Nothing could’ve prepared me for what awaited behind the doors of the OKX Theater at BMCC TPAC. On June 8, I attended the premiere of One Spoon of Chocolate, the latest feature film from rapper, actor, director, and record producer RZA. To put it bluntly, it was intense.
In the film, which made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, we see massive violence, death, mutilation, and blood-thirsty revenge. One of the beautiful things about film festivals is that you’re likely to see something you normally wouldn’t. Traversing the landscape with an open mind is not only useful but preferred, especially for a film festival of this scale. So with that, I saw a film I normally wouldn’t see (I don’t do horror or slasher films).
Unique (Shameik Moore) is a veteran of few words who despises injustice, which has led him to trouble periodically. After serving a stint in prison, he spends some time at a halfway house before his extended family in small town Ohio agrees to take him in. Ready to start with a fresh slate, his plans with his cousin Ramsey (RJ Cyler) are upended once they cross paths with the town racists. Before Unique can grasp the reality of what took place, he discovers a sinister operation lurking in the very backbone of the town. Once things get a little too close to home, Unique has to make a pivotal decision: stay and try to make a difference or leave and not risk his life or his parole.
The synopsis for the film isn’t completely misleading, but it definitely isn’t what you’d expect. I didn’t feel completely duped like when I saw Poor Things, but I definitely wasn’t expecting the bloodbath that awaited me. The film’s beginning led me to believe we were about to experience an underdog tale. Well, gears shifted fairly quickly, and a heroes vs. villains structure started to take shape. Thankfully, since we’re talking about the RZA and not some structured, archetype-following director, the heroes against villains cliche flew out the window about halfway through the film.
In a sick but genius manner, RZA took an extremely sensitive subject to the Black community and magnified it 10x. Black people have faced a long list of suffering for centuries now, and outside of flat-out racism, two topics are especially painful: government experimentation and organ harvesting, with the latter viewed by some as a myth.
The United States has a disturbing history of medical exploitation and abuse of Black people, and that includes the unauthorized use of their bodies and tissues under the guise of medical research. For instance, Bruce Tucker (whose organs were taken without his family’s consent after a head injury) is a lesser-known example, while Henrietta Lacks (whose cancer cells were taken without her family’s consent) is by far the most popular. But for those of us in and from Atlanta, the film would be extra triggering since we still haven’t had closure from the death of Kendrick Johnson, a Valdosta teen who was found dead in a rolled-up wrestling mat. If that wasn’t enough, the body was stuffed with newspaper because all his internal organs were missing.
It’s widely known that rural communities pose a risk for Black people, with some paying it no mind while others are left in a constant state of worry. Why? Because of racist white people. And every time a Black person dies or goes missing in these cases, you can count on whoever’s involved having a connection to one of three levels of power: a high rank in law enforcement, politics, or the legal profession. In the case of Ahmaud Arbery (which did see closure), Gregory McMichael (one of the three who were found guilty in Arbery’s death) was a former police officer and knew the officers who investigated the murder scene. In the case of Kendrick Johnson, two of the boys involved were sons of an FBI agent. In One Spoon of Chocolate, the father is the town sheriff.
In a Django-esque move, the film tells a story from an angle we rarely see. Where racists often get away with mutilating Black bodies and go on with their lives, RZA wasn’t having that. There was time for Unique to crush on a girl (Paris Jackson) and bail his cousin Ramsey out of jail, but plenty of time was left for a revenge arc with weapons aplenty.
The cast is rounded out by Paris Jackson, Harry Goodwins, Johnell Young, Michael Harney, Rockmond Dunbar, E’myri Crutchfield, Blair Underwood, and Jason Isbell.
One Spoon of Chocolate gets an 8.5 out of 10. Shot on location in Atlanta, the film dives deep into a painful subject matter, equipped with racial epithets and injustice, but does a great job balancing tough emotions with humor. The ending was uneventful, but I understand why he went that direction. As the film progressed, the language and violence got increasingly worse. When I say the film is intense, I mean the violence made Ballerina look like a Blues Clues movie.
SCHEDULE:
Sunday, June 08 – 8:00 PM OKX Theater at BMCC TPAC
Monday, June 09 – 9:15 PM Village East by Angelika
Thursday, June 12 – 8:00 PM Village East by Angelika
One Spoon of Chocolate premiered on Sunday, June 8, at 8:00 PM at the Tribeca Festival.
-Jon Jones
Category: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Director: RZA
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins