Another gem from auteur Craig Brewer...

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2008)

..."Black Snake Moan" reunites the creative team from Brewer's previous effort, "Hustle & Flow," with even stronger results. DP Amy "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" Vincent, editor Billy "Band of Brothers" Fox, composer Scott "Teenage Tupelo" Bomar, Production Designer Keith Brian "2 Fast 2 Furious" Burns, and others all kick in to craft the second part of what Brewer intends to be a pentalogy (quintology/quintuplet?) of Memphis-based stories, each rooted in a different musical genre. "Hustle & Flow" was the rap movie; "Black Snake Moan" is the blues film.
And a fine film it is. Do not be fooled by the ill-conceived trailer or the deceptive posters; "Black Snake Moan" is not an exploitation film in the normal sense of the term. It's a tale of redemption and love, a bit of a modern fable, if you will. Certainly it features exploitative elements (tough to avoid when your female lead is running around barely dressed for significant amounts of time), but the story transcends those elements with an honest humanity that one rarely, if ever, finds in a true exploitation flick. Samuel L. "My resume speaks for itself" Jackson turns in yet another finely nuanced performance (including, for this writer, some pleasantly unexpected musicianship), and Christina "Mine, too" Ricci shines equally brightly. The mostly unknown support cast is also very effective, even its "name" component, Justin "*NYSNC" Timberlake. None of this would have been possible without Brewer's excellent screenplay, of course, nor his sure direction. I'll definitely be looking forward to the next three films up Brewer's creative sleeve.
A recap of the plot would be pointless here, other than to make this a complete review. Suffice it to say, a broken-hearted, God-fearing rustic takes it upon himself to save a young, white trash lost soul from herself, and in the process heals himself as well. I'll leave it to the random reader of this review to see how things play out. I assure you, they play out well. "Black Snake Moan" is a very human, very moving story, easily worth the two hours it will take to watch it. Highly recommended; you won't regret it.
Addendum trivia question: without looking it up, which actor in "Black Snake Moan" played a small (but not insignificant) role in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day?" I'm betting that 99 out of 100 of you won't get it without cheating.