A satire film intended to send a provocative message about race relations bombed at the box office on its opening weekend.
Focus Features’ “The American Society of Magical Negroes” took the 9th spot at the box office last weekend, grossing $1,304,270 while playing in 1,147 locations around the U.S.
The film centers around a young man who is recruited to be part of a “society” where Black people use their magical powers to make White people comfortable, so that they don’t hurt Black people.
The movie’s title plays off a trope of Black characters in films who are set up to help White characters in their pursuits, like Michael Clarke Duncan’s character in “The Green Mile,” according to a review from the Los Angeles Times.
Justice Smith stars in “The American Society of Magical Negroes.” (Focus Features via YouTube)
In the trailer, protagonist “Aren,” played by Justice Smith, learns he must put White people’s needs before his own so that the secret society maintains their magical powers.
White people, when they are uncomfortable, are “the most dangerous animal on the planet,” David Alan Grier’s character “Roger” explains to Aren.
“That’s why we fight White discomfort every day. Because the happier they are, the safer we are,” he says in one scene that’s featured in a theatrical trailer.
Society members also use a “White Tears” sadness barometer to track White discomfort in the film.
The pic did poorly with reviewers, earning just 31% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Characters in “The American Society of Magical Negroes” are able to see magical barometer-like devices measuring the discomfort of White people labeled “White Tears.” (Focus Features via YouTube)
Even critics who were sympathetic to the movie’s political message said it failed to deliver.
Film critic Carlos Aguilar panned the pic as “too timid to land any satirical blows.”
“The movie’s predictably speechified resolution, with Aren literally taking the stage to speak his truth, finally renders the sociopolitical critique mild and inconsequential, a disappointing outcome for a premise that had the potential to be truly incendiary,” he wrote in the Times.
The Washington Post film critic Michael O’Sullivan also was dissatisfied with the movie’s execution, calling it a “bloodless satire that’s too eager to please.”
“In Aren’s satisfying flash of anger, ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ briefly gets real. Otherwise, like Aren, the film itself feels overly deferential at times: as if it wants to make people comfortable when it should want to make them squirm, at least a little,” he wrote.
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