Review of Super Fly (1972) by Diana S — 02 Oct 2007

This will probably be a rant.

The DVD of [b]Tideland [/b]starts with an introduction by director Terry Gilliam ("The Brothers Grimm") where he tells us that many of us will not like the film and many of us will not understand it. And then he says that some will love it. Also, it seems that Gilliam has a small girl inside him. I don't know that that's really a surprise. But, by starting out with the negative, I got the feeling that he was saying that this was a mess of a film and his intro was just a ploy to stem criticism by implying that the audience who did not enjoy the film just wasn't smart enough to understand his vision. Well, f you, Mr. Gilliam. I don't want my films to come with an explanation or an apology. And I don't like my intelligence to be insulted before I even get a chance to delve into the movie.

So the whole 122 minutes, I had the taint of this intro in my mind and I got angrier and angrier as this mess of a movie played out. The story, and I use the term loosely, follows a young girl with horrible parents who die and then she has to fend for herself. So she creates an imaginary world. This fantasy Gilliam develops for her is in no way original. It's a blatant rip-off of Alice in Wonderland with hints of every other famous kid's story, The Secret Garden, Beatrix Potter, The Wizard of Oz, to name a few. All the adults are horrible, over-acting and extremely messed up. The young girl, Jodelle Ferland ("Good Luck Chuck"), is forced to do a Southern accent as well as several other voices which she is just not capable of pulling off.

On a side not, I'm sick of Southern characters being trashy and unbalanced.

Then the little girl, and I'm not sure how old she's supposed to be, 10 at the oldest, starts seducing a retarded man. It's f-ed up and for no reason. There's no point. Nothing happens for what seems like hours at a time. And when an action does occur, it is ridiculously implausible.

I hated this movie so much that Gilliam, who I usually have some affection for, is now on the bus. And it will take a whole lot of convincing from people I trust to even get me to approach one of his films in the future.

I do give this film one point for some excellent visuals. But they are not worth putting yourself through the torture of the story line.

[b]Superfly [/b]is my second blaxploitation film. I liked it better than Sweet Sweetback, but it's still not my cup of tea. The main character is a cocaine dealer planning one big sale before he gets out of the business. The story is okay. The acting average. But the soundtrack is magnificent. Curtis Mayfield is amazing.