RZA’s latest directing job is more aggravating than poetic.
You know Quentin Tarantino had something to do with “One Spoon of Chocolate,” if he adds some Red Apple Cigarettes, white characters dropping racial slurs, quotes from the Bible, and a lot of violence. He is actually credited here as an executive producer, while RZA is the director. He makes the film both a blaxploitation and revenge thriller, almost like if Spike Lee directed “Rambo,” but it’s all indulged in the racism than it is in the poetic values within the subject matter.
RZA reunites with his “Cut Throat City” lead Shameik Moore as Randy “Unique” Joneson, an ex-convict and war vet who seeks a fresh start in a small town in Karensville, Ohio. A town with the name Karen in it can’t be good. He stays with his cousin Ramsee (RJ Cyler), and they both deal with white racists under the leadership of Jimmy (Harry Goodwins), who is the sheriff’s (Michael Harney) son. That means they’re above the law and the town is practically on his payroll.
One night, when they attack Ramsee’s car, which also includes his girlfriend Aretha and her friend Darla (Paris Jackson, Michael Jackson’s daughter), who are all able to drive away, the bad guys accuse them of being the attackers and have both Ramsee and Aretha arrested.
They’re both released on bail, but the racists murder Ramsee and he’s among the innocent black people to have their organs harvested for the black market. This is when Randy must avenge his cousin and go all “Kill Bill” and “Django Unchained” on them.
The look of “One Spoon of Chocolate” is great with the cinematography by Brandon Cox, and RZA himself provides most of the soundtrack, which should give the film the poetry and style it needs. But the editing goes all over the place, the performances are bland and irritable, and the story makes no sense. Moore has already proven himself to more than just the voice of Miles Morales from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” with movies like “Dope” and “Cut Throat City,” but he’s all looks and less substance as the hero. His romantic chemistry with Jackson is a missed opportunity, and his confrontation with the villains is all by the numbers.
I was thinking back to the Netflix movie “Rebel Ridge,” which was had Aaron Pierre playing a black man dealing with the corrupt power of a town. That film was sharp and entertaining, as it played its own “Rambo” game and it spoke about the right themes. “One Spoon of Chocolate,” however, wastes a concept and glorifies the villains so much that we have to get one fight scene in the beginning and a final battle within the last half hour.
RZA is an actor, rapper, and filmmaker, and he has established that quite well, but his latest entry has no value. It wants to enter the “Get Out” and “Blackkklansman” tradition in the fight against racism, and the issue is still ongoing as history repeats itself. But those movies were done with creativity and originality. As far as I’m concerned, he seems to be more into the violence and style than delving into the matter. Even as a campy blaxploitation film made by him and produced by Tarantino, it doesn’t work.
