Black Snake Moan vs Marie Antoinette

Black Snake Moan is one of those dangerous movies you’ll have trouble recommending to anyone, even if you happen to like it. I think it’s pretty awesome, but I can also think of a dozen or so people it might offend greatly. Luckily, it’s a dozen or so of the exact people I think could use a little more offensive material from time to time.

Christina Ricci stars as Rae, a young girl who doesn’t party and sleep around out of boredom, or even because she wants to. Rae literally needs to party and sleep around. She’s possibly got a form of OCD, or maybe even nymphomania, but girl’s gotta have it. All the time. She pops pills, chugs booze, and has as much sex as possible. She’s in love, but her boyfriend, Ronnie, (Justin Timberlake) is equally as troubled. Ronnie’s prone to panic attacks, and when he’s sent on a military tour, he and Rae each freak out in their own way.

Rae’s way of freaking out, of course, includes writhing on the floor, clawing at her legs and whimpering, followed by pills, liquor, and rough, quick sex. At one point, she pauses during a game of strip football to get it on, and I’m pretty sure she makes it back into the game before the next down. She’s good.

Already, Black Snake Moan is a huge turn off for some of you. But you should know in advance that Black Snake Moan was written and directed by Craig Brewer, and he gives the film the same 1970s southern funk grit he brought to Hustle and Flow. Black Snake Moan is exploitative, but in a way that oddly feels respectful. Rae is a bit of a caricature, I suppose, but she’s got depth and soul. It helps that Ricci is so good. Rae is defiant, stubborn and impulsive, all of which are right up Ricci’s alley. To say she makes a good bad girl is an understatement. Ricci makes her sympathetic too, through her genuine love for Ronnie, and her frustration with her upbringing, loneliness and disorder. Ricci has a scene in an old juke joint dancing and dripping with sweat while the locals crowd in that is hands-down the sexiest moment put to film this year. What’s that you say? There might be something sexier coming down the pike around July or September? I’ll believe it when I see it. Ricci might be playing a wounded soul, but it doesn’t mean she’s not smoking hot in Black Snake Moan. Also, and I’m sure it’s politically incorrect to point this out: she looks pretty good lugging around that chain too.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Ricci spends most of the movie chained to a radiator. I can’t believe I left that out. That’s the part that’s gonna piss some of you off. Silly me.

Yeah, that: After one particularly unseemly night, Rae is drugged, beaten and left for dead in her underwear on a dirt road. She’s found by Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) a farmer recently left by his wife. Lazarus brings Rae into his home, cleans her up, and tries to nurse her to health, but she makes it extremely difficult. First of all, Rae is having fever dreams that send her sleep-walking into the woods at night, and secondly, she’s not what you’d call keen on staying with Lazarus. He’s deeply religious and offers little in the way of the things Rae needs to get her fix. So he chains her up. He means well, and by the time he does it, I was beginning to think it was worth a shot.

And so, Lazarus keeps Rae chained up. He walks her in his garden, feeds her, buys her clothes. He’s actually pretty good to her, as he attempts to rid her of what he calls wickedness. Eventually, they develop something resembling a friendship. As Lazarus, Samuel L. Jackson is his usual badass self, but there’s an undercurrent of sadness we don’t see much from him, not to mention Lazarus is a thundering, heaven-opening-up, nympho-healing blues guitarist, and Jackson does all his own playing. Sweet.

I’d honestly like to recommend something like Citizen Ruth or another one of Ricci’s badass girls-gone-wrong movies, like The Opposite of Sex. That might be a little too much for one night. Too much what, you ask? Once you see Black Snake Moan, you’ll know. A little much…topless under football pads. A little much…black bluesman with a chained blond at his feet. A little much…beating a trashy mom with the end of a mop. Oh, who am I trying to kid? I’d watch that shit again right this minute.

But you? No. You’re too nice for much of my wicked influence. You need something gentler, something more laid back to ease you into bed. It’s another tale of a wild girl being controlled simultaneously by her desires and the traditions of her male-dominated society. And like Black Snake Moan, it’s got a killer soundtrack and an underrated, visionary director. And if you’re into that sort of thing, it’s practically swimming in poodles and pink icing. I’m talking, of course, about Marie Antoinette.

First, let’s just take a moment to salute the poster artists for these respective movies. That’s some sharp promotions on both counts.

With Marie Antoinette, Sophia Coppola has stepped firmly into the present day. Of 1984. She’s been hinting at this for a while. The Virgin Suicides, though set in the 1970s, played like something out of the 1960s, with its sunny blondes, rebel teens and newborn suburban angst. And then of course she made Lost in Translation, which fits in not so much with other films released in 2003, but would be right at home with those released in 1973. And now we have Marie Antoinette, set in the period of its title character, but looking and sounding like Dangerous Liaisons directed by John Hughes. It sort of rocks, even though movies like this hardly ever do. I mean, I think Age of Innocence is a good movie with moving performances, but nothing in it is decidedly cool or stylish. Marie Antoinette is a movie, on purpose, and there’s something awesome about that.

I’m probably making Marie Antoinette sound like a parody, but it lies more in the neighborhood of Baz Luhrman’s films (although not as glittery and aggressively edited). Marie Antoinette is a pop confection, to be sure—the opening credits are hot pink, it’s got a new wave soundtrack, and it features Jason Schwartzman, Molly Shannon and Rip Torn in key roles. But it’s got heart too, and is much closer to traditional costume dramas than you’d expect. Kirsten Dunst is vibrant and fun, but also vulnerable and naïve as Marie. She’s not exactly on point with the etiquette of the times (I’m not sure it was acceptable to hug as a greeting as often as Marie does), but that endeared her to me even more. In Coppola’s vision, Marie Antoinette wasn’t a devious ruler, and she wasn’t drunk with power. She was a young girl, thrown into a world of wealth and fun, and we all know corruption lives just around the corner (even though this version of Marie is more spoiled than corrupt.) We all know her fate, but since the movie has been so light and fun, it comes not only as a shock, but in tense scenes surrounded by darkness.

Visually, Marie Antoinette is one of the most impressive films released last year. Everything seems filmed through layers and layers of light, with every object accented by the colors I’m guessing could be found on Sophia Coppola’s favorite childhood birthday cake. The word “girly” comes to mind. I think when certain people decide they want to be actors, this is the kind of film they picture themselves in their entire careers. Even the children look like movie stars in Marie Antoinette. It’s interesting: Christina Ricci and Kirsten Dunst starting acting at roughly the same time. Dunst seems to be going down a rode trod by Gwyneth Paltrow, while Ricci is more of a Jennifer Jason Leigh type. The former is certainly the more grand and well-costumed, while the latter will sometimes leave you bruised and dragging around a chain approximately æ your body weight. I’m not sure which is more fun for the actors, but put directors like Craig Brewer and Sophia Coppola in charge, and I’ll take a ticket for each.

Black Snake Moan: A-
Marie Antoinette: B+