Fantasy

Comedy

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Sight Unseen Pictures

Juba Lane

United States of America

English

Justice Smith

David Alan Grier

An-Li Bogan

Drew Tarver

Michaela Watkins

Aisha Hinds

Tim Baltz

Rupert Friend

Nicole Byer

Zachary Barton

Anthony Coons

Robbie Troy

Gillian Vigman

James E. Welsh

Mia Ford

Eric Lutz

Kees DeVos

Aaron Coleman

Chase Ryan Jeffery

Moe Irvin

Ethan Herisse

Nozipho McLean

Isayas Theodros

Gregory James Cohan

Gregor Manns

Toni M. Youngblood

Reginald James

Jeremiah Birkett

Aaron Jennings

Vinny DeGennaro

Christina Pascucci

Bianca Crudo

Chris Attoh

Michael Andrew Baker

Floyd Anthony Johns Jr.

Girvan 'Swirv' Bramble

Farelle Walker

April McCullough

Diana Cabuto

Laura Fox

Kobi Libii

Julia Lebedev

Charles Varga

Derica Cole Washington

Michelle Chung

Angel Lopez

Brian Scott Olds

Doug Emmett

Eddie Vaisman

Michael Abels

Oren Moverman

Mike Upton

Leonid Lebedev

Mercedes Hachuel

Tarin Anderson

Brian Steven Banks

Micheal Edward King

Bill R. Dean

Lyndsey Schenk

Brian Straub

Laurent Kossayan

Paul Hackner

Brian Duffy

Jeanne McCarthy

Emilien Lazaron

Rita Walsh

Erin Z. Young

Trevor Lecka

Nicole Abellera Hallman

Craig Frosty Silva

Brendan Lee

Jacqueline Sun Hae Lee

Shannon Swanson

Rene Mousseux

Darrell Davis

Heidi Ethridge

Nick Buerstatte

Morgan Lindsey Price

Michelle Archilla

Brooks Crouse

Danny Gaughan

Miguel Gregory

Justin Patten

Phoenix Daal

Seth Powsner

Paulina Truong

Dashan Dash Boyce

Ryan DeVita-Loayza

Emily Thorne

Meagen Brooks

James Zark

Jocelyn Baxter

Ryan Johnson

Sofia Ayerdi

Mark McKeon

Eric Fulcher

Scott Desantis

Kevin Kyubyung Yoon

Kevin Reyes

Nina Marie Attinello

John Bentjen

Lamarr Pierre Baker

Tenniel Chu

James Chris Ponail III

Claire Thorne

Patrick Rivera

Brian Philbrook

Scott Winchester

Jose G. Bonilla

Rodolfo Leyva

Gilberto Ramos

Juan M. Beltran

Maxilino Gonzalez

Rudy Nieto Jr.

Alan A. Ciriani

Jose Orellana

Lance Heybrock

Juan Gonzalez

Calle Sjoelin

Diego O. Regueira

Leonel Bortolini

Jaime Trujillo

Johnny Gonzalez

Joshua Bramer

Hunter Nelson

Natee Fagtonpun

Jerika Hermansen

Aaron Becker

Raphaël Moreault-Truchon

CinemaSerf

I think that for satire to work, you have to be able to ensure that the audience is on board with the underlying premiss it's trying to achieve. Despite a decent effort from Justice Smith's "Aren" (and his impressive collection of knitwear) I just wasn't. Relying on long forgotten (if, indeed, they were ever actually known in the first place) tropes about racial stereotyping - and not just those from an African American point of view, makes this actually quite an offensive film to watch. Perhaps I am overthinking it, but I found absolutely nothing here with which I could relate - sarcastically or otherwise. The comedy, such as it is, is entirely contrived and the romantic elements between "Aren", "Lizzie" (An-Li Bogan) and "Jason" (Drew Tarver) are badly written and frequently cringe-makingly acted out. Peppering the thing with a few "Harry Potter" style magical effects and adding the benign characterisation of "Barber" (Aaron Colman) so that this "Society" can spend their entire time trying to "fix" the problems of their hapless and hopelessly out of their emotional depth white contemporaries just falls flat. It simply isn't funny. If a load of white folk got together and decided to make a movie about a group of innately obsequious and subservient non-white people, it would (and should) be banned. This is a clumsy and unfunny reinforcement of flawed values seen from an wholly unrealistic perspective and I struggled to sit through it, then wondered just why I bothered. Maybe it will resonate if you are American? I hope not.

'The American Society of Magical Negroes' is hit-and-miss. I wasn't disliking it all that much, though when the credits rolled I kinda didn't have anything majorly noteworthy to think about it. Like the score is genuinely ace and the cast are alright, but that's it.

It's pretty forgettable (as a movie anyway, because that title isn't!), is what it boils down to. The well intentioned messaging comes across as a bit heavy-handed, as it only really dishes out pretty obvious sentiments. With that said, it can be a tad amusing ('The Green Mile' got a chuckle out of me, intentionally or otherwise) in short spells.

David Alan Grier plays his role well though, he is an actor I like. Justice Smith is decent, I'm yet to overly like any performance of his but fine he is. An-Li Bogan stands out most from the rest. To be honest, they could've just had a fully fledged romcom with Smith and Bogan, it probably would've worked nicely.

I did like the (presumed totally unintended) vibes of 'The Adjustment Bureau' in this. Despite the clear differences it isn't actually terribly dissimilar to that favourite film of mine, what with a group of magical agents controlling a population amongst added romance.

Best Movies

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Justice Smith

David Alan Grier

An-Li Bogan

Drew Tarver

Michaela Watkins

Aisha Hinds

Tim Baltz

Rupert Friend

Nicole Byer

Zachary Barton

Box office

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