2024 Blind Spot Series: Eve's Bayou

-


Official synopsis: Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.

For some reason, I grew up thinking Eve's Bayou was a horror movie. Probably because they chose a very menacing photo of Samuel L. Jackson for the poster and I vaguely knew they talked about voodoo. When I went to log this film on letterboxd, I was comforted in knowing I wasn't the only one that had that very far off assumption.

Eve's Bayou is not in fact a horror film, though a horrible thing does happen in it. It is instead a story of coming of age and loss of innocence. All told through the eyes of young Eve (Jurnee Smollett) It's s visually striking piece. The lighting is perfect, the costumes beautiful, and you can feel the atmosphere. I never would've guessed that this is director Kasi Lemmon's first film. This might be the best first feature I've ever seen. It's made with such ease and passion. I hate that Lemmons isn't a huge name director today. How is she not making a new film every other year with her talent? 

We know the answer. It's the same answer for why Jurnee Smollett didn't have the same career as some of the white young actors her age. She should've been one of those 90's breakouts like Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci and Tina Majorino. And I'm part of the problem, putting off this magnificent film until now. 

Grade: A

Comments

  1. thevoid99April 27, 2024 at 7:29 PM

    Hey, I'm just glad you chose this film as a Blind Spot and you love it. I saw it on HBO in 1998 when I was 17 as I didn't know what to expect. Yes, Kasi Lemmons is a filmmaker that doesn't get enough respect. Talk to Me with Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Taraji P. Henson is among one of her best while The Caveman's Valentine with Samuel L. Jackson is kind of an underrated gem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 29, 2024 at 5:11 PM

      I have to check out those two films!

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 28, 2024 at 9:19 AM

    I have not even heard of it but, now, it’s on my list to see

    ReplyDelete
  3. joel65913April 29, 2024 at 3:06 PM

    I went into this expecting some sort of horror film as well but my perception was based on the preview more than the poster which made it appear very menacing. Not being much of a horror guy I wasn't disappointed that it wasn't but I wasn't overly impressed in what it turned out to be either.

    It was heavily atmospheric which was good as was the cast but I just didn't care that much about the story. That may have been my failing but the one time I watched it was plenty for me. You mentioned Jurnee Smollett's career not being as successful as it should have been and I'll say the same thing for Lynn Whitfield! A wonderful actress I really thought her performance in "The Josephine Baker Story" would lead to a breakout for her, at least in television if not film but it didn't happen. She's continued to work but hardly in projects worthy of her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 29, 2024 at 5:11 PM

      Yes! Lyn Whitfield too. Jurnee was top of mine because she had such a career boost with Lovecraft Country, I was surprised to see just how long she'd been working when I essentially recognized her from True Blood first.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more