They Cloned Tyrone (2023) - Movie Review

After co-writing Creed II, and getting thrown into the unholy soup that is the script for Space Jam: A New Legacy, writer Juel Taylor has made his directorial debut with one of the better Blaxploitation flips I’ve seen in a minute. Where remakes of the old guard like Shaft and Superfly felt the need to modernise the genre’s aesthetics (which only brought into question why they’d even bother getting involved in that genre in the first place), this actually sticks to its identifiable qualities, albeit with some updating on the cultural references like Obama and Bitcoin. The moody, shadowy cinematography from DP Ken Seng, the Terrace Martin-esque funk soundtrack from Desmond Murray and Pierre Charles (those basslines are just *chef’s kiss*), the frankly amazing costume design across the board; this looks really damn good.

Dolemite Is My Name (2019) - Movie Review

In the annals of blaxploitation, there are a number of certified classics that basically make the genre what it is remembered for to this day. We’ve even covered a few on here like Super Fly and Shaft, but there’s also Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (and yes, it is the inspiration for the title of that Simpsons episode where Willie chases a dog through some ventilation shafts), Coffy, Foxy Brown, and even more recent efforts like Black Dynamite. But for my money, especially given my own understanding of the genre as a major cornerstone of hip-hop culture, you’d be hard-pressed to find a film more influential than Rudy Ray Moore’s ode to the bad motherfucker that fucks up motherfuckers: Dolemite.