The American Society of Magical Negroes

It's not only utterly bereft of magic, but what it lacks it's that sense of anarchic strangeness or weirdness...

Unfortunately, Kobi Libii’s film is far too diffident and polite in its approach to leave much of a mark in the conversation about race and representation in US culture.

Despite a valiant effort from Justice Smith, the satire in The American Society of Magical Negroes feels aimless, scattered across a story that struggles to pick a meaningful direction.

Rudimentary filmmaking and a toothless script let down an initially exciting premise.

Unfortunately, a fatal lack of consequence for the film’s world or characters prevents it from ever deepening its initial premise, or unifying the sum of its disparate parts.

Even if this misguided film was a twenty-minute short, it would still be twenty-minutes too long.

As a whole, though, this is too much of a mishmash to full satisfy.

Writer-director Kobi Libii peppers the film with knowing satire, giving weight to a narrative that never quite takes hold. Essentially, this is an enjoyable romantic comedy souped up with topical issues and silly wizardry.

Sadly, this muddled satire fails to cast a spell.

This could have been a searing cultural lesson along the lines of 2018’s Sorry To Bother You or Spike Lee’s own media Satire Bamboozled. Instead, it pulls itself in too many directions and feels unsatisfying