Posts Tagged ‘Yvonne Orji’

THE BLACKENING: 3 ½ STARS. “something special and interesting within its genre.”

“The Blackening,” a new horror satire now playing in theatres, answers a question never before addressed in a horror film. In the world of modern slasher films, the Black characters are always the first to die, so this new film asks, “How would that change if the entire cast is Black?

Set on a Juneteenth weekend at a remote Airbnb in the middle of nowhere, the story begins with party hosts Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and Shawn (Jay Pharoah) prepping the house in advance of their guest’s arrivals. In the Game Room they find a game called The Blackening, with a Monopoly-style design around a racist blackface caricature in the center of the board.

Shocked by the game’s iconography, they are even more shocked when the game demands they answer a series of questions, or they will be killed. They play along until Shawn gets a question wrong, and things quickly go south.

Cut to the others as they make their way to the cabin for a weekend of “reckless, unadulterated fun.” Lawyer Lisa (Antoinette Robertson), her BFF Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote the script), Allison (Grace Byers) and former gang member King (Melvin Gregg) are in one car. Arriving separately are the boozy Shanika (X Mayo), Lisa’s on-and-off boyfriend Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls) and Clifton (Jermaine Fowler), an oddball who says he was invited by Morgan, but no one seems to know him.

As the night wears on weird things start to happen. Doors open by themselves and strange characters appear in the shadows. Not that anyone notices… at first. Dewayne is high on MDMA while everyone else, save for Clifton, plays the card game Spades.

The drinks flow as the old friends gets caught up, and soon the attention turns to the Game Room and the unusual game Morgan and Shawn played hours earlier before their disappearance. With the remaining guests crowded around the board, the game begins to talk and taunt. “If you answer my questions correctly you will live,” the game says, “and Morgan will be released. Get one wrong and you will die.”

As the game asks questions like “Name five Black actors who appeared on ‘Friends,’” it becomes clear the danger is real, and there are consequences for their answers. This is not just a board game, it is a game of survival. As panic sets in, the group has to make a crucial decision. Do we stay together or split up and try and get help?

“The Blackening” borrows tropes from familiar slasher movies. The remote cabin in the woods is a classic location, we meet a couple redneck hillbillies at a gas station and there’s more than a hint of “Saw” on display. But what the movie does is take those elements and use them through a lens to explore Blackness, racism and popular culture. It’s a movie loaded with subtext, one that uses the genre to speak to issues that confront Black people every day.

In its examination of stereotypes and prejudice, from within and outside of their group, the movie tackles big topics but does so with a great deal of humor and some real suspense. The allegories may be more effective than the actual gore, but despite the light touch with the bloody violence, “The Blackening” achieves something special and interesting within its genre.

VACATION FRIENDS: 3 ½ STARS. “much-needed getaway from real life.”  

“Vacation Friends,” a new rude and raunchy comedy now streaming in Disney+, is a riff on the old saying, ‘Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” But instead of Vegas, the setting is Mexico, and instead of leaving bad behavior behind, Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Nancy (Anna Maria Horsford) would like to leave their new “friends” Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner) behind.

Strait-laced construction boss Marcus wants to surprise his girlfriend Nancy with a marriage proposal at a fancy Mexican resort. To set the scene he books a beautiful hotel room, iced champagne and rose pedals strewn around the bedroom. Unfortunately, the big surprise is something he didn’t plan, a flood. The jacuzzi upstairs in the Presidential Suite overflowed, turning Marcus and Nancy’s dream vacation room into a soggy wasteland.

With no other rooms available, the pair accept an offer to bunk with perfect strangers Ron and Kyla, the party animals in the Presidential Suite. The two couples are polar opposites. Marcus and Nancy are kinda conservative vs. the thrill-seeking Ron and Nancy who rim their Margueritas with cocaine. They are thrown together by circumstance but a few gallons of tequila later they’re all “vacation friends,” and the Mexican adventure culminates with a wild, blackout night.

“You guys are in our lives now,” Ron says as they part ways at the airport. “Nothing can change that. I’ll remember this week forever.”

Marcus and Nancy, however, aren’t feeling the bond. “They we’re kind of fun on vacation,” Marcus says, “But not in the real world.”

The real world includes the high-end wedding Marcus and Nancy are throwing with the financial aid of Nancy’s tightly-wound parents. Ron and Kyla aren’t on the guest list… but that doesn’t stop them from bringing their own brand of chaos to Marcus and Nancy’s big day.

“Vacation Friends” is a sweet-natured film about friendship but is far racier than the usual Disney+ fare. Drugs and drinking are the bedrock of the Ron and Kyla’s vacation lifestyle so this one isn’t for the kids, even if it’s on Mickey’s channel.

Adults, though, should get a mild kick out of the odd couple buddy comedy. Howery and Horsford are the movie’s bedrock, Cena and Hagner, the wild cards. Together, the ensemble play-off one another, creating fun, situational comedy that takes advantage of Cena’s manchild persona and Howery’s tightly wound Marcus. Hagner draws some of the biggest laughs with Kyla’s disregard for the niceties of polite society.

“Vacation Friends” is lightweight but sweet and should provide a much-needed getaway from real life.