Our reviews of Sundance Film Festival official selections continue; follow all of our coverage of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The American Society of Magical Negroes
Full of compelling ideas but falling short in their execution is writer/director Kobi Libii's debut work, The American Society of Magical Negroes, which begins promisingly with the idea that the age-old cinematic trope of the “Magical Negro” is actually based in reality. Specifically, Libii imagines a secret, wizard-like society made up entirely of men and women whose sole job is to take on the role of supporting character in a white person’s main story, helping them through anything that might cause them discomfort. Because as they (and we) know, an uncomfortable white person is a dangerous white person, likely to call the police, start a fight, or worse.
We find out about this society through a young yarn artist named Aren (Justice Smith), whose life and career are going nowhere. He seems to possess some amount of desire to placate white people already, and he catches the eye of a member of the society named Roger (David Alan Grier), who recruits the young man and assigns him a “client” (white person), Jason (Drew Tarver), who works in the tech industry and for whom Aren must uncover the source of his discomfort and guide him to a happier place. Aren guides Jason’s career, working for an eccentric Australian tech guru (Rupert Friend), and his love life. Aren begins to fall for a very kind co-worker of Jason's, Lizzie (An-Li Bogan), which is forbidden if it endangers the comfort of his assigned white person. It doesn’t make Aren’s job any easier as he begins to discover that Jason is a world-class dick and mildly racist.
During the course of the film, Aren must not only navigate his emotions concerning Lizzie but he has to figure out whether doing this work compromises how he sees himself—or worse, does it confirm his sense of self value. I loved the setup and the overall ideas of the film (and I’m more than fine having the filmmaker cut this trope to pieces and ripping white people to shreds); the problem is the film doesn’t do either of these strongly or cleverly enough. Instead of giving us once-in-a-lifetime farce, it transforms into a romantic-comedy by the end, and that’s after a rousing speech by Smith about how he has forgotten to value his Blackness. It’s a great monologue in the wrong movie, and it hurts all the more to say that because the cinematography by Doug Emmett is really quite striking.
That being said, some of the “clips” we see of previous Magical Negroes at work are very funny (and most parody very recognizable films—The Green Mile gets it pretty bad). And the lead performances are exceedingly charming, although Smith’s insecurities don’t make him the easiest character to observe at times. I just kept waiting for Libii (through Smith) to bring out the big guns in his observations about American and cinematic culture, and the film just doesn’t get there. (And it replaces that with something so unworthy of the first act of the film.) I’m curious to see if the filmmaker goes fo rsomething more biting in his next outing. — Steve Prokopy
War Game
It wasn’t slotted in the Midnight section, but War Game, from directors Jesse Moss (of Girls State) and Tony Gerber, might be one of the most frightening films that premiered at Sundance Film Festival. The duo documents a group of bipartisan generals, CIA analysts, and elected politicians who gather to play the titular war game. In the game scenario, it is January 6th, 2025 and a radicalized paramilitary group called the Order of Columbus has gathered outside the Capitol to contest the results of the election. The Order is aided by active members of the US military and in just 6 hours, the present administration must ensure the peaceful transfer of power while the mob outside the voting chamber grows increasingly more agitated and violent (no pressure, right?).
What really makes the documentary work is just how committed everyone is to the bit. When you have a governor playing the President of the United States, a senator playing the Attorney General, and regular actors all interspersed throughout, one would be forgiven if anyone were to break character, but everyone takes the stakes of the game seriously. While the film is an imaginative exercise (Moss, in particular, is no stranger to prototyping visions of our political future), it is fascinating and thrilling to see in real-time how our political leaders might respond to a second insurrection and whether mistakes from the first one would be repeated or not. In one terrifying sequence, the Order begins to flood social media with propaganda to rile up their followers while the administration woefully discounts the importance of controlling the online narrative. If there’s any takeaway for future administrations, it’s to not neglect the importance of wielding social media.
I only wish that the film solely focused on the game. There are moments when it breaks away from the drama unfolding to feature interviews with the game designers and others involved. While that’s interesting and helps flesh out the stakes, it ultimately detracts from the immersive world that Moss and Gerber have so expertly crafted. —Zachary Lee