One Spoon of Chocolate is an entertaining fusion of six or seven different genres.
One Spoon of Chocolate is the vigilante action film about racist organ harvesters who get what’s coming to them that we never knew we needed.
Eeverything I say A spoon of chocolate It seems more and more bizarre. It’s a neo-blaxploitation vigilante revenge flashback – featuring the guy who voices Miles in the film. Spider Worms movies. And it’s directed (and written) by a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. And Michael Jackson’s daughter appears in a prominent supporting role. And it’s about racist organ harvesters in Ohio getting taken out one by one by a guy who dresses like a Temu Batman…replete with barbed wire wrapped around his fists.
It may not be a traditional horror film per se, but it obviously has horror-adjacent qualities. Besides, it’s a film about racism in the 2020s – it’s undoubtedly a socially conscious horror film, if nothing else.
If you don’t Already Know what the title alludes to, Urban Dictionary is your friend. It’s a name that has nothing to do with the subject of the film, but at the same time, it’s a bit of what the film is about. entire the film speaks. Sometimes it’s more fun to let the audience come to you own conclusions about what a film is “secretly” about… although in the case of A spoon of chocolateit’s not really a secret.
The film has a TERRIFIC opening. I’ll try to minimize spoilers as best I can, so let’s just say there is a encourage moment that sets up everything that happens in the film. Of course, almost each the film does that, but it’s not really what A spoon of chocolate does as much as he is how does it happen. This is a VERY stylized film and director RZA certainly knows how to do cinematic “oh shit” moments well.
We all know RZA is a great rapper, but he’s also a great director. This has been evident since First of all movie, The man with the iron fistsfrom 2012. But this isn’t a hyper-stylistic homage to the kung fu exploitation films of the ’70s – it’s basically a modern take on all of those films. Death wish movies, a kind of Walk high for the Nintendo Switch 2 generation. This is not the case completely work, but when he succeeds, it is positively excels.
Shameik Moore is the driving force behind the film. I can’t lie down all success at his feet, but I can certainly attribute much of that to his more than solid performance as protagonist Randy “Unique” Joneson. He plays an Iraq War veteran who’s just gotten out of prison and is looking to start his life over in rural Ohio… which, yes, is obviously your own or someone else’s first mistake. It doesn’t take long before he connects the dots and deduces that a recent homicide was the work of a clandestine group of white supremacists… who also happen to be involved in the international organ harvesting trade, which obviously adds a twist. pronounced element of body horror in the proceedings (and amps up the already high gore quotient, as a nice little bonus.)
It’s an interesting set in this one. We have Paris Jackson – yes, MJ’s daughter – playing the female lead. Certainly, she does not entire a lot in the movie, but at least her dark purple lipstick looks pretty throughout the picture. Harry Goodwins plays Jimmy, the film’s main villain; imagine Thor if he was addicted to meth and spent way too much time on 4Chan and you kind of get the picture. And then there’s Michael Harney who plays the evil, racist sheriff who runs everything in secret. I mean, if you want to make a movie like A spoon of chocolateyou MUST have a strong actor like that in this setting, serving as the not-so-invisible prime mover of the action.
It’s a very well shot film. Cinematographer Brandon Cox is something of the unsung hero of the entire film; his work is so nuanced and kinetic that it even makes relatively bland the exterior shots inside the Backwoods convenience stores are dynamic and aesthetic as hell. And of course he can go everything came out in the film’s key setting – a thirty minutes big finale of Donnybrook where Unique sneaks into the racists’ headquarters and starts painting the walls red and spongy with neo-Nazi guts.
It’s a visceral film but it’s not really a brutal or grotesque film. It’s a gorier take on the workbench John Wick formula, but with a totally different air and attitude given its thematic material and especially given the people who made it. Yes, it’s a obvious commentary on the frayed and fractured race relations in today’s America, but it’s also an unapologetic homage to exploitation that’s a little bit of everything – horror, martial arts, revenge thriller And hyper-violent action extravaganza.
Of course, the film is not without flaws, faults and shortcomings. When things are not exploding cars, crushing fist fights and gunshot porn, the film has a tendency to wander around as it were. RZA is a competent filmmaker, but the dialogue component is lacking here a bit, especially towards the end when two central characters sort of engaging in dueling monologues. I get what the director was going for, but the execution just doesn’t work. It’s a pretty bland and forgettable ending to what is otherwise an inventive and energetic little genre fusion throwback.
It’s worth catching if you haven’t yet. It is a film which certainly captures the spirit and aura of 70s and 80s exploitation films better than most contemporary homages; and like myself to have to tell you how awesome the soundtrack is.
GIVE A WATCH IF YOU LIKE: Any of Taken films, the Old dirty bastard discography, beautifully filmed gas stations
DIRECTOR: RZA
WRITER: RZA
WITH : Shameik Moore, Harry Goodwins, Michael Harney, Paris Jackson
STUDIO: RZA Productions, Xen Diagram Media
DISTRIBUTER: 36 Cinema Distribution, Variance Films
RUNNING DURATION: 112 minutes
LANGUAGE: English
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2026
