
In rural Tennessee, Lazarus, a former blues musician who survives by truck farming, finds a young girl nearly beaten to death near his home. She's the white-trash town tramp, molded by a life of sexual abuse at the hands of her father and verbal abuse from her mother, who seems to delight in reminding Rae of her mistake in not aborting her. Lazarus, who is also facing personal crisis at the dissolution of his marriage, nurses Rae back to health, providing her with gentle, fat... (Full plot summary below)
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In rural Tennessee, Lazarus, a former blues musician who survives by truck farming, finds a young girl nearly beaten to death near his home. She's the white-trash town tramp, molded by a life of sexual abuse at the hands of her father and verbal abuse from her mother, who seems to delight in reminding Rae of her mistake in not aborting her. Lazarus, who is also facing personal crisis at the dissolution of his marriage, nurses Rae back to health, providing her with gentle, fatherly advice as well as an education in blues music. Rae's boyfriend, Ronnie, goaded by the man who nearly beat Rae to death, misunderstands the relationship between Lazarus and Rae, and vows to kill him. Lazarus, exhibiting a street-smart understanding of violence and its motives, calls Ronnie's bluff, senses that he is as troubled as Rae, and becomes a guiding force in the young couple's resurrection.
Leave your thoughts about Black Snake Moan.
| eFilmCritic.comPeter SobczynskiTells its screw-loose story in such a forthright manner and with such heedless and fearless energy that you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen, even if you are busy rubbing them out of sheer disbelief. |
| Apollo GuideBrian WebsterA fascinating, colourful, sometimes outrageous film that succeeds because it was built on a solid foundation. |
| Montreal Film JournalKevin N. LaforestIf blues is an exorcism (as Muddy Waters once said), Black Snake Moan is pretty much The Exorcist. |
| Sympatico.caAngela BaldassarreWatching Christina Ricci being beat up, raped and chained semi-naked to a radiator, while Samuel L. Jackson spews stereotypical drunken Southern-black-man rhetoric, makes this blues-infused melodrama almost unbearable. |
| Portland OregonianM. E. RussellA gorgeous, life-affirming movie. On paper, it sounds lurid bordering on ridiculous. |
| Film Journal InternationalErica AbeelPreachy, schematic and numbingly predictable. |
| One Guy's OpinionFrank SwietekWill make some people uncomfortable, but for many others it will be a giddily guilty pleasure. |
| Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionEleanor Ringel CaterThe picture may look pulpishly provocative, but while Brewer constantly confounded our expectations in Hustle & Flow, this time he barely ruffles our feathers once he establishes his outrageous dime-novel tone. |
| Window to the MoviesJeffrey Chen[Craig Brewer] proves he can control atmosphere with the best of them. |
| CinematicalJette KernionThe combination of blues music and exploitation-film visuals should be jarring, but for the most part Brewer manages to pull it off, with the music helping to tie everything together (or chain it all together). |