A delirious desire to pummel small-town American racism compels “One Spoon of Chocolate,” the latest homage-laden exploitation-action film from the writer and director RZA. The overt righteousness is funneled through Unique (Shameik Moore), whose parole officer (Blair Underwood) allows him to stay with Ramsee (RJ Cyler) in rural Ohio, an area that’s anything but welcoming to Unique, their Black native son.
Led by a savage Jimmy (Harry Goodwins), marauding white people akin to the Ku Klux Klan hunt the young local Black residents. In the film’s black-and-white shot opening, Unique’s cousin is beaten by Jimmy’s gang and sent to have his organs scooped out by a devious surgeon. Such incidents are chalked up by townspeople as “disappearances,” and further covered up by the sheriff, who happens to be Jimmy’s father.
Despite the charged premise, RZA’s film spends too much time developing laborious threads — Unique pores over a survivalist manual, and becomes romantically involved with Ramsee’s friend Darla (Paris Jackson) — while failing to explain why Black residents aren’t rebelling against their oppressors.
A monotone Moore also appears incapable of delivering the presence necessary for exploitation heroism or translating RZA’s satirical aims into cynical thrills. When the incoherent action does arrive, involving Moore ruthlessly bashing white supremacists with a hammer, a wrench and a baseball bat, the gore and choreography play like an afterthought, rendering “One Spoon of Chocolate” an empty muddle of social commentary with little intensity.
One Spoon of Chocolate Rated R for strong violence, some gore, language throughout, including racial slurs, sexual content and drug use. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters.
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