52
Metascore
34 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliRicci's performance is brave and effective - the most provocative in a career that has rejected Hollywood norms.
- 78Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenThe story is as humorous and raunchy as a good blues refrain, and the way Lazarus and Rae react to each other almost resembles the classic call-and-response structure of the blues.
- 75PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyPerpetually wide-eyed and mega-snarly bedraggled, Christina Ricci prowls through Black Snake Moan looking like something the cat dragged in. If you're anything like me, you'll be very grateful to the cat.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinIt's outlandish, hilariously overripe, and possibly sexist: You'd expect no less from Craig Brewer, the writer and director who made the passionate case for how hard it is out there for a pimp. But I loved the picture's tabloid energy and heart.
- 50VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyMix Brigitte Bardot in "And God Created Woman" with Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll," sex it up times 10 and you have a notion of the effect of Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceBlack Snake Moan sho-nuff ain't no "Sweetback." Indeed, long stretches of Brewer's Suthun-fried sophomore slump come down the country road lookin' as haggard as a workaholic ho on a Sunday morning.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumBe prepared to collapse into a hoot and a howl of hilarity at all the wrong moments.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe blues music in "Moan" is superfine, but my oh my, what to make of the ripe Southern cliches and this absurd story. The film is so jaw-dropping awful that it just might become a boxoffice hit.
- 38Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversOffensive on multiple levels -- if only the plot had any levels at all -- Black Snake Moan leaves no "Tobacco Road" cliche unsmoked. Ricci gives it her all, and then some, but even her body and Jackson's blues can't heal a movie that rockets plum off its nut.
- 30L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasBlack Snake Moan is, at its core, a fairly straightforward variation on George Bernard Shaw -- "Pigsfeetmalion," if you will. One day, when he outgrows his terminal adolescence, Brewer might be the perfect filmmaker to tackle Faulkner or Tennessee Williams.