Some action movies take place in Action Movie World™, where fighting is baked into the concrete, and filtered into the blood. Films like “John Wick” and “Kill Bill,” to name just two, have very little in common with reality, because everyone is kicking everyone else’s ass, all the time. You can’t go to the corner store without kicking some ass along the way, because someone’s always starting a fight or finishing one. In Action Movie World™, violence is everywhere, and violence solves everything, but breaking into violence is nothing special. It’s just a day that ends in “y.”
Hip-hop super-producer and filmmaker RZA has made a film in Action Movie World™ before. His debut feature “The Man with the Iron Fists” was a larger-than-life martial arts extravaganza starring RZA himself as a kung fu blacksmith with literal iron fists. He needed those fists to beat up a villain who had a body made of brass. It’s a fun film, if not always a sensical one, but it’s a very different beast than his latest action drama “One Spoon of Chocolate,” where violence still matters and violence still hurts. Usually. It’s not set in Action Movie World™. It’s not quite the real world either, but it’s close enough.
“One Spoon of Chocolate” stars Shameik Moore as Randy “Unique” Joneson, a military veteran and ex-convict who returns home to get his life together. His cousin, Ramsee (RJ Cyler), welcomes Unique with open arms and puts his name on the deed to their house. All is going well until the local white supremacists barge into the community center, where Unique and Ramsee are playing basketball, and throw their weight around. Ramsee knows these racist monsters run the town but Unique is new here, and pretty soon Unique kicks their butts six ways from Sunday.
The satisfaction is short-lived. These aren’t your typical movie bad guys. They’re kidnapping Black people and harvesting their organs, and they’re not used to meeting resistance. Their leader Jimmy (Harry Goodwins) retaliates, Ramsee gets thrown in prison for fleeing and hitting a racist with his car, and Unique goes into hiding. He also goes into training. The time for his roaring rampage of revenge is coming.
And that time is… later. Much later. “One Spoon of Chocolate” isn’t a non-stop action spectacle, it’s a drama with action in it. Unique and Ramsee get to live realistic lives before the plot kicks in, so when it does it’s not awesome, it’s tragic. There’s nothing “fun” about white supremacy, or killing Black people, or corrupt cops. Eventually they’ll all get their heads caved in but you’re going to have to wait for it, and whether this movie works or not depends entirely on whether you’re as patient as RZA is to get to a catharsis. If that’s what you can even call it.
If you’re the patient type there’s a lot to appreciate about “One Spoon of Chocolate.” RZA has assembled a cast of richly textured protagonists and despicably one-dimensional villains. They aren’t one-dimensional because it’s a bad screenplay. They’re one-dimensional because racism isn’t a side-effect of having an intelligent and soulful personality. We meet a lot of complicated Black characters with different perspectives and values. We meet only one kind of white supremacist. The only variation is how much power they have to act on their ignorant cruelty. But it’s always too much power.
If you’re not the patient type, it’s fair to say “One Spoon of Chocolate” is slow in the middle. It’s one thing to take your time introducing the characters and the world they inhabit, it’s another thing to ramp up the action a third of the way through and then ramp it all the way down for most of the second act. RZA insists that his hero is not a violent man, not at heart. He’s forced to solve problems violently because bullies don’t respect anything except force, and all the systems that should rein in these bullies are run by — you guessed it — more racist bullies. It’s slow-burn action filmmaking, gradually building pressure, until the hero’s own violence is inevitable, excusable, and irresistible.
But to get away with a slow-burn action movie you still have to keep the audience’s attention, and “One Spoon of Chocolate” could have picked up the pace without losing its depth or personality. You also have to make sure the climactic action sequence is worth the wait, like “The Big Boss” or most of the “Lone Wolf and Cub” and “Zatoichi” films. RZA’s climax is exactly the release we need after wallowing in this wretched burg, and Shameik Moore is up to the task of stomping these monsters’ heads in with homemade brass knuckles and explosives. He’s also up to the task in the film’s quiet moments. He’s a captivating star.
That final fight, which is all over the film’s trailers (and sets an unrealistic expectation for how action-packed “One Spoon of Chocolate” actually is), is worth the price of admission. RZA and cinematographer Brandon Cox don’t always find superb hero shots, and Joe D’Augustine’s editing could sometimes be clearer, but it’s a long and intense battle between a man who becomes a vigilante hero and villains who deserve his wrath. By the time he’s killing white supremacists with a Confederate flag and wiping their blood off the Stars and Stripes, you can’t help but get on “One Spoon of Chocolate’s” wavelength.
This is an angry movie, and it’s not the fun kind of anger. It’s got serious, righteous fury that stems from systemic injustice and personal tragedy. It’s a statement and it’s clear, and while it could be more thrilling, if it was that would probably undermine the message. Nothing in “One Spoon of Chocolate” qualifies as escapism. This isn’t Action Movie World™, where violence is exciting. It’s a recognizable world where violence is wrong, unless it’s wielded against horrible people who will never stop themselves and must, therefore, be stopped. So what if it could be a little shorter? The length of the journey makes RZA’s destination more meaningful.
“One Spoon of Chocolate” is now playing exclusively in theaters.
