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Bamboozled (2000)
6/10
Spike Lee's satirical drama about a black TV producer, Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), trying to score a hit by tapping into racial hot button tropes.
There are some genuinely funny lines to enjoy. Otherwise, it's hard to decipher what movie Lee is trying to create, as it plays very scattershot. The film regularly dips into the despicable portrayals of blacks in the past, often in a full documentary format, but Lee doesn't present a present-day parallel. The film notes a lack of black writing/production representation in TV but doesn't appear to be interested in demonstrating solutions. For instance, we are told some executives have modified Pierre Delacroix's show script, but we are never told what was added, removed or why it matters. And so, the film is often a Rorschach test.
There are the entertainment narratives and tropes such as "the rise and fall" of the Pierre Delacroix character, and artists dealing with their own pride, getting ahead, gender double standards and selling out. In that regard, Jada Pinkett-Smith character's scene dealing with gender double standards felt authentic while the other narratives felt stiff, forced and unrealistic, particularly Delacroix Greek tragedy final scene.
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