We’re back at Sundance in the Vulture Spot, where we’re interviewing the casts and creators of the year’s buzziest films. Check out all our coverage from the film fest here.
The cast and crew of The American Society of Magical Negroes know they’re in the discourse. The film, which follows Aren (Justice Smith) as he gets recruited into a group of magical Black people dedicated to making white people’s lives easier, is a conversation starter. The team, including Smith, David Alan Grier, and writer-director Kobi Libii, is well-aware of the Twitter commentariat’s close following of the trailers and they’re ready for audiences — of every race — to engage with the movie. But, if you’re not Black, they also want you to know you might not catch everything that’s going on in it. You can hear about the film, the reaction, how the movie fits in the history of cinema, and more in the interview above, also including:
➼ Their opinions on the “magical negro” stereotype in films including Driving Miss Daisy and its sister in racism Green Book
➼ How the film reflects the Black experience of having subtextual conversation that white people don’t realize is happening
➼ The way audience reactions change over the course of watching the film
➼ How even the title of the movie makes some (read: white people) uncomfortable, intentionally. “So much of the film is about the discrepancy between Black comfort and white comfort,” Libii says. “And how it’s less comfortable for us to move through America and white spaces than it is for white people to do that. And I love that, just in saying the title, that’s flipped.”
The American Society of Magical Negroes was written and directed by Kobi Libii, and stars Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Rupert Friend, and Nicole Byer. It is being distributed by Focus Features and will hit theaters on March 15, 2024.
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