What you were probably looking for was yet another white guy talking about this film. I’m sure the proliferation of thoughts by people who look like me is high. But, I’m here, because I’m a blind film critic, and this film has an audio description track.So, right out of the gate, I want to add that the audio description for this film is fine. I’ve certainly heard more detailed audio description tracks for films with predominantly black casts before, so this is swimming upstream. In fact, it seems like black films and black TV shows almost have a different set of rules when it comes to doing their audio description, which almost always leads to more descriptive text. Netflix’s Shirley and Mea Culpa are two of the stronger audio description tracks, because they can’t rely on defaulting, and since black people are front and center, there is a much larger effort to find a specificity with various hairstyles. Often, in films where they are either a token character, or not the predominant cast, they end up being the only one defined by race. This is not true of every film, as I’ve heard some tracks that really try to make sure everyone is represented, just like I’ve heard tracks for diverse casts that mention no ethnic or racial specificities at all. Representation, we always hear, is really important, but in audio description, actually getting to recognize that representation exists is a bumpy road that occasionally leads to nowhere. My biggest example of abject failure is the Disney Plus Percy Jackson series, which is incredibly diverse, but features no mentions of anything that could possibly help kids feel represented when watching the show. It’s all entirely pointless and demeaning to blind audiences, because sighted audiences can see what’s going on, and we are left with iMDB and Google to try and help fill in gaps, and only when we care enough to track down the information.

This film centers around this one guy (played by Justice Smith) who finds out that there’s this secret society of black people who use magic to keep white people comfortable, because there’s nothing more dangerous to a black man than an uncomfortable white person. He’s shown the ropes, taught the trade, and given an assignment of a white guy who needs a morale boost.

This part of the film is biting social commentary. What follows, is a different film. Eventually, he meets a girl, and this girl is also the object of affection for the guy he’s been tasked with making feel awesome at all times. So then it just becomes your typical romcom, and in these moments,the film forgets it was trying to make a point. Smith is an OK lead, and there are welcome appearances by people like David Alan Grier to keep this film together. But, mostly, it is a first draft film that needed more feedback, so the social commentary always remained the priority, and the love story never took priority.

I’m a big fan of similar work, like Justin Simian’s Dear White People, and the Netflix spinoff, as well as last year’s Oscar nominee American Fiction. Both Simian and Court Jefferson feel like the next generation being passed down a torch once started by Spike Lee. Here, Cobi Libii feels less like heir apparent, and more like an imitation of fresh writer/director combinations that are working harder and landing punches consistently. Not just getting in a few jabs.

There is some brilliance in this film, but a lot of it gets lost by a love story that is so generic it could have been written by AI.

Final Grade: B-