The American Society of Magical Negroes is a comedy about a very passive young black man, Aren (Justice Jesse Smith) who gets recruited into a secret society of magical black people whose sole purpose is to make white people’s lives easier. This is Kobi Libii’s directorial debut. Libii wrote, directed and produced the film, unfortunately losing focus of his message with more elements than he is able to manage, leading to a disconnected, messy, lost film that does not understand its own vision, hinting at grand magical world, only for us to see glimpses of what seems to be a very contained group of people with magic powers. The idea seems original, but Libii does not think outside his contained concept, leaving me walking out the theater with more questions than I got answers. Are there other magical organizations around the world? Do these organizations represent black people as well? What’s the actual power structure within the society aside from one president telling everyone else how things work? What happens when one magical person gets out of line and uses their powers for evil, does everyone lose their power? How did the society come about to where they needed to rely on the relative satisfaction and happiness of white people? Sounds very much like a curse casted by a white wizard or witch, otherwise explain the benefits of being part of this society without feeling even more at the whim of white people in the already very white world we live in. Did the society of magical Negroes support and contribute to slavery? This story implies such things given their goal.
Not only is the message lost here, but the story is also sacrificed for the sake of the message, leaving a lazily written main plot that is overshadowed by a much better romantic C plot. It was clear that Smith and An-Li Bogan (plays Lizzie) had chemistry, and their scenes together added heart to the movie. The awkward relatability of the relationship between Aren and Lizzie was cute and noted for a good story, if it was not coming off as part of an entirely different film. If you told me Libii wanted to make a rom-com but was pushed on by a fellowship mentor to write about their experience as a black man, I would believe you. The romantic elements seemed out of place when it came to the main story. We had to bring the movie to a halt for these romantic, comedic, and cute moments between the love birds, and at no point did it feel there was any push for the story we came to see. By the time the movie ended I had developed a whole new film in my head about a young magical man trying to push through life without breaking the rules of the magical society, and he comes along and finds someone he loves but his close friend’s interest in the same woman leads to our protagonist deciding whether to risk his friendship and lose his power. Instead, I would not be surprised if a mentor (likely a white one), especially one of the Sundance festival, pushed someone of color, Libii in this instance, to write about the struggles of being a minority, even if that was not something they were interested in. Enough of these conspiracies.
As the movie starts off to show Smith’s struggle as a black man in a predominantly white environment, we do not see much of his fear of being in danger or much else of what he monologues about at the end of the movie. Instead Libii writes a collection of examples that I would assume other black people experience because I never saw Aren experience or be in a situation to experience what he was going on about for three minutes. We get a contrived scene where Aren is seen as someone who stole a drunk woman’s purse, but no weight was placed, and whatever Libii was trying to get at was lost in poor comedic timing. The idea that Aren would be accused of stealing the purse simply because he is black is forced onto us because we already know what the story is about. By the time we reach the finale, which fits much better into a magical romantic comedy, we forget what Libii was trying to tell us in the beginning of the movie. Also, given how the stories ends with the society of magical Negroes, does the society still exist? We see several of the magical Negroes protest working to make their white clients happy, which takes away everyone’s powers. This is the only reason Aren could not get his mind erased and was able to run back to Lizzie and start a relationship with her. So, what is happening to the magical society now? Did Aren preach to the community to give up their magical gifts?
Given the title, there was little magic used, and even less of the actual magical society seen. I would have at least expected time to get to know other magicians (wizards? Witches? Is it just magical negroes?). Instead, we get a tease of what could have been black characters in a magical world, which we seldom see, especially as leads. I saw the same three rooms, with contrived magic to make sure we know they are magical. I will say, I like the way the magic looked, and I like the tease at the lore of where the magical society originated and how it works, but we do not get much more than that. The major issue I have with the magical society is their mission statement. The purpose of this society is to make white people feel satisfied in life. A misconception I can see is that their purpose is to make white people feel at ease and comfortable around us, but given the A story, that proves not to be the case. Aren’s first client is a white middle-aged man in the tech industry – already a predominantly white field – who works in a company with only two black people. This statistic is based on one scene when a dozen employees gather in front of monitors for a meeting. With that said, the client being unhappy had nothing to do with black people, so now I am confused. Black people have magic, and must use it to make white people around the country satisfied enough in all aspects of their life or they become…more dangerous to black people? More racist? It’s not clear. This made me wonder what is the true purpose of this movie aside from entertaining white people and making them feel like they are better than the white people we see in the film; for the white audience to feel they are informed, aware and supportive of black causes and understand the black experience; for white people to have a temporary sense of allyship and motivation; for white people to feel good about being a better whitey, just for this sense of allyship to dissipate by the time they reach their car.