The writing just wasn't there

| Mar 28, 2025

There is a great film somewhere in here, but with the lack of focus on the ideas that really matter, I can’t say the film is worth the watch.  

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 1, 2025

The American Society of Magical Negroes mostly hangs there like one of Aren’s textile pieces: Odd but not intriguing, inspired in places, a bit confusing.

| Sep 26, 2024

It is a film that always seems to be on the edge of becoming a bloated corpse, kept alive only by the sheer power of its outstanding concept, which deserves a better overall execution than the one given here.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 5, 2024

"Audacity is something that it is incredibly thirsty for. It should sip like liquor, but it really just is a cup of milk. Milk isn't the worst thing in the world, but how can I be lit over a cup of milk when I expected liquor in my cup?"

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 9, 2024

The guiding sentiment of The American Society of Magical Negroes is a powerful one. The film’s premise, amusing as it can be, buries its most compelling takeaway while inviting difficult questions it isn’t prepared to answer.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 3, 2024

It’s a shame how short Libii’s debut comes up, considering how well-attuned the director appears to be when it comes to how successful some stories of this nature have been in the past.

| Original Score: C- | Jul 2, 2024

What a wasted opportunity.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 5, 2024

There’s an inescapable feeling that it could and should have gone for the jugular far more than it does.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 28, 2024

As a whole, though, this is too much of a mishmash to full satisfy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 2, 2024

Writer-director Kobi Libii peppers the film with knowing satire, giving weight to a narrative that never quite takes hold. Essentially, this is an enjoyable romantic comedy souped up with topical issues and silly wizardry.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 30, 2024

It's not only utterly bereft of magic, but what it lacks it's that sense of anarchic strangeness or weirdness...

| Apr 29, 2024

Unfortunately, Kobi Libii’s film is far too diffident and polite in its approach to leave much of a mark in the conversation about race and representation in US culture.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 29, 2024

Sadly, this muddled satire fails to cast a spell.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2024

Despite a valiant effort from Justice Smith, the satire in The American Society of Magical Negroes feels aimless, scattered across a story that struggles to pick a meaningful direction.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 25, 2024

Rudimentary filmmaking and a toothless script let down an initially exciting premise.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 25, 2024

This could have been a searing cultural lesson along the lines of 2018’s Sorry To Bother You or Spike Lee’s own media Satire Bamboozled. Instead, it pulls itself in too many directions and feels unsatisfying

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 24, 2024

"The American Society of Magical Negroes" has an alright comedic core, but its overstuffed plot and unclear focus leaves it feeling like a missed opportunity.

| Original Score: 5.5 | Apr 2, 2024

"The American Society of Magical Negroes" by Kobi Libii looks at racism in the world of art and literature, from a mocking point of view. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: C- | Mar 29, 2024

Spike Lee would be so disappointed you used his term for this.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 27, 2024