ONE SPOON OF CHOCOLATE, the new movie written and directed by The RZA, is a little bit deranged. I say that in a neutral way. I kind of like that it’s crazy, but I don’t overall think it’s a movie that works. When I describe what it’s about to you it’s going to sound like a pulpy exploitation movie, a ’70s style revenge thriller with a modern GET OUT type edge, something that could’ve been branded as part of a GRINDHOUSE double feature if those had become an ongoing concern like V*H*S. (In fact it has a “Quentin Tarantino Presents” credit and an appearance by Red Apple Cigarettes.) But most of the time the tone is very earnest, kinda dour, sometimes feeling like a PSA. And when the hero finally gets to fight the lead villain the score (by Tyler Bates and The RZA) chooses not to hype us up like it’s the big pay off, but just give us some synth textures, like it’s sad. It’s kind of a downer.
Listen to what it’s about, though: in a town called Karenville, Ohio (!) there is a gang of open white supremacists led by the sheriff’s son Jimmy (Harry Goodwins, The Gentlemen), who go around beating young Black men to death with baseball bats. Then (in a room decorated with illustrations of scenes from the slave trade) the town coroner (Cliff Weissman, “Hospital Cop,” JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH) harvests their major organs to sell, and lies about the cause of death. The sheriff (Michael Harney, WIDOWS), who looks weirdly like Steve Bannon, is in on the conspiracy, as is a bail bondsman named Brutus Beefkake (Morgan Brown, BABY DRIVER). Also Jimmy and friends live in the Legion Hall which is kind of like a skinhead compound, a party loft and a whorehouse all in one. He sits shirtless on a throne in front of a flag when he’s not taking ice baths or demonstrating murder techniques on a racist-caricature dummy.
Enter Randy “Unique” Joneson (Shameik Moore, who also starred in RZA’s last movie CUT THROAT CITY and played Raekwon on Wu-Tang: An American Saga), fresh out of his prison bid for putting a wife-beater in a coma. He’s also a veteran, which you will remember because he always wears a camouflage jacket and a shirt that just says “ARMY.” He uses soldier solidarity to convince his parole officer Beem (Blair Underwood, SET IT OFF) to let him go to Ohio to live with his cousin Ramsee (RJ Cyler, NIGHT PATROL). Ramsee’s brother Lonnie (Isaiah R. Hill) was murdered by the racists in the opening scene, but believes the official story that it was heart failure.
When Unique and Ramsee go to a community gym to shoot hoops they’re accosted by Jimmy’s flunky Jessie (James Lee Thomas, “Thief,” BAD BOYS RIDE OR DIE) and friends, calling them racial slurs and basically saying it’s a whites only gym. (When I saw this in the trailer I mistook it for a prison scene.) Both of the cousins are weirdly calm and diplomatic about it, willing to leave in peace, but when Jessie demands they leave the ball and Ramsee’s Jordans Unique decides it’s time to beat the shit out of them.
That starts a war, but they don’t even mention it to Ramsee’s girlfriend Aretha (Emyri Crutchfield, DARK HARVEST), who comes over with her friend Darla (I absolutely did not put it together that that was Paris Jackson). A big deal is made about Aretha being freaky because she brought over medical grade lubricant (?). In the parking lot at the liquor store they get attacked by the whites, they hit one of them with the car while escaping, Ramsee gets arrested for it and Unique becomes a fugitive from justice, hiding out at Darla’s dad’s barn, staying weirdly passive for the middle of the movie. It takes way too long to kick in but after he loses another cousin to these guys he decides to get revenge.
I didn’t know who it was, but singer/songwriter Jason Isbell appears as a character credited as “The Businessman,” a traveling salesman in a blue suit who’s on the Greyhound to Ohio with Unique, sings a song, tries to sell him a hardcover Anarchist’s Cookbook type tome called The Survivor’s Almanac, then gives it to him for free. Much later Unique will use it as an instruction manual to montage together a bunch of homegrown weaponry and brutal fighting techniques. Ridiculous, but I love it.
Right when it’s needed and no earlier it’s established that every single person in town except Jimmy’s gang and one little boy go to church every Sunday. Jimmy’s gang sleeps in because they’re hungover from partying on Saturday night, and the little boy rides by on a bicycle and explains to Unique that everyone is at church. So Jimmy storms the compound and massacres everybody with a hammer and homemade explosives and shit in a scene that involves some fun over-the-topness (he literally nails one guy’s balls to the wall, after tearing them off). The action is fun and kung fu influenced, but not spectacular. (Stunt coordinator: David M. Morizot, WALKING TALL.) Most of these guys are outmatched, so it kinda plays like the end of ROLLING THUNDER, more of a massacre than a battle. Arguably the sex scene has a little more flair. (Intimacy coordinator: Zuri Pryor-Graves, Step Up: High Water.)
There are so many odd things about this movie. Since Unique has been in the military and prison and Ramsee owns a house and they’re played by actors who are 30 and 31 years old it surprised me when I started thinking maybe the movie considered them to be kids? Aretha and Darla both live with their parents, and convenience store owner Mr. Pologo (Darin Heames, DR. GIGGLES) implies on TV that they tried to buy beer underage even though he carded them and they had proper ID. I guess part of it is racism, because pretty much every Black man in the movie gets called “boy” multiple times, especially Unique. Just over and over and over, without even bristling at it.
I didn’t catch that it is (I think) set in the ‘90s until Darla wrote down her phone number and Unique easily found a payphone to call her from. There’s also a Polaroid camera in an autopsy lab. I know for sure it takes place sometime after it was possible to say you had “a tour in Kuwait,” but before most people had cell phones.
This is not surprising coming from RZA, but the story structure is messy. It opens with the death of Lonnie, then shows Unique is in his cell punching a phone book, looking at the newspaper article about Lonnie’s death that’s taped to his wall. That’s the international sign for laser-focused revenge preparation, right? Wrong. When he gets out he wants to go straight, doesn’t question the circumstances of the death, just moves on. When he ultimately does get revenge it’s on behalf of Ramsee, and I’m not clear if he knows the same guy was behind the death of Lonnie. So that could’ve been streamlined.
A couple parts, like when Aretha’s respectable parents confront the sheriff, and when the sheriff rants about liberals, I felt like I was watching the mirror universe version of one of those right wing Christian propaganda movies. Though some of the bluntness seems like stylization, I think that bumps up against other parts that seem meant to be true to life. (And the credits claim this is based on actual events.) But it has a nice grainy film look (cinematographer: Brandon Cox, a veteran of many Steven C. Miller movies including ESCAPE PLAN 2: HADES) and some real stylish parts, the soundtrack is good (if more obvious than you’d think – it uses hip hop classics like “It Was a Good Day” and “Juicy”), and the casting of scary white guys is top notch. With his physique, long hair and carefully groomed beard I assumed Goodwins was another problematic MMA fighter turned actor, but he’s just an actor. James Lee Thomas as Jessie is not as physically intimidating, but he looks terrifying. Mostly the eyes, but the neck tattoos don’t hurt.
I am a Wu-Tang partisan, and from that perspective RZA’s passion and unique mind make his movies interesting even though his filmmaking chops so far don’t match his beatmaking. His debut THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS is one I continue to love despite its flawed fight presentation, because its surplus of gimmicks and its unusual blend of ingredients are so appealing. Not all of this stuff should fit together, and often it just doesn’t. But the lack of discipline and restraint is sometimes part of the appeal, and now that I think about it that makes him a little bit like Rob Zombie, whose work this brought to mind in a few moments. But I sense sincerity in RZA rather than provocation. Early in ONE SPOON OF CHOCOLATE there’s a scene that explains the awkward title. I thought the explanation was goofy, but it kind of works like a lyric. It’s the hook where RZA spells out what the story means to him, and because I like RZA, I couldn’t help but find that kind of endearing.
There are clearly personal aspects of the story. We know from RZA’s tv show that his young life was not only informed by the projects in Brownsville, but summers with his uncle in rural North Carolina, and later living with his mom in Ohio. And there’s a little scene where Unique and Ramsee are in the car together enthusiastically rapping along with the Ol’ Dirty Bastard classic “Brooklyn Zoo.” If you don’t care about RZA you wouldn’t think much about it, but if you do you know he’s depicting two cousins sharing joy through the music he made with his own late, lamented cousin. (And Unique is presumably named after ODB, who was also called Ason Unique.) To me ONE SPOON OF CHOCOLATE is a disappointment, but little moments like that, combined with the more outrageous touches, make it interesting to ponder.
Before I go I want to mention one other thing: the poster for this is a gorgeous painting by the great Tony Stella, in line with the vivid masterworks he’s been doing on Hong Kong releases for Vinegar Syndrome and Arrow. When I first saw it I thought it was an alternate poster commissioned by avowed movie head RZA, but even better, it ended up being the main poster.
Sadly, on Tuesday it was reported that Stella has died. It seems to have been sudden and unexpected, though no details have been released. The man is a mystery – when I first started seeing his work years ago I didn’t even know he was a still working artist. Since his tastes leaned toward Lee Marvin movies and shit and he painted in such a pulp novel style I thought they were made decades ago. Then I discovered him on social media and learned that he not only loved Japanese and Hong Kong films but was always posting cool jazz records that he was listening to while painting. His tastes in film and music were as exquisite as his brushwork.
He doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. I really had no idea how old he was until I just now found a claim that he was 45. Man, that’s way too young, but he had long since achieved the status of grandmaster, and he was only getting better, the poster for ONE SPOON OF CHOCOLATE being one example. I love the white backgrounds he used to favor, but man, these sort of fiery storm cloud ones, they just pop off the paper. He seemed unmatchable in a sort of retro/homage style, but he grew into something way better. How do you paint realistically and yet in a style that is instantly identifiable? I have no idea. Some kind of magic.
According to one of the tributes I read, he told a friend he’d done 600 posters. Yeah, that seems about right. I guess I took it for granted that there would always be new ones popping up, but we are blessed that he was so prolific. My condolences to his family, friends and collaborators.
