By Daniel Paiz

One spoon of chocolate changes the entire glass of milk

One Spoon of Chocolate: a Cypher Flicks review brings back film reviews for the summer as this slow-burning action flick gives viewers a lot to ponder. There are opportunities for redemption, a chance for family to reunite, and decisions to be made about cruel people in power. Films like these are interesting to watch because in one way it delivers what you might expect; in another way, it brings about more topics of discussion outside of who wins and who loses.

Spoiler alert: despite getting some revenge, folks often face awful conclusions.

What Goes Well

Shameik Moore as Randy Joneson, aka Unique, carries a heavy mantle throughout this film. The core characters also give solid performances. Paris Jackson as Darla is a solid surprise; she plays a supportive friend and eventual romantic interest of Unique. Her character’s decision to help Unique at possible harm to herself is needed as any other support Unique has (Ramsee for some time) is gone.

Unique is every Black man in America, demonized for standing up for others and gifted unjust punishment. His interaction with Officer Beem (Blair Underwood) tells viewers this for his previous convictions. The Karensville County police department does so again, deeming Unique as a “person of interest”. Despite being stereotyped, Unique does the unexpected by those who overlook him. Preparation, measured discipline, and ongoing obtainment of skills and knowledge are just some of his skills. This doesn’t fit the mold and of course it comes back to bite the racists in the end. RZA also does a good job of presenting a range of personalities.

RZA essentially does the opposite of Key & Peele’s skit Black Republicans with the Black men in this film. Ramsee (RJ Cyler) is a regular guy living his life, loving his partner, and taking care of his family. RJ welcomes Unique to Ohio, puts him on the deed of the house, and backs him up when the supremacists come around.

Mr. Lindsey (Rockmund Dunbar) understands too well who wields all the power in town and does what he can to live and protect his family. As the town’s mortician he sees what’s going on but sticks to the idea of survival as the only path forward. Dap (Johnell Young) is a guy living unapologetically and doesn’t kowtow to those running the town. A bit materialistic and focused on his ride and weed, he still goes out of his way to help Unique and doesn’t help Jimmy or his henchmen.

Each character listed above is built up with personality and nuance. It takes time for each character to round out, but it adds to the overall message. This isn’t done as much for the women in the film, outside of a few core roles.

What Doesn’t Go So Well

Before delving into the violence in this film, there should be some focus on the lack of nuance for many of the women in this film. Outside of Aretha (E’myri Crutchfield), Darla (Paris Jackson), and Mrs. Lindsey (Deja Dee), the other women in the film are essentially treated as props. Some of those roles are because of the supremacists treating anyone that aren’t White men as disposable, which is understandable if not also unsavory.

The portrayal of women here seems like a Tarantino staple, or something that wasn’t reflected on by the writing team. Obviously, the constraints of fleshing out the main characters means there are going to be some one-dimensional roles. But this doesn’t mean that non-central characters have to be portrayed as b-roll either.

There’s a bit of nuance that has to be accepted for this section when it comes to violence, as there are two pathways to go down.

The first path is that violence is overwhelming wrought on the Black characters, primarily Black men, and it’s gratuitous. There’s a point to make with this violence in that Black men in the United States are overwhelmingly mistreated and injured by those in power, by the law, and by anyone who can get away with it. The point is quite clear throughout, although it feels overdone. Intimidation can get the job done just as well as violence and without the gratuity.

The second path is that the violence isn’t balanced. In a slow-burning plot such as this one, there could be a fair amount of give and take, but that doesn’t really happen until the end. For a film that presents itself as being about justice and revenge, the main character ultimately does realize these.

Unique gets personal revenge on many of the low-life, mush-brained, incredibly ignorant racists this small Ohio town has standing. The battle with the sheriff’s seemingly untouchable son Jimmy doesn’t quite result in what this viewer wants. There’s a lot of truth and facts given in the final sequence, but not what would’ve been such a sweet ending.

RZA surely did this on purpose, because revenge isn’t the ultimate point of the film.

Final Verdict

If you’re one who keeps score at home, the scoreboard has more kills racked up for the good guys then the white supremacists. However, the losses for the core characters are cruel and destructive ends that feel much harsher than the casual quick deaths of the bad guys. The ending also doesn’t tell if full revenge is achieved.

Things end abruptly and are left somewhat open-ended. RZA left it open for interpretation on purpose, but it lacks closure in doing so. However, that has to be one of the key points of this film when it comes to injustice: closure never comes. Revenge can happen. Punishment can be doled out. But the system that creates this small-town corruptness isn’t going to change when the larger structure demands to be fed via death and stolen organs.

The harvesting of organs from Black men actually gave the supremacists some weird nuance in that they figured out how to feed a global demand. Supremacists are often seen as moronic and short-sighted, but this shows some cleverness despite said ignorance. Sadly, greed is the ongoing machine that keeps such vile situations going, which is a larger focus here in addition to the discussions about revenge and imbalanced justice.

Bonus info

Unique and Ramsee both have the last name “Joneson”. This makes it almost sound like they’re chosen to bring about change in town. Hard to say if RZA was trying to make this an Easter egg or a red herring, but either way it adds some fun lore.