollywood employing the premise of African American supporting characters helping out white characters in movies.
You know. Like James Baskett as Uncle Remus in “Song of the South” or Richard Pryor as Grover Muldoon in “Silver Streak” or Mykelti Williamson as Bubba in “Forrest Gump” or Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox in the “Dark Knight” trilogy. And the list goes on and on. “The American Society of Magical Negroes” wants to express its poetry on the subject, but it never justifies itself.
Justice Smith plays a socially awkward and down-on-his-luck yarn artist named Aren, who can’t score deals at art shows, which mostly consists of white people. There is one African-American man who wishes to help him out. Not with his yarn, but rather with his safety in society. His name is Roger (David Alan Grier) and he welcomes Aren to a magical Harry Potter-like society dedicated to having African-America people make white people happy. Like them holding the door or letting them win foosball games or convincing a white cop (Tim Baltz) to be himself at a night club.
This is known as “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” and that last word apparently still stands in the name even in the 2020s.
The President of this society is Dede (Nicole Byer), who makes her entrance by floating, and warns Aren that if he uses his new powers for himself and not his client, then everyone’s magic will be gone, and banish him to America as a “regular black person.”
Aren’s first client is Jason (Drew Tarver), who works at the MeetBox social media company, which is under hot water for its lack of diversity. The genius behind it Mick (Rupert Friend) assures his employees that he isn’t a racist. In fact, he wants to some rebranding with the company.
Jason’s “work wife” is Lizzie (An-Li Bogan), whom Aren meets in a coffee shop after accidentally knocking her coffee down. In order to get closer to his client, he must spend some time with her. Jason wants both Lizzie and to be like Mick. That means he has to focus on both things, and that he can’t date Lizzie. Bogan is cute and breaks free from the “Get Out” twist that she’s a bad girl, because she’s a lot nicer than the movie would give her credit for.
“The American Society of Magical Negroes” (or as I keep calling it “The Magical Society of American Negroes” and then correcting myself) can’t balance itself as a fantasy, a satire, and a romcom. In fact, it all becomes jumbled together.
Smith is a fine young actor with memorable roles in “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” “Sharper,” and “Ron Gone’s Wrong,” but he feels so bland and even his speech on diversity seems desperate. And I’ve always been an admirer of David Alan Grier, and he was one of the reasons why “In Living Color” was an iconic sketch comedy show. But his character seems like a rejected Hogwarts mentor with no real insight into his new prodigy.
Satires like “Dear White People,” “Sorry to Bother You” or “They Cloned Tyrone” know their motives and poetry, but “The American Society of Magical Negroes” isn’t magical. In fact, it’s quite boring.
